Alcaeus, the unjustly neglected Lesbian

The Lobel-Page edition of Alcaeus consists of 4,888 words, while that of Sappho consists of 3,459 words (these figures are from the TLG). That's the fact, give or take; the interpretation is less straightforward,* if any can or, indeed, should be made. It depends both on chance survival of what happened to be in circulation in small set of locations and on deliberate, but selective, preservation.

So, more of Alcaeus has come down to us from Antiquity, whether on papyrus or as extracts and fragments, even of only a single word, that suited the needs of grammarians and literary critics.

Yet, editions of the two 'Great Lesbians' usually put Sappho before her (allegedly older) contemporary and add 'et SAPPHUS vel ALCAEI FRAGMENTA' 'et SAPPHO et ALCAEUS'. There is, as far as I know, no translation of Alcaeus alone, while there are several of Sappho alone.

* What, for example, counts as a word? A fully preserved lexical item, for sure, but what about partially preserved words that can be reasonably supplemented and what about a single letter or letter trace as the sole residue of a word?

Both are mentioned by Herodotus (Alcaeus, briefly, at 5.95.1-2 and Sappho, and her family, at greater length).

Named and anonymous horses

In addition to the legend(s) of Bucephalus, a form of the Alexander Romance also names another of Alexander's horses: Πετάσιος (recensio γ, Ι.19 (line 31). LGPN knows of no human bearers of that name.

Herodotus tell us that the name of Darius' horse was given on a monument, but only the name of his groom, Obares, is reported to us.

Derivation in the wild, or 'because that's the name of the place!'

Sometimes, authors explain after whom or what a place or people was named and thus illustrate derivation to form an adjective, with various suffixes, from an noun. More examples to follow... ?

Herodotus, I 7.3
Οἱ δὲ πρότερον Ἄγρωνος βασιλεύσαντες ταύτης τῆς χώρης ἦσαν ἀπόγονοι Λυδοῦ τοῦ Ἄτυος, ἀπ’ ὅτεο ὁ δῆμος Λύδιος ἐκλήθη ὁ πᾶς οὗτος, πρότερον Μηίων καλεόμενος.
 
Mark the Deacon, Life of Porphyrius, 64:
Ἦσαν δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει ναοὶ εἰδώλων δημόσιοι ὀκτώ, τοῦ τε Ἡλίου καὶ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης καὶ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ τῆς Κόρης καὶ τῆς Ἑκάτης καὶ τὸ λεγόμενον Ἡρωεῖον καὶ τῆς Τύχης τῆς πόλεως, ὃ ἐκάλουν Τυχαῖον, καὶ τὸ Μαρνεῖον, ὃ ἔλεγον εἶναι τοῦ Κρηταγενοῦς Διός, ὃ ἐνόμιζον εἶναι ἐνδοξότερον πάντων τῶν ἱερῶν τῶν ἁπανταχοῦ.

ibid., 91:
Ὁ δὲ μακάριος ἐποίησεν πάντας ἀναθεματίσαι τὸν Μάνην τὸν ἀρχηγὸν τῆς αὐτῶν αἱρέσεως, ἐξ οὗ καὶ Μανιχαῖοι ἐκλήθησαν, καὶ κατηχήσας αὐτοὺς δεόντως ἐπὶ πλείστας ἡμέρας προσήγαγεν τῇ ἁγίᾳ καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ.

ibid., 92:
Μετὰ δὲ πενταετῆ χρόνον ἐτελειώθη τὸ ἔργον τῆς ἁγίας ἐκκλησίας τῆς μεγάλης, ἐκλήθη δὲ Εὐδοξιανὴ ἐκ τοῦ ὀνόματος τῆς θεοφιλεστάτης Εὐδοξίας τῆς βασιλίδος.

Herodotus and Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the ingredients of (an) ethnic identity

Herodotus, famously, says (that the Athenians said...):

Πολλά τε γὰρ καὶ μεγάλα ἐστὶ τὰ διακωλύοντα ταῦτα μὴ ποιέειν μηδ’ ἢν ἐθέλωμεν· πρῶτα μὲν καὶ μέγιστα τῶν θεῶν τὰ ἀγάλματα καὶ τὰ οἰκήματα ἐμπεπρησμένα τε
καὶ συγκεχωσμένα, τοῖσι ἡμέας ἀναγκαίως ἔχει τιμωρέειν ἐς τὰ μέγιστα μᾶλλον ἤ περ ὁμολογέειν τῷ ταῦτα ἐργασαμένῳ· αὖτις δὲ τὸ Ἑλληνικόν, ἐὸν ὅμαιμόν τε καὶ ὁμόγλωσσον, καὶ θεῶν ἱδρύματά τε κοινὰ καὶ θυσίαι ἤθεά τε ὁμότροπα, τῶν προδότας γενέσθαι Ἀθηναίους οὐκ ἂν εὖ ἔχοι.

8.144.2

Muhammad Ali Jinnah's reply (17 September 1944) to Gandhi’s contention (15 September 1944); “I find no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock":

"We maintain and hold that Muslims and Hindus are two major nations by any definition or test of a nation. We are a nation of a hundred million people, and, what is more, we are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of value and proportion, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitudes and ambitions – in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law we are a nation."

Architecture gets another mention in this speech of December 1946.

Homerica: a conspectus of key forms

Ι) Data on the forms of the dative plural of ἔπος is not presented by LSJ s.v. (but some etymological comment is at the head of the entry, not at the foot, with the dialect forms: older Ϝέπος SIG9 (v. infr.), etc., εος, τό (Skt. vácas 'word', 'hymn', cf. εἶπον): ):

a) ἔπεσσι Od.19.214 (-ν); ἔπ- τε μειλίχοισι# Il.9.113, Od.9.258 (-ν), 363, and 376, and 19.415; cf. Hes.Op.186 χαλεποῖς βάζοντες ἔπ-#; also Pi.O.13.25.

b) ἔπεσιν Il.1.77.

c) ἐπέεσσιν# Il.1.223 (ἀταρτητοῖς ἐπ-), 304 (ἀντιβίοισι μαχεσσαμένω ἐπ-); cf. 6.325 and 337 (αἰσχροῖς ἐπ-#), without and then with -ν.

ΙΙ) The endings ᾱο and εω:
Il.21.84-86: μινυνθάδιον δέ με μήτηρ | γείνατο Λαοθόη, θυγάτηρ Ἄλτᾱο γέροντος, | Ἄλτεω, ὅς Λελέγεσσι φιλοπτολεμοισι ἀνάσσει, |

The original 'Aeolic' Ἄλτᾱο and the latest Ionic Ἄλτεω (a spondee by synizesis) a:-stem masculine genitive singular forms are found in adjacent lines. Sappho and Alcaeus would use Ἄλτᾱ. In this instance, line 86 could be omitted without damage to syntax or to sense.

III) Diectasis:
ὁράω (of which there are no uncontracted forms in Hom., e.g. *ὁράεις, cf. Il.21.108. cited below) - ὁρῶ Il.3.324 (also ὁρᾷς, ὁρᾷ, ὅρα, ὁρᾶν, ὁρῶν, ὁρῶμαι, ὁρᾶται, ὁρᾶσθαι, ὁρώμενος), ὁρόω Il.5.224 (ὁράᾳς Il.21.108, ὁράασθαι Od.20.317, ὁρόωνὁρόων Il.1.350, 3.325, Od.8.314, ὁρόωντες Il.24.633, Od.7.145, 9. 295, and 20.373, ὁρόωσα Od.19.514, 2pl. opt. ὁρόῳτε Il.4.347). Contrast Ionic ὁρέω Hdt.1.80 and the dialectal 3rd person plural ὁρεῦντι in Theocritus 9.36.

IV) The second person singular of 'be':   
ἐσσί Il.1.176, 280, 3.164, 172, etc.: Od.1.175, 297, etc.
εἶς (εἴς) Il.16.515, 24.407; of the 9 instances of this form, only 1 cannot be altered to ἐσσ(ί) because it is not pre-vocalic, namely Od.17.388: ἀλλ’ αἰεὶ χαλεπὸς περὶ πάντων εἰς μνηστήρων.
εἰς Il.16.538, 19.217, etc.: Od.1.170, 207, 4.371, 611, etc.
εἶ is, it seems, not found, nor ἐσί (citable from Cretan GDI 4959a).

Anacreon round-up

LSJ s.v. νεᾶνις (cf. fr.13.3) cites 'CIG7629 (vase)', which reads: νῆνι νῆνι καλή.
See Smyth sect. 263, 1.

The following image of the black figures is from Die Gräber der Hellenen by Otto Magnus von Stackelberg (1837), Tab. XIII, 3.

Anacreon also has κοῦραι (fr. 45) and κοῦρα (fr. 73). Herodotus, it is said, once has the 'theo'nym Κόρη in 8.65.4 (in the OCT of Hude). The Ionic form Κούρη is a variant reading and was printed in the editions of J.E. Powell and A.M. Bowie and in the new OCT of N.G. Wilson. The OCT, like the Bude, keeps δύο κόρας and αἱ κόραι in 4.33.3 and 34.1 respectively, in which no variant readings are reported.

Published notes: E. Schywzer on πελεκύς (68.2 dat.sg.); 

Doricha

Doricha, the love interest of Sappho's brother Charaxos, appears twice in LGPN, once on Mytilene, once in Thrace.

Hdt. II 135:
Οὕτω καὶ Αἴσωπος Ἰάδμονος ἐγένετο. Ῥοδῶπις δὲ ἐς Αἴγυπτον ἀπίκετο Ξάνθεω τοῦ Σαμίου κομίσαντός [μιν], ἀπικομένη δὲ κατ’ ἐργασίην ἐλύθη χρημάτων μεγάλων ὑπὸ ἀνδρὸς Μυτιληναίου Χαράξου τοῦ Σκαμανδρωνύμου παιδός, ἀδελφεοῦ δὲ Σαπφοῦς τῆς μουσοποιοῦ. Οὕτω δὴ ἡ Ῥοδῶπις ἐλευθερώθη καὶ κατέμεινέ τε ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ κάρτα ἐπαφρόδιτος γενομένη μεγάλα ἐκτήσατο χρήματα ὡς ἅλις εἶναι Ῥοδώπι, ἀτὰρ οὐκ ὥς γε ἐς πυραμίδα τοιαύτην ἐξικέσθαι. Τῆς γὰρ τὴν δεκάτην τῶν χρημάτων ἰδέσθαι ἔστι ἔτι καὶ ἐς τόδε παντὶ τῷ βουλομένῳ, οὐδὲν δεῖ μεγάλα οἱ χρήματα ἀναθεῖναι. Ἐπεθύμησε γὰρ Ῥοδῶπις μνημήιον ἑωυτῆς ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι καταλιπέσθαι, ποίημα ποιησαμένη τοῦτο τὸ μὴ τυγχάνοι ἄλλῳ ἐξευρημένον καὶ ἀνακείμενον ἐν ἱρῷ, τοῦτο <δ’> ἀναθεῖναι ἐς Δελφοὺς μνημόσυνον ἑωυτῆς. Τῆς ὦν δεκάτης τῶν χρημάτων ποιησαμένη ὀβελοὺς βουπόρους πολλοὺς σιδηρέους, ὅσον ἐνεχώρεε ἡ δεκάτη οἱ, ἀπέπεμπε ἐς Δελφούς· οἳ καὶ νῦν ἔτι συννενέαται ὄπισθε μὲν τοῦ βωμοῦ τὸν Χῖοι ἀνέθεσαν, ἀντίον δὲ αὐτοῦ τοῦ νηοῦ. Φιλέουσι δέ κως ἐν τῇ Ναυκράτι ἐπαφρόδιτοι γίνεσθαι αἱ ἑταῖραι. Τοῦτο μὲν γὰρ αὕτη, τῆς πέρι λέγεται ὅδε ὁ λόγος, οὕτω δή τι κλεινὴ ἐγένετο ὡς καὶ οἱ πάντες Ἕλληνες Ῥοδώπιος τὸ οὔνομα ἐξέμαθον, τοῦτο δὲ ὕστερον ταύτης <ἑτέρη> τῇ οὔνομα ἦν Ἀρχιδίκη ἀοίδιμος ἀνὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἐγένετο, ἧσσον δὲ τῆς προτέρης περιλεσχήνευτος. Χάραξος δὲ ὡς λυσάμενος Ῥοδῶπιν ἀπενόστησε ἐς Μυτιλήνην, ἐν μέλεϊ Σαπφὼ πολλὰ κατεκερτόμησέ μιν. Ῥοδώπιος μέν νυν πέρι πέπαυμαι.

περιλεσχήνευτος is 'talked of in every club (λέσχη), matter of common talk' in LSJ s.v.

See also Gow-Page, Hellenistic Epigrams, no. 17 (Poseidippos) [= no. 89 in Peter Jay's Greek Anthology Penguin ]:
Doricha, your soft bones are
Asleep, your shawl of hair has
Breathed its perfume out, so too
The robe that wrapped Charaxus
Skin to skin with you, at dawn,
When, pressed together, you clinked
Cups of wine. But still it lasts
Upon the page: Sappho's ode
Which speaks your name. Naucratis
Will recall you now so long as
The sea-going ships shall come,
Finding their way to the Nile.   (-- Edward Lucie Smith)


Doris is the more common feminine name from this root.

Psilosis in editions of Herodotus

'... modern texts [of Herodotus] keep the initial aspirate as 'a venerable absurdity' (Powell) [note 158: Papyri of Herodotus display psilosis more often than not.]'

So,  A.M. Bowie apud S. Hornblower (ed.), Herodotus: Histories Book V. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2013: 43.

The reference to Powell's assessment is J. Enoch Powell (ed.) Herodotus: Book VIII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1939: xviii.