ὄστρακον
ostrakon
earthen vessel
Appears 77 times across Aristotle's works.
Frequency by work
Click a work to list every occurrence by Bekker number — each links into the reader.
Dictionary (LSJ)
ὄστρακον, τό, A. earthen vessel, Ra. 1190, Ec. 1033, 3.28, 4.6; flower-pot, HP 6.7.3. 2. fragment of such a vessel, potsherd, 42(1).121.82 (Epid., iv B. C., pl.), Ps. 21.16, al., Ostr. 1152, etc.; ἰπνοῦ ὄστρακα Morb. 2.47; esp. the potsherd used in voting (v. ὀστρακίζω): hence τοὔστρακον παροίχεται the danger of ostracism is past, 71; τὰ ὄστρακα, = ὀστρακισμός, 187; τὸ ὄ. ἐπιφέρειν τινί to vote for any oneʼs banishment, Alc. 13, cf. Per. 14. 3. ὀστράκου περιστροφή, of the game ὀστρακίνδα (q. v.), R. 521c; so ὀστράκου μεταπεσόντος ‘if heads become tails’, Phdr. 241b. 4. earthenware castanet, ἡ τοῖς ὀ. κροτοῦσα [Μοῦσα], of the poetry of Euripides, Ra. 1305. II. the hard shell of snails, mussels, cuttle-fishes, tortoises, etc., h.Merc. 33, Ichn. 303 (dub.l.), Steril. 245, 9.25, HA 528a4, etc.: hence, tortoise-shell or mother-of-pearl, κλιντῆρες ὀστράκοις . . ἐνδεδεμένοι prob. l. in 1.666; the shell at the base of the constellation Lyra, Alm. 7.5. 2. egg-shell, ἀπτῆνα . . , ἄρτι γυμνὸν ὀστράκων Fr. 337, cf. GA 754a2.
Key passages & sense analysis (Bonitz)
Index Aristotelicus. Hermann Bonitz's sense-by-sense analysis of
ὄστρακον — with the passages
he singles out as decisive for each meaning — will appear here. That curated,
interpretive selection is the layer LSJ and a raw concordance don't provide.
Digitisation in progress; this entry is not yet available.
‹ All lexicon entries