πόλις

Alternative forms

• πτόλις (ptólis) – Epic

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *tpolH-, o-grade form of *tpelH- (“fortification”). The early form πτόλις (ptólis) shows metathesis tp > pt because Ancient Greek stop clusters always end in a coronal. Cognate with Sanskrit पुर (pura, “city”) and Lithuanian pilis. Irregular accent on genitive πόλεως (póleōs) is due to a quantitative metathesis from older πόληος (pólēos); genitive plural imitates genitive singular.

Pronunciation

Noun

πόλις • (pólis) f (genitive πόλεως); third declension

1. city
   • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles 270–272

     παρὰ δ’ εὔπυργος πόλις ἀνδρῶν,
     χρῡ́σειαι δέ μιν εἶχον ὑπερθυρίοις ἀραρυῖαι
     ἑπτὰ πύλαι·

     parà d’ eúpurgos pólis andrôn,
     khrū́seiai dé min eîkhon huperthuríois araruîai
     heptà púlai;

     Next, there was a city of men with goodly towers; and seven gates of gold, fitted to the lintels, guarded it.

   1. the Athenian citadel
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.88
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 20.52
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.15
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 5.23.47
      • 425 BCE, Aristophanes, Lysistrata 245
      • 425 BCE, Aristophanes, Lysistrata 758
      • 425 BCE, Aristophanes, Lysistrata 288
      • 424 BCE, Aristophanes, The Knights 1093
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 7.1.27
      • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Pelopidas 18
      • 64 BCE – 24 CE, Strabo, Geography 8.6.8
      • 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Septuagint, Nehemiah 11.1
   2. one's city or country
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 1.170
   3. (ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς πόλεως) city governor, praetor urbanus
      • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 5.39.3
2. a whole country, as dependent on and called after its city: city state
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 6.177
   • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1533
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 14.230
   • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Isthmian Ode 5.48
   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Eumenides 77
   • 413 BCE, Euripides, Ion 294
   • 421 BCE, Aristophanes, Peace 251
   • 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, Against Andocides 6
3. community
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 17.144
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 11.14
   • 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 179
   1. the state
      • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 240
      • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Pythian Ode 2.88
      • 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 22
      • 408 BCE, Euripides, The Phoenician Women 947
      • 442 BCE, Sophocles, Antigone 738
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8.2.28
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Politics 1276A.23
      • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Protagoras 319A
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Politics 1280B.40
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Stephanus 1 66
   2. the right of citizenship
      • 405 BCE, Aristophanes, The Frogs 718
      • 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 106
4. (πόλιν παίζειν) a type of board game
   • 519 BCE – 422 BCE, Cratinus, Collected Works 56
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 422E

Further reading

• πόλις in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• πόλις in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• πόλις in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• πόλις in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• πόλις in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• πόλις in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G4172 in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • capital idem, page 111.
  • city idem, page 133.
  • commonwealth idem, page 149.
  • community idem, page 149.
  • country idem, page 178.
  • fatherland idem, page 310.
  • metropolis idem, page 527.
  • municipality idem, page 546.
  • nation idem, page 551.
  • people idem, page 604.
  • republic idem, page 699.
  • state idem, page 812.
  • town idem, page 884.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume II, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 1219f