AELIUS HERODIANUS

'Aelius Herodianus' (Latin; Greek ) or 'Herodian', ca. 180-250, was one of the most celebrated grammarians of Greco-Roman antiquity. He is usually known as Herodian except when there is a danger of confusion with the historian also named Herodian.
He was the son of Apollonius Dyscolus and was born in Alexandria. From there he seems to have moved to Rome, where he gained the favour of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, to whom he dedicated a work on prosody. No further biographical particulars are known.

Contents

Works

References

See also

Editions

Notes

Works

He was held in very high esteem by subsequent grammarians; Priscian describes him as ''maximus auctor artis grammaticae'' ("the greatest creator of grammatical art"). He wrote many works, but they are mostly fragmentary and it is very difficult to compile an accurate list of them. In numerous instances it is impossible to tell whether the titles given by writers who quote from his works are distinct treatises, or only portions of larger works. In addition, there are ongoing debates over which works were written by him and which were not. Some works by lesser-known figures are known to have been reattributed to Herodian, presumably in order to increase the prestige of the works.
In total some fifty titles are known in connection with Herodian's name. The main works attached to his name (both rightly and wrongly) are as follows (the most usual way of citing each title is highlighted in bold):

★ ''On peculiar style'' (''). Probably the only complete work of Herodian's to have survived.

★ ''Categories'' (, '''Partitiones'''). Devoted to explanations of difficult words found in Homer; many important quotations from the ''Partitiones'' are found in the scholia on Homer.

★ ''General prosody'' (, or , or ; '''De prosodia catholica'''), in twenty books. Herodian dedicated this work to Marcus Aurelius. It covered prosody and etymology. An epitome and an index survive. It is possible that several other titles known to us were in fact parts of the ''Prosody'': namely the ''Homeric prosody'' (); ''Attic prosody'' (); and ''Equal prosody'' (). A work entitled ''On accents'' (), attributed to Arcadius but compiled by a later grammarian, Theodosius of Byzantium, seems to be an extract from Herodian's ''Prosody''.

★ ''On figures'' (, '''De figuris'''). This work is known to be spurious, i.e. it is transmitted under Herodian's name but was not written by him. The author is referred to as "pseudo-Herodian".

★ '''Philetaerus''' (). This work is also known to be spurious; it has been suggested that it was in fact by Cornelianus.^[1]

References

See also

★ Homeric scholarship

★ Venetus A

Editions

★ 'General edition.' Lentz, A. and A. Ludwich 1979 [1867-70], ''Herodiani Technici reliquiae'', reprint (Hildesheim, orig. Lentz); cited by volume and page number

★ 'Scholia on the ''Iliad''.' Erbse, H. 1969-88, ''Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem'', 7 vols. (Berlin)

★ '''De figuris'' (spurious).' Hajdú, K. 1998, ''Ps.-Herodian, De figuris: Überlieferungsgeschichte und kritische Ausgabe'' (Berlin, New York). ISBN 3-11-014836-6
Earlier publications:

★ '''Partitiones''.' Boissonade, J.F. 1963 [1819], ''Herodiani Partitiones'', reprint (Amsterdam).

★ '''De prosodia catholica''.' Lentz, A. 1965 [1867], ''Grammatici Graeci'' vol. 3.1, reprint (Hildesheim).

★ 'Epitome of ''De pros. cath''.' Schmidt, M. 1983 [1860], ''Epitome tes katholikes prosodias'', reprint (Hildesheim).

★ 'Works reconstructed from ''Iliad'' scholia.' Lehrs, K. 1857 [1848], ''Herodiani scripta tria emendatiora'', 2nd ed. (Berlin).

★ '''Philetaerus'' (spurious).' Pierson, J. et al. 1969 [1830-31], ''Moeridis Atticistae Lexicon Atticum'', reprint (Hildesheim); ''Philetaerus'' ed. G.A. Koch.

★ 'Other works.' See further ''TLG Canon''

Notes

1. S. Argyle 1989, "A new Greek grammarian", ''Classical Quarterly'' 39.2: 524-35.