The ancestors of Odysseus

Mercury [Hermes] gave to Autolycus, who he begat by Chione, the gift of being such a skillful thief that he could not be caught, making him able to change whatever he stole into some other form - from white to black, or from black to white, from a hornless animal to a horned one, or from horned one to a hornless. When he kept continually stealing from the herds of Sisyphus and couldn’t be caught, Sisyphus was convinced he was stealing because Autolycus’ number was increasing while his was growing smaller. In order to catch him, he put a mark on the hooves of his cattle. When Autolycus had stolen in his usual way, Sisyphus came to him and identified the cattle he had stolen by their hooves, and took them away. While he was delaying there, he seduced Anticlia, the daughter of Autolycus. She was later given in marriage to Laertes, and bore Ulysses. Some writers accordingly call him Sisyphean; because of this parentage he was shrewd (Hyginus 1960).

Phoebus [Apollo] waited till the night. Hermes could not endure delay and with the magic of his wand, that causes sleep, he touched the virgin's face; and instantly, as if entranced, she lay there fast asleep, and suffered violence from the ardent god. When night bespangled the wide heaven with stars, Phoebus became an aged crone and gained the joy he had deferred until that hour. When her mature womb had completed time Autolycus was born, a crafty son, who certainly inherited the skill of wingfoot Mercury, his artful sire, notorious now; for every kind of theft. In fact, Autolycus with Mercury's craft, loved to make white of black, and black of white (Naso and More 1923).

To understand ODYSSEUS and the rest of the Odyssey, we may begin with an analysis of the names and mythemes of the object’s ancestry. The genealogy of a mythical object is always useful because it provides a ‘phylogenetic’ classification; better said, the ontology of the object. It describes the object’s main characteristics, i.e., its constituent parts, structure, function, morphology, use, and relations with other objects. It is a kind of lexical definition of the mythical term (see section Mytheme). Variations of a myth may be readily explained, assuming that various authors refer to different applications, aspects, or relations of the object. For example, the piston of a syringe may invoke different terms in its description than a piston of a water pump.

In this introductory analysis of the genealogy of Odysseus, I take the opportunity to comprehensively recapitulate my graphocentric theory of ichnography (see section On the origin of words) and confront it with the currently established phonocentric linguistics. I will use all the available methods, from classical identification of etymological stems, through forward and reverse word scanning to literal and sub-literal semantics, hoping to fit the predicted semantic values of the heroes to the mythemes that connect them. I chose this example of Odysseus’ ancestry to strengthen my argument for a graphic origin of language because Odysseus is perhaps the most widely known personage in Greek, if not world literature, hence, the most challenging to overturn.

Figure 1. Left: Hand-operated water pump featuring a XIWNH (Chione), i.e., an artistically designed and embellished bow-shaped (W) lever turning around a supporting pivot point (X), which splits the bow into a short arm (I) and a moving (N) long arm (H). Right: a bow.

The name of Odysseus’ great-grandmother, Chione, first appears in Latin texts by Roman authors who did not use Omega (Naso and More 1923; Hyginus 2019). A Latin Dictionary (Andrews et al. 1956) translates the term in Greek as χιόνη (XIONH), but I think the reborrowed term may well have been originally spelled with Omega, in the pattern of χιών (chiōn; XIWN; snow).

XIWNH and her relations are easy to decipher. Her father, Daedalion (Greek DAIDALIWN), explicitly shares the root daidal with δαιδάλος (daidalos), meaning cunningly or curiously wrought (in Homer, always of metal or wood), the Cunning Worker, the Artist, traditional name for the first sculptor, or δαίδαλον (daidalon), cunning work, piece of artistic workmanship, hence plural δαίδαλα (daidala), statues. The verb δαιδαλόω or δαιδάλλω (daidaloō, daidallō) means to work cunningly or embellish. Apollo is the bow (see section Apollo and Artemis), and Hermes is the support in all the senses of the term, from a walking stick to financial aid (see section Hermes). The association of the terms Apollo, Hermes, Daedalion, and XIWNH with the lever handle of a hand-operated water pump (Fig. 1) may be taken as a wild guess at this point. Nevertheless, my hypothesis will be thoroughly substantiated in this section as the other elements of the myth will progressively fit in.

Semantic postulates for XIOoNH

X axle, cross, point

I arm, edge, handle, up, on, out, small, thin

Oo rounds, turns, bow (double-O, W, ω)

N movement

H surface, level, length, quantity, intensity

In the context of a lever, the support (Hermes; Mercury) is its pivot. Apollo (Greek Ἀπόλλων; Apollōn; APOLLWN) and the letter W of XIWNH depict a bow-shape (W-shape) of the object XIWNH. In English, the word BOW depicts a bow-shaped object (B) along with a double-U (W < UU) and is pronounced with double-O (W) as bō, /bəʊ/. According to my ichnographic postulates, XIWNH can be semantically read as a cross, point, axis, or axel of rotation (X) + short arm (I) + W-shaped (W) + moving (N) + long arm (H). Ovid’s mytheme, that Hermes mated Chione first and Apollo came later, means that the original shape of XIWNH was a simple straight rod, like a walking stick (Hermes as walking support). But it was later improved and embellished, adopting an ergonomic bow-like form. Indeed, the typical curved shape of a water pump handle, as in Fig. 1, evokes the curved stature of an old person holding a walking stick. Various other examples with a bow-shaped or straight handle are shown in Fig. 2. Compare the silhouette of the water pump in Fig. 2D with an old person holding a walking stick in Fig. 2G.

Figure 2. Examples of hand-powered water pump designs with bow or straight levers. A. Force pump; from Merchant and Chant 1911, Ontario High School Physics Fig. 158. B. A child drawing water from a hand pump, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA 1939; artwork by Russell Lee. C. Pumping water in Wilder, Fentress County TN 1942; from Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, New York, USA. D. Well Pekkatori Raahe, Raahe, Finland; artwork by Estormiz. E. Providing clean water and flood-resistant shelter in Sindh, Pakistan, from DFID- UK Department for International Development. F. Handpump repairing service in Bohardih, near Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India; artwork by VSc Vikram Khandekar G. Elderly woman walking with a cane on a stone street in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal; artwork by Michele Burgess (TAD6TA). All are marked as public domain except for E, F, available under hyperlinked Creative Commons licenses, and G, by Alamy license.

Figure 3. The mythological ontology of Odysseus, the pipe water (see section Odysseus). X indicates crossing, marriage, or combination; arrows indicate birth, progeny, creation, or development (raising).

The full ontology (genealogy) of Odysseus according to Hyginus and Ovid is summarized in Fig. 3. The combination of a bow-like object (Apollo) with pivot support (Hermes) dividing the bow into a short arm and a long moving arm (Chione design) created the object Autolycus (Greek Αὐτόλυκος; Aytolykos; ichnogram Ay-TO-LYK-Os, the well-lever piston), one of the applications of the pivoted bow-rod and grandfather of Odysseus.

Semantic postulates for AmphiThEH

Amphi both-sides,all-sides

Th         turn

E         branch

H         repetition, intensity

Autolycus’ wife, Ἀμφιθέα, Homeric Ἀμφιθέη (Amphitheē; ichnogram Amphi-ThEH), is a primary concept since it has no ancestry. Amphi-ThEH is a long, repetitive (H) angular (ß; E) turn (𐊨; Th) in both directions (AMPhI). The root AmphiThE- is intact in the verb ἀμφιθέω (amphitheō) to run round about, where the typical verb-forming suffix -W replaces the H ending (for length, repetition, or intensity; see section Aspiration). The shorter root-verb θέω (theō) means to run, run over, roll, run in a continuous line, though not actually in motion (e.g., of a vein), but especially of any circular object which runs round into itself. Homer uses θέω for ships and the potter's wheel; hence the original meaning of θεός (theos; /θeˈos/; compare theology) as the thing that, or the person who (-os), turns (the; /θe/), or a product (good) made on a potter’s wheel; the meaning ‘god’ being only a semantic shift (creator, creation). Thus, the term Amphi-ThEH fits the characteristic function of the water pump’s handle, repeatedly turning around its pivot in both directions (Fig. 4).

Figure 4. Animation of a hand-operated water pump illustrating the repetitive rotary movement of the pump’s handle, termed Amphi-ThEH (Amphithea), literally, turning around both sides or directions. Artwork by Manco Capac and Michael Frey. Creative Commons license.

The application of repetitive palindromic rotation (Amphithea) to the well-lever (Autolycus) produced Anticlea (Homeric Ἀντίκλεια; Antikleia; ichnogram Anti-KLEiA), literally, a counter-shutter. Hermes refers to either, or all, straight rod parts of the device, the pivot of the lever, the piston, or the original unsophisticated linear design of the handle. The mytheme that Hermes applied violent ‘sexual’, i.e., palindromic, force to Chione, transposes the concept of a walking stick (Hermes; support) from the pivot of the lever to the piston. When the handle (long arm of a lever) moves upwards, the short arm and the piston move downwards, and vice versa. An early straight-rod handle (a Hermes design of Chione) would also require more effort to operate compared to a bow design. In any way, this mytheme corroborates the hypothesis of a water pump for the system. Apollo, the bow, merely ‘enjoyed’ the balanced (forceless) movement. Straight rod handles required more power (violence), and the improved bow design reduced the effort.

As soon as we associate Chione with the handle of a manual water pump, we can predict that the final hero of this family tree, Odysseus is the final product of a water pump, the pumped water. This hypothesis generates predictions about the nature of the other family members. The letters and stems used in their names and the mythemes that connect them must signify parts and relations of a water pump design. The rest of the Odyssey must also conform to the pumped-water interpretation of Odysseus. This series of posts analyses the names of the poetic personae and the mythemes of Odysseus' experiences and fits each adventure to a specific use of clean, pumped water other than drinking (Poseidon). The perpetual hate of Poseidon against Odysseus in the Odyssey is the conviction that all uses of water other than drinking are a waste, which must have been common in ancient societies struggling with drought.

We can already formulate a hypothesis predicting that Odysseus is the water drawn from a hand-operated water pump and use the rest of the heroes and mythemes around Odysseus' birth to validate this prediction.  

That rhythmic counter-closure (Anticlea), combined with Laertes and Sisyphus, created Odysseus. This is why some authors, according to Hyginus, attribute to Odysseus the epithet Sisyphean. Sisyphus is suction and its derivative siphon effect (see section Sisyphus). Therefore, Odysseus is primarily a product of suction. It is difficult to tell which is each valve in a pipeline with two (or more) check valves. The last persona before a fully grown Odysseus is its wet nurse, Eurycleia (of Ithaca), this one correctly spelled in English with Ei in the pattern of Antikleia. Like Antikleia (English Anticlea or Anticlia), Eurycleia is a rhythmic shutter valve. It is called a running-water shutter because the stem eury- (EyRY) means running water (see section Eu). Eurycleia is probably the upper check valve, the one fitted on the piston, because it does not properly 'give birth' to running water but raises it up to its outlet. It remains to fully elucidate the meanings of Autolycus and Laertes, the grandfather and the father of Odysseus.

Autolycus reminds us of Solon’s personage Autochthon, which turns out to signify a well with winch and crank; the prefix Auto- seems to refer to the well itself, and the suffix -chthon, to the winch and crank (see section Mneseus and Autochthon). When forming part of a proper name, the prefix AyTO- is not necessarily related to the well-known word-forming element auto-, meaning self and designating automatic mechanisms. I guess the first invented ‘automatic’ mechanisms were well-fittings to secure the most valuable good after air, a water supply. Likewise, AyTO-LYKOs could be seen as a compound word consisting of AyTO-, which probably also signifies a water well or analogous water source, and LYKOs.

The name Autolycus has been suggested to mean ‘the wolf itself’ or the ‘very wolf’ (Gutzwiller 1991). Gutzwiller, among others, seems to believe that Autolycus refers to the animal wolf and its character as an animal thief. Projecting her interpretation to the Odyssey, she sees in Odysseus some dialectic synthesis between the ‘watchful herdsman guarding the truth and of his counterpart animal thief (wolf) exemplifying a whole sphere of intellectual activity encompassing cunning, persuasion, and falsehood in its widest sense.’ She is led to the conclusion that ‘this conflict between moral behaviour and pride in aggressiveness is not only a modern phenomenon, but has a parallel, if we dare not say its roots, in earlier stages of Greek culture.’

This is a random example of how we project our modern experiences, conceptions, and values onto ancient texts and how far apart our interpretations may divert because of our differential understanding of a single proper name. It may be argued, of course, that a proper name is a proper name and is not meant to convey any meaning. Therefore, we may enjoy an ancient poem without attempting to draw a secondary sense. We will all agree, however, that mythological texts do not make much sense as they are written or currently understood. If there is any sense in them, this is embedded in the plethora of proper names that remain untranslated.

When the match between our speculations and the texts is not perfect, we can always find a reason. Gutzwiller admits that Homer does not elaborate at all on the wolf-like behaviour of Autolycus that she detects. Instead of revising her theory about the meaning of the character's name, the author goes further to suggest that Homer [deliberately] ‘suppresses any reference to Autolycus’ essential nature as an animal thief’ and he even ‘obscures the underlying pattern of animal theft’ in two instances of Odysseus’ exploits. She explains that the ‘lone thief fell so far beneath the interest, or perhaps outside the moral code, of aristocratic society that the myths about him were almost systematically excluded from Homer.’

Indeed, the Greek λύκος (lykos) is the name of several parasitic plants and fierce predator animals, including jackdaws and crows, a kind of spider, a fish, and, of course, the wolf. Still, it is also used for anything shaped like a hook or noose and functions as a lever: e.g., the knocker on a door, the trigger of old firearms, the curb bit of a bridle using lever action, or an engine of war for defending gates. Why should anyone arbitrarily select any single semantic variant of a word if there are so many? The Homeric name is unlikely to refer to any parasitic or rapacious biological species. More likely, lykos signifies a common morphological or functional trait shared among all those objects, biological and technological.

Figure 5. A. A type-1 lever with the pivot lying at a short distance from the weight to be lifted and the effort applied further away from the opposite side. Artwork by CR; Creative Commons license. B. Archimedes lever, engraving from Mechanics Magazine, published in London in 1824; marked as public domain.

Let us try the notion of leverage: i.e., a force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot (Fig. 5); any influence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage; to use, exploit, or manipulate in order to take full advantage of something. In the close semantic environment of the English leverage, we have elevation, lifting, picking, raising, prying, gripping, purchase, hold, support, anchorage, bargaining, dragging, pulling, grasping, griping, power, rope, and suction. In the semantic branches of picking or lifting, we have the pickpockets and the thieves, as well as scrounging, grabbing, catching, etc. A grab, for example, is a quick, sudden clutch or attempt to seize as well as a mechanical device for clutching, lifting, and moving things, especially materials in bulk.

Such sememes are inherent in the Greek verb ἁρπάζω (‘arpazō; harpazō), to seize hastily, snatch up, grasp with the senses, captivate, ravish, draw up by means of a vacuum, plunder, and in its immediate cognates: ἅρπαξ (‘arpax) or ἅρπαγος (‘arpagos; harpagos), robbing, rapacious, rapine, robber, peculator, a species of wolf, grappling-iron used in sea-fights, flesh-hook; and ἁρπάγη (‘arpagē; harpagē), equivalent to Latin harpago, a hook for drawing things to one's self, for tearing down something, etc., a grappling-hook, grapple, drag (Fig. 6).

Figure 6. Various objects are named Harpax or equivalent (lifter). A. Feet and claws of a rapacious bird. B. Ancient Japanese iron Kaginawa climbing hook, by Samuraiantiqueworld under Creative Commons license. C. Hand-forged steel harpago with riveted arms, based on the roman period find from the Fayum, Egypt, now in the royal Ontario museum, Toronto, Canada; from  Daegrad Tools, Sheffield, England © 2019-22. D. A hook being used for demining; by Sgt. Emmanuel Ramos, in the public domain. E. Harpago chiragra, Strombidae, Chiragra Spider Conch, from Samar, Eastern Visayas, Philippines; collection and artwork by H. Zell, under Creative Commons license. F. Roman corvus (boarding bridge), also meaning crow or raven in Latin; artwork by Chewie, under Creative Commons license. G. Parts of a Roman harpax machine; artwork by Ramnavot, under Creative Commons license. H. Man using a long crowbar to remove a board; artwork by Pearson Scott Foresman, marked as public domain. I. A crowbar with a curved chisel end to provide a fulcrum for leverage and a swan neck to pull nails; artwork by Surv1v4l1st, marked as public domain.

Curiously, the English crow is not only a bird of the same family as the Ancient Greek lykos has been partially glossed, but also a tool: an iron bar with a beak, a crook, or a claw (Fig. 6A, H, and I); an iron bar used as a lever; a crowbar; a gangplank (corvus) used by the Roman navy to board enemy ships (Fig. 6F). A claw is a curved, pointed, horny nail on each digit of the foot of a mammal (Fig. 7), reptile, bird, the pincer of a crustacean or other arthropod, as well as a mechanical device resembling a claw, used for gripping or lifting. A crook is a person who steals, lies, cheats, or does other dishonest or illegal things; a criminal; but is also a bend, turn, curve, curvature, flexure, and the name of tools or parts of tools with analogous form and/or function. The bargain might be seen as an agglutination of bar and gain, with consequent semantic relations. A crane is a bird as well as a lifting tool, not only in English but also in Greek (γερανός; geranos), French (grue), and many other European languages.

Figure 7. Claws of a rapacious bird, Circaetus gallicus (A; artwork by Emlok; Creative Commons license), of a cat (B; Howcheng, Creative Commons license), and of a hammer (C; Evan-Amos; public domain).

Innumerable European words refer simultaneously to a biological object (animal or plant), tools, malicious, intelligent, or another kind of human behaviour. The pertinent question of historical linguistics is, of course, the origin of those words: what came first, and what derived from what? Some may argue that animals and plants existed before the invention of the homonym technological objects; therefore, the terms must have existed for the animals prior to their application to tools by the analogy of form, sound, function, or behaviour. A logical extension of this thought would be that such words originate, for instance, by echomimetic onomatopoeia from some sound that animals make; e.g., crow derives from Middle English crowe, from Old English crāwe, from Proto-Germanic *krāwō (compare West Frisian krie, Dutch kraai, German Krähe), from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *krāhaną meaning ‘to crow’.

Others may argue that our remotest ancient ancestors were not biologists. Their main preoccupation was survival rather than naming and describing useless wild animals and plants in their environment. Therefore, biological objects were given their names by analogy much later, only after the invention of a survival tool which must be given a descriptive and distinctive name right away. The consequence of this view would be that the words for a crow originate at the place where the tool was invented and from the language spoken there at the time of the invention; the original version may not be PIE but, say, Polish.

Yet others may claim that humans know their morphology, function, and behaviour best, and they name things in their environment accordingly. In that case, crow and its cognates might originally have meant thief. Of course, words need not derive from one another but may have a common root; therefore, a biological object and a tool may have the same name, referring to an even more ancestral notion born prior to the relevant biological, social observation, or technological invention. For example, if there were an ancient word for leverage, any animal, plant, tool, or human behaviour described as leverage might have been given a related name.

The first argument, that language originates from natural sounds, may invoke a scientifically justified collection of cognates based on insightful observations of phonetic phenomena. A collection of observations is an integral and essential part of the scientific method, but the argument itself is not what most scientists, other than linguists, would call ‘scientific’. It is a circular definition, a tautology: a crow is an animal that crows! I wonder what natural sound could motivate words like think, or thing? Try to read through the following few paragraphs! You may also try to follow and comprehend the proposed hypotheses, scientifically validate them, and apply their method to solve other etymological problems. In the end, contemplate what you have learned about the meaning of these words and how this can improve your understanding of an ancient text should you find them there? I have not invented anything here but copied various etymological dictionaries.

To crow means to utter the bird’s characteristic loud cry, in this case, the cry of a crow! I presume, among the animals that crow, croak, caw, or cry, a crow crows more accurately! In English, that is; because in West Frisian, a krie (crow) rather cries. The Proto-Germanic *krāwō means ‘to crow’ because it was reconstructed from Germanic cognates of crow. Paradoxically, according to the same dictionary (“Crow” n.d.)[1], the English verb to crow does not derive from the same Proto-Germanic root, *krāwō, from PIE *krāhaną, meaning to crow, as does the name of the animal crow, but from the Proto-Germanic root *krēaną, from PIE *greh₂-, meaning to caw, croak; because a crow does not simply crow in all Indo-European (IE) languages but different sets of words are used for the reconstruction of the PIE verb or the noun.

The crows did not crow for the ancient observers, but they *greh₂-ed. This is why at some point in linguistic history, they were called *krāwō! To croak derives from *greh₂-k-; to cry, from *greyd-, to shout. Many higher animals cry, croak, caw, or crow; what is the precise difference? The PIE theory tells us that, in English, a crow and to crow are to croak and cry what a *krāhaną and to *greh₂- are to *greh₂-k- and *greyd-. This proposition is not more explicative than an equivalent phonetic transcription in present times: to /kɹəʊ/ (crow) means to /kɹoʊk/ (croak) or to /kɹaɪ̯/ (cry).

This theory is not only tautological but also complex and imprecise: it lacks explanatory power. Besides, the very object of such theories, a PIE or other root, is historically non-existent, unreal, imaginary, groundless, fictional, insubstantial, and metaphysical. Current historical linguistics is, thus, an overwhelming mass of pseudo-scientific sequences of syllogisms for answering ‘how many angels can dance on the head of a pin’.

I am limiting the case to the English crow because IE populations have not yet reached a consensus on how crows crow; only linguists seem to agree. The complexity of the argument soon reaches mind-blowing levels as more languages are considered.

More interesting is the observation that when the names of animals are transposed to tools or other objects, the analogies are not made in terms of sounds but in terms of form or function. This kind of onomatopoeia is no longer echomimetic but figurative and iconic. An English crow – a synonym of a crowbar – is a bar of iron with a beak, crook, or claw; a bar of iron used as a lever. The name of the tool reportedly derives from the form of the tool (Fig. 6, I), resembling the foot of a crow (Fig. 6, A), which sounds convincing.

Another example is the English crane. PIE animal cranes did not *greh₂- like crows, but they *gerh₂-, i.e., they cried hoarsely (“Crane” n.d.)[2]. The particular hypothesis does not explain the origin of N in English crane or in the Greek equivalent γέρανος (geranos; crane), or their common part -ran-. I don't think birds can produce nasal sounds. Mechanical cranes do not cry; their name could not have been derived from their noise. Proto-Indo-Europeans might have been aware of bird cranes. But why would they have called them *gerh₂-? Why would they have a specific name for them at all? No doubt, a mechanical crane resembles the animal (Fig. 8), or, should I say, the animal resembles the machine. 

Figure 8. Cranes. A. A mechanical crane in Dillingen, Saar, Germany (artwork by Lokilech, under Creative Commons license). B. A Sarus crane, Antigone antigone, from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Australia (Charles J. Sharp; Creative Commons license). C. Double treadwheel crane in Pieter Bruegel's The Tower of Babel (original artwork by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, public domain).

If the transposition of a name from an animal to a tool is based on form or function, then the names of biological objects could also describe a form, function, or behaviour in the first place. I do not know of any phonocentric study that excludes a graphic derivation of a word before considering its phonetic origin. Parasitic plants – such as those called lykos in Greek – do not cry, like wolfs do, but take advantage (leverage) of their host. Whether mechanical or living, cranes have a characteristic neck, i.e., K-like stenosis (see section K), and a characteristic beak similar to archaic R (𐤓) fit to move (N) charges (A). Those characters are pictographically described in KRAN, for neck + beak + charge + moving. It is unlikely that the person who first named the bird was aware of the machine, and just as unlikely that the engineer of the machine was aware of similar birds. It is more probable that the objects independently got similar names because of their resemblance in form or that the bird was named after the machine, at least in Greek.

Semantic postulates for GERANOs and KRANE (crane)

G     angle, transport, transmission

E     opening, branch, horizontal arrow (beak; ß)

R     head, top

A         fill, load

N     movement

Os     thing

K(C)    neck

R     head, top

A         fill, load

N     movement

E          opening, branch, horizontal arrow

Here, we have a seemingly universal mechanism of word formation based on the form or function of objects (tools), for which the PIE theory has little to say because it is a phonocentric theory and is not concerned with forms. Besides, PIE linguistics is solely concerned with the localisation and subsequent movements of an original PIE population (Fig. 9) that gave rise to modern nations (Gimbutas 1997; 1986), not with the original meanings of the words. The rest of this chapter will explore the other possibilities, mainly that tools, animals, and any type of objects, including human behavior, take their names directly by agglutination of simple, abstract notions that iconically describe the most prominent features of the signified.

Figure 9. Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic steppes and across Central Asia according to the widely held Kurgan hypothesis (Gimbutas 1997; 1986). Artwork by DEMIS Mapserver (public domain) and Koba-chan (Creative Commons license).

Semantic postulates for LEVER

L up-arrow

E branch, horizontal arrow

V down, inside, in, transverse

E branch, horizontal arrow

R top, distance, energy

We may now start slowly returning to the main subject of this section which is the names of the ancestors of Odysseus. The English word leverage features the stem lever (ichnogram LEVER; Fig. 5, A). LEVER could be analysed as L-EVE-R; it consists of two ‘opposite’ letters, L and R (see section The L/R mutation), standing on either side of a symmetrical stem (EVE). We may also assume that the middle stem consists of two branches (E-E; see section E) expanding away from V and that V represents a pivot, the point of symmetry, an axis of rotation. In more abstract terms, LE-V-ER consists of two branches (E) on either side of a pivot (V): an L-branch (LE) and an R-branch (ER). If R is used with the sememes of the head, top, or height, then ER should be the top branch and LE the lower branch; if R means mass, thickness, weight, roughness, or energy, then RE is the heavy branch, and LE is the light branch; if R is for length or distance, then, RE may be for the short branch and LE for the long branch, or vice versa (see sections R and L). LEVER could thus be read generically as L-type (L) + branch (E) + V-shape, pivot (V) + branch (E) + R-type (R).

By replacing the R-object with an L-object, we would reach L-EVE-L (English level), which is a perfectly symmetrical word with two L-branches (LE-EL) expanding at opposite directions around a V-pivot (V). If we replace L with R, we have R-EVE-R, with equal 'amounts' at both sides as in Middle English rever (revere; respect matching merit), or Modern English revers (turned-back edge of a garment), reverse, revert, etc. all signifying some sort of symmetry. The middle stem (EVE) combined with a movement (N) would give EVE-N (English even). By removing the L-object from L-EVE-R, we have EVE-R (English ever), a constant condition, conceivably an impossibility of change. Similarly, by replacing L with N (for movement), we obtain N-EVE-R (English never), which also expresses the impossibility of moving an R-branch without a lever effect. N-EVE-L does not exist in English but nevel means to bring up, raise, rear, in Hungarian; or fog in Dutch. Fog is a self-raising phenomenon (pertaining to 'lightness'; L). It does not require human intervention. Fever (F-EVE-R; Ph-EVE-R) is also rising and rather 'hard' (R) to bear. Temperature is suggested by the initial aspirate bilabial /pʰ/ or labiodental fricative /f/ as iconic imitations of blowing. In Westrobothnian (a Swedish or Norwegian dialect), fevel (F-EVE-L) means revenant, ghost, or goblin. A ghost is a spirit (/pʰ/, /f/) and is 'light' (L) since it has no substance. With another type of duplication of P to B, we get bevel (B-EVE-L), which means slope from the horizontal or vertical, a sloping surface or edge, slant, and is the name of semantically related carpentry or building tools.

If we swap the L and R objects of L-EVE-R, we have R-EVE-L (English to revel), meaning to draw back and retract, i.e., opposite of pushing forward and enforcing, which are functions of a lever. Because of the symmetry of the word, for some authors, R-EVE-L does not really differ from L-EVE-R; revelation was, therefore, used for uncovering, disclosing, and a great success (e.g., lifting and removing a heavy stone/cover). For others, however, L-EVE-R requires work, effort, and good strife; R-EVE-L becomes, then, the opposite of effort or the after-effort, from hard (R) to light (L): an instance of merrymaking, a celebration, to make merry, to have a gay, lively time. Replacement of L with N (movement) transforms R-EVE-L to R-EVE-N (the inverse of N-EVE-R), which forms revenge, revenant, revenue, and French revenir, to return.

Figure 10. Three types of levers. Artwork by Pearson Scott Foresman marked as public domain.

Similar to lever (LEVER) are the English words elevation, made of ELEV, and relevance (a synonym of bearing), made of RELEV. These words have the pivot, the point of connection or fixation of the two branches (V) at the end of the stem (lever classes 2 and 3; Fig. 10). Lever and elevation have been proposed to derive from the same PIE root, *legwh-, and thus are cognates of light (not heavy, having little weight) and of relevance; though, the appearance and relevance of R – that is the phoneme /r/ – in lever and relevance is not immediately evident in phonetics. Instead, ELEV could be read as a branch (E) + flexible (L) + branch (E) + pivot, fixed point (V), while RELEV would be R-branch (RE) + L-branch (LE) + pivot (V).

Things are similar in Greek, assuming that V derives from a Greek Y via Latin and that the stem ELEV is not other than the very Homeric word ἑλεῦ (‘eleu; ichnogram ‘ELEY), a derivative of the verb αἱρέω (Autenrieth 1891b). ‘ELEY means to grasp, seize, catch, take, take with the hand, take one by the hand, take away, get into one's power, overpower, kill, take a city, win, gain, get, obtain, convict, to convict of theft, convict the evidence of falsehood, get a conviction, prove, persuade, grasp with the mind, understand, take for oneself, take to oneself, choose, prefer, adopt an opinion, choose by vote, elect, select, etc.; i.e., pretty much everything that leverage stands for in English, including malicious or intelligent human behaviour as well as the behaviour traits of rapacious animals and parasitic plants. Note the rough breathing diacritic probably denoting the absence/removal of something (see section Nereus and Thaumas); perhaps the absence of R (from RELEV), since elevation does not necessarily require any counterweight. The French cognates of ELEV include the noun élève, a child or young person who receives instruction from a school or a specialised teacher, who receives or has received the instruction of a master, an animal born and raised at a breeder, plant that is raised, and the verb élever, meaning to raise, essentially to gain height, size, or qualities. ELEV may have been invented by the following working hypothesis:

ß∧ ß∨    hypothetical primitive inscription

EΛ  EΥ    using the Greek alphabet

EL  EV    using the Latin alphabet

A hypothetical primitive inscription could have used arrows (branches) to indicate the two parts of a single pivoted rod (ß or à giving the two E’s). When one side goes up (∧; the Greek letter Λ may be used as an up-arrow), the other side goes down (∨; the Greek Y or the Latin equivalent V may be used as down-arrows). The result of this graphic representation of a balanced rod is ELEY or ELEV. When an elevation of one object is performed with reference to another stable object, an R is added to denote the top (R; archaic 𐤓; head with a nose, snout, or beak), elevated object, or place (R) of reference, i.e., the reference object. The two objects are intimately related because one refers to the other. Thus, the French verb relever means to put higher, underline, put back up, restore, tilt up, highlight, give more brightness, more intensity to something, write down, copy, be directed to the top, relevance, scope (French portée), effect, support, etc. RE-LE-V is a class-2 lever (Fig. 10).

The above hypothesis about the ichnography of ELEY (or ELEV) has an important extension leading our quest for the accurate meaning of the Homeric term Autolycus to a plausible direction. The stem LEY (∧ß∨; up arrow + left arrow + down arrow) pertains to a balance-bar movement, hence to weight: a bar that goes up from one side and down from the other. Consequently, the Greek cognate λευκός (leukos; ichnogram LEYKOS; hence, the leuko- prefix) does not only mean white, as it is always glossed but also – perhaps primarily – light, in the sense of light colour as well as lightweight. 

An antonym of λευκός is μέλαν (melan; MELAN, or ∧∧ß∧AN), meaning dark, black, dark in colour, murky, unenlightened; perhaps, primarily, thick, heavy, like the soup eaten by the Spartans, the ‘heavy’ weather, or like μέλι (meli; ∧∧ß∧I), honey, which is thicker, more viscous, and heavier than water, sitting under it at the bottom of the glass. In contrast, the reverse stem, lem, creates the antonym λέμβος (lembos), a cork boat, which obviously floats on the water's surface. Also, λέμνα (lemna) is glossed as a water plant with floating leaves (star-grass, Callitriche verna).

In Homer, and in the context of water, λευκόν (leukon; neuter of leukos) means clear, limpid, i.e., transparent or full of light, the surface of the water, as opposed to μέλαν (melan; Od.4. 359) water at the bottom of deep wells, reservoirs, or water bodies in general. In wells and other water reservoirs, mud and other solid impurities sit at the bottom, like honey, and leave the top of the water body clean and limpid. The Middle Liddell Dictionary says that λευκός (leukos) is from the root ΛΥΚ (LYK) without further explanation. Autolycus (AuTO-LYK-OS) is related to leukos and to clean surface water or water surface.

We could think of gravity-driven self-clearance as the first method of producing clean drinking water. As an agitator, Autolycus stills particles from the field of gravity (Sisyphus; siphon, suction, gravity) and puts them in suspension. Sisyphus, the gravity, takes them back.

Semantic postulates for  AyTOLYKOs

Ay fill-empty, bottom

T trim, fit, connect, align

O circular, round, narrow

L linear, flexible, soft, closed, up-arrow

Y void, deep, empty, down, inside, in, transverse, not tangent

K neck, separation, dispersion, concentration

Os thing, this

The ichnogram Ay-TO-LYK-Os is quite explicit. The typical Greek ending morpheme -os means the thing that, he who... and can stand alone as demonstrative, this, that, etc. TO looks like a trimmed and aligned round fitting. The stem LYK contains two opposite arrow letters, up (∧; Λ; L; up-arrow) and down (∨; V; Y; down arrow), while K can be seen as a narrow tubular object, a neck. It all reads like this (Os) trimmed, aligned, and connected round fitting (TO), eventually with some soft flexible material (TOL), going up and down (LY) in a narrow neck-like tube (K) for filling and emptying (Ay). That's a piston!

Note that the stem LYK is extremely simple; it does not indicate the design of the object or the nature, form, or relative position of any pivot. In other words, LYK is a generic lifting, raising elevator; we know it steals things but do not know by what means and principles. The stem awaits agglutination with another stem in order to gain a specified meaning. If AYTO- means well, water container, then Autolycus is a well-lift, a water lifter. If AYTO- means self-, like in automate or auto-car, then Autolycus would be a lifting method based on a natural principle and requiring minimal human effort, an automatic lifting, an auto-lifter. AYTO may mean a quasi-automatic operation originally devised for drawing water from a reservoir and drifting to signify any automation. The intimate mythical (ontological) association of AyTOLYKOs' daughter, Anticlea, with suction (Sisyphus; see section Sisyphus) validates its interpretation as a piston.

There are a few more Greek and English words related to LYK. In Greek, λυκόφως (lykophōs) means twilight, both morning (rising) and evening (falling), but ἀμφιλύκη (amphilykē) is glossed as half-light, morning twilight. I would think the opposite because amphi- means both sides. The lyceum (λύκειον; lykeion) was probably called so not after the temple of Lycian Apollo (tautology) but because it was a school, an establishment for 'raising', i.e., educating children (compare French élever, to educate) and separating them from the 'stumps' left behind. Modern English luke and Middle English leuk mean lukewarm, a temperature between warm and cool. The temperature rises, and so does the water when heated. While LYK gives luke, /luːk/ the reverse, KYL (transliterated as KUL) is phonetically well inverted as /kuːl/, but its cool spelling is corrupt. Cooling is descending temperature, and cool water descends to the bottom.

Au-TO-LYK-OS (Autolycus) is about raising clean water to the surface. A good model is a French press, also known as a press pot, coffee press, or coffee plunger (Fig. 11). This is mostly known as a coffee brewing device, but it can also be used for other tasks, e.g., as a tomato juice separator. It is basically a tubular flask fitted with a sieve piston. The size of the particles that the mesh can separate depends on the size of its holes. Using a cheesecloth or tighter porous materials, it is possible to force all visible particles to the bottom of the flask and leave limpid water (or any infusion) at the top. Of course, the invention was not patented until mid-19th and early 20th century (Hoffmann 2014). But the Autolycus piston would probably be roughly taught in Homer classes of ancient schools as follows.

Figure 11. French press coffee brewer. A. The assembly. B-D details of the piston and the sieve. Artwork by KoeppiK under Creative Commons license.

Figure 12. The letter A for filling, quantity, and the diphthongs Ay (Au), empty, and Ai for plenty.

In Au-TO-LYK-OS, the round (O) piston (T) is described by the morpheme TO. The bottom of the container is rendered by the diphthong Ay (Au), depicting an empty container as in Fig. 12. LYK is for the elevation of pure, limpid (leukon; luke) water to the surface. The compound stem TOLYK is in the world τόλυξ (tolyks; TOLYKs), glossed as αἰδοῖον (aidoion), meaning both the female and male genitals, functioning together like a piston. The stem OLY means top (see section Mount Olympus). TOL appears in τολύπη (tolypē), a clew, a ball of wool ready for spinning, which may also be used as a water filter if fixed on the Autolycus piston. The inverse sequence, KYLOT, will make the French culot, meaning base, the bottom of an object, residue, slag, or pellet. A smoking pipe bien culottée is a pipe with a good deposit of burnt tobacco residues.

Therefore, the mytheme by Hyginus that Autolycus had this magic capability of turning the things he stole from black to white or from white to black (Hyginus 1856; 2017) may well be a riddle resolved by school kids as a lever-like device that has the ingenuity of turning heavy (melan; black) things light (non-heavy; leukon; leuk-), and light things, heavy; the things ‘he steals’ meaning the things it leverages or elevates. For example, it could turn muddy black water into limpid drinking water by removing hard particles (horned animals; crystals) in a French-press mode. Or, it could do the opposite tasks if used as an agitator with reverse motion. It could dissolve crystals into smoother particles (hornless animals). As an agitator, Autolycus was originally a simple stick, a property he inherited from his father Hermes (the waking stick, support; see section Hermes). Autolycus always bears a Hermes stick since rods have always supported and powered pistons. It later took more sophisticated forms and names, performing all sorts of physical and chemical (magic) metamorphoses (transformations) in water solutions.

The pupils might have learned about κόλος (kolos), docked, curtal, abridged, curtailed, stump-horned, or hornless, Latin cōlis or caulis, the stalk or stem of a plant, or quill (compare English cole and cauliflower), all members of the rod (Hermes) family readily used as agitators of some kind. A water agitator-stick would be Eu (well, water; see section Ey) + KOLOS, i.e., EuKOLOS (eukolos; εὔκολος). This is an epithet of Hermes (agitator stick) that became synonymous with ease, easy. A stirring stick – eventually a stronger agitator – is indispensable for making a colloid solution like a soup. The kids might also have learned about those invisible hornless animals (plural koloi) living in dirty water and causing colic, colitis, and *eu-koloia (corrupted or redesigned as εὐκοιλιότης; eukoiliotēs; water-born diarrhoea). Instead, we get εὐκοίλια (eu-koilia), i.e., easing the bowels (colon) when we sterilise the water by raising its temperature.

Assuming that leverage is described by the stem LYK of lykos or Autolykos, the inverse sequence, KYL, is predicted to describe the opposites of leverage, elevation, lifting, etc.: i.e., weakness, decrease, descend, depression (see section Q, QY, QYL, and QAL), drop, fall, lessen, lower, give, set down, weaken, and so on. Indeed, KYL is in the English cylinder, from Greek κύλινδρος (kylindros), an object that effortlessly descends by rolling on a slope, driven by gravity; in Ancient Greek, κυλίνδησις (kylindēsis) is rolling, wallowing or, metaphorically, a constant practice – as opposed to elevation in the sense of the French verb élever; κύλισις (kylisis) is rolling, a revolution in an orbit, a sort of antonym of elevation; κυλλός (kyllos) is the club-footed and bandy-legged, deformed, contracted, crooked; κύλα (kyla) is the parts under the eyes (frequently weaken skin) or the grooves (depressions) above upper eyelids; κυλίω (kyliō) means to be always loitering; σκύλαξ (skylax) is the chain and collar for the neck of animals which essentially prohibits (initial S as a privative prefix) the animal to loiter (KYL) or limits loitering around an axis (-ax suffix); and so on.

The Modern Greek σκύλος (skylos; dog) probably descends from skylax and iconically describes the apparent ‘loitering’ behavior of the animal; the dog is by far the most frequently attached of the domestic animals, and this is probably what its name depicts. We note that KYL may also be used for technological objects that roll or revolve instead of moving linearly (LYK). Still, KYL is also used for effortless or seemingly purposeless movement, frequently driven by nature (e.g. gravity) rather than by ingenuity.

Remember, the English verb to kill and its Middle English ancestors of killen, kyllen, or cüllen, meaning not only to put to death a living creature but also to render inoperative, stop, cease or render void, terminate, incapacitate, overpower, overwhelm, defeat, knock off, use up, waste, break, deactivate, disable, turn off, strike, beat, cut. These notions semantically close to the phrases let fall, let go, leave, give up, abandon, discard, discharge, dispose of, ditch, drain, empty, get rid of, scrap, unload, cast, chuck, deep-six, eject, evacuate, expel, exude, fling, junk, clear out, fling down, throw down, throw out, throw overboard; and opposite to continue, fill, hold, keep, load, retain, conceal, maintain, save. One way to hold on to something is to handle it with s-kill, that is: not (privative S-prefix) + kill (break, let fall down; see section Structural linguistics and semiotics). Another way to prevent something from falling or escaping is to hang or attach it. Therefore, LYK is for lifting, KYL is for falling, and S-KYL is for not falling, hanging, or attaching. S-KYL-AX is for attaching to an axle (AX). S-KYL-OS is the dog, iconically, the one attached.

By the way, the etymology of the English word dog is currently uncertain; probably because dogs do not *dog – by analogy to crows that crow – but bark; and no PIE theory fits the diversity of what we think the dogs say. Some of the uses of the English verb to dog refer to attachment and restriction: to fasten a hatch securely; to intentionally restrict one's productivity as an employee; to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished. The restriction is also traced in some meanings of the noun dog, as in various mechanical devices for holding, gripping, or fastening something, particularly with a tooth-like projection, a click or pallet adapted to engage the teeth of a ratchet-wheel in order to restrain the back action, a click or pawl. Think of a ‘bad dog’ as the opposite of a ‘good god’: the opposition between something restricted and something distributed, a good (see section Sacrifice to the gods). The word dog, along with the word cat (see section Catreus and the cat), is one of the pivotal examples repeatedly used for the hypothesis of the arbitrariness of linguistic signs on the sole basis of etymological ignorance.

Should it turn out that the noun dog describes such behaviours, dog and skylos would be ichnographic cognates without having any phonetic relation. Ichnography suggests that the G of DOG derives from an ancient K/G ichnogram (Phoenician letter Kāp, the palm of the hand, or Gīml, camel; equivalent to Greek Kappa or Gamma, respectively) which evolved to G in DOG, but to C or Ck in other English words (see sections G and K). Both letters, but particularly K (|<), evoke something that is restricted from one side (bound to an axel; |) and free to move from the other side. No surprise, K has been used in Semitic languages for the notion of the palm of the hand, and both, K and G, have been used for the notion of a neck. Therefore, DOG/K would mean passage (D) + round (O) + neck (K; fixation, pivot) or transport (G): that is, the chain and collar passed around the neck of the animal, equivalent to the Ancient Greek skylax as above. Note that camels are also attached and guided with a skylax, i.e., a leash. If this etymology of dog is true, then a dog is not ‘arbitrary’ (random) but motivated and iconic: it cannot be exchanged with the name cat for the same animal, although it can be exchanged for the Greek dog, skylos since both words describe the same thing by different means or from different perspectives.

This hypothesis also makes of dog a cognate of a dock, a fixed structure attached to shore to which a vessel is secured when in port; and of dogma and doctrine, both pertaining to fixed beliefs, opinions, decisions, judgements, public decrees, or ordinances around a central pivot, and deriving from the Ancient Greek δοκέω (dokeō), to expect, think, suppose, imagine, purpose, have or form an opinion, methink, seem, pretend, be convicted, seem, as opposed to reality, be one’s pleasure, be reputed, decree, be a currently established opinion; the meaning of dokeō is best described in Plato’s phrase ‘that which seems true is true to him who thinks it’[3].

For the record, the currently proposed etymology of dock from Latin ducere (to lead) and from the PIE root *deuk- (also to lead) falls close; dogma and doctrine, as well as doctor, are thought to derive from Latin decere (be seemly, fitting; presumably cognate of dokeō) and PIE *dek- (to take, accept). A doctor attaches or fixes, say, a wound or broken skin. But the term dog is still rootless according to phonetic theory; it derives neither from *dek- nor from *deuk- nor from PIE *kwon- (dog; reconstructed from words as disparate as the Greek kyōn, Latin canis, Old English and Old High German hunt, Old Irish cu, Welsh ci, Russian sobaka, apparently from an Iranian source such as Median spaka, Armenian shun, Lithuanian šuo).[4] How can one semantically match the notion of the English dog with the notions of dokeō, dogma, and doctrine based only on phonetics? Presumably, the term dog did not qualify as a cognate of canis, spaka, or sobaka and was not included in the input list of cognates for the reconstruction of *kwon- in the first place. I warder, how did those other words make it?  What is the defining characteristic of a dog (*kwon-) that all cognates pertaining to the animal must respect? I am afraid that, here again, phonetic comparisons are made through an arbitrary selection of input data and wild speculation.

Semantic postulates for AntiKLEIA

Anti    opposite, counter

K        hand, handle, dispersion, concentration

L         linear, flexible, bend, soft, tender, closed, up-arrow

E         opening, branch, horizontal arrow

I          arm, edge, handle, up, on, out

A         fill, load, pipe

If AuTOLYKOs was a French press-like piston filter, Anti-KLEIA (Anticlea) could be the 'anti-clean', mucky stuff pushed to the bottom by Autolycus. To clean would be cognate of the stem KLEI, as in κλείω (kleiō), to shut, in a sense, isolate, supplemented with a terminal N for the movement of the rod (compare Modern Greek kleinō; to close, shut). Some think that the English clean also relates to Germanic words meaning small or delicate, such as Old Saxon kleni, dainty, delicate, Old Frisian klene, small, Old High German kleini, delicate, fine, small, and German klein, small. While clean pertains to a movement (N), clear has an R, probably referring to the top of an object, its surface. Anticlea was Autolycus' daughter, his creation or result. Therefore, Autolycus may have had a small, delicate cleaning feature (filter) or could function against (anti-) small, delicate particles (-kleia; -clea).

Anti-KLEiA consists of the stems ἀντί (anti), as in Homeric ἀντίος (antios), set against, opposite, counter, contrary, reverse, facing, and κλει- (klei-), root also of κλείς (kleis), lock, bar, bolt, key, hook or tongue of a clasp, cadence, and κλείω (kleiō), to shut, close, block up, shut in, enclose, confine, deliver; not to be confused with κλέω (kleō), to celebrate, or καλέω (kaleō), to call, which is usually the case. We may also consider the quasi-synonymous verbs ἀντικλάω (antiklaō), to bend back, and ἀνακλάω (anaklaō), bend back (of head or neck), break short off, fend off, reflect, overlap (compare to lap). The lock and key (kleis) are the epitome of a precise fitting. The valve at the bottom of the pump's tube is the shutter (*kleia) that prevents the reverse (anti) flow of the sucked water when the piston moves down. It should, therefore, be called Antikleia (Anticlea). The valve attached to the piston closes when the piston moves upwards. Its job is, therefore, to raise (like a wet nurse does) the running water, Odysseus, up to the outlet.

The joint between anti- and -kleia is -tik-, found in Homeric τίκτω (tiktō), to bring forth, bear, give birth to. The prefix an- (ἄν) is possibly an epic contraction of ἀνά (ana), meaning up, from bottom to top, up along, up and down, throughout, by turns, up to, upwards, up, repetition, improvement, back, backward, against, the stream. Following -tik-, we have -lei- as in λεία (leia), booty, plunder; reminding the stilling obsession of Anticlea's father Autolycus. Today, booty and plunder have negative connotations, but there is nothing wrong in leveraging valuable goods, even by force (booty) – as a water pump does – in times of peace. Leia is also a tool for smoothing stones and starts λειαίνω (leiainō), meaning to smooth, polish, smooth down, lubricate, soothe, or tickle (also found in Antiklea). The lei- part starts λεῖος (leios), smooth, plain, not embroidered, unsculptured, level, uniform, soft, gentle, rubbed or ground down, fine, λείπω (leipō), to leave, quit, leave behind, forsake, abandon, desert, be left, remain, remain over and above, left without, be forsaken of, and λείβω (leibō), to pour, pour forth, let flow, shed.

These arguments account for Anticlea describing the piston's smooth (leia) fringe delicately (klei) fitting the inner surface (antiklei) of the tube (K) for frictionless (tikle) palindromic movement (an) leveraging water and giving birth (tik) to Odysseus. The stem antiklei- forms the verb ἀντικλείομαι (antikleiomai), to be enclosed (in a cavity). Thus, Autolycus is pushed back one step in the history of water pump technology. It is a brut device moving up and down with the aid of a lever and can leverage water from a well like, for example, a shaduf (see section The Mysteries and the Nike of Samothrace, Fig. 3) but not yet a piston. The idea of a shaduf, i.e., the father Autolycus, plus the mother Amphithea, i.e. the palindromic turn of the pivoted bow handle Chione, give birth to the concept of Anticlea, which is the smoothed piston fitted into a tube.

Semantic postulates for EyRYKLEIA

Ey well, water-source

R head, top, energy

Y void, deep, empty, down, inside, in, transverse, not tangent

K neck, dispersion, concentration

L linear, soft, tender, closed, up-arrow

E opening, branch, horizontal arrow

I arm, edge, up, on, out, small, thin

A fill, load, pipe

Then Eurycleia could also be spelled *Euryclea, or *Euruclea, as clear running surface water. Note that running water moves downwards – top (R) down (Y, U) movement (N) – whereas the RY/YR inversion designates an ascent to the top (surface). Coarse analysis of the word suggests running water (Eury-; EyRY) shutter (-kleia; KLEIA) in the pattern of ANTI-KLEIA (Anticlea). But, to refine the difference, we have to split the word into smaller parts.

The joint between EyRY- and -KLEIA is -YK-. This cluster starts the only informative words ὔκιστρον (ykistron), glossed as Latin ambĭtĭo (-nes), and ὑκοσκάπτω (ykoskaptō), which is confused with ὑποσκάπτω (yposkaptō; to dig, dig under, dig about, undermine, mark) – usually explained as a dialectal variation – but also points to ἅλμα ('alma or halma).

The Latin equivalent ambĭtĭo has given ambition which is synonymous with aspiration. Still, it is also used with another two interesting senses, a going round and that which surrounds with a wrapping of cowhide. The term ykistron pairs with ἄγκιστρον (agkistron), fish-hook, Ἴστρος (istros), the Danube, basically a mass of mono-directional moving water, and a colony at its mouth,  ἰστριανά (istriana), covers for the baskets carried by the kanephoroi (the basket bearers), face covers, masks. Thus, ykistron evokes the notions of aspiration, pulling from the depths of a water body (fishing), a water flow and its outlet (a river and its mouth), and a cover, which operates as a valve, perhaps made of soft cow leather.

These notions would make Eurycleia (EyR-YK-LEIA) a valve controlling water flow at or near the outer mouth of a tube (YK). This could be a faucet or a valve associated with the piston of the pump. I favour the piston-valve hypothesis because 'alma, an analog of ykoskaptō, means spring, leap, fall from, jumping, and pulsation, which figuratively describes the flow of the water from the outlet of the pump. A faucet would rather cause long periods of flow or restriction. The pump model of Fig. 4, featuring two valves, may be misleading. My analysis, so far, suggests that they are no two valves in the myth but one (Eurycleia) associated with a piston (Anticlea). The model of Fig. 13 shows that a manual water pump does not need two valves. But we shouldn't be surprised if some authors referred to Anticlea and Eurycleia as two valves having the model of Fig. 4 in mind, while others spoke about the piston and the valve of Fig. 13.

Figure 13. A hand-operated water pump model with a single valve associated with the piston. Artwork by Dominius venedius marked as public domain.

The K/Ⲡ (K/P) mutation between ykoskaptō and yposkaptō is not dialectal but ichnographic. K and Ⲡ represent two object forms, a tube (stenosis; K) and an open rectangle (Ⲡ). The positioning of a down-arrow (Y; V; U) before or after each letter designates the side of the object to which the letter cluster refers Fig. 14. In the context of a tube (K), YK is its outlet side (mouth). In contrast, its reverse KY should be an antonym, i.e., deep inside the tube, beneath the piston, in the case of a water pump. To validate this prediction, κύω (kyō) means to conceive, be pregnant with, impregnate, be borne in the womb, and κύος or κύημα (kyos, kyēma), that which is conceived, embryo, fetus. Many more examples are given throughout this work (e.g., see section Kybebe). For a general introduction to the principle of antonymy by inversion, see the section On the origin of words.

Figure 14. K and Ⲡ-shaped objects and the sides, or spaces, designated by a Y (V-arrow). For an explanation of IⲠ and ⲠI, see section Cretan scripts, around Fig. 18.

We hardly need to continue the analysis of EyR-YK-LEIA but to validate the conclusions. Expanding from cluster YK, we find RYK in ῥυκάνη ('rykanē) and a couple of derivatives. They all mean a plane or to plane. A plane is a flat surface on which a straight line joining any two points would lie wholly. As an adjective, it means completely level or flat, and as a verb, to soar without moving the wings, glide, float. This is exactly how the piston valve operates in the model of Fig. 13. Any deviation from a plane shape would cause the valve to malfunction.

The reverse of RYK is KYR. It forms words like κυρτός (kyrtos), curved, arched, round, humped, bulging, swelling, convex, i.e., an exact antonym of the plane, and κυρτόω (kyrtoō), to hump up, make convex. It also forms κύρω or κυρέω (kyrō or kyreō), to hit, light upon, meet with, fall in with, struck against, befall or be granted to, attain to, obtain, reach, find, to be right, hit the mark by intelligence, be successful, prosper,  turn out, prove to be so, refer to, and κῦρος (kyros), supreme power, authority, principle or origin of a function, concrete, one invested with authority, confirmation, validity. Some of the sememes of the latter words characterise the valve's function (attain, be right, fall in with, hit the mark by intelligence) and dysfunction (to hit, light upon, struck against, light upon, fall in with), or are antonyms of the delicacy of the mechanism (supreme power). Others bespeak the physical consequences of mechanism (supreme power) and social impact of the technology (prove to be so, refer to, principle or origin of a function, confirmation, validity, be successful, prosper). 

Only a few years separated Hyginus' (64 BC – 17 AD) Fabulae and Ovid's (43 BC – 17/18 AD) Metamorphoses – both elaborating on Odysseus' myth – from the description of the thermometer (another Mercury stick), other automates, and a whole lot of impressive inventions written in the form of lecture notes and pretty much scientific language by Hero of Alexandria (c. 10 AD – c. 70 AD). They were all writing on the same subject matter, physics, chemistry, mechanics, etc., but the language and style evolved along with technology.

So far, we gather that Autolycus is a lifting device based on a lever design with a bow-shaped pivoting handle (Chione) and operating by palindromic rotation (Amphithea). Subsequently, it was fitted with a piston (Anticlea) and a valve (Eurycleia). The system resembles a hand-powered water pump, which was most probably used for drawing water from wells because of the stems AuTO and EyRY. If so, the final product (Odysseus) would be clean water for all uses. We have also hypothesised that gravity, suction, and water pressure, all represented as Sisyphus, play such an important role that some think Odysseus was not the product of the last boy in the Autolycus family, Laertes, but the son of siphoning. The key figure for validating this set of hypotheses and better understanding the system underlying the ancient descriptions is the very father or stepfather of Odysseus, Laertes.

Laertes (Greek Λαέρτης; Laertēs; ichnogram LA-ERTHS) created Odysseus or acquired the object from Sisyphus (suction). Homer does not involve Sisyphus in this mechanism, but others do. Independent analysis revealed Sisyphus's meaning as the siphon (see section Sisyphus). The siphon effect involves atmospheric pressure and gravity. Several pieces of literature and figurative archaeological evidence suggest that Sisyphus was the true father of Odysseus and that Laertes bought the baby from him. In the above-cited text, Hyginus tells us that Autolycus regularly stole stuff from Sisyphus and that, when the latter caught him, he seduced Autolycus’ daughter Anticlea, the mother of Odysseus. She presumably married Laertes when already pregnant. Obviously, there could be no water at the outlet of a pump if there were no water already at the entrails of its tube.

The current etymology Laertes suggests a derivation from λαός (laos), meaning men, army, folk, work-people, people assembled, or people, in general, and εἴρω (eirō; eirein), meaning either to fasten together or to speak, say, tell, ask. This etymology gives Laertes a literal meaning of a gatherer of the people or urging the men. This would be a superb poetic image for a settlement's water pump. People tend to gather around the water source and exchange news. From my analysis, I would be surprised and utterly disappointed with my theory if Laertes were a talking man. But is it a water pump, an improved model, another water source, or something else?

The mainstream etymology neglects the first version of εἴρω (eirō), meaning to fasten together in rows, string, string together, or insert, and used in contexts of connected systems and continuous flow. Of course, connected systems and continuous flow would make as much sense in a poem about gods, kings, monsters, wars, and heroes as such personae make sense in a textbook about water management and distribution, i.e., none at all. Our interpretations are bound to our preconceptions about the text's subject matter. Yet, a hypothesis-free semantic scanning of the term (Table 1) gives us very restricted possibilities of interpretation. The name of Odysseus' (step) father has a precise and specific meaning. 

Table 1: Syllabic or stem-wise reading of Laertes (LAERTHS). Source: Liddell and Scott 1940b

Stem	Cognates	Meanings
From left to right
LA	λα-; λᾶας; λαβή; λάω	intensive force; stone; the part intended for grasping, a handle, haft, a grip or hold, a handle; to seize, hold, grip
LAE	λαεργής	made of stone
AER(T)	ἀέρρω; ἀερτάζω	lift up, lift, raise up, raise
ERT	ἐρτός (εἴρω; βρόχος)	threaded, passed through, noose, slip-knot, a mesh of a net, a halter round one's neck
-ERTHS	ἐξεγέρτης; δημοεγερτής (εἴρω)	agitator; trouble maker (fasten together in rows, string, continuous, running)
LAERTHS	λαέρτης	ant
From right to left
SHT	σητάω	fret (to make rough, agitate or disturb; to cause to ripple [disturbance, or undulation, in the surface of a fluid; small oscillation of an otherwise steady signal]; to rankle; to be in violent commotion)
HTR	ἦτρον; ἤτριον	abdomen, especially the lower part of it; paunch, the pith of a reed; warp, a thin, fine cloth, leaves made of strips of papyrus
TRE	τρέω; τρέμω; τρέπω; τρέφω; τρέχω;	to flee away, runaway, flee from fear, tremble with fear; tremble, quake, quiver; turn or direct towards a thing, turn round or about, alter, change, shift, turn or put to flight, rout, defeat, turn away, keep off, overturn; cause to grow or increase, bring up, rear, contain, maintain, support, feed, nourish, rear; run, move quickly, having run its course, commit
REA	ῥέα (=ῥᾴδιος)	easily, lightly; readily, so easy to make or do, easy to understand and follow, a light matter, you think little of doing, adaptable, reckless, unscrupulous, nothing so easy, fully worth a talent
EAL	ἐάλην (from εἴλω)	shut in, ponded water, prevented from flowing away, hinder, hold in check, prevent, enclose, cover, protect, press, contract one’s body, draw oneself together, huddled up, without the idea of pressure, collect, wind, turn round, revolve, move to and fro, pivot or swing round, twin round, roll up tight, bind fast, drive up and down

The prefix λα- (la-) intensifies the stem that follows. It is rendered as very, much, many, great. For example, λά-μαχος (lamaxos) means eager-for-fight, from μάχη (maxē), battle, combat; λα-κατάρατος (lakataratos), much-accursed, from κατάρα (katara) curse. Besides, laos consists of la- and -os. With os being a demonstrative pronoun (he, she, it, who, this, that, etc.) and a generic ending morpheme, laos literally means a lot of them, be it men, women, or things. Hence, LA-ERTHS means a lot of ERTHS or very ERTHS.

The stem ERTHS does not exist as an independent word and requires analysis. There are only two similar words. Hesychius (5th or 6th century AD) explains ἔρτις (ertis) as κρημνός (krēmnos), meaning edge. The other one is ἐρτός (ertos), threaded, passed through, or noose, a mesh of a net (βρόχος; broxos), from the verb εἴρω (eirō), to fasten together into a network for continuous running as above. LA-ERT-HS seems, thus, to be a lot (LA) of edges and nodes (nooses), a large network. No Greek words are starting with RT or THS.

Very few words end with -ERTHS. Among those, ἀγέρτης (agertēs), meaning collector of dues, and σιταγέρτης (sitagertēs), collector of corn for state purposes, commissary, derive from the verb ἀγείρω (ageirō; a cognate of eirō), to gather, gather together, assemble, put things together, collect, collect money, accumulate (e.g., arguments). The common noun λαέρτης (laertēs), a homonym of Laertes, refers to an ant. Ants are known for their ability to raise and carry loads weighing many times their body weight (Castro 2014) but better for their characteristic behavior of collecting and accumulating their food, walking in tandem very long distances, and building complex tunnel networks underground. No doubt, Laertes was an analogous network of units assembled in tandem over very long distances for collection or distribution, perhaps built underground.

In reverse, LAERTHS reads SHTREAL. SHT (sēt-) starts the verb σητάω (sētaō), meaning to fret, i.e., to intermittently flow in small waves as opposed to the continuous flow implied by eirō (-ertēs). In addition, fret conveys the sememes of constant bother and gradual wearing away by friction associated with previous mechanical technologies (e.g., a manual water pump), which a distribution network is supposed to eliminate. The next two encountered stems are about the fear of abdominal problems due to the risk of contamination, which the Laertes technology also means to eliminate. HTR forms the words about stomach (ἠτριαῖος; ētriaios), abdomen (ἦτρον; ētron), and their issues... (ἤτριον; ētrion; warp, a thin, fine cloth, such that one could see between the threads, perhaps used in the toilet) whereas TRE forms τρέω (treō), to fear, dread, be afraid of (in this case, abdominal problems). Like in the case of EyRYKLEIA, the remaining inverse stems, REA and EAL, are used to praise Laertes rather than as antonyms in the proper sense. REA means easily, lightly (ῥέα; rea), and EAL starts ἐάλην (ealēn), from εἴλω (eilō), to shut in, hinder, hold in check, prevent, enclose, cover, protect, collect, wind, turn round, revolve, move to and fro, pivot or swing round, roll up tight, bind fast, squeeze, revolve, squeeze out, drive up and down, pond water, prevent from flowing away, to force into a river. Some of these sememes evoke water treatment, others the physics of flow, the mechanics of pumping, or water management and recycling. The product is as easy (to use) as nothing, worth every penny!

Semantic postulates for  LAERTHS

L linear, flexible, bend

A fill, load, content, cover, pipe

E opening, branch

R head, top, place, land, distance

T trim, fit, align, cross

H field, distance, surface, level, length, repetition, quantity

S connection, stitch

The postulated constant semantic values of the letters used in LAERTHS add insight into the meaning of the term. The letter L (Greek Λ; Archaic Greek <) is an angle. As an angle, it evokes flexion or flexibility. A may be seen as a half-full container, but it also evokes the shape of a pipe, with one end being wider than the other so that A's can be fitted in tandem to form a pipeline. The ichnogram LAERTHS can be read as many linear, bending, and branching pipes fitted, aligned, and connected, running from a higher point to distant fields. The letters provide by their form all the sememes required to figure out the morphology and function of the object they describe. The accompanying mythemes specify the meaning of the letter string.

In this case, the string LAERTHS relates by descent to grandfather Zeus, grandmother Euryodeia, father Arcesius (also spelled Arceisius or Arkeisios), and mother Chalcomedusa. The immediate origin of the pipe network, i.e., its mother Chalcomedusa, is a bronze fountain. Chalcomedusa consists of chalco-, copper, bronze, and -medusa, a fountain (see section Gorgons). The conception of LAERTHS, i.e., his father, was ARKEISIOS (Arcesius; Naso and Kline 2000). While deriving the meaning of ARKEISIOS, let us discuss a little theoretical detail.

Could the stems αρκ- (ark-; ichnogram ARK), αργ- (arg-; ARG), and αρχ- (arch-; ARX) have derived from one-another by phonetic lenition (Grimm's law; see sections G and K)? This is unlikely for two reasons. First, all three appear simultaneously in the same text, e.g., the Iliad. Second, they mean different things. The semantic difference between the Ancient verbs ἀρκέω (arkeō; ARKEΩ), ἀργέω (argeō; ARGEΩ), and ἄρχω (archō; ARXΩ) is primarily, if not entirely, due to the K/G/X variation. The E’s have been dropped in Modern Greek, but arkō (ARKΩ), argō (ARGΩ), and archō (ARXΩ) have retained their original meanings essentially intact.

ARKΩ/ARKEΩ means to ward off, keep off, assist, succor, make good, achieve, be strong enough, suffice, be content, hold equally for all, satisfy, be a match for, be enough, avail, endure, holdout, last, be satisfied with. The central sememes of ARK are sufficiency, enough, topping up: filling (A) + top (R) + dispersion, distribution, supply (K). ARGΩ/ARGEΩ means to be unemployed, do nothing, lying fallow, be out of work, be at rest, be unoccupied, be left undone, be fruitless, lie idle; also, ARG transmits its meanings of stock keeping to argos (ἀργός; not working, having no trade, lying idle, yielding no return, in which nothing is done, fruitless, unwrought, etc.) and Argos, the 'city' (Ἄργος; see section Achaeans, Danaans, and Argives). Therefore, the central sememes of ARG are excess, retaining, insufficiency, uselessness, delay, hold, holdup, storing: filling, charge, load (A) + head, top (R) + transport (G). ARXΩ means to begin, make a beginning, beginning with the limbs (A), rule, govern, command. The central sememes are the beginning, the point of start, and the source of things: limbs (A) + to head (R) + point (X).

In the context of the distribution of commercial goods, the equivalent Phoenician/archaic letters represent the point of origin, i.e., the production site (X; Chi), a progress arrow, transport, retail storage (>; Γ; G), and the end user who buys the goods (>|; K). From the end user's perspective, this is a limb (A) to head (R) concentration (K): ARK. The end user buys goods from various producers. A producer sells the products to various end users. From the producer’s perspective, the corresponding stems should be KRA, GRA, and XRA. Indeed, χράω (chraō; XRAΩ) means to inflict, conceive a desire to, think up, think of, devise, formulate, design, originate, create, develop, administer to, deliver to, deal out to, dispense to, mete out to, impose on, exact on, wreak on, cause to, give to, etc.; γράω (graō; GRAΩ) means to gnaw, eat, consume, bite at or nibble something persistently, or cause persistent and wearing distress or anxiety (as at times of shortage); κράς (kras; KRAS) is a poetic word meaning head, top, peak, down from the head, from the top, from (|<; K) head (R) to foot (A; limbs, entirely; κρατέω (krateō; KRATEΩ) means to rule, hold sway, rule among, conquer, prevail, get the upper hand, be superior, be the best, conquer, master, etc. The beneficiary of those sememes is the producer, but these only apply when product supply is sufficient, timely, and affordable. Homer expands on these matters in the Iliad.

If ARK means sufficiency or enough supply, Ei means fingers (see section Ei), and SI means food (see section Europe and Asia), then, Arcesius (Arceisius; Greek: Ἀρκείσιος; Arkeisios; ichnogram ARKEiSIOs) means sufficient (ARK) + fingers (Ei) + food (SI); or else, sufficient food in the fingers, enough to eat. The word ἐπάρκεια (eparkeia) means help, support, sufficiency, proficiency, or adequacy. The suggested semantic relation of Arkeisios to ἄρκος (arkos) or ἄρκτος (arktos), both meaning bear, or with the related English arctic, is not at all obvious to me. Instead, Arkesius is obviously related to Noah’s Ark (ἄρκη; arkē; Latin arca; a place for keeping things, chest, box, box for money, safe, coffer, Noah's ark, water-box of a hydraulic machine, water cistern, reservoir) which conserves the Greek K-spelling and signifies a box, a container, where one puts everything one needs, particularly water.

After the initial arke of Arkeisios, we find kei as in κείω (keiō) or κεῖμαι (keimai), to lie, be placed or situated, ‘rest’ at one's disposal. Thence eis (εἰς) is an independent word and prefix morpheme meaning into, up to, until, throughout, as far as, and εἰσί (eisi), 3rd plural person of εἰμί (eimi), to go, to come, go to or into, go through or over, to enter, exist, be, happen, consist of, depend on, be dependent on, have. This sequence of stems reads as a water cistern, a reservoir that sits resting at the disposal of anyone until it has enough to enter into or go through; presumably, through the water network LAERTHS.

A reverse reading of ARKEISI-OS (omitting the morpheme -os) produces ISIEKRA. The stem ISIE-, or ISEi, exists in Ἰσιεῖα (isieia), but the word remains untranslated. The stem EKR begins the words ἐκρέω (ekreō), to flow out, fall off, ἐκροή (ekroē), efflux, ἐκραίνω (ekrainō), to scatter out of, make to fall in drops from, ἐκρύπτω (ekryptō), to wash or rinse out, ἔκροος (ekroos), outflow, issue, excretion, outlet, ἐκρύομαι (ekryomai), to deliver, and so on.

Thus, Arcesius seems to be a water reservoir waiting to be filled up. Its reverse antonym is a full, outflowing reservoir. Arcesius is a cognate of English scarcity and autarky. The scarcity of water combined with the old (Bronze Age) copper fountain (Chalcomedusa), a typical water-waster that runs continuously even when there is nobody there to collect the water, created the idea of Laertes, i.e., a controlled network of water distribution. 

A prerequisite of food sufficiency is having enough water. This is why the father of the reservoir Arcesius was Zeus, the heavy rain (thunder-rain; see section Zeus – the rain), and his mother Euryodeia (Greek Εὐρυόδεια; Eyryodeia; ichnogram EyRY-ODEiA). Euryodeia (εὐρυ-όδεια) is currently glossed as from eury, ‘wide’, and ὁδός (odos), a way, path, track, road, the course of a river or any type of watercourse, a traveling, journeying, whether by land or water, a journey or voyage, an expedition, foray, a way or manner, a way of doing, speaking, ways of telling the story, method, or system. I interpret eury (EyRY) as running water (e.g., see section Crius and Eurybia) – not ‘wide’, as it is currently suggested.

The stem ODEiA requires ichnographic and etymological clarification because, in my opinion, it substantially differs from odos. It appears in quite a few other Greek words as a suffix, frequently spelled as ODIA. ODEiA means round (O) + passage (D) + fingers (Ei) + filling (A); this passing round to fill the fingers, searching for something small to fill the fingers (most of the ancient time, this would be a search for food); the latter sememes, fingers-filling, are absent from odos (road). The spelling ODIA replaces the fingers (Ei) with the arms and hands (I). It reads round (O) + passage (D) + arms (I) + filling (A); this is searching for something bigger to fill the arms with.

Inversion of ODEi gives EiDO (Ei remaining as a digraph): fingers (Ei) + passing (D) + around (O). The blind pass their fingers around an object not necessarily in order to fill them with food (absence of A) but to discover the form of the object. This is why εἶδος (eidos; EiDOS) – fingers (Ei) + passing (D) + around (O) + protrusion, object, thing (S) – means form, shape, appearance, that which is seen, physique, the habit of body, constitution, pattern, figure, kind, elementary nature or quality, specific notion, meaning, idea, plan of action, policy, formal cause, essence, style, class, sort, species. The final A of ODEiA, which as an ending means filling, becomes a privative prefix A- when ODEiA is entirely inverted because the opposite of filling is emptiness, absence. Thus, AEiD- is used in ἀειδής (aeidēs), meaning formless, indistinct, and unsightly; in ἀειδία (aeidia), deformity; and in ἀείδω (aeidō), to sing, hence of all kinds of vocal sounds, to crow as cocks, hoot as owls, etc., and of other sounds as a ring, of a stone when struck, twang, of the bow-string, whistle, of the wind through a tree, sing of, chant, and so on. Sound cannot (prefix A-) be touched (EiDO; compare εἴδω; eidō; to see, seem, look, or know).

Thus, with ODEiA meaning search for filling the fingers, EyRY-ODEiA becomes a search for filling the fingers (ODEiA) with running water (EyRY), i.e., a quest for running water. Among the other words featuring the suffix -odeia, we find διοδεία (diodeia), glossed as passing through, but actually meaning a quest or request (ODEiA) for passing (D) straight on (I); hence the Modern Greek διόδια (diodia), toll booth, the fee for using a freeway. Also, ἐξοδεία (exodeia) means expedition (ex + petition, quest); ἐφοδεία (ephodeia), going the rounds, visiting sentries, making a round of visits; περιοδεία (periodeia), going round, circuit, patrolling, going around a subject, diligent study, also medical quest, practice or routine; ἐμποδεία (empodeia), impediment, hindrance, hence ἐμπόδιον (empodion; in the pattern of diodion/diodia), at one's feet, coming in the way, obstacles, impeding; μεθοδεία (methodeia), craft, wiliness, method of collecting taxes or debts; ὁδεία (odeia) traveling, simply quest; ὀλιγόδεια (oligodeia), contentment with the little, the quest for little; ὀψοδεία (opsodeia), want of food, the quest for food (for the mouth-nose or food meaning of Ψ, Psi, see sections Europe and Asia and Cretan scripts); and, of course, σιτοδεία (sitodeia), want of food, famine, the quest for food (SI; see section Europe and Asia).

Overlapping with EyRY and ODEiA is the stem RYO. Euryodeia thus reads Ey-RYO-DEiA. RYO forms the verb ῥύομαι ('ryomai) from ἐρύω B (eryō; ERYΩ < ERYOo), meaning to protect, guard, lie in wait for, discover, keep, conceal, support, hold in honour, cover, keep off, ward off, thwart, check, curb, rescue, save, deliver, save from an illness, cure, redeem, compensate for. These sememes refer to the preceding stem Ey, the water (see section Ey). The following stem, DEiA, is an independent word glossed by Hesychius as ἔνδεια (endeia), meaning want, lack, deficiency, defect, need, want of means, poverty, famine. Thus, Ey-RYO-DEiA reads water-protect-lack, i.e., water-saving.

We may conclude that Arcesius, the sufficiency (compare English autarky), being the product of the quest and care for running water (Euryodeia) and the thunder-rain (Zeus), cannot mean anything else but the quest for sufficiency in running water. This sufficiency in running water, combined with Chalcomedusa – literally meaning the bronze fountain (for the meaning of Medusa, see section Gorgons) – gave birth to Laertes. The network Laertes was a water network. From a historical perspective, we might consider LAERTHS as the name of a public water distribution company.

A water network does not 'create' running water; it only distributes it. Running water must have already existed in the ANTIKLEIA pump's womb with the help of suction (Sisyphus) for LAERTHS to buy and distribute it. The clean water in Anticlea's womb is not yet 'Odysseus'. It must first become 'running' water with the help of EyRYKLEIA, the wet nurse who 'raised' it up to the outlet of the pump. It is only when the running water enters the LAERTHS pipeline network that it becomes Odysseus. Odysseus is, therefore, the clean, all-use 'pipe water.' 

If this analysis is right, the name of Odysseus’ stepfather Laertes is no doubt a genius word. It must have taken the poet more time to invent the goddamn name than the engineer to invent the technology. Such words cannot have existed before the technologies they describe, and I very much doubt they can be created in the poet's mind without writing. The Odyssey, full of such sophisticated names, cannot have existed prior to the alphabet or some other writing script. The analysis of the poetic personae and the mythical adventures points to the various uses of pipe water before reaching its final destination, the flash toilet Ithaca. There, Odysseus (the pipe water) joints his father LAERTHS again. But then, the pipe network has an old man's look. It is now a network for the collection of wastewater.

References

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Hyginus, Gaius Julius. 1856. “Autolycus.” In Hygini Fabulae, edited by Bernhardus Bunte, 150. Libraria Dykiana.

———. 1960. “CCI. Autolycus.” In The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary Amelia Grant. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press.

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———. 2019. Fabulae: Chione. ToposText. Piraeus: ToposText, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation. https://topostextLiddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. 1940a. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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[1] ‘Crow’ in Wiktionary.

[2] ‘Crane’ in Wiktionary.

[3] Plat. Theaet. 158e.

[4] ‘Dog’ in Online Etymology Dictionary.

[5] Hom. Od. 19. 409; 413; 416, 452.

[6] Hom. Od. 19. 430; 437; 446.