From Alexandria to Babylon: Near Eastern Languages and Hellenistic Erudition in the Oxyrhynchus Glossary (Studies in the Recovery of Ancient Texts, 4)

Main description: This is an edition with introduction and detailed commentary of the Oxyrhynchus Glossary, a lexicon preserved in several papyrus fragments with glosses taken from Greek, Greek dialects and "foreign languages", especially Near-Eastern languages. In the entries many historians, periegetes, mythographers of Hellenistic time are quoted. The Oxyrhynchus Glossary is a unique document for the history of Greek lexicography as well as for the study of the relationship between Greek and non-Greek languages and the problems related to linguistic exchanges in the Near Eastern areas From Alexandria to Babylon: Near Eastern Languages and Hellenistic Erudition in the Oxyrhynchus Glossary (P.Oxy. 1802 + 4812)......Page 4 Preface......Page 8 Table of Contents......Page 10 1. Introduction......Page 12 2. The Manuscript......Page 16 3.1 Dialects and Foreign Languages......Page 19 3.2. References and Quotations......Page 20 4. Dating and Origin......Page 24 4.1 The Pergamene Hypothesis......Page 25 4.2 The Alexandrian Hypothesis......Page 26 5.1 The Languages of the Oxyrhynchus Glossary......Page 31 5.2 Acquisition and Transcription of the Glosses......Page 34 6.1 Glossography and Dialectology in the Hellenistic Period......Page 39 6.2 Glossography and Dialectology on Papyrus......Page 41 6.3 The Unique Value of the Oxyrhynchus Glossary......Page 50 7. Authorship......Page 54 8. Edition......Page 64 9. Commentary......Page 85 10.1 Problems in Editing the Oxyrhynchus Glossary......Page 143 10.2 The Oxyrhynchus Glossary and Greek Glossography......Page 144 Old and New Numeration of the Oxyrhynchus Glossary Fragments......Page 152 Bibliography......Page 154 1. Greek Words in the Oxyrhynchus Glossary......Page 168 3. Ancient Titles Quoted in the Oxyrhynchus Glossary......Page 170 4. Non-English Words Discussed......Page 171 5. Ancient Sources and Papyri......Page 172 6. Subjects Index......Page 178 Plates......Page 190 This book provides the first full edition and commentary of the Oxyrhynchus Glossary (POxy 1802 and 4812). This is a unique document both for the history of Greek lexicography and for the study of the cultural and linguistic exchange between the Greeks and the “others” in the Hellenistic near East. The fragment contains a fully alphabetized glossary with lemmas defined as “Persian,” “Babylonian,” and “Chaldaean”, as well as lemmas taken from Greek dialects or common Greek. The entries are rich in quotations from ancient authorities including Berossus, Apollodorus and Erasistratus. This glossary had never been analyzed in depth previously. Francesca Schironi provides a comprehensive introduction and commentary that places the Oxyrhynchus Glossary into the wider context of Greek lexicography and scholarship, discusses its interest for non-Greek languages and the problems related to linguistic exchanges in the Near Eastern areas, and shows the uniqueness and value of this document. The Oxyrhynchus glossary and this study will be of interest to classicists, papyrologists, comparative philologists, and scholars interested in the history of Greek lexicography and scholarship.