ESICHIO di ALESSANDRIA. - Greek lexicographer, of whom we possess only the scant information contained in the title of his work, itself, moreover, considered spurious by some without serious reason; conjectures concerning the period of his life range from the fourth century to the latest Byzantine age.
He is the author of a vast Greek lexicon, which essentially derives from that of Diogeniano di Eraclea, who lived in the age of Adriano. The numerous interpolations to which the lexicon (preserved for us in abridged form) has been subject are demonstrated, among other things, by the fact that it does not observe the order proposed in the preface addressed to Eulogio. In all probability E. was a pagan. Since numerous biblical and ecclesiastical glosses are found in the text of his work, it has been thought that it was contaminated with that of a namesake, whom some have wished to identify with a bishop E. of the third century, a translator of Holy Scripture. But since this hypothesis rests on no secure foundations, those interpolations are generally held to be of late date. Indeed, the true value of the work lies in its quotations from ancient texts and in the information it provides on Greek dialects: it has therefore made possible in modern times the correction of a good number of erroneous readings.