Came across this Web page by a roundabout way.
I was researching history for the Greek letter "Theta"
when I stumbled upon it. From section "A) HOMER":
"The Homeric notion of Aletheia which emerges from
examining its uses is precisely the same, with the
same force and flavour, as that enshrined in the trad-
itional oath or solemn affirmation required of a witness
in court proceedings: to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth." [....]
Later it speaks about a root from which aletheia
is believed to have come. One from which English
"latent" is derived. Adding the "A" before this word
would render it to its opposite (a common practice
in languages like Sanskrit [ex: "kal" vs "akal", etc.],
Hebrew, Greek, etc.) It would appear then - to me -
the argument being made is more along the lines
that "truth" is something "unhidden", not "hidden".
"Given this use in Homer, it appears that Aletheia
is a matter of being truthful and open in one
person's dealings with another, so that what is said
can be taken by hearers as reliable and trustworthy.
That being so, the meaning discernible in its use
coincides with the etymology of the word given by
most scholars, both ancient and modern. The word
is generally taken to be derived from a root meaning
'to escape notice, detection'. The same root, with
much the same meaning, underlies the Latin lateo,
'am hidden', 'remain unnoticed', from which English
derives 'latent'. The word lethe in Greek means
'forgetfulness'. How prominent the nuance of not
forgetting is taken to be in Aletheia is debatable.
But from the evidence it does appear that in Homer
the nuance of not hiding is strong. People speak
the truth if they hide or conceal nothing from their
hearers."
http://www.formalontology.it/aletheia.htm
Thought that was something noteworthy to add
about the phrase "The Whole truth".
I don't have time to look at this further right now,
but, here is one example for "altheia" in the Bible:
John 1:14:
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Of course - in my opinion - it would be closer
to the "whole" truth to look at this quote in con-
text to its older spellings. For this section, what
I've seen was that: his = "autos", glory = "doxa",
only begotten = "monogenes", of = "para", and
truth = "altheia".
Etznab
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