The Lexicon transmitted under the name of John Zonaras is an anonymous Byzantine Greek dictionary compiled in the first half of the thirteenth century; the twelfth-century historian did not write it, and the ascription rests on late manuscript notes. Its heading presents it as a collection of words gathered from the Old and New Testaments and from secular literature. Entries run alphabetically by the first two letters of each word, and within each pair by class: masculine, feminine and neuter nouns, then verbs and adverbs.
An entry may be a bare gloss or a long article of derivations, spelling rules and definitions drawn from theology, logic and medicine. The compiler used earlier lexica, among them a branch of Cyril's glossary, and grammarians such as Herodian and Orus of Miletus; he quotes Homer, Aristophanes, Gregory the Theologian, the apostle Paul and verses of Michael Psellus, and sets aside pagan myth as the talk of foolish Hellenes. The text is published here in twenty-four parts, one for each letter. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann edited it from three manuscripts in two volumes (Leipzig, 1808), and that edition remains the complete printed Greek text.
Contents
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Α Letter Alpha
The heading calls the lexicon a gathering of words from the Old and New Testaments and from secular books, and its alpha entries are ordered by each word's second letter. Early entries trace Homeric forms in aa- to a verb of harming and gloss Abba from the apostle. A long article on anthrōpos derives the word from looking upward and calls man a small world; the letter runs on to aōros and Homer's aōteis.
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Β Letter Beta
Baal, named as a god of the Tyrians, and Bacchylides of Ceos stand near the head of beta, beside derivations of barbitos and banausos and a line of Aristophanes. Further on come verse glosses on bruises and eruptions, blasphemy defined as insolence towards God, and a kind of sandal. The section closes with Cratinus, a Laconian verb for ploughing, and four primitive verbs bō, from which the compiler derives the words for grape-cluster, ox, step and speech.
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Γ Letter Gamma
The gamma entries begin with Gabriel and a child at the breast; the Milky Way is explained as reflected sunlight, and marriage is derived from a verb of taming, with Homer's unwed maiden as proof. The owl's entry reports Democritus on its fiery eyes and its sight in the dark, and the word for the pupil of the eye is traced to galēnē. A spelling rule for nouns in -eia weighs Apollonius against Orus.
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Δ Letter Delta
Hebrew names such as Dabir, the holy of holies, are set beside Homeric daēr, Daedalus and an entry that identifies the Dacians with the Pechenegs at the start of delta. The Attic law-court supplies the oath sworn by both parties to a lawsuit, and Athenian finance the assessment levied in the symmories; Dione is given as a name of Aphrodite. Closing entries parse forms of didōmi and quote Aristophanes on the Dorian mode.
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Ε Letter Epsilon
Spring is explained as the season when moist and hot prevail, beside a reading of epsilon's shape as an image of eternity and a derivation of Homer's ealē. Phrases in ex- include the Attic suit to free a person claimed as a slave and Carthage as a city many Romans thought must be destroyed, and hexis is set against diathesis. Among the last verbs, heōrtazon is explained by a shift of length from the first syllable to the second.
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Ζ Letter Zeta
Zeta, one of the shorter letters, starts with Homeric compounds in the intensive prefix za-, with Orus of Miletus cited on zaēs anemos and the lawgiver Zaleucus and Zalmoxis among the names. The letter separates emulation from provoking jealousy, cites Psellus for a spear called zibynē, and derives darnel as the weed that sits by the wheat. Homer's word in the plea to be taken alive comes from hunting the living, and the proper sense of kindling is blowing a small spark into a great flame.
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Η Letter Eta
Verbs come first under eta, with Ionic and Homeric forms of going and of speaking and a line of Thucydides, before a long entry derives hēbē in several ways and names the goddess. Entries on the day read scriptural phrases as the second coming and the judgement, followed by measures and garments in hēmi-, one glossed from a verse of Psellus. Ionic, Attic and Aeolic words for dawn are set out near the end, beside Eion, a colony of Mende.
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Θ Letter Theta
Theta's early entries give death a string of definitions, the last of them the mortification of the passions in Christ, and read Tarshish as the Carthaginians. The letter's own shape imitates the vault of heaven with its axis, and Lysias is noted for a passive use of a verb for suckling. Six senses of a root thō yield words for god, feast and seat, and arming is told apart from drinking deep, with Anacreon.
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Ι Letter Iota
Among biblical names at the start of iota stand Iacchus as Dionysus, the iamb, and a note from Tzetzes separating the poison ios from the arrow hios; twice the compiler reports what he himself found. A cluster of words for the strap and the well-rope sits beside Himera and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos off Troy. The letter's name is traced to venom, and Trypho accounts for the cry iō.
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Κ Letter Kappa
The jurors' voting urn appears under kappa beside long ascetic definitions of the pure in heart, the names Cain and Abel with their meanings, and two definitions of a rule or canon. Further in, the compiler weighs the spelling of kibōtos with Orus of Miletus, notes that Attic makes the column masculine and Ionic feminine, and cites Menander. The section closes on revelling and drowsing, the latter from a verse of Psellus.
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Λ Letter Lambda
The stone laas and its declension, the son of Lagus, the Lombards, the Labyrinth and a phalanx manoeuvre named for the Laconians lead off lambda. From the oil flask and Lemnos the entries pass to Leto, derived from forgetting as the Greeks tell the myth, and on to premisses in argument. The compiler takes the verb for resting as a metaphor from porters setting down their loads.
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Μ Letter Mu
A Latin borrowing for teacher, Solon on the word for pupil, Mammon, and King Manasseh, said to have sawn Isaiah in two, open mu; the seer is derived from a verb of seeking, against those who tie him to madness. Verbs in meta-, two of them quoted from Paul, give way to adverbs, among them one for going to Megara. Moly, late in the letter, is here the herb Odysseus gave his companions to undo Circe's change, beside an Egyptian word for water.
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Ν Letter Nu
Nu begins on biblical ground, with Nahshon, whose marriage joined the royal tribe to the priestly, the Nazirite, and a sect said to reject the Pentateuch; then comes a river in Italy whose name the lexicon takes from the ships that captive women from Troy burned there. The island is derived from swimming, and Homer's forms for ship are listed. A rule on verbs such as strōphaō and nōmaō precedes the adverb nōlemeōs.
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Ξ Letter Xi
Xi is the briefest letter of the lexicon. It gathers words of yellow and fair hair, among them the river and horse Xanthus and yellow bile, likened to fire; the entries on the stranger note that Homer's word for a host means a witness in Simonides and Pindar, derive the measure xestēs from Latin after Philo, and read Xenophon's name as one killed abroad. Many of the later entries are Old Attic and Homeric forms in xyn- for syn-.
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Ο Letter Omicron
Words for converse with a woman, the Egyptian Oasis and the spit obelos, also the critic's mark for a rejected line, with Herodian cited for its derivation, stand at the head of omicron; Ogmios is given as a name of Heracles. Orichalc, a metal said to be no longer found, follows with the oath, the harbour and the necklace, and the definition as a term of logic. Among the words in ops- are cooked relish and Paul's wages of sin.
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Π Letter Pi
Pi starts with pancratiasts and with the paean, dismissed as Hellenic nonsense; childhood is given its years, and a chain makes the Paeonians Pannonians and the Pannonians Bulgarians. A list of senses for pneuma runs from the divine to the wind; the Pnyx appears as an Athenian court, and the lung is the steward of breath. Selling, the compiler says, comes from going about, since the seller moves round one place to be seen by all.
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Ρ Letter Rho
Gospel words such as rabbouni and raca meet a church rank and an entry, citing Epicharmus, that makes the word for a Roman a clipped graikos, in the rho entries. A grammar lesson in questions and answers on patronymic and possessive forms interrupts the glosses, worked through Atreides, Priamis and the horses of Neleus. Rome is derived from Romus and Romulus, here sons of Aeneas, and the letter's name from flowing.
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Σ Letter Sigma
Sects and cults crowd the opening of sigma: Sabazius as a name of Dionysus, a Phrygian river myth set aside as the babble of foolish Hellenes, the Sabellians and the Sadducees, and the plant that brings on sardonic laughter. Gloom is traced to the cold Styx, and Thucydides is cited for the butt-spike of a spear. The body is defined with Plato's play on sōma and sēma, and the iota in sōizō is defended.
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Τ Letter Tau
Leaders and frying pans come first under tau, with a recipe of fat, cheese, honey and raisins for fried cakes, then the city of Tanis with Pharaoh's palace and the peacock as king of birds. Imperatives of verbs in -mi such as tithēmi are worked through, then verbs of paying back and punishing, with Chryses's petition from Homer. Near the close Tobit stands beside Totila, and the Attic dual tō cheire is explained from Homer and Sophocles.
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Υ Letter Upsilon
The shape of the letter upsilon, likened to the face of the Bull marked out by the Hyades, leads into the Hyantes of Boeotia, glass and the rain-bringing stars. A theological excursus on ousia and hypostasis, illustrated by the winds and by fire, explains why Christ's flesh is called enhypostatic and not a hypostasis. Words of height follow, among them Zeus as the high-seated helmsman.
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Φ Letter Phi
The phi entries give Phaethon as the sun, the priest's cloak, the wooden phallus carried at the festival of Dionysus, the month Pharmuthi and a long account of the Pharisees, their twice-weekly fasts and hard beds. The Phoenicians are said to have lived first by the Red Sea and to take their name from its red rocks, and Simonides is quoted for an Argive cup. Two entries explain the word for light, and the comic poet Strattis is cited for a verb of burning.
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Χ Letter Chi
Bronze, derived from strength, and the bridle, derived from gaping, lead into a distinction under chi between the masculine stake, a camp's palisade, and the feminine stake that props a vine, with Demosthenes and Menander. Chilblains are explained as a winter sore and Frankish names such as Chlodomer and Chlothar are listed. Late in the letter a hoplite keeps his place in the phalanx, Mount Horeb is named, and Paul asks his readers to make room for him.
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Ψ Letter Psi
The psalm and the psaltery fill the opening of psi: a description of the ten-stringed instrument and its pegs is followed by readings of it as the body and as the pure mind. A note on the smooth consonants sits beside the hissing sound that names the letter, whispering as onomatopoeia and Irenaeus cited for the loins. Among the words in psō- are the morsel, the itch and the Arcadian city of Psophis.
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Ω Letter Omega
Omega's first entry is the hem of a garment, cited from Aquila's version; after the letter itself comes the egg, its iota defended from Sappho's line on Leda, and then Og's iron bed of nine cubits. Eyes, Origen and Horace, and a Boeotian form in Homer come later. After an accent rule come entries that gloss pallor and, after Heraclides, a pulse of that name, cite a verse of Psellus on the same pulse and quote Achilles on going to Thebe.