Hesychius

The lexicon of Hesychius, which has been preserved in a single manuscript from the early 15th c. CE, is a large dictionary of Greek words from the 5th/6th c. CE, compiled on the basis of earlier works by Greek grammarians and lexicographers (Diogenianus, in particular, but also Aristarchus, Heliodorus, Apion, and Herodian). The lexicon shows traces of heavy interpolation (prior to 10th c. CE), while its text is notoriously corrupt in various respects (alphabetical ordering of lemmata, relationship between lemmata and their explanations, etc.). Nonetheless, the wealth of dialectal and foreign words, even from poorly attested Ancient Greek dialects and rudimentary ancient languages respectively, has singled out Hesychius’ work as the most important source among the extant ancient/medieval Greek lexica.