ABSTRACT
This chapter presents role of vocabulary in Byzantine rhetoric as a stylistic device, by quoting some monstrous Byzantine compounds, partly formed in the manner of Aristophanes, and by trying to translate them. It describes 'internal Byzantine mimesis', to be distinguished from the usual stylistic mimesis of ancient writers. The predilection of Byzantine authors for hyperbolic expressions, used for honorary titles and in respectful address, is very well known. In this regard we should not divide the sources into literary and non-literary categories, but rather look at them as an all-embracing general form of rhetorical practice. Yet there is one product of rhetorical hagiography which shows peculiar features as to vocabulary, and that is an encomium on Bartholemew the Younger of Grottaferrata, written by an anonymous author, apparently in the thirteenth century. The chapter also presents some new details which might be of some use for our better understanding of medieval Greek language and literature.
