Heroic onomastics in Roman Anatolia

This article is concerned with the use of heroic personal names (‘heronyms’) by the inhabitants of the Anatolian peninsula in the Roman imperial period. Such names can be classified under three broad headings: (1) heroic names drawn from the Homeric epics, chosen for their literary associations (Aja...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHistoria : Zeitschrift für alte Geschichte Vol. 64; no. 3; pp. 357 - 385
Main Author Thonemann, Peter
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Stuttgart Franz Steiner Verlag 01.01.2015
Subjects
Epigrams
Epithets
Family names
Heroism
HISTORIA 2015, 357
Homeric epics
Names
Naming conventions
Onomastics
Personal names
Phonetics
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Summary:This article is concerned with the use of heroic personal names (‘heronyms’) by the inhabitants of the Anatolian peninsula in the Roman imperial period. Such names can be classified under three broad headings: (1) heroic names drawn from the Homeric epics, chosen for their literary associations (Ajax, Hektor, Areiphilos); (2) heroic names favoured for their phonetic similarities to indigenous Anatolian personal names (Telemachos, Bianor, Nestor); (3) heroic names whose popularity results from their connections to local mythology (Sarpedon, Tlepolemos, Teuthras). The article concludes with some reflections on the ‘onomastic Hellenization’ of Anatolia in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
ISSN:0018-2311
2365-3108