At Iliad 1.155 Achilles describes his homeland as 峒愇 桅胃委畏喂 峒愊佄刮蚕幬晃蔽何 尾蠅蟿喂伪谓蔚委蟻畏喂 鈥渋n Phthia of the rich-clodded earth, man-nourishing.鈥欌 This translation 鈥榤an-nourishing鈥 is traditional but how does the word mean that? Usually compounds with a verbal element put that element second in Ancient Greek and in English, as in the frequent 蟺慰蠀位蠀-尾蠈蟿蔚喂蟻伪 鈥榤uch-nourishing鈥. According to some recent accounts, the first part 尾蠅蟿喂- is an ancient noun frozen in the compound, what would be *尾峥断兾瓜俙nourishment鈥; others take it as a more recent verb-form related to 尾蠈蟽魏蠅 `nourishing, feeding鈥. The morphology of this compound is disputed and weighs on how we interpret the Homeric language: Does the tradition preserve here a pristine archaism passed down through millennia? Or are we witness to the creative potential of the bards working within hexameter constraints? Put differently, is the word very old or relatively new? To answer those questions, we will range from compounding practices in Mycenaean Greek and Sanskrit, through variant readings in our manuscripts and scholia, and end with an examination of metrical lengthening and what makes the language of Achilles unique.
