ἐγείρω vs. ἀνίστημι

Semantic Range, Lexicography, and other approaches to word meaning - in general, or for particular words.
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Stephen Hughes
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ἐγείρω vs. ἀνίστημι

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Rather than discuss this in the announcements sub-forum, let me ask about it here.

What are the similarities and differences between ἐγείρω and ἀνίστημι?
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
cwconrad
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Re: ἐγείρω vs. ἀνίστημι

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Hughes wrote:Rather than discuss this in the announcements sub-forum, let me ask about it here.

What are the similarities and differences between ἐγείρω and ἀνίστημι?
These are verbs that I have been endeavoring to understand for several years, for the reason that they display some of the most fundamental and clearest distinctions between the "active" and "middle-passive" or "subject-affected" διαθέσεις. The similarities and differences, as I see it, have to do with the association of erect bodily position and psychic state of alertness.

ἐγείρειν/ἐγείρεσθαι and ἀνιστάναι/ἀνίσταασθαι overlap in meaning in the transitive sense of “raise (something) up” and in the intransitive or subject-affected sense of “rise up”.

ἐγείρειν/ἐγείρεσθαι is more fundamentally tied to the notion of awakening in the transitive sense of rousing (somebody, something) to a waking state or in the intransitive subject-affected sense of waking up/coming to a state of alertness.

ἱστάναι/ἵστασθαι is more fundamentally tied to the notion of settled upright position in the transitive sense of bringing (somebody, something) into a settled upright position or in the intrnasitive subject-affected sense of coming into a settled upright position.

ἀνιστάναι/ᾶνίστασθαι (obviously) emphasizes the “upright” notion of the uncompounded ἱστάναι/ἵστασθαι: in the transitive active, it means “cause to stand up” or “erect”; in the intransitive or subject-affected form it means “stand up” or “rise”

ἐγειρειν/ἐγείρεσθαι and ἀνιστάναι/ἀνίστασθαι pair with κοιμᾶν/κοιμᾶσθαι and κεῖσθαι in the related senses of vertical and horizontal positions and of wakefulness or rest and sleep. Both verb-pairs can be used of rest/sleep/going-to-sleep and of wakingor being awake or “being up”. Inasmuch as “sleep” and “awakening” may be employed in the metaphorical sense of “being dead” and “resurrection”, both verb-pairs can be used in the extended sense of “awakening to new life” or “rising to new life.”

While I've tried to make this precise and concise, I am not a lexicographer (nor the son of a lexicographer), wherefore I am obviously open to corrections.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: ἐγείρω vs. ἀνίστημι

Post by Stephen Hughes »

cwconrad wrote: I am not a lexicographer (nor the son of a lexicographer), wherefore I am obviously open to corrections.
In some cases the lexicographer has to be the son of the grammarian.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: ἐγείρω vs. ἀνίστημι

Post by Stephen Hughes »

cwconrad wrote:ἐγειρειν/ἐγείρεσθαι and ἀνιστάναι/ἀνίστασθαι pair with κοιμᾶν/κοιμᾶσθαι and κεῖσθαι in the related senses of vertical and horizontal positions and of wakefulness or rest and sleep. Both verb-pairs can be used of rest/sleep/going-to-sleep and of waking or being awake or “being up”. Inasmuch as “sleep” and “awakening” may be employed in the metaphorical sense of “being dead” and “resurrection”, both verb-pairs can be used in the extended sense of “awakening to new life” or “rising to new life.”
Noting that you have said that this is not an exhaustive analysis, let me make the observation that unless people usually slept more in those days or usually found themselves lying on the floor, it would be well worth including the sitting position into the discussion, to expand on this binary analysis, that is to say, the verb ἀνιστάναι/ἀνίστασθαι - when used in the sense of surgo - seems to be talking about what the result of the action will be, without implying the starting point (or orientation).
Matthew 9:9 wrote:Καὶ παράγων ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖθεν εἶδεν ἄνθρωπον καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, Ματθαῖον λεγόμενον, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ, Ἀκολούθει μοι. Καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ.
In the contexts of returning from the dead, where it means resurgo, there is probably a contextual implication of horizontality, which is explicated by the re- in latin. To complicate things, perhaps the separation of those two meanings indicates that the ἀνα- has either a "re-", "up straight" or both the "re-" and "up straight" meanings in different contexts, then that might be possible too. With regard to horizontality, ἐγειρειν/ἐγείρεσθαι on the other hand seems to imply that the upward motion originates from a horizontal (or near horizontal) starting point.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
cwconrad
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Joined: May 5th, 2011, 5:52 pm
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Re: ἐγείρω vs. ἀνίστημι

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Hughes wrote:
cwconrad wrote:ἐγειρειν/ἐγείρεσθαι and ἀνιστάναι/ἀνίστασθαι pair with κοιμᾶν/κοιμᾶσθαι and κεῖσθαι in the related senses of vertical and horizontal positions and of wakefulness or rest and sleep. Both verb-pairs can be used of rest/sleep/going-to-sleep and of waking or being awake or “being up”. Inasmuch as “sleep” and “awakening” may be employed in the metaphorical sense of “being dead” and “resurrection”, both verb-pairs can be used in the extended sense of “awakening to new life” or “rising to new life.”
Noting that you have said that this is not an exhaustive analysis, let me make the observation that unless people usually slept more in those days or usually found themselves lying on the floor, it would be well worth including the sitting position into the discussion, to expand on this binary analysis, that is to say, the verb ἀνιστάναι/ἀνίστασθαι - when used in the sense of surgo - seems to be talking about what the result of the action will be, without implying the starting point (or orientation).
Matthew 9:9 wrote:Καὶ παράγων ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖθεν εἶδεν ἄνθρωπον καθήμενον ἐπὶ τὸ τελώνιον, Ματθαῖον λεγόμενον, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ, Ἀκολούθει μοι. Καὶ ἀναστὰς ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ.
In the contexts of returning from the dead, where it means resurgo, there is probably a contextual implication of horizontality, which is explicated by the re- in latin. To complicate things, perhaps the separation of those two meanings indicates that the ἀνα- has either a "re-", "up straight" or both the "re-" and "up straight" meanings in different contexts, then that might be possible too. With regard to horizontality, ἐγειρειν/ἐγείρεσθαι on the other hand seems to imply that the upward motion originates from a horizontal (or near horizontal) starting point.
Now it is evident why I stated that I was neither a lexicographer nor a son of a lexicographer: I attempted to answer the original query about the similarities and differences between ἀνίστασθαι and ἐγείρεσθαι. I didn't make any effort to consider the possibility of resurrection from a seated position! I didn't attempt to deal with the significant category of usages of ἀνιστάναι/ἀνίστασθαι associated with the uprooting of an individual or group from a place of residence. It is, of course, true that one can rise from a seated position and that English "sit/set" and Latin sedes, sedere and Greek ἕδος, ἕζεσθαι, κτλ. can also find their place in a fuller lexical consideration of settled and unsettled existence and such matters. I guess that it can be said of lexicography as of much else, ars longa, vita brevis est.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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