Water Creatures in Eustathius’ Latin Hexaemeron. A Lexical Challenge

Abstract

The Latin translation of Basil of Caesarea’s Hexaemeron ascribed to the relatively obscure Eustathius (written around 400) is notable if only for the remarkable vocabulary it employs. In contrast to Ambrose’s Hexameron, Eustathius provides a literal ‘service translation’, in order to render Basil’s text accessible to readers who do not know Greek. In this paper, a number of lexical innovations are investigated, the majority of which fall into the category of nominal compounds. The investigation demonstrates that Eustathius is exploring the unrealised potential of lexical innovation of the Latin language under the influence of the Greek text he is translating, and shows how far such creativity could be taken in 5th-century Latin by a bilingual, educated writer.