Aristophanes of Byzantium
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Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης) of Byzantium (Byzantium, 257–Alexandria, 180 BC) was a Greek scholar, particularly renowned for his work in Homeric scholarship, but also for work on other classical authors such as Pindar and Hesiod. He succeeded Eratosthenes as head librarian of the Library of Alexandria.
Aristophanes is credited with the invention of the accent system used in Greek to designate pronunciation, as the tonal, pitched system of archaic and classical Greek was giving way (or had given way) to the stress-based system of koine. This was also a period when Greek, in the wake of Alexander's conquests, was beginning to act as a lingua franca for the Eastern Mediterranean (replacing various Semitic languages). The accents were designed to assist in the pronunciation of Greek in older literary works.
See also
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