LOGOI

The corpus record

τάλας

talas

suffering, wretched

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

Where it lives

  • Hecuba 25 · 34.91/10k
  • Electra 28 · 32.26/10k
  • Orestes 24 · 24.47/10k
  • Trachiniae 17 · 23.39/10k
  • Philoctetes 19 · 21.59/10k
  • Suppliants 13 · 18.48/10k
  • Trojan Women 13 · 18.37/10k
  • Oedipus at Colonus 19 · 18.35/10k
  • Helen 17 · 17.38/10k
  • Phoenissae 16 · 16.58/10k
  • Ajax 12 · 15.26/10k
  • Agamemnon 12 · 14.79/10k

Densest 12 of 35 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant — LSJ

suffering, wretched, wretch!, poor dear!

suffering, wretched, ξεῖνε τάλαν Od. 18.327, etc.; ὦ τάλας ἐγώ S. OC 1338, 1401, Aj. 981; ὦ τάλαινʼ ἐγώ A. Ch. 743; ὦ τάλαν S. Ph. 1196 (lyr.): c. gen. causae, οἲ ʼγὼ τάλαινα συμφορᾶς κακῆς A. Pers. 445, cf. 517; τάλαινʼ ἐγὼ τῆς ὕβρεος Ar. Pl. 1044: sts. in bad sense, τάλαν wretch! Od. 19.68: but in Com., τάλαινα poor dear! as a sort of coaxing address, Ar. Lys. 910, 914; so ὦ τάλαινα Id. Ec. 242.

2 sorry, wretched

in Trag. also of things, sorry, wretched, μόχθοι A. Ch. 1069 (anap.); παρακοπά Id. Ag. 223 (lyr.); πάθος Id. Th. 988 (lyr.); νηδύς S. OC 1263; αὔλιον Id. Ph. 1088 (lyr.); συμφορά, νόσος, Id. El. 1179, Tr. 1084; ἔρις, φυγά, E. Hel. 248 (lyr.), Ph. 1710 (lyr.): Sup. τᾰλάντατος, η, ον, Ar. Pl. 684, 1046, 1060, Pl. Cra. 395e.--Poet. word, used by X. Cyr. 4.6.5, Ph. 2.239, Arr. Epict. 2.16.20, Plu. Ant. 79, al., Luc. DMeretr. 10.3.

II

Τάλας, ὁ, a constellation (θεός τις κατακέφαλα κείμενος) rising with Sagittarius, Cat.Cod.Astr. 7.207. [τᾰλᾱς A. Pr. 158 (anap.), S. (v. supr.), Ar. Ach. 163, 1192, Pax 79, Av. 1494, Pl. 930; Dor. also τᾰλᾰς Theoc. 2.4, AP 9.378 (Pall.): voc. τάλᾰν Thgn. 512, S. Ph. 1196 (lyr.), Ar. Ec. 658, 1005 (both anap.).]

In the wild

6 of 342 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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