[German version]

(ἔμπορος; émporos). In the Odyssey emporos is a passenger travelling on a foreign ship (Hom. Od. 2,319; 24,300f.). The merchant and shipowner trading in goods for profit, however, is called πρηκτήρ (prēktḗr) or ἀρχὸς ναυτάων (archós nautáōn) in Od. 8,161-164. In keeping with epic language travellers on land and sea are emporoi in Attic tragedies. Hesiod, however, already uses ἐμπορίη (emporíē; Hes. Op. 646) to describe trading by ship and Herodotus also uses the word in that sense. In the Classical period emporos was used in particular of a merchant trading ove…