Lexicographer (c.900)
The Suda or Suidas lexicon is a 1000 year-old encyclopaedia, the world’s oldest encyclopaedic dictionary as well as one the most valuable and significant spiritual works ever written in the Middle Ages. An ambitious undertaking containing hundreds of thousands of headwords from the Greek language, the Suda lexicon is a golden tool for archaeological and philological enthusiasts as well as for scholars all over the world.
The identity of the man behind the Suda lexicon is shrouded under a veil of mystery and hypotheses. The pseudonym Suidas, as noted by the Archbishop of Thessaloniki Eustathios, is identified as the person who wrote the dictionary; a greedy lover of knowledge who salvaged more than 30.000 lemmata from various different ancient sources which today have been lost. The name Suidas itself is of questioned origin. Some say that its letters represent the initials of a code. Others assert that it comes from the Latin word Guida, which means guide while others believe that it means moat or fortress. The fact that a team of editors known collectively as Suidas worked together to write the book is not excluded.
The encyclopaedia contains information with astounding details, most of which is found only in Suda and which would never have survived until today had it not been written down by the author. Most notably, it contains unique information on many Ancient Greek philosophers and writers, most notably Homer. The book follows an unconventional taxonomy of the lemmata; instead of being arranged alphabetically, they are arranged according to the phthongs with which they begin.
Whoever Suidas was, his contribution is recognized as an immortal consignment to the world of letters, the Greek philology and history. It is believed that Emperor Constantine VII the “Purple-blood”, who reigned during the years this book was written, contributed significantly to its publication.
Bibliography
- Papagiannidou, Mairi. Lexicon Souida. Protoporia.gr. October 5, 2003. Web. Retrieved from TO BHMA in November 15, 2016.
- Λεξικό της «Σούδας» ή της «Σουίδας». Vizantinonistorika.blogspot.bg. July 8, 2013. Web. Retrieved on November 15, 2016.