may still bear its old sense 'were-wolf') the revenant is named [Greek: sarkômenos][1], because his swollen appearance suggests that he has 'put on flesh,' or more rarely [Greek: stoicheiômenos][2], perhaps with the idea that he has become the 'genius' ([Greek: stoicheio])[3] of some particular locality. Again, from the village of Pyrgos in Tenos is reported the word [Greek: anaikathoumenos][4] meaning apparently one who 'sits up' in his grave. Finally, in Crete the name popularly employed is [Greek: katachanas][5], the origin of which is not certain. Bernhard Schmidt[6], following Koraës[7], derives it from [Greek: kata] and [Greek: chanô] (= ancient Greek [Greek: chaoô]), 'lose,' 'destroy,' and would have it mean accordingly 'destroyer.' I would suggest that derivation from [Greek: kata] and the root [Greek: chan-], 'gape,' 'yawn,' is at least equally probable, inasmuch as other local names such as [Greek: tympaniaios], 'drumlike,' and [Greek: sarkômenos], 'fleshy,' have reference to the monster's personal appearance, and the 'gaper' in like manner would be a name eminently suitable to a creature among whose features are numbered by Leo Allatius 'a gaping mouth and gleaming teeth[8].' The same name was some forty years ago[9], and probably still is, used in Rhodes, and in a Rhodian poem of the fifteenth century occurs both in its literal sense and as a term of abuse[10]. This secondary usage however is in no way a proof that the word meant originally 'destroyer' rather than 'gaper'; for by the fifteenth century there can be little doubt that the revenant was everywhere an object of horror, and therefore his name, whatever it originally meant, furnished a convenient term of vituperation. But one thing at least is clear, that [Greek: katachanas], whichever(periodical), III. p. 539; [Greek: Politês, Paradoseis], I. p. 574.], ibid.]in [Greek: Ephêmeris tôn Philomathôn], 1861, p. 1828. Schmidt interprets the word as 'der Aufhockende,' one who sits upon and crushes his victims, a habit sometimes ascribed to vrykolakes, but more often to callicantzari. My own interpretation has the support of many popular stories, in which, when the exhumation of a vrykolakas takes place, he is found sitting up in his tomb. See e.g. [Greek: Politês, Paradoseis], I. p. 590.], p. 27 (Athens, 1842); [Greek: Grêg. Papadopetrakês, Historia tôn Sphakiôn], pp. 72-3.], II. p. 114.](The Black Death of Rhodes), ll. 267 and 579, published in Wagner's Medieval Greek Texts, I. p. 179 (from Schmidt, op. cit. p. 160, note 4).]
- ↑ Schmidt, op. cit. p. 160, referring to [Greek: Philistôr
- ↑ [Greek: Politês
- ↑ Cf. above, p. 277.
- ↑ [Greek: Ballêndas
- ↑ Cf. [Greek: Chourmouzês, Krêtika
- ↑ Op. cit. p. 160.
- ↑ [Greek: Atakta
- ↑ Os hians, dentes candidi, cf. above, p. 367.
- ↑ The word is mentioned by Newton, Travels and Discoveries in the Levant, I. p. 212. I have been unable to obtain any more recent information.
