Aristophanes of Byzantium | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 257 BC |
| Died | c. 185/180 BC |
Aristophanes of Byzantium (Ancient Greek:Ἀριστοφάνης ὁ ΒυζάντιοςAristophánēs ho Buzántios;Byzantiumc. 257 BC –Alexandriac. 185–180 BC) was aHellenistic Greekscholar,critic andgrammarian, particularly renowned for his work inHomeric scholarship, but also for work on other classical authors such asPindar andHesiod. He soon moved to Alexandria and studied underZenodotus,Callimachus, and Dionysius Iambus. He succeededEratosthenes as headlibrarian of theLibrary of Alexandria at the age of sixty. His students includedCallistratus,Aristarchus of Samothrace, and perhapsAgallis. He was succeeded byApollonius "The Classifier" (not to be confused withApollonius of Rhodes, a previous head librarian of Alexandria).[1] Aristophanes' pupil,Aristarchus of Samothrace, would be the sixth head librarian at the Library of Alexandria.[2]
Aristophanes was the first to deny that the "Precepts of Chiron" was the work ofHesiod.[3]
Aristophanes is credited with reducing the accents used inGreek to designate pronunciation to a definiteaccent system,[4] as the tonal, pitched system of archaic andClassical Greek was giving way (or had given way) to the stress-based system ofKoine. This was also a period when Greek, in the wake ofAlexander's conquests, was beginning to act as alingua franca for the EasternMediterranean (replacing variousSemitic languages). The accents were designed to assist in the pronunciation of Greek in older literary works.
He also invented one of the first forms ofpunctuation inc. 200 BC: singledots (théseis, Latindistinctiones) that separated verses (colometry), and indicated the amount of breath needed to complete each fragment of text when reading aloud (not to comply with rules of grammar, which were not applied to punctuation marks until centuries later). For a short passage (akomma), astigmḕ mésē dot was placed mid-level (·). This is the origin of the moderncomma punctuation mark, and its name. For a longer passage (akolon), ahypostigmḗ dot was placed level with the bottom of the text (.), similar to a moderncolon orsemicolon, and for very long pauses (periodos), astigmḕ teleía point near the top of the line of text (·).[5][6][7] He used a symbol resembling a⊤ for anobelus.
As a lexicographer he compiled collections of archaic and unusual words. Aristophanes chiefly devoted himself to the poets (especially Homer) who had already been edited by his master Zenodotus. He also edited Hesiod, the chief lyric, tragic and comic poets, arranged Plato's dialogues in trilogies, and abridged Aristotle's Nature of Animals. His arguments to the plays of Aristophanes and the tragedians are in great part preserved. As a lexicographer, Aristophanes compiled collections of foreign and unusual words and expressions, and special lists (words denoting relationship, modes of address).[8] He also wrote a whole book on the proverbial moaning stick of Archilochus, but the one surviving fragment from this pertains to shellfish.[9]
All that has survived of Aristophanes of Byzantium's voluminous writings are a few fragments preserved through quotation in the literary commentaries, orscholia, of later writers, severalargumenta to works of Greek drama, and part of a glossary.[10] The most recent edition of the extant fragments was edited by William J. Slater.[11]
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aristophanes".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 501.| Preceded by | Head of theLibrary of Alexandria | Succeeded by |
