Hidden Quotations and Epitomized Entries in Byzantine Lexica and School‑texts: Three Case Studies

An impressive number of poetic fragments (from epic, lyric or drama) have been transmitted only in abridged lexicographical works and school!texts of the late antique and Byzantine period. Some quotations are easily recognized (for instance because the title or author’s name is indicated); in several other cases, however, the issue is much more difficult, as allegedly poetic quotations might be intertwined with exegetical material or merely paraphrased. The present paper will focus on this second scenario, considering cases where poetic fragments appear to be embedded in an exegetical or grammatical section, even though the boundaries of the quotation are difficult to be identified clearly. The discussion will involve items from the following works: (i) a branch of the so!called ‘Cyril’s Lexicon’ (partially belonging to the recension named by K. Latte ‘familia n’); (ii) the lexicon attributed to Eudemus, still in part unpublished (see recently Lamagna 2004); (iii) a school!text of Byzantine age, namely Konstantinos Arabites’ parekbolaion (edited in Nousia 2016) which has not yet received proper attention.