Etymology

Derivative from the verb σφάζω 'to butcher' (Chantraine 1968: 1073, Beekes 2010: 1426). Although the subject sphag- is isolated to other Indo-European languages, its productivity calls into question the non-Indo-European origin of the verb.

Testimonies

In classical literature, sphagida appears only in Euripides' Electra (E. El. 811, 1142), in a meaning and function identical to machaira (→ μάχαιρα ➚). In the description of the scene of the sacrifice to the Nymphs, Aigistos brings out a sphagid from a basket (κανοῦν) and cuts the hair from the calf's head with it (E. El. 811-812, cf. Hom. Il. 3.271, 19.252, where a machaira is used for this purpose). Sfagida also appears hidden in a basket (like the machaira in Ar. Pax 948) in a parallel scene of preparation for the sacrifice of a bull, during which Clytemnestra is to be killed (E. El. 1142-1146). In a conversation about the crime committed, the tragedian siblings name the instrument of the crime successively with the words → φάσγανον ➚ (E. El. 1222) and ξίφος (E. El. 1225), meaning sword. We are certainly dealing here with poetic licence (cf. Eu. Alc. 74: ξίφος in the function of machairy). On the basis of Euripides' use of the word, we can therefore conclude that sphagida is a hyponym of machaira indicating not so much an essential difference in the construction of the objects as the purpose for which the knife is to be used. In the absence of other sources from the period, however, the hypothesis cannot be verified.

In later texts the word appears more frequently, retaining its morphologically well-established connotation with the activity of slaughtering animals (while machaira was also a term for weapons). In Antiquitates Romanae 2.52 by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (circa 60 - 7 BC) we read about Tatius murdered with μαγειρικαῖς σφαγίσι, butchered with sphagids, while making a sacrifice. The sphagid mentioned by Polyainos (Polyaenus Rhetor, 2nd century AD, Strategemata 3.9.40) was intended for butchering sheep. Finally, a fictional votive epigram from the Greek Anthology mentions τὰν λαιμοτόμον σφαγίδα, a throat-cutting sphagid, among the butchery implements given as a gift to Hermes by a certain libertine (Aristo, Anth. Graeca 6.306).