Onomatologos : Studies in Greek Personal Names presented to Elaine Matthews

onomatologos is a term used in later antiquity to describe eminent lexicographers such as Hesychius and Pollux as 'collectors of words', but here it is used as the title for a major volume of papers prepared in honour of Elaine Matthews, recently retired long-serving editor of the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names (LGPN): a 'collector of names'. The LGPN, conceived by Peter Fraser, has had as its primary aim the documentation on a geographical basis of the personal names attested between the earliest use of the Greek alphabet (c. 750 BC) and the early seventh century AD throughout the Hellenic and hellenized world, wherever the Greek language and script was used. The 55 contributions to this volume reflect well the wide range of LGPN itself, extending to all points of the compass far beyond the Greek heartlands bordering the Aegean sea. Besides their honorific purpose, it is hoped that the contributions will further advance this field of study, revealing some of the potential that has been unlocked by the steady building of a solid edifice stemming from the accumulation of much new evidence, mainly from inscriptions and papyri, over the last century.