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Hesychius of Alexandria

 
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Hesychius of Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
 (??s????? ? ??e?a?d?e??), a grammar
Grammar

Grammar is the field of linguistics that covers the conventions governing the use of any given natural language. It includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics....
ian who 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.






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Hesychius Op
Hesychius of Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
 (??s????? ? ??e?a?d?e??), a grammar
Grammar

Grammar is the field of linguistics that covers the conventions governing the use of any given natural language. It includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics....
ian who 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
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
 and Theocritus
Theocritus

Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC....
, 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
Thracian language

The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe....
 and the ancient Macedonian language
Ancient Macedonian language

Ancient Macedonian was the language of the ancient Macedonians. It was spoken in Macedonia during the 1st millennium BC. From the 4th century BC, it was gradually replaced by the Koine Greek dialect of the Hellenistic period....
) and in reconstructing Proto-Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
.

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
Diogenianus

Diogenianus was a Greece grammarian from Heraclea Pontica in Pontus who flourished during the reign of Hadrian. He was the author of an alphabetical lexicon, chiefly of poetical words, abridged from the great lexicon of Pamphilus of Alexandria and other similar works....
 (itself extracted from an earlier work by Pamphilus
Pamphilus of Alexandria

Pamphilus was a Greek grammarian, of the school of Aristarchus of Samothrace.He was the author of a comprehensive lexicon, in 95 books, of foreign or obscure words, the idea of which was credited to another grammarian, Zopyrion, himself the compiler of the first four books....
), but that he has also used similar works by the grammarian Aristarchus
Aristarchus of Samothrace

Aristarchus or Aristarch of Samothrace was a grammarian noted as the most influential of all scholars of Homeric poetry. He was the librarian of the Library of Alexandria Alexandria and seems to have succeeded his teacher Aristophanes of Byzantium Byzantium in that role....
 of Samothrace
Samothrace

Samothrace is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a self-governing deme in the prefecture of Evros, Greece. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,723 ....
, Apion
Apion

Apion , Graeco-Egyptian grammarian, sophist and commentator on Homer, was born at the Siwa Oasis, and flourished in the first half of the 1st century AD....
, Heliodorus
Heliodorus

Heliodorus is a Greek name meaning "Gift of the Sun". Several persons named Heliodorus are known to us from ancient times, the best known of which are:...
, Amerias
Amerias

Amerias was an ancient Macedonians lexicographer, known for his compilation of a Glossary entitled . ?nother of his works was called ????t??????, Rhizotomikos , an etymological treatise....
 and others.

Hesychius was probably not a convert
Religious conversion

Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion identity, or a change from one religious identity to another. This typically entails the sincere avowal of a new belief system, but may also present itself in other ways, such as adoption into an identity group or spiritual lineage....
 to Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
. Explanations of words from Gregory Nazianzus and other Christian
Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
 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
Marcus Musurus

Marcus Musurus was a Greeks scholar and philosopher born in Rethymno, Crete. The son of a rich merchant, he became at an early age a pupil of John Lascaris in Venice....
 (at the press of Aldus Manutius
Aldus Manutius

Aldus Pius Manutius , the Latinized name of Teobaldo Mannucci, sometimes called Aldus Manutius, the Elder to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius the Younger) was an Italian Renaissance humanism who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice....
) in Venice, 1514 (reprinted in 1520 and 1521 with modest revisions).

Under the auspices of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen
Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,153,615 . Copenhagen is situated on the Islands of Zealand and Amager....
 a modern edition has been in intermittent publication since 1953: alpha to omicron have been published.

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