The spelling sd for s is a common feature of the textual tradition of
Alcaeus and Sappho, though the inscriptional evidence shows that it is a
late phenomenon. Outside the Lesbian poets, there is no trace of the spelling in any other manuscript tradition than that of two Doric poets: Alman and Theocritus. The evidence for the former is scanty, but not for Theocritus. A clase examination of the manuscript data indicates that sd was felt by the copyst to be a typical bucolic characteristic, and the papyri confirm the process of analogical extensions suffered by the medieval manuscripts.
