I composti greci in Fulgenzio: nuove proposte filologiche

The present paper offers a textual-critical discussion of the Greek terms used by Fulgentius in the etymological explanations reported in the Mythologiarum libri and the Expositio Virgilianae continentiae. In most cases, the standard edition (Helm 1898) prints these terms as compounds. Such compounds, however, not only are unparalleled in ancient texts, and fail to conform to the rules of formation of Greek compounds, but, more importantly, do not correspond to the Latin translations offered by Fulgentius. In some cases, the compounds printed by Helm do not even correspond to the way the text is transmitted in medieval manuscripts. The present paper suggests that Fulgentius never wrote such ‘compounds’, but simply reported phrases of two or more Greek words, which modern editors must print as separate words, not as compounds; such phrases correspond to the explanations offered by Fulgentius himself. The article also offers numerous conjectural suggestions aimed at reconstructing the original text of Fulgentius.