Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 21/05/2006 06:17, tladatsi AT charter.net wrote:
> ...
>
> Even if QNH did refer to Cannabis, why would the Greeks need to borrow a word 
> from a foreign language for a plant they were well acquainted with?   When 
> Herodotus (450 BCE) and Dioskarides (70 CE) refer to Kannabis, Hebrew was 
> already a dying language.  There would not seem to be any reason for a loan.
>
>   
When did the Greeks first become acquainted with cannabis/hemp? Do we 
have any idea? Obviously not later than the time of Herodotus, but it 
could have been much earlier, at a time when no one could claim that 
Hebrew was a dying language. How did the plant first arrive in Greek 
speaking regions? According to Wikipedia, 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis, which may or may not be accurate, 
"The plant is believed to have originated in the mountainous regions 
just north-west of the Himalayas in India, though it could also come 
from Northern Africa". So it is not native to Greece, nor to Scythia or 
Thrace. Very likely it was first brought to Greece by Phoenician 
traders, speakers of a language very close to Hebrew, who would have 
called it by its Semitic name. This could well have happened several 
centuries before Herodotus, in the same rough period as when the Greeks 
borrowed from the Phoenicians the alphabet and the names of the letters, 
and very likely also QANEH > KANH/KANNA. And, as the cannabis plant does 
in some way resemble a reed or cane, its Semitic name may well have been 
a compound of QANEH and something else - although probably not BOSEM - 
which would easily explain Greek KANNABIS. Or maybe the name is a Greek 
compound, possibly something like KANNA BIAS "cane of strength" - 
"strength" referring to the physical strength of hemp rather than any 
medicinal properties!


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/