Two cornerstones of Nicanor’s Syntactic explanations

Abstract

The ancient grammarian Nicanor of Alexandria (2nd cent. AD) spent much of his scholarly energy on the explanation of (Homeric) syntax. Two syntactic phenomena are treated particularly often: dia mesou (insertion, i.e., parenthesis broadly understood) and koinon (two or more clauses ‘share’ a syntactic element). The frequency of the relevant notes points to their importance within Nicanor’s syntactic system. The present article explores how exactly he understood the two phenomena and how they assisted him in explaining the text of the Homeric epics to his readers.