Odysseus

As far as we can tell from the analysis of Odysseus’ ancestry (see section The ancestors of Odysseus) – i.e., pumping technologies with levers (Chione), well elevators (Autolycus), pistons (Anticlea), suction (Sisyphus), and valves (Eurycleia), combined with the family of rain (Zeus), water reserve (Euryodeia) scarcity and autarky (Arcesius), the fountain (Chalcomedusa) and, most importantly, the pipe network (Laertes, Fig. 1) – Odysseus must be the pipe water. This section will validate, falsify, or refine this prediction by analyzing the term Odysseus and its ‘kingdom’, Ithaca.

Figure 1. Aqueduct, constructed in Athens during the time of tyrant Pisistratus and descendants, circa. 510 BC. This aqueduct carried water from the foothill of Hymette mountain (probably east of the present Holargos suburb) for a distance of 7.5 km to the center of the city near the Acropolis. From Mays (2012) by permission.

In the Odyssey (Hom. Od. 19. 405-409), Odysseus’ grandfather Autolycus, a well-elevator, proposes Odysseus’ name after the participle odyssamenos (ὀδυσσάμενος), an epithet of his from the obscure verb *ὀδύσσομαι (odyssomai), or *ὀδυίομαι (odyiomai), unattested in the present tense.

πολλοῖσιν γὰρ ἐγώ γε ὀδυσσάμενος τόδ᾽ ἱκάνω

ἀνδράσιν ἠδὲ γυναιξὶν ἀνὰ χθόνα πουλυβότειραν

τῷ δ᾽ Ὀδυσεὺς ὄνομ᾽ ἔστω ἐπώνυμον

I read that passage approximately as:

since (γὰρ) for many (πολλοῖσιν) men (ἀνδράσιν) and (ἠδὲ ) women (γυναιξὶν), I (ἐγώ) just (τόδ᾽) come (ἱκάνω) up through (ἀνὰ) the well-nourishing (πουλυβότειραν) earth (χθόνα) much (γε) odyssamenos (ὀδυσσάμενος), let then (τῷ) the name (ὄνομ᾽) be (ἔστω) Odysseus (δ᾽ Ὀδυσεὺς) to signify this (ἐπώνυμον; odyssamenos).

Figure 2. A shaduf at Tuhala witches well, Estonia. Artwork by Ivar Leidus. Creative Commons license.

Here, the password for understanding Odysseus is odyssamenos, particularly the stem odyss. We may remark that odyssamenos is not Odysseus but Autolycus, the water elevator, on its way out from the well (fertile earth). Water lifting devices of the Autolykos type, like a shaduf (Fig. 2), are overflowing and dribbling as they come out from a well. The term odyssamenos may, therefore, be understood as dribbling or leaking. Murray translates this passage (Hom. Od. 19.405-410) as:

Inasmuch as I am come hither as one that has been angered with many, both men and women, over the fruitful earth, therefore let the name by which the child is named be Odysseus (Homer & Murray, 1919).

 And Butler:

Call the child thus: I am highly displeased with a large number of people in one place and another, both men and women; so name the child ‘Ulysses,’ or the child of anger (Homer & Butler, 1900).

In a handful of other instances, the stem of the unattested verb and its presumed derivatives have been translated as wroth against, hatred, or hate. Thus, Odysseus came to mean the ‘hated by gods and men.' The reason for the mainstream interpretation is probably that odyss and odyio resemble the Latin ōdisse, meaning to hate, dislike, be displeased, or vexed at anything, and odium, hatred, grudge, ill will, animosity, enmity, aversion. However, the Latin name of the hero Ŭlixes has nothing visibly in common with either ōdisse or odium. Similarly, there are common Greek words for hatred, hate, and similar, like μισέω (miseō), ἀπεχθαίρω (apextherō), ἀπεχθάνομαι (apexthanomai), and more, used even in the Odyssey, but are etymologically irrelevant to Odysseus.

The case is complex. First of all, the term appears in the Odyssey with double Sigma as Ὀδυσσεύς (Odysseys) 156 times and with a single Sigma, Ὀδυσεύς (Odyseys) 51 times, a ratio of 3:1. Nobody appears to discuss this detail, at least in the internet. The frequency of the single-Sigma spelling is too high to be considered a scribing error. Either the orthography does not matter, or the two terms signify different objects, e.g., different aspects of pipe water. I have not counted the innumerable instances of the stem with various end morphemes replacing the -eus ending. Adding to the confusion, the name of Odysseus is found on vases and in other archeological and literary evidence as Olyseus (Ὀλυσεύς), Olysseus (Ὀλυσσεύς), Ōlysseus (Ὠλυσσεύς), Olyteus (Ὀλυτεύς) or Olytteus (Ὀλυττεύς). The form Oulixēs (Οὐλίξης) probably dates from an early source from Magna Graecia, while a later grammarian has it Oulixeus (Οὐλιξεύς). In Latin, the figure was known as Ulixēs, Ulixi, Ulixei, or Ulyssēs, the latter considered incorrect. In Etruscan, it was Uluxe (Odysseus, 2022). All those nuances are obliterated in English by the standard phonetic spelling Odysseus and its Latin variant Ulysses.

Apart from the trivial phonetic variation between Greek and Latin (e.g., Greek O becomes Latin U most of the time), we observe a significant D/L mutation and interchangeable use of single or double S and T, or X, within Greek. Some have supposed that there may originally have been two separate personae, one called something like Odysseus and the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality (Stanford, 1968).

The Wikipedia article (Odysseus, 2022) states that the D to L change is common in some Indo-European (IE) and Greek names. The Latin form is supposed to be derived from the Etruscan Uthuze, which perhaps accounts for some of the ‘phonetic innovations’ – innovations being a ‘scientific’ way to say that we actually do not know their origin. In Etruscan religion, the name and the stories of Odysseus were adopted under the name Uthuze (Uθuze), which has been interpreted as a parallel borrowing from a preceding Minoan form of the name (possibly *Oduze, pronounced /'ot͡θut͡se/). This theory (Gordon, 2009) is supposed to explain also the insecurity of the phonologies ([d] or [l]; D/L) since the affricate /t͡θ/, unknown to the Greek of that time, gave rise to different counterparts, i.e., Δ (D) or Λ (L) in Greek and θ (Θ; Th) in Etruscan. It also suggests the use of the [ts] sound, perhaps deriving from a Stigma (St/Ts; see section Cretan scripts) in place of SS, TT, or X (Ks) of the variable name. This hypothesis is not only plausible, but it is also exciting. It means that the original, Archaic Greek version of Odysseus was spelled with Stigma (e.g., ODYϟEyS; ODYͲEyS; ODYStEyS), a ligature that was not retained in the Classical Greek alphabet.

A graphocentric view of Odysseus’ variation predicts that the variants represent different aspects of the object or different ichnographic solutions for describing the same object (see section On the origin of words). This is, in principle, testable by associating the variants with epithets and other lexical contexts, but this is beyond the scope of this section.

Punctuation stitches or separates phrases to form a legible and understandable, i.e., functional text string. SS is used for stitching (see section Cassandra and Helenus). The same seems true of Stigma and a few other ligatures and punctuation signs, e.g., Koppa (ʔ, Ϙ), with which Stigma is frequently confused (see section Cretan scripts). By the way, grammatical punctuation shares sememes with mechanical puncture and ligature with ligation. Apart from the fact that Stigma (now the digraph St; see section Stigma) is a ligature and is, therefore, qualified to iconically represent a ligature, the very name Stigma means spot, mark, or stud. As a cognate of στιγμός (stigmos), pricking, Stigma may also be interpreted as a prick. I suppose studs were primarily used for fastening objects together, not for decoration. As a rivet or stud bolt, a stud is used for linking objects in a line. When a stud is loose or removed, it leaves a small hole.

Semantic postulates for ODYSSEyS (Odysseus) 

O         eye, circular, round, narrow, small

D         passage

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

S          protrusion, connection, stitch

S          protrusion, connection, stitch

Ey       well, water source, tube, reservoir, resource

S          protrusion, connection, stitch

According to my general postulates about the most common meanings of the letters and some digraphs or morphemes (see section Semantic constant postulates), ODYSSEyS starts with a stem evoking a small (O) passage (D) traversing (Y) the ligature (SS, or Stigma) that follows. That sounds like a broken ligature; of water, a leakage. The next morpheme is the diphthong Ey, which I always interpret as water or water source (see section Ey). Ey is found between two connections (S; SEyS), evoking a water pipeline. This would make ODY-SS-Ey-S the leaking-pipe water, a leak from a little transverse passage in the pipe ligature, or water (Ey) passing (D) through (Y) a small gap (ODY) in the ligature (SS).

Let us now see how this hypothesis, generated from the literal semantics of juxtaposed letters, fits lexical evidence from the Greek and IE vocabulary. Save Odysseus and cognates, all Greek words starting with ody- are related to pain, primarily physical and metaphorically of mind. The shortest example, ὀδύνη (odynē; ODYNH), means the pain of body, or pain of mind, grief, distress, or pain caused by the language, while ὀδύνημα (odynēma) just means pain. What better figurative and graphical description of pain than a bleeding slit or prick of the skin? According to ichnography, the cluster NH following ODY in odynē stands for the duration or intensity (H; see section H) of the movement (N) of the body following an injury (ODY). The common sememe between odynē and odysseus is not the pain (this requires NH) but the bleeding injury. Also, consistent with the principle of antonymy by inversion (see section On the origin of words), inversion of ody into ydo gives ὕδος (‘ydos or hydos), a synonym of ὕδωρ (‘ydōr or hydōr, from *hydoor; see section Omega), which is glossed as water of any kind (spring-water, drinking-water, etc.), but designated an intact water pipe initially (see section Water). Homer only rarely does use hydōr for seawater without an epithet. Whereas ydo stands for water normally flowing within an intact pipe, ody is water transversely flowing out of a defective pipe, a bleed.

According to a hypothesis developed in the chapter about Theogony (see section Nereus and Thaumas), inversion of a stem that finishes in SS or equivalent graphemes, St, TT, X (Ks), XX, etc.) may turn the final SS into an initial spiritus asper (‘; ellipsis) – hence, to a Latin transliteration using the aspirate H. Thus, inversion of ODYSS would produce ‘YDO or Latin HYDO. I have argued that the original meaning of hydōr (‘YDΩR or HYDΩR) was a water pipe, or channel, fitted with an Ω-shaped (Ω) cover, top-element, hat, head (R), and only by semantic drift did it come to signify the water itself (see sections Pipe and Water). Incidentally, the English cover is a ‘C-over’ (C-shape + OVER). What difference could be between ‘YDOs and an HYDΩR-type covered water channel? Could ‘YDOs signify a different type of water-conveyance device ‘opposite’ to ODYSS design?

A continuous U/V-shaped furrow (∪) covered with a Ω-shaped cover (∩) is a good solution for the horizontal conveyance of water but won’t work for vertical transport since the water would leak out from the U/Ω-joint (∪ and ∩ joined to form ⩇). Vertical pipes must have a fully closed circular cross-section (O). This is probably, the difference between the ichnograms HYDΩR and HYDOs, which provide synonymous words for water. HYDO- would, therefore, mean: long (H) + hollow, traverse (Y) + passage (D) + round (O); instead of Ω-shaped (Ω) top (R) cover. The term long (initial H) is redundant because the expressions ‘hollow-passage round’ (‘YDO) or ‘round-passage hollow’ (ODY) sufficiently convey the notion of a tube. The inversion probably denotes the convenience of ODY-type tubes to be rotated to a vertical configuration and still function. The L appearing in some versions of Odysseus may have derived from an ancient open up-arrow represented by the Greek letter Lambda (∧; Λ), which would indicate a vertical configuration and upwards movement. In contrast, the Archaic Delta being a closed isosceles triangle, indicates a passage from point to point in all directions. ODY also evokes the times of drought, i.e., the periods, rounds (O) when the water dives into the soil and disappears (DY; passage downward; see section Zeus). Compare English dry.

Scanning Odysseus one step to the right of ody, we find dys (δυσ-), an extremely frequent morpheme meaning un-, mis-, with a notion of hard, bad, unlucky, etc.; a negation that generally destroys the good sense of what follows, or increases its bad sense. Before digraphs of S, including Stigma (στ), the final S of dys is omitted (does not double further). In the case of Odysseus, O-DYS-St-Ey-S would automatically become O-DY-St-Ey-S, then O-DY-SS-Ey-S. Dys- functions as the opposite of εὖ (eu; Ey), in the sense of well, good, normal, right. Odysseus so displays a semantic opposition between the juxtaposed dys and eu. A dysfunction amid well-functioning pipes in a pipeline (S-Ey-S).

Next, YS exists as an independent word ὗς (ys) meaning whither, pointing to a place or state which… The Archaic Greek Yϟ (Y-Stigma), and the Classical Greek analogs YSt, YSS, or YTT, would point to the ligature or a broken ligature (ϟ; Stigma as a prick, mark, spot, wet spot). These analogs are found in ὑστάς (ystas), or συστάς (systas; compare English system), meaning multiple elements standing together and being virtually or physically connected, like vine trees, or rainwater, reservoirs, cisterns, or pipes joined in tandem. Also, ὕστερος (ysteros) means coming after, behind, posterior, later, afterward, later than, after, ὑστέρα (ystera), the womb, seen as a system of connected tubes, Sanskrit úttaras, meaning upper (in a vertical sequence), English utter, in the sense of complete, total (intact, functional), or to put into circulation, especially of forged but spotless money (Law), Greek κύτταρος (kyttaros), cell, cell of a honeycomb, νύσσω (nyssō), to touch with a sharp point, prick, stab, pierce, sting, suffer lesion, ὑσσός (yssos), javelin, an object that can cause such lesions, and so on.

From a few words that do not present the alleged dialectal SS/TT variation, the St>SS or St>TT conversions seem non-random. TT would stand for functional continuity (like columns in a row; see sections Attis and Athena and Athens) and SS for disruption requiring stitches, though not without confusion. There are, in all, more than 4000 examples to test this in English. I will just pair attest and assess. Thus, Olytteus or Odytteus would be an intact, functional (vertical) pipeline, while Odysseus would be a leaking pipe. Odysseus would focus on a leaking pipe junction, whereas, Odyseus would refer to the overall pipeline. Cognates of Odysseus starting with O would refer to closed round pipes with an O cross-section, whereas those starting with U would be open U-channels. Ōlysseus (Ὠλυσσεύς) would be a covered U-channel. The cross letter X replacing SS and TT in some variants is just another way to indicate a cut or joint point, cross junctions, or any pipe articulation.

Figure 3. Archaic Greek variants of Delta and Lambda. From Haarer et al., 2004.

The archaic Lambda (Phoenician Lāmed) and Delta (Phoenician Dālet) are open or closed arrows pointing to various directions (Fig. 3). Their Classical equivalents, Λ (L) and Δ (D), respectively, are open and closed arrows pointing up. Even today, using open and closed arrows is a matter of taste. The letters, seen as graphical symbols rather than phonetic transcripts, are prone to confusion, particularly for Romans. They didn’t have an angular D. This would easily explain the D/L variation in Odysseus' cognates. Otherwise, one has to explain how and why a voiced dental fricative [ð] or dental, alveolar plosive [d] could synchronically become dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral approximant [l], and why this has happened in some words, e.g., Odysseus > Olysseus, δάκρυμα (dakryma; tear) > lacrima (tear) – incidentally, also related to a water escape – but not in other, for instance, the names of the letters.

But we are not yet done with the ichnography of ODYSSEyS. The verb σεύω (seyō; /sevo/) featuring SEy means a quick action: to put in a quick motion, drive, hunt, chase, hurry away to or from a place, set in a swift motion, run, rush, dart or shoot along, hasten, speed. There is at least some semantic overlap with the English verb to save (/seɪv/), to prevent harm or difficulty, to conserve or prevent wasting. Quick action is required in case of a leaking pipe to save the water or things from water damage. We may know what happens otherwise if we start reading ODYSSEyS backward: SEySSYDO, SEyTTYDO, SEyStYDO, or SYE... In Greek, SYE forms σύειος (syeios), of swine. The pig characteristically likes mud. But if we read correctly, without inverting the digraph Ey, we read EySS as in Homeric ἐύσσελμος (eysselmos), with a good deck, well-decked, of ships that do not allow leaks. Of course, everything that starts with Ey, whether followed by S, T, or St, is good. For example, εῦτε (eyte) means for an indefinite time in the future, implying good quality and long duration, and εὔστυλος (eystylos), with goodly pillars, with columns at the best distances. With Ey read as a diphthong that remains the same after inversion, the sequence SEyS is a palindrome and means the same good part of the (pipeline) construction in either direction.

More interesting is the inversion of the defective part of ODYSSEyS, i.e., DYSS or DYSt, passage (D) through (Y) ligature (St). Of course, no words start with SS or TT in either Greek or English, but the Greek SS becomes the aspirate English digraph Sh (H for length, multiplicity, intensity; see section Aspiration). Thus, DYSS becomes English dush. In forward reading, the Greek stem dys destroys the good sense of what follows. In this case, DY destroys the ligation SS. In English, dush (originally *DYSS; Old English dwǣsċan; to put out, extinguish, destroy) means to strike or push violently, to dash down; of an animal, to strike with the horns. Its doublet dash (also deriving from Old English dwǣsċan) is to break, e.g., a continuous line into an interrupted (dashed) line, whereas dust (powder) is essentially the result of repeated dushing. In du-st, every ligation (-st) between matter particles has been destroyed (du-). A dustbin is associated with waste. The des- of destroy (/dɪˈstɹɔɪ/) sounds like the dys- of dystrophy (/ˈdɪstɹəfi/), suggesting an ultimate phonetic and semantic relation of destroy with the DYS of Odysseus. Unlike dush-, des-, dys-, and dust-, all associated with misbehavior, breaking, destroying, and wasting, dut- is associated with correct behavior and good function as in duty. This is consistent with the previous prediction that a ligature St becomes SS (or S) when it breaks or TT (T) when it fits. You have probably noticed that the reverse reading of ODYStEyS, spelled with an archaic Stigma, contains the stem StYD (inverse of DYSt). StYD is a stud for fitting together and fixing (X for ligation as in Latin Ulixēs and cognates; see above). StYD also forms the words: study, student, studious, and studio. These are all about combining parts to create a functional whole, a system, a systas.

We may conclude that Odysseus is not simply the pipe water as predicted from its precedents (see section The ancestors of Odysseus) but the perpetually escaping pipe water. This property of pipe water is specified by the term Odysseus. Who likes water escaping from pipes? The Odyssey would, therefore, mean the Water-Pipe-Junction-Escape, short, the Escape. A synonym for escape is to flee. Literally, to flee is to take branching (ß; E) ways out of normal flow (*FLOUU with integrated U-channels) in speed (EE). The rendering of odyssamenos (escaping, leaking, dribbling) as ‘hated by gods and men,’ although etymologically erroneous, is a beautiful poetic drift. We should not be surprised that the poem is about water escaping from all kinds of devices we invent for its various applications. There is, however, a hydraulic system where the escaping pipe water is the king! It is called Ithaca.

Semantic postulates for IThAKH (Ithaca)

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

Th       turn, twist, rotate, circulate, roll

A         fill, load, content, cover, wide, pipe

K         neck, dispersion, concentration

H         trunk, limit, surface, level, length, repetition, quantity, intensity

The term Ithaca is significant since not only the leaking water Odysseus but also its precedents, the pipe network Laertes, the scarcity or autarky Arcesius, and the water elevator Autolycus in conjunction with the siphon Sisyphus (see section The ancestors of Odysseus) governed the place, and Ithaca was Odysseus’ final destination. Escaping water finishes in the wastewater collection network.

Ithaca (Greek Ιθάκη; Ithakē; ichnogram IThAKH) is, of course, not an island in the geographical sense but, perhaps, a point of arrival and departure, a station, a break in the ‘traveling’ routine. Its ichnography suggests an edge, arm (I) + rotation (Th) + filling (A) + tube, concentration or dispersion (K) + body, surface, level, length, repetition, quantity, intensity (H). This looks like a stick that rotates and disturbs some content's body or surface. When I read this interpretation, my mind first went to some sort of a water container with impurities that one may disturb and disperse in the water, but when these are left to settle, the water clears and becomes drinkable.

Table 1. Semantic scan of Ithaca (IThAKH). The meanings are compiled from Liddell & Scott (1940).

Stem	Cognates	Meanings
From left to right
ITh	ἴθι; ἰθύω, ἰθύς; ἰθύνω; ἴθμα; ἰθών (πυγή, λαγαρός, πρωκτός)	come, go (return, frequency); go straight, straightway, press right on, to be eager, strive to do, purpose, desire eagerly; straight, vertically below; vertically above; guide in a straight line, make straight, aim an arrow straight, guide, direct, rule, put straight, rectify; step, motion; rump, buttocks, hollow, sunken, of an animal's flanks, slack, loose, thin, narrow, emaciate, slack, Latin laxus, anus
IThA	ἰθαρός (καθαρός); ἰθαγενής; ἴθανα (σχοινία)	cheerful, glad, pure, clear, physically clean, spotless, clear of objects, free, purifying, cleansing; born in lawful wedlock, legitimate, from the ancient stock, genuine, natural, original; clump or bunch of rushes (brush); small rope, cord or thread
ThAK	θᾶκος; θακέω	seat, chair, privy, sitting in council; to sit
ThAKH	θάκησις; ἐνθάκη	means of sitting, seat; sweat in, labor hard in; sitting in: hence, lying in wait, position, delay
AKH	ἀκή; ἀκήν; ἄκημα; ἀκήριος (κῆρ); ἀκήρατος	point, silence, healing; softly, silently; cure, relief; lifeless, heartless, spiritless (breathless); undefiled, pure, untouched, unhurt, unharmed (calamity)
KH	κηχί (ῥύπος); κῆται (κεῖμαι); κηθίς	dirt, filth, sordidness, meanness; lie down to rest, repose, lie outstretched, lie, remain, to be laid up, in store, of goods, to be set up, ordained, to be left to settle; dice-box
From right to left
HK	ἥκω; ἥκιστος	to have reached a point, to have come back, returned, concern, relate to, depend upon; least, as little as possible, not at all
HKA	ἦκα (ἵημι)	slightly, a little, softly, low, smoothly, gently (release, let go, let float off, made flow down, let loose, throw, hurl, shoot, let flow, spout forth, pour)
KATh	καθαρός, καθαρσις; κάθημαι; καθήκω	physically clean, spotless, cleanly, neat, tidy, decent, respectable, pure, correct, elegance, refinement, cleansing, purification, evacuation, clearing; sit still, sit quiet, sit doing nothing, lie idle, reside in a place, settle; come or go down, to be meet, fit, right, proper
KAThI	κάθιξις; κάθισις;	arrival at a point; sitting, causing to sit down, settle, alight, leave goods purchased in a market
AThI	ἀθιγής; ἄθικτος; ἀθίγγανος	untouched, intangible, not having touched; untouched by a thing, chaste, virgin, not to be touched, holy, abominable, not touching; one that nobody wants to approach
ThI	θι; θίξις; θίς; θίγμα (μίασμα);	the place at which; touching; sand, beach, shore, mud at the bottom of the sea; stain, defilement, that which defiles, pollution,

Well, I was wrong! The exercise of semantic synthesis of IThAKH in Table 1 tells a different story. Reading from left to right, we find the sememes of eager desire, pressing, rush, going straight, sitting, privy (toilet), silence, breathlessness, relief, to end with filth, remaining, settling. In a noble mind, this series of sememes may form the idea of a place of origin where one purpose to go (return) and settle in peace – mainly if one reads only the left part of the word. The sememes of dirt and filth do not quite fit this noble reading. In a dirty mind, I am afraid that this same series of sememes describes a toilet where one is eager to go for relief and which, eventually, has to be cleaned: to be eager, to go straight to, gladly sit on the privy, in privacy, and with breathless effort eventually relief oneself. I am sorry to learn that such a romantic place, Ithaca, might mean toilet, but this is hard data speaking.

These stems were not transferred to English as such. Still, their semantics were: the English stool means seat for one person (private) and a seat used for urination and defecation, a chamber pot, commode, outhouse seat, or toilet, as well as feces, excrement, an act of defecation, stooling. Similarly, the word toilet is made from the stem toil, exhausting physical labor, incessant and extremely hard work; the brush is made of rush, a sedge-like plant from which the Greeks make brooms and brushes; the bath is made of ATh, which is also found in Athena, the olive oil (see section Athena and Athens), which is also used in toilet and, as a lubricant, in toil.

When read in the opposite direction, the sememes go: minimal (effort), evacuation, cleaning, without touching, mud at the bottom of the sea. Phew! Ithaca is not just any toilet but a flush toilet because the inverse reading reveals a mechanism of cleaning without touching; the filth finishes at the bottom of the sea. The letter-level ichnography now begins to make sense. Indeed, I-Th may be the rotating (Th) arm (I), i.e., the lever part of the flush mechanism. The following A could stand for the flush tank and its water load. K-H could be the narrow (K) pipe (H), i.e., a piece of tubing (neck, stenosis; see sections K and Cretan scripts, around Fig. 22) that connects the flush tank to the flush outlet. H and A may be specifically used to describe various pipe designs (see section Pipe) or, interchangeably, for the general concept of a pipe. Attic uses H as a substitute for Doric A. Greek terms were mostly transferred to Western European languages from Doric through Latin. Thus, IThAKH came to English as Ithaca. We do not exactly know how much of the Attic/Doric variation is synchronic and how much diachronic. The two writing systems may have coexisted in time, though prevailing in different geographical regions, or Attic may have gradually replaced Doric more or less everywhere.

The stem AKH also evokes a syringe and stands for hygiene (prevention) and medicine (cure; see section TheMysteries and the Nike of Samothrace). All these graphemes put together makeup IThAKH (Ithaca). The mytheme that Odyseus was the king of Ithaca means that the toilet cleaning system was the most essential application of (deliberately) escaping pipe water or the hydraulic system that leaked most frequently. The toilet Ithaca also functions as a symbolic cue evoking a wastewater network in which the escaping water Odysseus ends, and the cycle starts over. Moreover, the kingdom of urging defecation (diarrhea) prompts the risks of pathogenic contamination of water from defective pipes (Fig. 4).

Figure 4. A 1939 conceptual illustration showing various ways that typhoid bacteria can contaminate a water well. Artwork by unkown author marked as public domain.

The colloquial, now offensive, Modern Greek word καθίκι (kathiki; ichnogram KAThI-KI) means chamber pot, potty (a container used by young children for urination and defecation) and, also, bastard, son of a bitch, asshole, prick (extremely unpleasant or objectionable person). The word was also spelled as καθήκι (kathēki) in the 19th century. A Byzantine equivalent καθοίκι (kathoíki), is still the most common variant in use. The latter has been thought to have derived from the preposition κατά (kata; meaning at, by, downward) and οἶκος (oikos, house) because it refers to household chamber pots. This case has puzzled the etymologists because κατά suffers elision and becomes κατ’ (kat’) before a vowel unless the following word starts with a vowel having a rough breathing diacritic (spiritus asper), in which case κατά becomes καθ' (kath'). In the case of κατά + οἶκος, there is absolutely no reason for κατά to become καθ' because οἶκος does not have any rough breathing diacritic. Therefore, κατά should contract to κατ’, and the compound word be κατοίκι (*katoiki).

Obviously, either the spelling is wrong or the etymology, or both. Despite this inconsistency, most Modern Greek dictionaries accept the version καθοίκι (kathoíki) to ‘purify’ the term from its filthy connotations pretending that the inconsistencies are due to confusion with the verb καθίζω (kathizō), to sit down: καθ’ (kata > kath’; downwards) + ἵζω (‘izō; settle, sit, set).

The Eta-spelling καθήκι (kathēki) probably relates to the exact homophone καθήκει (kathēkei); it belongs to, it is one's duty, from the verbs ἥκω (ēkō), to have reached a point, and καθήκω (kathēkō) to come or go down, come in due course, regularly, which are both relevant to urination and defecation. The derivative καθήκον (kathēkon) is a due payment, a duty. The expression doing one's duty is still used in Modern Greek for 'going to the toilet.'

The above decipherment of the inversed Ithaca (H-KAThI) suggests that the initial H might have been taken for the feminine article, making of *kathi, or a ‘corrected’ feminine *kathē, the flush toilet. In fact, the ichnographic view of the final H of IThAKH as referring to the length of the flush tube (the height of the tank), hence, the force of flushing, suggests that this H must be omitted when it comes to chamber potties (IThAK > KAThI). Then, the familiar diminutive -KI suffix was added to suggest a little toilet. If so, the Iota spelling καθίκι (kathiki) is semantically closest to a toilet.

This reading of Ithaca provides some additional insight for interpreting Autolycus as a device for water collection from wells, but also for emptying other fluid stuff from other types of holes or containers; for example, emptying a cesspool. This is indeed a universally hated duty, and Autolycus takes the blame. This hypothesis would explain why many men and women all over the world would have so mercilessly hated Autolycus. The solution was Autolycus’ daughter Anticlea, the piston, which with the help of the valve Eurycleia of Ithaca (of the toilet), the resulting siphon effect (Sisyphus), and of course, of her husband, the pipe network Laertes, gave birth to abundantly fleeing pipe water Ulysses, the flush (FLYSS) system.

To be more explicit, the phonetic history of the English flush is largely unknown. There is no reference to any Proto-IE root. Recent Germanic cognates like Middle English flusshen, fluschen, of uncertain origin, seem to emphasize the phonetics of the sibilant, not by simple aspiration but by juxtaposing /s/ and /ʃ/, perhaps in an effort to reproduce the sound of a splash by onomatopoeia. This results in an aspirated double-S (ssh) simplified in Modern English in the pattern of dys-ss > dyss, as above. It is hypothesized that these cognates are derived by a fusion of  Middle English flowen, to flow +‎ guschen, to gush, of a liquid, to flow out in a rapid and plentiful stream, often suddenly.

My graphocentric view suggests that Ulyss, from Ulysses, and flush are the same word. The English F belongs to a family of letters including the Archaic South Greek Digamma (𐊥, Ϝ), Classical Greek Y, and their Roman derivatives F, Y, U, V, and W (“F,” 2022). They all derive from an archaic Y, the so-called Phoenician Wāw (see section The Phoenicians), probably from Linear A and B sign *31 (Salgarella & Castellan, 2021) and identical signs used in Armenia and the Balkans since the 8th millennium BC (Vahanyan & Vahanyan, 2009; see section Script cross-tabulation, Table 2, lines 110-111). F, U, V, W, and Y were used interchangeably to transliterate the Greek Y in history. It is, therefore, very likely that the F of flush is a transliteration of the initial U of Ulyss, the U of flush is the Y of Ulyss, and its final Sh is the aspirate form of SS as mentioned above (see section Aspiration).

In sum, Ulysses is flush. He was king (Rolls-Royce) of the toilet.

If the myth of Odysseus (or Ulysses) of Ithaca is indeed about toilet hygiene, the name of the author who elaborated the myth in Latin, signing in ‘genitive’ as Hygini or Hyginii, should be re-examined. It may merely be a Latinized, phonetically simplified, or corrupted version of the Greek word ὑγιεινή (hygieinē; /hygiini/; first attested in Hippocrates' Aphorismi, Hp. Aph. 3.15, circa 460 – circa 370 BC), i.e., hygiene, from the title of an ancient textbook.

References

  F. (2022). In Wikipedia. 

Gordon, G. (2009). A Pre-Greek name for Odysseus. Paleoglot. Ancient Languages. Ancient Civilizations.

Haarer, P., Toth, I., Kossmann, P., Sasanow, M., Ratcliff, J., & Crowther, C. (2004). The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece. In Poinikastas: Epigraphic Sources for Early Greek Writting. The Andrew W. Mellon foundation.  

Homer, & Butler, S. (1900). The Odyssey (J. Tinsley & D. Widger, Eds.; 1999th ed.). The Project Gutenberg. 

Homer, & Murray, A. T. (1919). The Odyssey. William Heinemann Ltd.

Liddell, H. G., & Scott, R. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. Clarendon Press. 

Mays, L. W. (2012, December 31). Water Technologies of Ancient Athens, Greece. Ancient Water Technologies.

Odysseus. (2022, November 3). Wikipedia. 

Salgarella, E., & Castellan, S. (2021). SigLA: The Signs of Linear~A. A~Palæographical Database. Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, Part II, 5, 945–962.  

Stanford, W. B. (1968). The Ulysses theme. A Study in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero. Spring Publications.

Vahanyan, G., & Vahanyan, V. (2009). The Intercultural relations between Old Europe and Old Armenia. Papers, XXIII Valcamonica Symposium, Prehistoric and Tribal Art: Making History of Prehistory, the Role of Rock Art, 357–362.