Innovación y continuidad en los nombres propios griegos procedentes de Hispania: el caso de Meleponus y Melphone

Abstract

Meleponus and Melphone are two personal names attested in Latin inscriptions coming from Hispania. Both of them derive, in our opinion, from the adjective μελίφωνος, -ον ‘honey-voiced’ with the same meaning as μελίφθογγος, -ον, but much more infrequent. The spellings ≺E≻ instead of ≺I≻ and ≺P≻ instead of ≺PH≻ in Meleponus can be easily explained. Thus, these names, even though similar to μελίφθογγος, used as personal name in Italy, could reflect some kind of innovation and singularity owing to the fact that they are unattested elsewhere.