Rules to constructing a proper compound noun in Ancient Greek

Question

I am currently in the process of translating a text from one language into another, and the original uses a compound noun that can either be translated into English as "fly-eating" (losing the original's charm) or a fancy quasi-medical term involving "-phagia". I have tried searching for rules regarding Ancient Greek compound nouns' formation but could not unearth a definite algorithm.

The word for "fly" would be myia and -phagia could be appended at the end to signify "eating". I would appreciate it if someone with better knowledge of Ancient Greek could help me combine the two together, and I would love to see some scholarly articles on this topic. Surely there are some rules that medical scientists and jurisprudents follow when giving names to new terms?

Answer 1

The rules for the formation of compounds are explained in the more elaborate Greek grammars, but I think you are asking about this specific word. In Classical Greek there are quite a large number of compounds from μυιο- or μυο-, as you can see here:

• μυιο-

• μυο-

Click on the individual words for their meaning. Myo- or myiophagia would be a correctly formed compound and there is theoretically no reason why you should not be able to use it in the more bookish register of English.

Answer 2

See Why "agoraphobia" not "agorophobia"?

myia is a first declension noun, so originally in Greek the correct answer was myiaphagia, just as agoraphobia is actually the correct form, historically. But the -o- of the second declension extended to first declension nouns in compounds very very early—so early that -a- compounds are the archaic exception in Classical Greek, rather than the rule. The normally expected connective is indeed -o-, and that's what fdb's answer (https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/a/26458/17064) reports.