Blaz0ej S0trba, «hn#$w#$ of the Canticle», Vol. 85 (2004) 475-502
The term hn#$w#$ is revisited
primarily in the Canticle of Solomon. The most ancient translation –– "lily" ––
of this flower though questioned in recent decades is still widely used. The
LXX’s rendering kri/non is examined and found as the
best translation for the lexeme N#$w#$ –– meaning
"lotus" –– being an Egyptian loan word. This translation fits to the OT
references better than "lily". The textual employment of
hn#$w#$ in the poetry of the Canticle is a chief and commanding proof for
"lotus". The "lily" translation for both hn#$w#$
and kri/non for the majority of the OT cases is seen
as incorrect since it does not pay due attention to the literary and historical
context of the Canticle.
482 BlaΩej âˆtrba
(sausan/s¨san). In the Late Hebrew the meaning is “bud, flower, rose,
lily, in the form of calyx†(36).
The root ˆvv I comes from Egyptian sππn/sπn/sôπˇn – “lotus†(37)
which became πoπen in the Coptic (38). It is intriguing that this
Egyptian word sπn had been translated into Greek as krivnon or
souson (39). The rendering sou'son (40) appears to be later than the first
'
translation krinon. The translation krinon, not the most suitable one,
v v
goes back, as O. Keel observed, to a famous Greek tourist, Herodotus
(c. 490 – c. 425 BCE), in Egypt who some years after 460 BCE wrote
in the second book of his History: “When the river is in flood and
overflows the plains, many lilies (krivnea pollav), which the
Egyptians call lotus (ta; Aijguvptioi kalevousi lwtovn), grow in the
water†(41).
This first Greek rendering must have had a significant impact on
the translators of the LXX who, rooted in the Egyptian culture, had no
other choice but to translate hnvwv with krivnon. For them most
probably both lexemes krivnon and lwtov" stood for “lotusâ€. Since
lwtov" was a name applied to various plants and trees, providing
fodder or fruit (42), and one that could easily have had a very negative
connotation (43), the choice of krivnon appeared to be the most
(36) M. JASTROW, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and
Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York 1950) 1543.
(37) BDB, 1004; T.O. LAMBDIN, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old
Testamentâ€, JAOS 73 (1953) 154; A. ERMAN – H. GRAPOW (eds.), Wörterbuch
der aegyptischen Sprache. Im Auftrage der Deutschen Akademie III. (Berlin
1982) 485-486.
(38) M. ELLENBOGEN, Foreign Words in the Old Testament (London 1962)
159.
(39) E. MASSON, Recherches sur les plus anciens emprunts sémitiques en grec
(Paris 1967) 58-59.
(40) Most probably, employed firstly by Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistoi.
See below.
(41) Herodotus, 2.92.
(42) Cf. “lwtov"â€, LSJ, 1070. Herodotus (2.92) seems to be responsible for a
confusion of lwtov" with water-lily. However, Theophrastus (c. 370 – c. 287
BCE), the great authority of antiquity in the botanic field, had clarified the
distinction of lwtov" from Egyptian bean (Nelumbium speciosum, Greek kuvamo")
and the water lily (sivdh); Theophrastus, Hist. Pl. 4.8.9-11; 4.10.2-3. See also
n. 43.
(43) Cf. “lotus-eaters†lwto-favgoi a mythical people on the coast of North
Africa; “lwto-favgoiâ€, LSJ, 1070; attested already by Homer, Od. 9.84-96. Homer
was the first to speak about the lotus-tree (using for it only the term lwtov"). The
next one to write about “lotus-eaters†was Herodotus. He used also the term