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Indications of Speaker in Greek Dialogue Texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

N. G. Wilson
N. G. Wilson
Affiliation:
Lincoln College, Cambridge
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Extract

The evidence of ancient books points to the surprising conclusion that in texts of drama or prose dialogue changes of speaker were not usually marked by the name of the new speaker. Instead the ancient reader had a colon, sometimes combined with a paragraphus or stroke in the margin, to guide him. The inconvenience of this practice and the muddle it caused need no emphasis. The facts have been assembled for the text of Plato and Lucian by J. Andrieu (Le Dialogue antique, 288 ff.), and for Aristophanes by J. C. B. Lowe (Bull. Inst. Class. Stud, ix (1962), 27–42). As far as prose dialogues are concerned confirmation can be found in an unexpected source: the prologue to the dialogue Eranistes by the fifth-century church father Theodoret (Migne, Patrologia graeca, lxxxiii. 29 b).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , December 1970 , pp. 305
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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References

page 305 note 1 I am indebted to Professor. Ed. Fraenkel for his observations on this note in draft.