Positive evidence from the extant writings of Phrynichus as to which writers were approved we find for the orators at pp. 37 L., 103 R., and 379 L., 474 R.; for Plato p. 37 L., 103 R. al.; for Thucydides p. 312 L., 366 R. al.; for old comedy p. 37 L., 103 R. al.; for Aristophanes p. 323 L., 370 R., al.[1]
To these Atticists, whose literary souls lived in the glorious age of Athenian ascendancy, the speech of their contemporaries was barbarous and unfit for the purposes of literature, composed as it was of words from every dialect spoken in Greece, with the addition of Hebrew, Egyptian and other foreign elements. Attic alone was the medium of good literature; words from any other dialect were at once condemned (e.g. Phryn. p. 358 L., 463 R., al., esp. p. [270 L. adn. cr.] 338 R.).
This attitude of theirs met with a good deal of opposition even in their own day, and many writers like Galen[2] and Plutarch[3] refused to be bound by rules so strict; though Galen himself has been accused of lapsing into the critical spirit of the Atticists.[4] The influence of the Atticists, however, affected them also.[5] This school is represented among grammarians by the Antiatticist[6] in Bekker's Anecd. Graec. I p. 75–116, and by Pollux.[7] They approved of words used in Homer and Ionic writers, and even in new comedy.
- ↑ For the full list see Nächster, De Pollucis et Phrynichi controversiis, diss. Lips., 1908, pp. 14 ff.
- ↑ Galen de Alim. Fac. VI p. 633 Kühn; VI p. 584 Kühn; al. freq.
- ↑ Plut. Mor. 42 D. The attitude of Lucian was hostile also; cf. his Lexiphanes and Ῥητόρων Διδάσκολος.
- ↑ Guil. Herbst, Galeni Pergameni de atticissantium studiis testimonia, Marburg 1910, p. 27 says "Ipse ergo Galenus Atticismi praeceptis, quamquam sexcenties adunco naso ea suspendit, plane se liberare non potest." In the part of the work published as a dissertation he fails to prove this contention. Manifestly no argument can be based on the passage to which this note is attached: Galen VI 779 K. Galen mentions the fact that certain writers of his day use φοινικοβάλανος for the fruit of the date-palm instead of φοῖνιξ and asserts that this word does not occur in the works of the older writers. This does not constitute a defense of Atticism. On the contrary, he says that the word he prefers is used by all the Ἕλληνες. We may note in passing that his use of this latter term is untechnical.
- ↑ Wilamowitz, Griech. Lit.1 p. 146.
- ↑ See Schmid, Atticismus III p. 347; Christ, Griech. Litt.4 p. 802; Thumb, Griech. Dial. p. 362.
- ↑ See Nächster, l. c. pp. 12, 17 ff. for a full discussion of his attitude.
