The paths of Greek : literature, linguistics and epigraphy : studies in honour of Albio Cesare Cassio

This volume proposes a multidisciplinary approach to the history of Ancient Greek. Each of its ten papers offers a methodological example of how the study of Greek can be greatly enhanced by a truly multidisciplinary perspective in which the analysis of language interacts with epigraphy, textual philology and comparative linguistics, yet without neglecting the role that linguistic features play in the texts in which they are used, and hence in the culture which produced both. The first four papers tackle epic language, addressing eccentric pronouns and formulas, the role and semantics of the middle perfect, and the development of hexameter poetry in the colonial West. The next two papers are devoted to lyric poetry and its linguistic influence in Greek literature and tackle fragments by Corinna and Epicharmus respectively. The remaining four contributions look into a variety of topics spanning from early Ionic prose to the diachronic development of the Greek lexicon and its reception in Byzantine lexicography. They all provide examples of how Greek literary language evolved across the centuries, how it was perceived by ancient scholars, and what contribution modern linguistic approaches can provide to our understanding of both these issues. Contents 5 Acknowledgments 7 General Abbreviations 9 Signs and Symbols 11 Bibliographical Abbreviations 13 Introduction 21 Bibliography of Albio Cesare Cassio 29 Unconventional Features in Homer: The Case of ἑέ and ἑοῖ 39 σθένεϊ βλεμεαίνων: Origin and Evolution of a Homeric Formula 63 Active versus Middle Perfect in Homeric Greek: Synchrony and Diachrony 91 Empedocles in the West, Panyassis in the East: Doric and Hexameter Poetry in the Classical Age 127 Of Land, Ancestral Property and Prophecy in Corinna PMG 654 col. iii ll. 37–39 145 Epicharmus and Choral Lyric Poetry: A Reappraisal of Old and New Evidence 169 Early Dactylic Prose in the History of Greek Prose Rhythm 195 Gk. ταπεινός ‘Low(-lying)’ and Its IE Heritage: Gk. PN Τέμπυρα, Hitt. dampu- ‘Blunt’, Old Russ. tupъ ‘Blunt, Stupid’ 217 Prose and Poetry of Pain: A History of the Term ἄλγος 239 Making the Case for a Linguistic Investigation of Greek Lexicography: Some Examples from the Byzantine Reception of Atticist Lemmas 261 List of Contributors 291 Index of Notable Words 293 Index of Subjects 295 Index of Passages 299