From the origin of the term triō, -ōnis ‘yoke of oxen’ to metaphor Septentriones ‘Polar bears’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23808/rel.v22i0.96917Keywords:
etymology, singular collective, yoke of oxen, stellar metaphors, triangle figure.Abstract
Trio, -onis does not derive from terere ‘to break up, to crumble’ the earth, as has been believed since ancient times, nor does it express the meaning of ‘ox’, but rather that of ‘yoke’. Varro and Aulus Gellius refer to the pair of oxen in a yoke as a triangle, but they do not indicate what is the third point in the triangle. We understand that the ploughman who is driving the plough completes the missing angle. Thus we propose that trio, -onis is a ‘collective’ derivative of tres, tria, with formation similar to that of binio or quatrio in a game of dice. Therefore, the compound Septentriones designates the Seven Yokes that pull each of the twin constellations at the North Pole. In this metaphorical transposition, the celestial yokes do not pull ploughs, but rather the Chariot. They do retain their triangular configuration, however, as the two Latin authors maintain. To this we can add that, for the catasterization to be complete, the load carried by the Seven Yokes is distributed in triangles from the shaft to the end of the Chariot
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