The Original Structure, Function, and Typology of Philemon’s Atticist Lexicon

Abstract

The Atticist lexicon ascribed to the grammarian Philemon, transmitted in two different, heavily abridged extracts, has been comparatively neglected, despite the recent surge of interest in the ideologies and practices of imperial-period linguistic purism. A peculiarity of this lexicon, attested by other scholarly sources and still discernible in the epitomes, is that it was written in iambic verse. However, the possible reasons for, and consequences of, this choice have not been discussed so far. Based on a thorough analysis of the lexicon’s stylistic features, and on parallels with other late ancient and medieval metrical lexica, I suggest that Philemon’s original work was structured as a dialogue between several characters – one of which possibly representing the author’s own views – debating the correct usage of Attic forms. I also argue that the lexicon probably had a more ‘horizontal’ structure: the subdivision into short, alphabetically ordered entries would be a consequence of abridgement.