The corpus record

ῥαψῳδ-έω

rapsodeo

recite poems

Generated live from the audited corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Ion 4 · 9.97/10k
Ars Poetica 1 · 0.99/10k
Phaedrus 1 · 0.6/10k
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 3 · 0.28/10k
Rhetoric 1 · 0.23/10k
Republic 1 · 0.11/10k

What it meant — LSJ

recite poems, to be recited

recite poems, esp. those of Homer, τί δή ποτʼ οὖν . . ῥαψῳδεῖς . . περιιών; Pl. Ion 541b; ἅ τε εὖ ῥαψῳδεῖ καὶ ἃ μή ib. 533c, cf. Isoc. 12.33; of the poems of Archilochus, Clearch. 61; τι περί τινος Luc. JConf. 1:—Pass., of the poems, to be recited, Lycurg. 102.

2 reciting, declaiming

abs., Arist. Po. 1462a6; of Homer and Hesiod, ῥ. περιιόντας reciting or declaiming, Pl. R. 600d; Ξενοφάνης . . ἐρραψῴδει τὰ ἑαυτοῦ D.L. 9.18; ἐμμέτρως ἐρρ. πρὸς ἄνδρας φίλους Luc. Nec. 1.

3 repeat by heart, rote, declaim

in contemptuous sense, repeat by heart or rote, declaim, οὐδὲν . . ἀλλʼ ἢ ῥαψῳδήσουσιν οἱ πρέσβεις περιιόντες D. 14.12, cf. 25.2, Luc. DMort. 26[15].2; [λόγοι] ῥαψῳδούμενοι ἄνευ ἀνακρίσεως καὶ διδαχῆς Pl. Phdr. 277e, cf. Phld. Rh. 2.39S.

II sing of, celebrate

c. acc. pers., sing of one, celebrate, τοὺς ἀνδρείους Ar. Ec. 679.

In the wild

ῥαψῳδοῦντα · rhapsōidounta Aristotle, Ars Poetica 26
ῥαψῳδοῦντα · rhapsōidounta Aristotle, Rhetoric 3
ῥαψῳδεῖσθαι · rhapsōideisthai Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.2 (DIORISIS sentence 429)
ῥαψῳδῆσαι · rhapsōidēsai Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 8.2 (DIORISIS sentence 7471)
ἐρραψῴδει · errapsōidei Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 9.2 (DIORISIS sentence 7798)
ῥαψῳδοῦ · rhapsōidou Plato, Ion 533

6 of 11 attestations shown. Ask for more.

Where it came from

No etymology authority pointer is recorded for this lemma yet — an honest gap, not an omission. The etymological dictionaries (Beekes, Chantraine, Frisk) are matched incrementally.

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