Everything about Hesychius Of Alexandria totally explained
Hesychius of Alexandria (῾Ησύχιος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς), a
grammarian that flourished probably in the
5th century CE, compiled the richest lexicon of unusual and obscure Greek words that has survived (in a single 15th century manuscript). The work includes approximately 51,000 entries, a copious list of peculiar words, forms and phrases, with an explanation of their meaning, and often with a reference to the author who used them or to the district of Greece where they were current. Hence the book is of great value to the student of the Greek dialects; while in the restoration of the text of the classical authors generally, and particularly of such writers as
Aeschylus and
Theocritus, who used many unusual words, its value can hardly be exaggerated. Hesychius is important, not only for Greek philology but also for studying lost languages (such as
Thracian and the
ancient Macedonian language) and in reconstructing
Proto-Indo-European.
Hesychius' explanations of many epithets and phrases also reveal many important facts about the religion and social life of the ancients.
In a prefatory letter Hesychius mentions that his lexicon is based on that of
Diogenianus (itself extracted from an earlier work by
Pamphilus), but that he's also used similar works by the grammarian
Aristarchus of Samothrace,
Apion,
Heliodorus,
Amerias and others.
Hesychius was probably a
pagan. Explanations of words from
Gregory Nazianzus and other
Christian writers (
glossae sacrae) are later interpolations.
The lexicon survives in one deeply corrupt 15th century manuscript, which is preserved in the library of San Marco at Venice, (Marc. Gr. 622, 15th century). The best edition is by Moriz Wilhelm Constantin Schmidt (1858-1868), but no complete comparative edition of the ms has been published since it was first printed by
Marcus Musurus (at the press of
Aldus Manutius) in Venice, 1514 (reprinted in 1520 and 1521 with modest revisions).
Under the auspices of the Danish Academy in Copenhagen a modern edition has been in intermittent publication since 1953: alpha to omicron have been published.
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