ἀφθόνητος αἶνος Su tre lemmi pindarici dell’Antiatticista

Abstract

Among other peculiarities, the 2nd-century CE Atticist lexicon that goes under the name of Antiatticista contains seven entries exemplified with references to Pindar (not an Attic author), a fact that sets it apart from other Atticist lexica of the same period. This paper tackles the verbal adjective ἀφθόνητος and the irregular comparatives ἀφθονέστερος and ἀρχαιέστερος in order to show that two criteria guided the inclusion of these Pindaric words into the lexicon. The first, and more superficial, criterion concerns the word-formation of verbal adjectives and comparatives, and their relation with other (often more regular or more frequent) forms. The second criterion concerns semantic change, and especially the use of certain words in post-Classical and Byzantine Greek vis-à-vis the Classical models. The consideration of both criteria allows a more fine-grained interpretation of the Antiatticista’s methodology and its recourse to a wide range of Classical authors to illustrate, and defend, developments of post-Classical Greek.