The phraseological story of Gk. πολισσόε (Homeric Hymn 8.2)

In this paper I propose that the epithet πολισσόε (Ares, in Homeric Hymn 8.2) has to be interpreted as ‘stirring up / rousing the city’. In the first three lines of the Homeric Hymn Ares is portrayed as a warrior god. Additionally, the epithets documented in the same section of the hymn have ancient phraseological matrices. In this regard, I argue that the Homeric epithet λαοσσόος (‘stirring up the armies’, Homer+) can be identified as the model for the late epithet πολισσόος*. At the same time, the Old Indic collocation purā́ṃ cyautná‑ ‘shaking of the strongholds’ (Rigveda) expresses the collocation [(to) put in motion – city] through the same lexemes as Greek πολισσόος*. However, Old Indic purāṃ cyautná‑ and Greek πολισσόε are likely to have originated independently. Nevertheless, the Vedic collocation [whirl(ing) / stir(ring up) – (of ) the city] perfectly matches in Greek [πόλιςacc. – κινέω], which occurs in Euripides’ Supplices (752).