Koalemos Explained

In Greek mythology, Koalemos (Ancient Greek: Κοάλεμος) was the personification of stupidity, mentioned once by Aristophanes,^[1] and being found also in Parallel Lives by Plutarch.^[2] Coalemus is the Latin spelling of the name.

Otherwise, the word κοάλεμος was used in the sense of "stupid person" or also "blockhead".^[3]

An ancient false etymology derives Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κοάλεμος from Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κοέω (koeō) "perceive" and Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἡλεός (ēleos) "distraught, crazed".^[4] This etymology is not established, however.^[5]

See also

• Alala
• Alke
• Ate
• Homados
• Ioke
• Palioxis
• Polemus
• Proioxis

Resources

• A Greek-English Lexicon compiled by H. G. Liddel and R. Scott. tenth edition with a revised supplement. – Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996. - p. 966, under κοάλεμος
• Aristophanes, Knights from The Complete Greek Drama, vol. 2. Eugene O'Neill, Jr. New York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Aristophanes, Aristophanes Comoediae edited by F.W. Hall and W.M. Geldart, vol. 1. F.W. Hall and W.M. Geldart. Oxford. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1907. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

Notes and References

1. [Aristophanes]
2. [Plutarch]
3. Plutarch, Life of Cimon 4.3; Aeschines Socraticus, fr. 16
4. [Scholia]
5. Chantraine, Pierre. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots. Tome II. Paris, Éditions Klincksiek, 1970. - p. 550, sous κοάλεμος (French); Robert Beekes (2010), "Etymological Dictionary of Greek" (Brill, Boston), p 727: "The word is clearly Pre-Greek because of the variants".