Πραπίς in Homer: a proposal of semantic clarification

Abstract

The word πραπίς / πραπίδες has diverse uses in the Homeric poems according to different semantic fields going from the anatomical to the cognitive. Since antiquity it has been tried to explain the proper sense of the term comparing it with the diverse semantic fields that present the word φρήν / φρένες. The term does never appear in its singular form (πραπίς) in the Homeric poems (and it is also uncommon to find it in latter literature) but always in its plural form (πραπίδες). The purpose of this work is to explain the meaning of the term in general, and in particular, the sense of the term in singular number, appealing both to device of a hypothetical reconstruction of Indo-European root as notions of the cognitive-prototype theory such as conceptualization, metonymization, metaphorization and modeling.