A two-faced tradition: the common variants of the Homeric text between reading and writing

The ‘common ἀνάγνωσις’, is quoted in the Homeric scholia, deriving from Herodian, Nicanor, Aristonicus and, perhaps, Didymus as a source of prosodic variants, in cases of ambiguity in word division and for the interpretation of logical and syntactical connections within the text. The Homeric scholia also offer evidence of the ‘common γραφή’, expression by which the common written variants are sometimes indicated, variants involving the sequence of letters. This essay aims to investigate the second group of occurrences in order to shed light on the differences between the variants handed down through the common pronunciation, referred to by the ancient exegetes, and the written variants defined as common in the scholia, both constitutive elements of the ancient vulgate of the Homeric text.