Oros of Alexander (Greek: Ὦρος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, also called Orus) was a late classical/Byzantine lexicographer and grammarian active in the mid-5th century. According to the Suda he was born in Alexandria and taught in Constantinople. The Suda lists ten titles by him, but little of his work survives.[1]

Fragments of his lexicon of Attic usages are preserved in later lexica.[2] This work sought to counter the hyperatticist doctrine favoured by some contemporary lexicographers, who were inspired by the works of the 2nd-century grammarian Phrynichus. Oros' work was influential in the later Byzantine lexicographical tradition.

The codex Messinensis graecus 118 contains a fragment of a work on orthography concerning the use of the iota subscript. This is sometimes styled the Lexicon Messanense.[3]

Fragments of two other works survive, one a list of words with more than one meaning, the other a list of toponyms and their supposed etymologies.

Notes

  1. ↑ Suda ω 201
  2. ↑ Alpers (1981) 149-260
  3. ↑ H. Rabe, "Lexicon Messanense de iota ascripto", Rheinisches Museum 47 (1892) 405-413

Bibliography

  • Klaus Alpers (1981), Das attizistische Lexikon des Oros ([Sammlung griechischer und lateinischer Grammatiker 4] Berlin).
  • Klaus Alpers (1990), Griechische Lexicographie in Antike und Mittelalter. Dargestellt an ausgewählten Beispielen in H.-A. Koch and A. Krup-Eber (eds.), Welt der Information. Wissen und Wissensvermittlung in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Stuttgart) 14–38.
  • Klaus Alpers (2001), Lexicographie (B.I-III) in G. Üding and W. Jens (eds.), Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik 2 (Tübingen) 194–210.
  • R. Reitzenstein (1897), Geschichte der griechischen Etymologika: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Philologie in Alexandria und Byzanz (Leipzig; repr. Amsterdam 1964).
  • N.G. Wilson (1983), Scholars of Byzantium (London) 51f.
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