The variable spelling of Casmilos has been
interpreted as successive stages of a phonetic evolution of the word. Some
forms are older than others
An etymological hypothesis that does not
predict a tangible and coherent meaning of a word is useless. We are left with
the impression that ancient peoples did not speak about their everyday life and
needs. They only had names for things they had never seen, for faraway islands,
inaccessible mountains, and abstract, surreal, or supernatural objects that
even we cannot imagine. Instead, a graphocentric theory predicts that different
spellings, if not scribing errors, describe different objects. The various
Greek spellings of Casmilos (Kasmilos, Kadmilos, Kamillos,
etc.) are probably not erroneous but represent different objects.
The common starting morpheme (KA) probably
means what it depicts, a narrow, K-shaped, )(-like a tube with a wider side and a
narrower side, A-shaped, /-\-like. The stems kas, from Kasmilos
(Casmilos), and kad, form Kadmilos (Cadmilos)
are found in English cascade (cas-cad-e),
where K was simply transliterated as C, (. A cascade is a small waterfall,
typically where the waterfalls in stages down a steep rocky slope, or a series
of elements in which the output of any one of the elements is connected to the
input of the next. The French expression cas par cas
is translated in English as case by case. A case is
an element of a series, an event, piece of work, a specific inflection of a
word (one of a series of closely related words), an instance of a specific type,
condition or set of symptoms. It is also a box, sheath, container, or covering
generally, outer covering or framework, where contents fit in. Also compare cask,
casket, casserole, cassette,
cast, caste, castle,
in all of which we spot the sememes of fitting or matching, as well as casual
with its cognates where the sememe of non-fitting, non-matching, not conforming
to standards, can be traced.
In Greek, kas is frequently used as
an ending morpheme to signify fitting or units of a series. Thus, the Homeric ἀγκάς
(agkas) means into or in the arms, ἀλκᾶς (alkas) is
a deed of prowess, ἀνδρακάς (andrakas) means man by man (case by
case; andra- means man), δεκάς (bekas) is a company, set, unit,
of ten people or items, εἰκάς (eikas), a set of twenty, δωδεκάς (dōdekas),
group of twelve, a dozen. As an independent word, the Ancient Greek κάς (kas)
means skin, integument, a tough outer protective layer, especially that of an
animal or plant. At the beginning of a word, kas seems to mean tight-fitting, and at the end, a measurement for accurate fitting. The ending -kas
regularly becomes -kad in the genitive case. For instance, the genitive
of dōdekas (δωδεκάς; a dozen) is dekados (δεκάδος;
of a dozen). The genitive case is used to express some relationship such as
possession, belonging, or origin. Each item ‘of a dozen’ belongs to the dozen,
originates from the dozen. The dozen possesses, in a sense, each of its items.
There is thus a close, two-way, possessing/belonging or origin relationship
between kas and kad, like that between parent and child or
between male and female. Parents belong to their children as much as the
children belong to their parents. Males belong to matching females as much as
females belong to matching males. In a cascade of tubes carrying water, a cas-tube
is the origin, the input of a cad-tube; a cad-tube is the output
of a cas-tube. Cas- and cad-tubes belong to each other
when fitted in a male-female manner. The relation between a cas-tube and
a cad-tube is identical to that between Prometheus and Epimetheus,
another myth about the same objects (see section
Prometheus and Epimetheus).
English words starting with cad are
semantically related to cadence, from the Latin verb cadō
(from hypothetical Proto-Italic *kadō, and Proto-Indo-European *ḱad-),
to fall, cease. In Modern English, cadence is inflection
or modulation of the voice, or of any sound, in a high-low series. A cad
is a low-bred person, compared to the norm. Old English kad and
Modern English cade are used for an animal abandoned by
its mother (*kas; *cas). In modern English, a cadence
primarily means the act or state of declining or sinking. A caddy
is an assistant, hired to carry golf clubs in or other equipment, regarded, of
course, as an inferior. It also signifies a small box to keep things in; or,
yet, a barrel or cask (cas and cad being used
interchangeably in this case). A cadaver is a dead body,
especially a human corps to be dissected, the endpoint of a fall. A cadet
is the younger (ultimate) son or daughter of a series. A cadre
is a frame, framework, or skeleton, upon which something is constructed. In a
vertical water pipeline, a cas-pipe is inserted into a cad-pipe.
The cad-pipe (upper, input, male) is, therefore, seen as supportive of
the cas-pipe (lower, output, female). In this sense, and in the sense of
a case, cad and cas attain the meaning of support which is
rendered by the Greek deity of Hermes, as explained later (see section Hermes – the support); this
is the reason why Casmilos (or Cadmilos) is associated with
Hermes and Roman Mercury.
The phonocentric PIE hypothesis, based on
the theory of arbitrariness of linguistic signs, stops at the tautological
identification of *ḱad- as the common phonetic root of the cad-
cognates. The meaning of *kad- is deduced from the modern or recent
cognates of cad-, again, in a tautological manner. This hypothesis is
unable to a priori explain the meaning of the phonetic sequence /kad/ and of its
individual phonemes. It is also unable to predict the meaning of words such as Cadmilos,
for which no convincing etymology or exegesis[1]
exists. The reason is simple. The theory of arbitrariness of linguistic signs
suggests that /kad/, like every other phonetic sign, is meaningless by itself.
The choice was arbitrary, random. Cadmilos resembles cadet
by chance. A stem, such as cad, could mean one thing in one word, and
something else, in another. To call the last child of a series, we could
equally well have chosen any of the words *caset, *dacet,
*sacet, or another, instead of cadet. The
graphocentric theory says no! the letters do mean something on their own, and
their order expands and refines their meaning. The visual opposition d/p
reflects in the antonymy between cad and cap, cade/cape,
etc. Also, the inversion of cas into sac creates some antonymy
between case (lending its form to the content) and sac
(borrowing the form of the content); case (upgrading an
individual from a lot), and sacrifice (downgrading an
individual from a lot); and so on.
The inverse of kad, dak,
starts Ancient Greek words related to puncture (animal bite) and water (fluid)
escape. For example, δάκος (dakos) refers to an animal of
which the bite is dangerous; δακνηρός (daknēros) and δακνώδης
(daknōdēs) mean biting, pungent, pricky, punching, all from
the verb δάκνω (daknō), to bite; δακρύω (dakryō)
means to weep, shed tears, exude gum (of trees), and δάκρυον (dakryon),
tear, or anything that drops like tears, gum, sap, etc. The word δάκτυλος (daktylos;
finger) consists of dak-, for dripping puncture, and -tyl-. The
stem tyl is used for unevenness or injury of the skin such as in τύλος (tylos),
anything rising like a lump, knob, or knot, τυλόω (tyloō),
make knobby, to be made hard or callous, τυλίον (tylion),
a small pin or peg, something that pinches, tweaks, or stings. Also, τυλεῖον (tyleion)
is a lump of wool or cotton wool torn off in carding or fulling cloth, flock,
used for stuffing cushions or pillows, or to absorb bleeding and accelerate
healing, τυλιγμός (tyligmos) means wrapping, τυλίσσω (tylissō)
is to twist up, to bend, τύλιγμα (tyligma) is a helix, coil,
or in Modern Greek wrapping, and τυλίγω (tyligō), to
enfold, coil, envelop, kink, enshroud, wreathe, wrap.
In contrast, inversion of tyl into lyt
is used in antonyms of tyl- such as λυτός (lytos), untied,
unfolded, unbound, unwrapped, not fastened or knotted, λυτρόω (lytroō),
to release on receipt of a ransom, redeem, λύτωρ (lytōr),
one who looses, deliverer, or λύτρωσις (lytrosis), release,
release of water (spring), discharge from an obligation, redemption of a pledge.
The Greeks saw a finger as the member of the body that is almost permanently
disfigured or injured and tied up with bandages as a result of hard work, and
they called it dak-tyl-os, the thing that is
punctured, callus, and wrapped. Hence, δακτύλιος (daktylios;
dak-tyl-ios), the ring, is iconically defined with the aid of an arrow
(Homeric ἰός; ios) that finds and penetrates its round target.
As an independent word, the second part of Κασμῖλος
(Casmilos) and Καδμῖλος (Cadmilos), μῖλος (milos)
is glossed as σμῖλαξ (smilax). Smilax is the name of trees
that share a characteristic acorn-like form of flower (yew) or fruit (holm-oak). The yew is known for its huge size and
incredibly long life. The same name is given, however, to weeds with conical,
trumpet-like flowers (bindweed). Weeds are notorious for their unlimited
spread. Another family of words starting with mil signify large,
quasi-unlimited quantities. For example, μίλιον (milion) is the Roman
mile, a length unit for measuring long distances; μιλιαρήσιον (miliarēsion)
means milliarense, a small coin – of which one may have so many as to be
a miliarense (Romanian for a billionaire). By joining pipe
units together, there is no limit to the length of a pipeline one can
construct. I think, mil is a unit line and milos is just that
long thing (line) that is made of units, joined one into another like acorns. I
cannot help but compare mil to its inverse antonym lim from λιμός
(limos), hunger, famine, λίμνη (limnē), a pool of standing water left by the sea or a river, artificial pool or basin, or
λιμήν (limēn), harbor, gathering-place, receptacle, retreat,
refuge, womb. While mil implies expansion, lim stands for
confinement, restriction, limitation.
The third spelling of Casmilos, Kamillos,
does not refer to the S>D joins but emphasizes the thinness of a pipe or
tube (KA) line (-milos) relative to its length, or its great length
relative to its width. The -ill- morpheme of Kamillos
appears in English capillary, artillery, bill
(list), distillation, dill,
drill, fillet, mill (very many fine
particles), gill, grill, grille, guillotine,
ill, milligram,
kill (break), Lilliput, pillar,
quill, skill, spill (a slender piece
of anything), to pill (form small balls of fluff on a fabric
surface), vanilla, village, all containing a notion
of thinness, finesse, small size in one dimension, often compared to another
(length or multiplicity). In this case, ll would designate two parallel
lines, and the little vertical i would signify a small distance between
them. Instead, for a large distance between parallel lines (thickness, width,
length), the horizontal separator would be inserted between l and l to form |-|
(H).
Similarly, in Ancient Greek, ἰλλάς (illas)
means rope, band, ἴλλω (illō) means to plait. But there is
also a notion of twisting, bending, turning around, in the Greek ill and
in some of the above English words (e.g., distiller, drill,
mill, etc.). The verbs ἰλλίζω (illizō), nod,
beckon, bend away from, avoid, or ἰλλαίνω (illainō), to look
awry, squint, the adjective ἰλλώδης (illōdēs), squinting,
distorted, and the noun ἴλλωσις (illōsis), distortion,
provide more examples. The stem ill is much more frequently found
retaining its meaning in the middle of words prefixed with other morphemes,
e.g. ἐξίλλω (exillō) means disentangle, which implies entanglement,
twisting things together (illō). Could it be that Kamillos
referred to threads, i.e., the helical ridges on the outside of screws, bolts,
etc., or on the inside of cylindrical holes, to allow two parts to be screwed
together? I do not know if pipe threading existed at the time of the Cabeiri.
But, turning and bending are typical properties of a neck, )( (K), and of
thin-long objects in general. The double-L (Greek ΛΛ; archaic <<) is
there to visually express this extra flexibility. K itself suggests bending
from | to ( or to <; the graphemes |( and |< are stylized as K.
Therefore, Kamillos looks like a fillable tube (Ka) that bends (ill).
A bending tube connector affords a bending pipeline.
The concept of a pipe network has inspired
a large part of Greek mythology. The story is told again and again, at various
levels, using different terms. Notably, it is revisited in the myth of Atlantis
(see chapter Atlantis) and in
the stories about Prometheus (the provider; see
sections Prometheus and Epimetheus and Atlas’ brothers –
Hesiod’s version) who, according to Pausanias[2],
was one of the Cabeiri associated with Demeter (irrigation; see section Demeter and Aris – irrigation
and defense). No wonder, the ‘cult’ of the Cabeiri was about purification
(washing) and fertility (field irrigation). The myth of the Cabeiri involved
reservoirs, vertical pipes, stoppers, valves, faucets, pipe connectors, and
bends, all of which were manufactured on the top-of-a-fire, Sam-o-thrace.
Although Casmilos or Cadmilos may have been
spelled in different ways, which probably correspond to semantic nuances, a
generic Hermes-like personification has been found on coins. The ‘deity’ is
represented bearing a ram's head and a baton (κηρύκειον; kerykeion). The
baton has been interpreted as a phallic symbol but, given the above linguistic
findings, it probably depicts a long narrow thing such as a tube or a
standard-length measuring tool, like a meter. The ram’s head is more
intriguing.
In English, a ram is a male sheep.
The verb to ram, however, means to roughly force something into place;
for example, we may ram a stick into the ground or a tube into another.
Hence, the noun also takes the meaning
of a piston. A synonym of the verb to ram, to butt, is to adjoin
or meet end to end, to connect with/to. As a noun, a butt is the larger
or thicker end of something, the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or
narrow end, or a joint where the ends of two objects come squarely together
without scarfing or chamfering. Hydraulic butts are tube fittings. As a
barrel capacity term, a butt is equivalent to a pipe (volume
unit). It is curious that Cadmilos, who turns out from morphological analysis
to mean a pipe connection, is iconically represented with the head of an animal
of which the English name has pipe-connection connotations.
I looked up the Greek equivalent of ram,
κριός (krios; ram), which has no apparent phonetic or etymological
relationship with the English word. Krios signifies, of course, the
animal ram but is also a synonym of the Greek word for piston, plunger, plug,
rammer, battering ram, ram of a ship, putting into (ἔμβολον; embolon),
like is the English ram. Most interestingly, the name krios
refers to objects with spiral features or morphology, such as the volute on the
Corinthian capital – because it is twisted like a ram's horn (Hesychius) – as
well as to a part of an irrigation system (papyrus BGU14iii9; 3rd
century AD). It has been argued that the ram’s horns have inspired spiral art
and architecture since the Neolithic Age
References
Beekes, Robert S P. 2004. “The Origin of the Kabeiroi.” Mnemosyne 57 (4): 465–77.