Koalemos

{{Short description|Mythological character}}

{{Greek myth (personified)}}

{{For|the ancient Olympic chariot-racer|Cimon Coalemos}}

In Greek mythology, Koalemos (Ancient Greek: Κοάλεμος) was the personification of stupidity, mentioned once by Aristophanes,Aristophanes, Knights 221: καὶ ποικίλως πως καὶ σοφῶς ᾐνιγμένος: ἀλλ᾽ ὁπόταν μάρψῃ βυρσαίετος ἀγκυλοχήλης γαμφηλῇσι δράκοντα κοάλεμον αἱματοπώτην. and being found also in Parallel Lives by Plutarch.Plutarch, Life of Cimon 4.3 (trans. Perrin) (Greek historian 1st to 2nd century AD):...καὶ τῷ πάππῳ Κίμωνι προσεοικὼς τὴν φύσιν, ὃν δι᾽ εὐήθειάν φασι Κοάλεμον προσαγορευθῆναι. Coalemus is the Latin spelling of the name.

Otherwise, the word κοάλεμος was used in the sense of "stupid person" or also "blockhead".Plutarch, Life of Cimon 4.3; Aeschines Socraticus, fr. 16

An ancient false etymology derives {{lang|grc|κοάλεμος}} from {{lang|grc|κοέω}} (koeō) "perceive" and {{lang|grc|ἡλεός}} (ēleos) "distraught, crazed".Scholia on Aristophanes, Knights 198 This etymology is not established, however.Chantraine, Pierre. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots. Tome II. Paris, Éditions Klincksiek, 1970. - p. 550, sous κοάλεμος (French); Robert Beekes (2010), "Etymological Dictionary of Greek" (Brill, Boston), p 727: "The word is clearly Pre-Greek because of the variants".

In Suomi language, kuolemas means "in dying"; kuolemus means "the process of dying"; and, kuolemax/kuolemaks means "deadly".