εἴδωλον

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From εἶδος (eîdos, “form”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ěː.dɔː.lon/ → /ˈi.ðo.lon/ → /ˈi.ðo.lon/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ěː.dɔː.lon/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈi.do.lon/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈi.ðo.lon/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈi.ðo.lon/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈi.ðo.lon/

Noun

εἴδωλον • (eídōlon) n (genitive εἰδώλου); second declension

1. phantom, ghost
   • circa 800 BC, Homer, The Odyssey, IV, 796

     ἔνθ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἄλλ᾽ ἐνόησε θεά, γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη:
     εἴδωλον ποίησε, δέμας δ᾽ ἤικτο γυναικί,
     Ἰφθίμῃ, κούρῃ μεγαλήτορος Ἰκαρίοιο,
     τὴν Εὔμηλος ὄπυιε Φερῇς ἔνι οἰκία ναίων.
     πέμπε δέ μιν πρὸς δώματ᾽ Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο,
     ἧος Πηνελόπειαν ὀδυρομένην γοόωσαν
     παύσειε κλαυθμοῖο γόοιό τε δακρυόεντος.

     Then the goddess, bright-eyed Athene, had an idea. She created a phantom, in the likeness of Penelope’s sister, Iphthime, that other daughter of great-hearted Icarius. Eumelus had married her, and she was living at Pherae. Athene sent the phantom to noble Odysseus’ palace, to the weeping, grieving Penelope, to tell her to stop her crying, her tear-filled lament.

2. shape, figure, image
3. image of the mind: idea, fancy
4. representation, statue, idol

Inflection

Second declension of τὸ εἴδωλον; τοῦ εἰδώλου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ εἴδωλον tò eídōlon	τὼ εἰδώλω tṑ eidṓlō	τᾰ̀ εἴδωλᾰ tà eídōla
Genitive	τοῦ εἰδώλου toû eidṓlou	τοῖν εἰδώλοιν toîn eidṓloin	τῶν εἰδώλων tôn eidṓlōn
Dative	τῷ εἰδώλῳ tôi eidṓlōi	τοῖν εἰδώλοιν toîn eidṓloin	τοῖς εἰδώλοις toîs eidṓlois
Accusative	τὸ εἴδωλον tò eídōlon	τὼ εἰδώλω tṑ eidṓlō	τᾰ̀ εἴδωλᾰ tà eídōla
Vocative	εἴδωλον eídōlon	εἰδώλω eidṓlō	εἴδωλᾰ eídōla
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

• Greek: είδωλο (eídolo)
• → Coptic: ⲉⲓⲇⲱⲗⲟⲛ (eidōlon)
• → English: eidolon
• → Latin: īdōlum (see there for further descendants)
• → Old Church Slavonic: идолъ (idolŭ)
  • → Aromanian: idul
  • → Macedonian: идол (idol)
  • → Romanian: idol
  • → Russian: и́дол (ídol)
  • → Serbo-Croatian:
    • Cyrillic script: ѝдо̄л
    • Latin script: ìdōl

Further reading

• “εἴδωλον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “εἴδωλον”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “εἴδωλον”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• εἴδωλον in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• εἴδωλον in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• εἴδωλον in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• “εἴδωλον”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G1497 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • apparition idem, page 34.
  • appearance idem, page 35.
  • fancy idem, page 306.
  • form idem, page 338.
  • ghost idem, page 358.
  • idea idem, page 413.
  • image idem, page 416.
  • imagination idem, page 416.
  • impression idem, page 423.
  • notion idem, page 562.
  • phantom idem, page 610.
  • shade idem, page 760.
  • shadow idem, page 760.
  • skeleton idem, page 780.
  • spectre idem, page 800.
  • spirit idem, page 802.
  • vision idem, page 954.
• “εἴδωλον”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011