Editing Julius Pollux

{{Short description|2nd century Greek grammarian and sophist}}
'''Julius Pollux''' ({{langx|el|Ἰούλιος Πολυδεύκης}}, ''Ioulios Polydeukes''; fl. 2nd century) was a [[Greeks|Greek]] scholar and rhetorician from [[Naucratis]], [[Ancient Egypt]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9060658/Julius-Pollux Encyclopædia Britannica ]</ref><ref>John Hazel, ''Who's who in the Greek world'', p.197, Routledge, 1999</ref><ref>Andrew Dalby, ''Food in the Ancient World: From A to Z'', p.265, Routledge, 2003</ref>
Emperor [[Commodus]] appointed him a professor-chair of rhetoric in [[Athens]] at the [[Academy]] &mdash; on account of his melodious voice, according to [[Philostratus]]' ''Lives of the Sophists.''

== Works ==
Pollux was the author of the ''Onomasticon'' ({{lang|el|Ὀνομαστικόν}}), a Greek [[thesaurus]] or dictionary of [[Attic Greek|Attic]] synonyms and phrases, in ten books, each prefaced with a dedication to the emperor Commodus.{{sfn|Zadorojnyi|2019|p=49}} The work forms part of the [[Atticism|Atticist]] movement of the [[Second Sophistic]], and was intended to provide a full catalogue of the Greek vocabulary derived from classical texts that an accomplished orator could deploy.{{sfn|Zadorojnyi|2019|p=49}} Within this movement, Pollux shows himself "a liberal and inclusive Atticist," willing to admit vocabulary from classical authors in non-Attic dialects (like [[Herodotus]]), from post-classical works (such as [[New Comedy]] and [[Hellenistic]] [[historiography]]), and from contemporary spoken Greek.{{sfn|Zadorojnyi|2019|p=49}} The entries in the work are arranged not alphabetically but according to subject-matter. Pollux claims that the exact order of subjects is random, but contemporary scholarship has discerned organisational patterns based on "the paradigmatic relationships at the heart of Romano-Greek society."{{sfn|König|2007|p=34}} For example, Book 5 is divided into two halves, the first of which deals with words relating to hunting and the second half of which Pollux calls "eclectic" (e.g. the entries in 5.148-5.152 are: ''proischesthai'' "to hold forth", ''grammata en stelais'' "writing on steles", ''diakores'' "satiated", ''anamphibolon'' "unambiguous"), but, within this eclecticism, Zadorojnyi nevertheless notes a tendency to focus on binary oppositions like love and hate, praise and denunciation.{{sfn|Zadorojnyi|2019|p=50}}

It supplies much rare and valuable information on many points of classical antiquity<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Pollux, Julius|volume=22|page=7}}</ref> &mdash; objects in daily life, the theater, politics&nbsp;– and quotes numerous fragments of lost works. Thus, Julius Pollux became invaluable for [[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]]'s ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities]]'', 1842, etc.

Nothing of his rhetorical works has survived, except some of their titles (in the ''[[Suda]]'').

== Contemporary reception ==
Pollux was probably the person satirized by [[Lucian]] as a worthless and ignorant person who gains a reputation as an orator by sheer effrontery, and pilloried in his ''Lexiphanes'', a satire upon the affectation of obscure and obsolete words.<ref name="EB1911"/>

== Editions ==
* 1502, ed. by Aldus Manutius in Venice. Re-edited at 1520 by Lucantonio Giunta and at 1536 by [[Simon Grynaeus]] in Basel.
* 1900–1967, ed. E. Bethe, Leipzig (Teubner). [https://archive.org/details/pollucisonomasti01polluoft Volume 1], [https://archive.org/details/pollucisonomasti02polluoft Volume 2], [https://archive.org/details/pollucisonomasti03polluoft Volume 3].

== Translations ==
A [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10314556?page=5 Latin translation] made by [[Rudolf Gwalther]] was published in Basel at 1541 and made Julius Pollux more available to [[Renaissance]] [[Antiquary|antiquaries]] and scholars, and anatomists, who adopted obscure Greek words for parts of the body.

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', 1999
*{{cite journal |last1=Avotins |first1=I. |title=The Holders of the Chairs of Rhetoric at Athens |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |date=1975 |volume=79 |pages=313–324 |doi=10.2307/311142 |jstor=311142 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/311142 |issn=0073-0688|url-access=subscription }}
* Cinzia Bearzot, Franca Landucci, Giuseppe Zecchini (ed.), ''L'Onomasticon di Giulio Polluce. Tra lessicografia e antiquaria.'' Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 2007. Pp. viii, 173 (Contributi di storia antica, 5)
*{{cite journal |last1=König |first1=Jason |last2=Whitmarsh |first2=Tim |editor1-last=König |editor1-first=Jason |editor2-last=Whitmarsh |editor2-first=Tim |title=Re-reading Pollux: Encyclopaedic Structure and Athletic Culture in "Onomasticon" Book 3 |journal=The Classical Quarterly |date=2016 |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=298–315 |doi=10.1017/S0009838816000331 |jstor=43905750 |hdl=10023/6992 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43905750 |issn=0009-8388|hdl-access=free }}
*{{cite book |last1=König |first1=Jason |title=Ordering knowledge in the Roman Empire |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780511551062 |chapter=Ordering knowledge |editor1=Jason König |editor2=Tim Whitmarsh}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mauduit |first1=C. |title=L'Onomasticon de Pollux : aspects culturels, rhétoriques et lexicographiques |date=2013 |publisher=CEROR |location=Lyon |isbn=9782904974458}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Theodoridis |first1=Christos |title=Weitere Bemerkungen zum Onomastikon des Julius Pollux |journal=Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik |date=2003 |volume=143 |pages=71–78 |jstor=20191617 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20191617 |issn=0084-5388}}
*{{cite book |last1=Zadorojnyi |first1=Alexei |editor1-last=Petrovij |editor1-first=A |editor2-last=Petrovij |editor2-first=I |editor3-last=Thomas |editor3-first=E |title=The materiality of text : placement, perception, and presence of inscribed texts in classical antiquity |date=2019 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=9789004379435 |pages=48–68 |chapter=The Aesthetics and Politics of Inscriptions in Imperial Literature}}

==External links==
*''[https://archive.org/details/onomasticon01polluoft Onomasticon cum annotationibus interpretum]'', [[Wilhelm Dindorf]] (ed.), 3 voll., Lipsiae in libraria kuehniana, 1824.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Julius Pollux}}
[[Category:2nd-century Greek writers]]
[[Category:2nd-century Romans]]
[[Category:Lexicographers]]
[[Category:Theatre theorists]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Julii|Pollux]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek grammarians]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek rhetoricians]]