ἀστάνδης <Iranian; Roman period>
👉 ἀστάνδης, -ου m. – ‘messenger, courier’ (Plut., Vitae: Alex. 18.7 and 8 (cj. in both occurrences; in all mss.: ἀσγάνδης); Plut., Mor. 326e and 340b-c; etc.); the original form was ἀσγάνδης; the consonant -τ- must be explained rather as a miswriting (ΑΣΤ- instead of ΑΣΓ-) that had happened already in antiquity. Similarly, the form τοὺς ἀστάρους (Ath. 3.122a/94), commonly emended to τοὺς ἀστ<άνδας ἢ ἀγγ>άρους, is probably an early distortion of ἀγγάρους (a lapsus calami of ΑΣΤΑ- instead of ΑΓΓΑ-). Cf. Hsch. α 7683: †ἀσκανδής· ἄγγελος – “askantes: messenger”; this gloss might be a result of a misunderstanding of an earlier source where ἀσγάνδης/ἀστάνδης ‘messenger’ and ἀσκάντης ‘pallet’ were compared (cf. Hsch. α 7814, quoted below).
⚠ Ael. Dion. α 16 (cf. Eust., Comm. ad Hom. Od., vol. II, p. 189.5f.): ἄγγαροι· οἱ ἐκ διαδοχῆς γραμματοφόροι. οἱ δ’ αὐτοί καὶ ἀστάνδαι. ἡ δὲ λέξις Περσική (...) – “Angaroi: the letter carriers in relays. They are the same as astandai. A Persian word (...)”; Suda α 4220: Ἀστάνδαι: οἱ ἐκ διαδοχῆς γραμματοφόροι. οἱ δὲ αὐτοὶ καὶ ἄγγαροι. τὰ δὲ ὀνόματα Περσικά. – “Astandai: the letter carriers in relays. They are the same as angaroi. Both are Persian words.”, and α 165 (= Phot. α 95): Ἄγγαροι: οἱ ἐκ διαδοχῆς γραμματοφόροι. οἱ δὲ αὐτοὶ καὶ ἀστάνδαι. τὰ δὲ ὀνόματα Περσικά. (...) – “Angaroi: the letter carriers in relays. They are the same as astandai. Both are Persian words. (...)”. Furthermore, ἀστάνδης in Plut., Vitae: Alex. 18.7 and 8, as well as in Plut., Mor. 326e and 340b-c, is closely connected with the Achaemenid administration. But cf. Hsch. α 7814: ἀστάνδης· ἡμεροδρόμος. ἢ κράββαττον. ἢ ἄγγελον. Ταραντῖνοι – “astandes: long-distance courier. Or pallet. Or messenger. Tarentians” (with a case change to accusative in the second part of the definition); it is likely that two words blended together in one gloss, i.e. ἀστάνδης ‘messenger’ and ἀσκάντης ‘pallet’ (perhaps the ethnonym Tarentians refers to ἀσκάντης).
🅔 An Iranian loanword – Middle Persian and Parthian ižgand ‘messenger’, Sogdian (a)žγand, (ɔ)žγand, ž(i)γant ‘messenger’. The Iranian term was borrowed into Semitic: Jewish Aramaic ʾîzgaddā, ʾzgd ‘messenger’, Syriac izgandā and izgaddā ‘id.’, Mandaic ašganda ‘helper, assistant, servant; the Messenger’. Greek ἀσγάνδης (later ἀστάνδης) goes back to Old Persian *zganda- or early Middle Persian/early Parthian *žgand- (or *zgand-) with an original meaning of ‘mounted messenger’ (derived from the Proto-Iranian root *zga(n)d- ‘to go on, gallop, mount’; cf. Young Avestan zgaδ(/θ)- ‘to go on horseback, gallop’ etc.). The initial ἀ- in ἀσγάνδης is a prothetic vowel, added to *σγάνδης; cf. σαγγάνδης. It is noteworthy that ἀσγάνδης exhibits some different features from its counterparts in Semitic: Jewish Aramaic ʾîzgaddā and Syriac izgandā/izgaddā originated in Middle Persian or Parthian ižgand (with the prothetic vowel i-), whereas Mandaic ašganda was probably borrowed from Parthian *əžgand (with the prothetic vowel ə-). Some scholars have wrongly adduced other Iranian and Semitic words for ‘messenger’ to explain -τ- in the form ἀστάνδης: Middle Persian and Parthian azdegar ‘messenger, herald’, Sogdian āzdakrē ‘announcer, herald’, Official Aramaic ʾzdkrʾ (emph.) ‘inspector’ (commonly treated as an Iranian word with the original meaning of ‘herald’) and Arabic askdār ‘messenger, courier’ (with a metathesis). Cf. some other Oriental words quoted in the context of ἀστάνδης/ἀσγάνδης: 1. Akkadian (Neo-Babylonian) Ašgandu (not ašgandu), attested only as a family name (its original meaning of ‘messenger’ is based on a comparison especially with Mandaic ašganda); 2. Jewish Aramaic ʾysqwndry (pl.) ‘a game played with tokens (a kind of chess?)’; 3. Armenian astandel ‘to lead about, to lead up and down, to walk about’ or astandil ‘to rove, to ramble, to wander’; 4. Sogdian əstānīk ‘messenger’.
📖 Data: DChSSE: 240; DJBA: 112; DJPA: 43; DMMPP: 85; EDIV: 473f.; MD: 40; SL: 32f.; SogdD: 91, 458f.; cf. AiW: 1698. Ref.: EDG: 149; Happ 1962; Huyse 1990: 95f.; Huyse 1993: 276f.; ILS: 105f.; Mancini 1995-96: 213; Rosół 2021; Schmid 1962.