Etymology

Derivative from the verb κόπτω, "to strike" (Chantraine 1968 s.v. κόπτω, Beekes 2010 s.v. κόπτω). The verb is possibly Indo-European (cf. lit. kàpti, pl. kick), although Beekes does not rule out that it may come from a substrate (cf. Mallory, Adams 1997, who do not include it in their Encyclopedia). If this hypothesis were accepted, the word κοπίς could be related to the noun σκέπαρνος (a kind of axe), which, like many tool names, has no convincing Indo-European etymology (Beekes 2010 s.v. σκέπαρνος; on the movable -s- in pre-Greek words: Beekes 2010: vol. 1, xxiii). Gordon has drawn attention to the possible association of the word κοπίς with the name of a Near Eastern weapon known from Egyptian sources as a kh.p.sh of similar construction (Gordon 1958: 24). This of course does not imply a Near Eastern etymology of the word (kh.p.sh may be a Mycenaean loanword).

Κοπίς as the name of the feast falling on the first day of the Spartan feast of Hyacinthia may be metonymic in character, and is perhaps part of the custom of naming particular elements of feasts after activities or, more importantly in this context, objects that play an important role in them, as was the case with the third day of Anthesteria, bearing the name Χύτραι, 'Pots'.

Appearance and function

The copida was the second butcher's tool used in the sacrificial ritual besides the machaira (→ μάχαιρα ➚). It was used for skinning the animal (βύρσαν ἐξέδειρεν: E. El. 824) and breaking the bones of the chest (ἀναρρῆξαι χέλυν: E. El. 837).* From Euripides' Electra we can infer that there were subtypes of copids probably related to the original place of their production: Orestes first skins the animal with a "doric" (E. El. 819, → Δωρίς ➚), or Δωρικὴ κοπίς (E. El. 836-7), and then asks to be given a cleaver from Phthya (Φθιάδ ̓ ἀντὶ Δωρικῆς, 836), with which he splits his chest and also kills Ajgistos (E. El. 836-838; see also reproductions of vases in: Berthiaume 1982: planches 19, 20). The practice of using several knives (and thus probably also several types of knives) during a sacrifice is captured in vase depictions (van Straten 1995: 18, fig. 7).

The boundaries of the uses of machaira and copida seem fluid: Euripides in Cyclops uses the word κοπίς as an adjective to μάχαιρα, speaking of "cleaver knives" (E. Cyc. 241-2). In the description of the Electra sacrifice cited above, the kopida may be identical with → σφαγίς ➚ of verse 811, which is probably another term for machaira. Xenophon, writing about weapons, also seems to treat the words μάχαιρα and κοπίς synonymously: "[For fighting from horseback] I recommend the machaira rather than the xiphos: for the rider above, a blow with the copida is better than a blow with the xiphos" (μάχαιραν μὲν μᾶλλον ἢ ξίφος ἐπαινοῦμεν: ἐφ ̓ ὑψηλοῦ γὰρ ὄντι τῷ ἱππεῖ κοπίδος μᾶλλον ἡ πληγὴ ἢ ξίφους ἀρκέσει, Eq. 12.11). The synonymy of copida and machaira seems to have been relied upon by the presumed pun of Achaeus - τίς ὑποκεκρυμμένος μένει, σαραβάκων κοπίδων συνομώνυμε;, "who hides there, namesake of vulva cleavers?" (Athen. 173d = TrGF 20 F 13; the words were addressed to a Delphic, and the key to unraveling the pun is the saying "Delphic machaira"). It is possible that the difference between the two was determined solely by the massiveness of the blade.

As in the case of the machaira, the term copida is used to describe the type of weapon used by the Easterners (X. Cyr. 1.2.9, 1.2.13, 2.1.9, 2.2.9, 4.2.22, 5.2.1, 6.2.10, 7.3.8, 8.8.23). For the Greeks in the 5th and 4th centuries BC it is probably exclusively a butchery, sacrificial and kitchen tool (μαγειρικῶν κοπίς: Ar., Fr. 138; story of the meat seller who cuts off Killikont's hand with a kopida: Theopomp.Hist. 111; Anaxipp. 6; see also Berthiaume 1982: 46).

Probably by metonymy, the kopida also became the name of an evening feast that fell on the first day of the Laconian festival of Hyacinths (dedicated to Apollon) and took place in the village of Amyklai, south of Sparta. The animals sacrificed at that time were exclusively goats (Ath. 138f). The earliest literary references to the κοπίς feast come from the comedians Kratinos, Eupolis and Epilykos (Crat. 166, Eup. 138, Epil. 3), quoted by Athenaeus in his description of the event (137e-f, 140a). Their accounts show that the Laconian kopida was known in Athens as a festive feast at which even foreigners were not forbidden to eat (τοῖς ξένοισιν, Crat. 166.1); the fact that meat from the sacrifices, alongside other delicacies, was given to everyone present is also emphasised by Athenaeus' narrator (τῶν κρεῶν διδόασι μοίρας πᾶσι, Ath. 139a). It is in the free access of all festival participants to the meat of sacrificial animals that we can see the source of the potential metonymic transfer of the name of the knife to the whole festival. Athenaeus' account also shows that the term copida was used in Sparta to refer not only to the feast of the Hyacinthian feast, but also to the 'κοπίδες in the city' that took place during the kurotrophic feast of the Tithenidians (Ath. 139a, RE 1511-1512; according to Goldstein, however, this sentence should be understood differently: "they celebrate kopides in the city and during Tithenidia"; Goldstein 1978: 30), celebrated in honour of Artemis nicknamed Corythallia (cf. RE 1346, especially 1390). The animals sacrificed at that time were young piglets aged 4-8 weeks (γαλαθηνοὶ ὀρθαγορίσκοι, called 'suckling piglets' in Polish zootechnical nomenclature).

Κοπίς is also the term proposed by Jortin (Griffith 1999: 226; cf. also Brown 1993: 173) emendation of the word κόνις (dust) in verse 602 of Sophocles' Antigone: νῦν γὰρ ἐσχάτας ὕπερ ῥίζας ὃ τέτατο φάος ἐν Οἰδίπου δόμοις, κατ ̓ αὖ νιν φοινία θεῶν τῶν νερτέρων ἀμᾷ κόνις λόγου τ ̓ ἄνοια καὶ φρενῶν ἐρινύς ("When now light fell on the deepest roots of the house of Oedipus, covered them again with the bloody dust of the subterranean gods, the madness of speech and the Erynia of the mind", S. Ant. 599-602). The image of the "roots" of the house of Oedipus, which would thus be "beheaded" (καταμάω) by the 'cleaver of the underworld gods'. A recent editor of Antigone, however, rejects this emendation, arguing that "κοπίς is properly a 'scimitar' or 'cleaver', not a pruning or harvesting implement, (...) and why should the gods below be wielding a 'bloody scimitar'?" (Griffith 1999: 226; see also Smith 1961). Griffith is undoubtedly correct in rejecting Jortin's emendation, the lexicological line of his argument, however, is flawed. The scholar, probably lacking a systematic study of the word κοπίς, overestimates the fact that it means sword - this meaning is secondary and appears primarily in descriptions of Eastern peoples. Instead, manuscript tradition and the coherence of poetic imagery argue in favour of rejecting emendation. If we consider that καταμάω does not mean "to cut down" but, as scholiast suggests, "to cover" (cf. Griffith 1999: 226), we get an image organised around a storied metaphor of blinding: the light that fell on the roots in Oedipus' house no longer falls on them, for they have been covered by the blood-dust of the underworld gods, the mindlessness of reason and the Erynia of the mind. These last two phrases evoke another metaphor - madness and ignorance as blindness - and evoke a psychological plane that translates perfectly in the context of the covering/blinding metaphor, less successfully in the context of shearing. Moreover, Griffith fails to note that not only the ἄνοια of verse 602. refers to Antigone's behaviour (cf. S. Ant. 383, 562; Griffith 1999: 226), but also κόνις, as it was with dust that Antigone sprinkled her brother's dead body (S. Ant. 247; Brown 1993: 173).

Catalogue of occurrences in the context of sacrifice or meal:

1. cleaver: E. Cyc. 241 (adj.), E. El. 819 (→ Δωρίς ➚), 836 (Phthias ~), 837 (Dorike ~), TrGF 20 F12, Ar. Fr. 138, Theopomp.Hist. 111;

2. feast of feasts: Crat. 166, Eup. 138, Epil. 3.