Title(s):
- Onomatologos
- ᾽Ονοματολόγος ἢ Πίναξ τῶν ἐν παιδείᾳ ὀνομαστῶν(Onomatologos ē Pinax tōn en paideiai onomastōn, List of names, or table of famous writers)
- Πίναξ τῶν ἐν παιδείᾳ λαμψάντων(Pinax tōn en paideiai lampsantōn, Table of eminent writers)
Period covered:
Homer-author's time
Language:
Greek
State of Preservation:
Fragmentary
Genre:
- Biography (collective)
Remarks:
The Onomatologos, which was a source for the Suda, consisted of entries describing the lives and works of secular authors from Homer to Hesychius' own time. According to a remark in the Suda (H 611), the Onomatologos, in its original form, did not include any Christian authors. It was probably organized by genre rather than alphabetically (Wentzel 1895: 57-63, but see Treadgold 2010: 275). Hesychius indirectly used the 'Register of distinguished men in all of scholarship and what they wrote' by Callimachus of Cyrene.
The Onomatologos was reedited and epitomized in the ninth century. The editor is likely to have been Ignatius the Deacon, who combined it with entries on ecclesiastical authors. The epitome of Ignatius, known as the Hesychius Epitome, was compiled between 843 and 845, and is entirely lost. The Suda has more than 800 biographical entries that are likely to derive from the Hesychius Epitome (Treadgold 2010: 273-274). Photius has used the Onomatologos for his Bibliotheca (Schamp 1987: 52-68).
Sources: