SKANDALON 1 (a) in Classical Greek

The descendants of these two words into English are obvious – ‘scandal’ and ‘scandalize’; but their ancestry is obscure. Neither word seems to have been used in Classical Greek, but the noun is a simplified version of ‘skandalethron’, which means ‘bait-stick’, the stick, or tongue, in a snare on which the bait was placed to attract the prey. The modern equivalent might be the tray in a mouse-trap on which the cheese is placed, or, to change from trapping to angling, the hook on a fishing line. This word, in itself esoterically technical, nevertheless has metaphorical possibilities, and was so used by the Classical Greek writer of comedies, Aristophanes. In his play “The Acharnians”, the eponymous chorus (citizens of Athens from a district of the city called Acharnai) are a group of grumpy old men, veterans of the battle of Salamis, who whinge at length at the ungrateful treatment they receive from the younger generation. They complain particularly about smart young lawyers who take them to court, and during cross-examination “set verbal traps” for them, with the result that they are convicted, and have to use the money they were saving for their funeral expenses to pay the fine: tragic !