talaria

See also: talaría

English

WOTD – 30 October 2018

Etymology

One of the talaria worn by Hermes from a bronze replica of a statue in the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum

From Latin tālāriā, plural form of tālāris (“of or pertaining to the ankle or heel”), from tālus (“anklebone, talus; heel”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /təˈlɛːɹɪə/
• enPR: tə-lârʹē-ə, IPA^(key): /təˈlɛɹiə/, /təˈleɹiə/
• Rhymes: -ɛəɹiə
• Hyphenation: ta‧la‧ria

Noun

1. (Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The winged sandals worn by certain gods and goddesses, especially the Roman god Mercury (and his Greek counterpart Hermes).
   • 1848, George Dennis, “Bieda.—Blera.”, in The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, footnote 10, page 319:

     Byres has drawn these figures with wings at their ankles, sometimes fastened to the leg, and sometimes like those at their shoulders, growing from the flesh—in both which ways the talaria of Mercury and Perseus are represented on ancient monuments. Nothing of this sort could I perceive; it was manifest to me that these were not talaria, but simple buskins with peaked flaps, such as are commonly depicted on vases of the archaic Greek style, and on the legs of Roman Lares in the paintings of Pompeii.

   • 1854 May 25, Samuel Birch, “V. On a Vase Representing an Adventure of Perseus.”, in Archaeologia: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, London: Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London; printed by J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Sons, […], published 1855, →OCLC, page 56:

     From the Graiæ the literary myths make him [Perseus] go to the Nymphs, the artistic ones to the Naiads or nymphs of the lake Tritonis, from which he receives the helmet of Hades, the kibisis or wallet, and the talaria or winged sandals. […] Other versions made him receive the helmet and talaria from Hermes. On the early monuments the helmet of Hades is like the petasus of Hermes, and the sandals are winged, but in many other works of art, such as mirrors or gems, the talaria are represented as wings, which he attaches to his feet.

   • 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Baker Farm”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 225:

     With his horizon all his own, yet he a poor man, born to be poor, with his inherited Irish poverty or poor life, his Adam's grandmother and boggy ways, not to rise in this world, he nor his posterity, till their wading webbed bog-trotting feet get talaria to their heels.

   • 1867 May, W. W. S., “A Modern Magician”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CI, number DCXIX, Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 566:

     It was the god Hermes, he who conducted souls to the Elysian fields, the slender, agile, elegant figure, beautiful in its sinuous motion, with the petasus on his head and the winged talaria on his ankles, that I beheld floating over me.

Translations

winged sandals

• Belarusian: таларыі (talaryi)
• French: talonnières (fr) f
• German: Flügelschuhe m
• Greek: πτηνοπέδῑλος (ptēnopédīlos), πτερόεντα πέδιλα n (pteróenta pédila)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: タラリア
• Russian: таларии (talarii)
• Serbo-Croatian: krilate sandale f pl, talari m pl
• Ukrainian: тал́арії (taĺariji)

Further reading

• talaria on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Latin

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) tālāria

1. nominative feminine singular of tālārius
2. nominative neuter plural of tālārius
3. accusative neuter plural of tālārius
4. vocative feminine singular of tālārius
5. nominative neuter plural of tālārius

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) tālāriā

1. ablative feminine singular of tālārius

References

• “talaria”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “talaria”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• talaria in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• talaria in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “talaria”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “talaria”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin