Digital edition: dynamic lexicon of re-used words
Looking for text re-uses and quotations of works means also analyzing the language used by ancient authors to refer to other sources and, most important of all, to explore how words are re-used in different contexts and different languages.
The Perseus Digital Library has developed The Dynamic Lexicon to automatically create bilingual dictionaries using parallel texts and construct lexical entries that illustrate how a word is used not simply in all of Greek or Latin literature, but in any subset of that collection.
Building a dynamic lexicon of re-used words means therefore to explore the re-use of the language across texts pointing out different meanings of the same term, synonyms, morphological curiosities, and topic-based terminology.
In this page we show two examples with possible results deriving from a dynamic lexicon of re-used words:
1) different forms of the Greek name ἄρτος (bread) and the proper name Ἄρτας in Athenaeus and Thucydides
2) a mistake due to the change of the second syllable of the genitive of the Greek name of the god Hermes (Ἑρμοῦ)
1) This example shows a passage of the Deipnosophists where Athenaeus quotes Thucydides and plays with different forms of the name ἄρτος (bread) and the proper name Ἄρτας.
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 3.73 = 3.108f-109b: κἀκεῖθεν εἰς τὴν Ἰταλίαν ἀνέμῳ Νότῳ οὐ τούτου οὖν τοῦ Ἄρτου ὁ νῦν καιρὸς ἦν, ἀλλὰ τῶν εὑρημένων ὑπὸ τῆς Σιτοῦς καλουμένης Δήμητρος καὶ Ἱμαλίδος, οὕτως γὰρ ἡ θεὸς παρὰ Συρακοσίοις τιμᾶται, ὡς ὁ αὐτὸς Πολέμων ἱστορεῖ ἐν τῷ περὶ τοῦ Μορύχου. ἐν δὲ τῷ α᾽ τῶν πρὸς Τίμαιον ἐν Σκώλῳ φησὶ τῷ Βοιωτιακῷ Μεγαλάρτου καὶ Μεγαλομάζου ἀγάλματα ἱδρῦσθαι". ἐπεὶ δὲ ἤδη ἄρτοι εἰσεκομίζοντο καὶ πλῆθος ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς παντοδαπῶν βρωμάτων, ἀποβλέψας εἰς αὐτὰ ἔφη: "τοῖς ἄρτοις ὅσας φησὶν Ἄλεξις ἐν τῇ Εἰς τὸ φρέαρ. ἡμεῖς οὖν εἴπωμέν τι καὶ περὶ ἄρτων". |
Thucydides 7.33.4: |
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 3.73 = 3.108f-109b: |
Thucydides 7.33.4: |
2) In this example we show a passage from Plutarch, Theseus 26 where the author shows that the difference between the genitive of the name of the god Hermes (Ἑρμῆς -> Ἑρμοῦ) and the genitive of the name of the hero Hermos (Ἕρμος -> Ἕρμου) is the length of the last syllable. An incorrect change of this syllable is at the origin of a misunderstanding on the part of the inhabitants of Pythopolis, the city founded by Theseus in Bithynia.
Plutarch, Theseus 26.5: |
Plutarch, Theseus 26.5: |