Prose Elements in the Vocabulary of Aeschylus' Oresteia: an Exploratory Study

Abstract

<p>This work is an attempt to determine, in some preliminary fashion at least, the extent to which Aeschylus made use of the same words that a prose author writing at about the same time would have employed. The Oresteia trilogy alone is considered, due to the shortness of the time available. The usage of those authors of Greek prose previous to the fourth century B.C. (and, to some extent, those previous to the third century as well) is used as a criterion of "prosaicness". A trial is made at correlating prosaicness of vocabulary with character and type of speech, the t-ratio being employed as a statistical test; certain other points are also discussed.</p>