An Intermediate Greek Lexicon: Founded Upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon

Greek itself is a bigger and more complex language than Latin, but the task of the lexicographer with Greek is in some ways easier. Greek is a much more self-contained language, although it was written in antiquity in a large variety of dialects, and the dialect that predominates in its literature, the Attic dialect of Athens, is in many ways idiosyncratic and untypical. In compiling this volume the editors have decided, very reasonably, to include all vocabulary from Homer to the end of the Attic period, and also to include some important extras, notably words used in the Koine of the New Testament. These days it is likely that the proportion of students of Greek who approach it with a view to studying scripture is higher than it was half a century and more ago, in proportion as traditional classical studies have declined. With this in mind I started with a scriptural word, and I got an unpleasant shock. The word 'skarphos', the supposed 'mote' in someone's eye in Matthew, is not even there. I picked this word because skarphos means a stick, not a mote, and I had wished to see how the dictionary dealt with it. Not at all was the answer I got. I had better luck with a dozen or so other words, but even in such a small set of searches I also found that the Grecised equivalent of the Latin coin a 'quadrans' is not there either.

The real reason for deficiencies of this kind is that the focus is strongly on Attic, and properly so when this work was put together a century and a quarter ago. They have a brave go at Homer, but some familiar old nonsense is still here in my pristine-quality new volume. Could you be capable of supposing that Homer talked about 'convoluted cows' or 'crumpled cows'? I thought not. Translating 'helikas bous' as 'cows with crumpled horns' may save embarrassment, but the Greek says nothing about horns. The ancient scholars told us that this 'helix' is a word meaning dark or black, coincidental in form with the word for a whorl. They give no further explanation, but it certainly makes better sense to think of 'helikopes' when applied to the Achaeans as meaning 'dark eyed' and not some ludicrous image of them characterised by rolling their eyes, which is what the dictionary would have us believe. If the expression may be forgiven, I consider these poor crumpled cows to be my betes noires. They are just black cows, the poor things. Again, the reader of book IV of the Odyssey is brought up short at the end of the very first line with the adjective 'ketoessan' applied to Lacedaemon. I suppose it has to be translated as something, but in the first place the ancient commentators make no bones about it that the meaning of the word was long lost even in their time, and in the second 'cavernous' is not even true.

If I seem to focus overly on shortcomings I would do the same with any other dictionary. Sometimes we know no better and have to trust the dictionary, but when we do know better there is no reason for superstitious awe. This book is an excellent practical solution to the unwieldy 2-volume format of the original Liddell and Scott. Some urges will just not be denied, and I simply have to read Greek again. I am encouraged and not a little excited at how well in general my memory has retained my Greek over nearly half a century, and I have every confidence in the basic work of reference that I have just acquired in this convenient shape and size.