This inventory of terms and names as found in A Pindar Commentary is Progress is itself a dynamic work-in-progress. This document will grow and develop as new postings related to APCIP are published here on Classical Inquiries.
Aeolian. As a noun, this word refers to Greek-speaking people who spoke an ancient Greek dialect known as Aeolic. As an adjective, this same word refers to the social and cultural institutions of these Aeolic-speaking people. [[GN 2016.09.07.]]
Aeolic. A major dialectal branch of the ancient Greek language. It is the “recessive” dialect of Pindar’s poetic diction, as opposed to Doric, which is the “dominant” dialect. See also under Ionic. [[GN 2017.09.27.]]
aetiology. A myth that explicitly motivates (1) a ritual or (2) a custom that includes ritualized behavior. It cannot be assumed that such a myth is independent of the ritual that it motivates: rather, the myth can be considered to be a part of the ritual that is ostensibly being motivated by the myth. [[GN 2017.05.25.]]
Aithiopis. See under epic Cycle.
archaic period of Greek history. By archaic I mean a historical period extending roughly from the second half of the eighth century BCE up to the second half of the fifth, which is the beginning of the classical period. See BA vii n1. In the printed version of BA 1999, I wrote “through” where I now say, more correctly, “up to” in the online version. [[GN 2016.12.26.]]
Aristarchus of Samothrace. Director of the Library of Alexandria in the middle of the second century BCE. [[GN 2016.08.18.]]
Aristophanes of Byzantium. Lived in the second century BCE. The immediate predecessor of Aristarchus. [[GN 2016.08.18.]]
Classical period of Greek history. This period follows the archaic period, which ends around the middle of the fifth century BCE. [[GN 2016.12.26.]]
Cypria. See under epic Cycle.
Dorian. As a noun, this word refers to Greek-speaking people who spoke an ancient Greek dialect known as Doric. As an adjective, this same word refers to the social and cultural institutions of these Doric-speaking people. [[GN 2016.09.07.]]
Doric. A major dialectal branch of the ancient Greek language. It is the “dominant” dialect of Pindar’s poetic diction, as opposed to Aeolic, which is the “recessive” dialect. See also under Ionic. [[GN 2016.09.07.]]
epic. In my comments, I use this term in a restricted sense, referring to the form of poetry that is exemplified by the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey, also by the poetry of the so-called epic Cycle (see under epic Cycle). [[GN 2016.12.06.]]
epic Cycle. By the time of Aristotle, in the fourth century BCE, the textual traditions of epics (see under epic) that were known as the epic Cycle or kuklos (κύκλος) were considered to be non-Homeric. In earlier times, by contrast, such epics were thought to be composed by Homer himself, and they were thus grouped together with the Iliad and Odyssey. It was as if the epic Cycle represented the sum total of Homeric composition. (See under Homer; see also the comment on I.05.722 on kuklos in the sense of ‘chariot wheel’ as a metaphor for the sum total of Homeric composition.) The epics of the epic Cycle have not survived except for fragments and plot-summaries, the original texts of which are most easily accessible in the old but still useful edition of Allen 1912. The plot-summaries of the epics in the Cycle are attributed to one Proclus, who can most probably be dated to the second century CE (Nagy 2015.12.24 §1n5). These plot-summaries cover the following epics, attributed to otherwise unknown poets as named here: Cypria, by Stasinus of Cyprus; Aithiopis, by Arctinus of Miletus; Little Iliad, by Lesches of Lesbos; Iliou Persis or ‘Destruction of Ilion’, by Arctinus of Miletus; Nostoi or ‘Songs of Homecoming’, by Agias of Troizen; Telegonia, by Eugammon of Cyrene. [[GN 2016.12.06.]]
Homer. In the Classical period and toward the end of the earlier archaic period, he was thought to be the Master Narrator of the Iliad and Odyssey. (See under Classical period, archaic period, and Master Narrator.) During the post-Classical period as represented by the works of figures like Plutarch and Pausanias in the second century CE, Homer was thought to be the author of the Iliad and Odyssey, and his authorship was viewed as a matter of ‘writing’, graphein. (HPC 31.) During the Classical period as represented by the works of figures like Plato and Aristotle in the fourth century BCE, Homer was likewise thought to be the author of the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey, but his authorship was viewed as a matter of ‘making’, poieîn, analogous to the crafting of an artifact by an artisan or craftsman: Plato and Aristotle avoided any references to the making of Homeric poetry as a matter of ‘writing’, graphein. (HPC 31.) During the earlier Classical period as represented by the work of Thucydides in the fifth century BCE, Homer was thought to be the author of not only the Iliad and Odyssey but also of at least some Homeric Hymns, like the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. (HPC 18.) During this same period, as we see from the reportage of Herodotus in the fifth century BCE, Homer was thought by some to be the author of a wider range of epics, such as the Cypria. (HPC 75–78.) In the archaic era, such epics were thought to be parts of a poetic corpus body of epic poetry known as the epic Cycle. (See under archaic period and epic Cycle.) [[GN 2016.07.21 -> 2016.12.30 via the references to HPC as interspersed above.]]
Iliad and Odyssey. In this commentary, the article “the” will be avoided in wording that refers to the Iliad and Odyssey together, as here. That is because the Iliad and Odyssey are treated as complementary epics in this commentary. In other words, the Iliad and Odyssey are treated together as a structural unity. Such a unity can be traced back to the late eighth and early seventh centuries BCE: see Nagy 2015.12.24 following Frame 2009 ch. 11. [[GN 2016.07.21.]]
Iliou Persis. See under epic Cycle.
Ionian. As a noun, this word refers to Greek-speaking people who speak an ancient Greek dialect known as Ionic. As an adjective, this same word refers to the social and cultural institutions of these Ionic-speaking people. [[GN 2016.09.07.]]
Ionic. A major dialectal branch of the ancient Greek language. It is the “residual” dialect of Pindar’s poetic diction, as opposed to Doric, which is the “dominant” dialect, and Aeolic, which is the “recessive” dialect. [[GN 2017.09.27.]]
ktisis poetry. A form of poetic narrative that presents the mythological foundations of a community. The meaning of ktisis is ‘foundation’. [[GN 2017.05.25.]]
laudandus. Technical term formulated in Latin, meaning ‘he who is to be praised’.
laudator. Technical term formulated in Latin, meaning ‘he who praises’.
lemmatizing. This coined word is based on the ancient Greek noun lēmma (λῆμμα), which will be spelled throughout simply as “lemma” (and the plural will be spelled as “lemmata”). This noun refers to whatever wording is literally ‘taken’ (the corresponding verb is lambanein/labeîn) out of the overall wording of a scriptio continua that is being quoted. (In pre-Byzantine conventions of writing, words were not separated from each other by way of spacing: hence the term scriptio continua ‘continuous lettering’). [[GN 2016.08.04.]]
Little Iliad. See under epic Cycle.
Lord, Albert B. (1912–1991). His most basic work: Lord 1960; 2nd ed. 2000. The 3rd edition is forthcoming in 2017. [[GN 2016.07.21.]]
Master Narrator. In the Classical period, he is the speaking ‘I’ who narrates the Iliad and Odyssey. He was generally thought to be the one person who controls the story of the Iliad and the story of the Odyssey. In that period, he was thought to be Homer. See also under Homer; also Classical period of Greek history. [[GN 2016.07.21.]]
Meillet, Antoine (1866–1936). A pioneer in the scientific methodology of Indo-European linguistics as applied to Greek poetry and songmaking. [[GN 2017.09.27.]]
metaphor. An expression of meaning by substituting something unfamiliar for something familiar. [[GN 2016.07.28 via MoM 0§01, 0§1 Extract 0–A.]]
metonymy or metonym. An expression of meaning by connecting something familiar with something else that is familiar. [[GN 2016.07.28 via MoM 0§01, 0§2 Extract 0–B.]]
multiform. A form that coexists with other forms within a poetic system. [[GN 2016.10.16.]]
Nostoi. See under epic Cycle.
Parry, Milman (1902–1935). A most representative work of his: Parry 1932. A collection of his papers, with his French texts translated into English, was published by his son Adam Parry (1971). [[GN 2016.07.21.]]
scholia. Notes or annotations that accompany texts in manuscripts.
simile. Like a metaphor, a simile makes a comparison. Unlike a metaphor, however, a simile signals explicitly that a comparison is being made, and the signaling is achieved by way of words meaning ‘as’, ‘same as’, ‘looking like’, ‘like’, and so on. [[GN 2017.07.22.]]
Telegonia. See under epic Cycle.
Zenodotus of Ephesus. Lived in the third century BCE. Predecessor of Aristophanes of Byzanium. [[GN 2017.09.27]]