HESYCHIUS, grammarian of Alexandria, probably flourished in the 5th century A.D. He was probably a pagan; and the explana tions of words from Gregory of Nazianzus and other Christian writers are later interpolations. He has left a Greek dictionary, explaining peculiar words, forms and phrases, often with a refer ence to the author who used them or to the district of Greece where they were current. Hence the book is of great value for the study of the Greek dialects; and in the restoration of the text of classical authors, and particularly of such writers as Aeschylus and Theocritus, who used many unusual words. Many of the ex planations give important facts about the religion and social life of the ancients. Hesychius says that his lexicon is based on that of Diogenianus (itself extracted from an earlier work by Pamphilus), but that he has also used similar works by Aristarchus, Apion, Heliodorus and others.
The best edition is by M. Schmidt (1858-68) ; in a smaller edition (1867) he attempts to distinguish the additions made by Hesychius to the work of Diogenianus.