Matteo Moretti

This article examines the two examples of ‘lengthened name’ (ἐπεκτεταμένον ὄνομα) given by Aristotle in chapter 21 of the Poetics. It argues that the generally printed text is unsatisfactory because it does not serve the purpose of Aristotle’s examples well. In the case of the first example, the article suggests that a branch of the manuscript tradition other than the one privileged by most editors should be followed, while in the case of the second, a conjecture is offered. An appendix is devoted to highlighting a detail of William of Moerbeke’s translation of the first example.

This article deals with a complicated philological problem in section 133 of Epicurus’ Epistle to Menoeceus. There is a lacuna in the text; various supplements have been proposed, but the resulting syntax remains anomalous. This article argues that the interpretation of the syntax which underlies all the most influential supplements proposed to date, from Usener to Sedley and beyond, should be rejected. A new suggestion is put forward, based on a different syntactical interpretation and on a careful new analysis of the readings preserved in MS P.