Note 697 — Chapter V · Lydia

Cp. Et. Gud. quoted above, defended by Radet, pp. 146–8. -αννος, so R. S. Conway writes to me, is neither Greek nor Latin, but occurs often in Etruscan (= Lydian?) and several times in Lycian: “tyrant” is derived from “Tyrrhenian” (= Etruscan) by Philochorus (ap. Schol. Lucian, Catapl. I: τύραννος εἴρηται ἀπὸ τῶν Τυρρηνῶν ... ὥς φησι Φιλόχορος. οἱ οὖν Ἀθήνησι ῥήτορες ἔθος ἔχουσι τοὺς βασιλέας τυράννους καλεῖν ἀντὶ τῆς παρ’ αὐτοῖς βίας τῶν Τυρρηνῶν: the reference is to the Tyrrhenians of Lemnos and Imbros), Tzetzes, Chil. VIII. 890–1 (ἐκ τούτων καὶ τὸ τύραννος ὁμοίως ἐπεκλήθη· βίαιοι γὰρ οἱ Τυρρηννοὶ καὶ θηριώδεις ἄγαν), Verrius Flaccus (ap. Festum s.v. turannos, ed. Teubner, p. 484, a cuius gentis (sc. Tyrrhenicae) praecipua crudelitate etiam tyrannos dictos ait Verrius), and the Et. Mag. (ἤτοι ἀπὸ τῶν Τυρσηνῶν· ὠμοὶ γὰρ οὗτοι). On Vedic affinities of the word τύραννος see Peile, ap. Jebb, Soph. O. T. p. 5.