Horses for courses: Plato’s vocabulary and authority in the Onomasticon

Abstract

Abstract The Onomasticon by Julius Pollux is more than just a word-hoard: Pollux’s work actively mediates, through lexicographic appraisal, the cultural assets and anxieties of the Second Sophistic. In the light of the ongoing debate among the Imperial intellectuals and specifically Platonists about the value of style and diction as ingredients of the Platonic text, the numerous references to Plato’s vocabulary from across the Onomasticon bespeak an essentially coherent yet ambivalent attitude. Pollux cites Platonic words both appreciatively (at times, demonstrating reasonable awareness of the philosophical content) and critically; there is a tendency to characterize Plato’s lexical choices as strained and cavalier. As a case study of how Pollux deals with a famous Platonic passage that was held dear by the Middle Platonists and Imperial pepaideumenoi at large, his handling of the epithets used in the description of the two horses in the Chariot Allegory (Phdr. 253d–e) is examined.