word triumphus

[eugene]

I have read somewhere that the latin word triumphus has Greek origins. Is it right? Is there any special literature about the derivation of the word triumph?

[M. Demetrius]

The ph spelling suggests a Greek root from the letter phi. Latin would just use f for the same sound. Thus, it's "Fortunatus", not "Phortunatus".

[Forty-One]

triump[h]us is derived from triump[h]e. Triump[h]e is derived from Greek ???????? (via Etruscan). ???????? was a hymn to Dionysus sung in processions in his honour. The Latin derived word triump[h]e refers to a ritual cry made by the Arval brethren and by triumphators.

Sources: The Oxford Latin Dictionary and Liddel & Scott's Oxford Greek-English lexicon (9th edn).

+++ Harry +++++++++++++++++++++

"Ramming speed!"

[Epictetus]

Try Mary Beard’s The Roman Triumph. She goes into quite a bit of detail regarding this, and includes what is almost certainly the best bibliography out there right now.

She talks about ancient Roman attempts to figure out the word – like Seutonius who “explained it as bona fide Latin: tri-umphus reflecting the three sections of Roman society – army, senate, and people – involved in granting the honour” and Varro who guessed it came from “one of Bacchus’ Greek epithets (thriambos).” Many ancients pointed to an Eastern origin, although at least one (Pompeius Trogus) apparently claimed Africa.

Beard writes about more recent attempts to figure out the word and origins of the custom. She talks about “the cherry-picking practiced by modern scholars” and how “a blind eye… has fairly consistently been turned to those ancient theories that sit less comfortably with modern ideas.”

She also discusses what is “correct,” how to define correctness in a given context, and how “such curious speculations and false etymologies reflect different ways of conceptualising the triumph, bringing different aspects of it into our view.”

I think this last part is particularly relevant. We may want a simple black-and-white answer on where the word came from, but exploring how people have tried to explain it actually teaches us quite a bit more.