(urth) Pantocrator

[John Watkins]

Thanks!

This is what I get for not having read Castle of the Otter.

On 12/4/08, Mark Millman <markjmillman at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Mr. Watkins and Son of Witz,
>
> Actually, the _Lexicon Urthus_ definition of pantocrator is taken
> almost verbatim from Wolfe's own glossary entry for it in _The Castle
> of the Otter_ (page 28), so it shows what he was thinking when he used
> it.
>
> The etymology is as Son of Witz cites in his posts:  from _pant-_,
> meaning all--it's a combining form of _pan_--and _-kratia_, rule or
> ruler, as in "aristocrat", "kleptocracy", and "thalassocrat", deriving
> from _kratos_, strength or power.  However, the _Encyclopedia of the
> Middle Ages_ (page 1077) says of it:
>
> "Etymologically, the Greek word "pantocrator" means "all-ruler".  It
> was used regularly in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew
> _Sabaoth_, an attribute of Jahweh.  When the Christian profession of
> faith was formulated in Greek, the term _pantocrator_ was applied to
> *G-d the Father, but translated into Latin as _omnipotens_.  Thus
> pantocrator was taken to mean all-powerful rather than all-ruler.  In
> spite of its etymology, this would also seem to be the word's meaning
> in Byzantine Greek.  Omnipotence was also attributed to the *Holy
> Spirit, but more particluarly to God the Son who, as it were, usurped
> the attribute, so that by the 12th c. it was applied to *Christ almost
> exclusively."
>
> Wolfe's own definition, as Mr. Watkins points out, does seem to have
> been influenced by a confusion with pankration or pankratiast,
> possibly abetted by the Latin and Byzantine understandings of the
> word.
>
> Sometimes, Jupiter nods.
>
> Best,
>
> Mark Millman
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