Etymology

The word is well attested in Mycenaean Greek as pa-ka-na (Diccionario Micénico, vol. II: 70), much better than ξίφος ('sword'), identified on only one tablet (qi-si-pe-e, dualis, vide Chantraine 1968: 766, Diccionario Micénico, vol. II: 205). Its etymology, however, is unknown. Beekes considers it to be pre-Greek (Beekes 2010: 1556), reconstructing its subject to the form σφαγ-/φασγ- with a substrate-specific movable -s- (on the hypothesis of a movable -s- in pre-Greek words: Beekes 2010: xxiii).

Testimonies

Φάσγανον was already an archaism for Homer (so Chantraine 1986: 1180), although as a sword term it appears frequently (15 occurrences in the Iliad, 10 in the Odyssey). Φάσγανον is often referred to as "two-edged" (cf. Hom. Il. 10.256, Od. 22.79-80, B. 11.87, S. Tr. 930). Later we find the expression only in poetry.

In several of Euripides' tragedies φάσγανον appears in sacrificial contexts, but this does not mean that 'knife' is the correct translation of the word in such contexts. It is more likely that it was the heroic-tragedy convention that allowed the characters to use swords where knives were used in everyday life. In Iphigenia in Aulis, the title character is to be sacrificed precisely with a fasgan (E. IA 1429, 1566, 1578 (verse perhaps interpolated)). The substitution of the fasgan for the machaira is particularly evident in the scene of its being placed in a gilded basket (κανοῦν) by Kalchas (E. IA 1566) - one of the sacrificial customs was to bring the knife with which the animal was to be killed in the basket (cf. Ar. Pax 948-9). In Iphigenia in Taurida, on the other hand, the poet uses the words φάσγανον and ξίφος interchangeably to designate both the weapons of the heroes and the tools used to slaughter the victims on the Tauridian altars (sacrificial φάσγανον: E. IA 785, 852; sacrificial ξίφος: E. IA 27, 621, 875, 1190, 1459 (sword used during the festival of Artemis Tauropolos)). Also the sacrifice of Polyxena was to be performed with a fasgan (E. Hec. 543). Krux is marked by the occurrence of the word in a sacrificial context in Helena (E. Hel. 543).