This is a posting of the (nearly) defunct sci.classics FAQ. The old FAQ
maintainer, Jamieson Norrish, is no longer at Victoria University of
Wellington, NZ, and no one has stepped forward to take up the FAQ. I was
one of the mailing-list members responsible for the FAQ, and offered at
the time to take it on; no one ever said anything either way.
This was last posted on 4 Aug 1996. As it stands, it is not really a FAQ,
but it's the best we've got till I can file on this.
The "FAQ" follows:
This is the list of frequently asked questions (and their answers) for
the newsgroup sci.classics. There are bibliographies for novice and
knowledgable students of the classics, glossaries and compendia of
mythological characters.
Where possible, pointers to existing information (such as books,
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If you haven't already done so, now is as good a time as any to read
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List of Answers
0 What Is Classics?
1 Questions
1.1 How should I pronounce Ancient Greek?
1.2 What are the best translations of ...?
1.3 Who was ...?
1.4 What are the famous classical authors?
1.5 How do I translate ...?
2 Bibliographies
2.1 Introductory Bibliography
2.2 Advanced Bibliography
2.3 Specialist Bibliography
2.4 Introductory Latin
2.4.1 Classical
2.4.2 Medieval
2.4.3 Specialised
2.5 Advanced Latin
2.6 Introductory Greek
2.7 Advanced Greek
3 Mythological Deities
4 Timeline
5 Glossary
6 Computer Readable Materials
7 Radio Programming
0 What Is Classics?
Good question. As used in academia, "Classics" or "Classical Studies"
(with a capital C) or the adjective "classical" refer to the
discipline described below, rather than to good books from any period.
The discipline of Classics is the study of Greek and Roman
civilization, from Homer to Constantine, but including study of the
direct antecedents of Greece and Rome in the prehistoric period of
southern Europe and their descendants in the Middle Ages. This
encompasses both the Greek and Latin languages and their literature,
including poetry, drama, history, philosophy, rhetoric, religion and
political theory, as well as art, architecture, and archaeology.
Precise chronological boundaries are difficult to establish, but the
most common feature is the relevance of the period or material to
Greek and/or Latin texts. An increasing number of classicists are
devoting their energies to later Latin texts, including neo-Latin
(relatively modern) original works, and to prehistory or linguistics,
especially in archaeology.
Note on Dates: All dates in this FAQ are given using BCE and CE rather
than BC and AD. Michael Covington notes:
Some people take the use of BCE and CE in place of BC and AD as an
anti-Christian gambit. I don't take it that way; Jesus wasn't
born in exactly 1 A.D., and saying BCE and CE makes it clear we
are using the conventional year-numbering rather than counting
years from the actual birth of Christ.
1 Questions And Answers
Commonly asked questions appear here:
1.1 How should I pronounce...
1.1.1 Ancient Greek?
Technical Answer:
Ancient Greek had dialects and regional inflections, so asking
how it was pronounced is like asking how English is pronounced
today. The original inhabitants of Greece were not
greek-speakers, but spoke a lost non-Indo-European language
(traces remain in some place-names).
People who spoke what we call the greek language migrated into
the Balkan peninsula during the Aegean bronze age, ~2200BCE.
From about 1200BCE to 850 BCE, there were several migrations
of Dorians, themselves Greek speakers, into the Peloponese,
following the demise of the Mycenaean realm.
There were at least five main dialects of greek spoken during
this time: Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadian, Doric, and North-West
Greek.
Prior to the demise of Mycenae, there seems to have been a
North/South split in Greek dialects, with Arcado-Cypriot and
Attic-Ionic descending from South Greek, and Doric and Aeolic
from North Greek. This accords better with the early
inscriptions than the East/West divison usually noted on the
basis of post-Mycenaean data only.
Practical Answer:
It depends on who you ask. Most Europeans and Americans use
what's called the "Erasmian" pronounciation, which is nothing
like modern Greek. Native speakers of Modern Greek use the
Modern Greek pronounciation. Others use less common systems.
In actuality, Ancient Greek was probably nothing like ANY of
the pronounciations commonly used. It was probably a
pitch-accent language, with the closest analogue being perhaps
Japanese.
1.1.2 Latin
A Summary of Classical Latin Pronunciation (from Vox Latina)
a short As first a in Italian amare (as vowel of English cup: not as cap)
a long As second a in Italian amare ( as a in English father)
ae As in English high
au As in English how
b (1) As English b
(2) Before t or s: as English p
c As English or (better) French `hard' c, or English k
ch As c in emphatic pronunciation of English cat
d As English or French d
e short As in English pet
e long As in French gai or German Beet
ei As in English day
eu pronounced as a quick slide from e to y (see below).
f As English f
g (1) As English `hard' g
(2) gn: as ngn in English hangnail
h As English h
i short As in English dip
i long As in English deep
i cons (1) As English y
(2) Between vowels: = [yy]
k As English k
l (1) Before vowels: as l in English lay
(2) Before consonants and at end of word: as l in English field or hill
m (1) At the beginning or in middle of word: as English m
(2) At the end of word (after a vowel): as in French nasalized vowel
n (1) As n in English net
(2) Before c, g, qu: as n in anger
(3) Before fricatives (f, s) somewhat assimilated
o short As in English (R.P.) pot (not American pot)
o long As in French beau or German Boot
oe As in English boy
p As English or (better) French p
ph As p in emphatic pronunciation of English pig
qu As qu in English quick
r As in Scottish `rolled' r
s As in English sing or ss in lesson (N.B. never as in English roses)
t As English or (better) French t
th As t in emphatic pronunciation of English terrible
u short As in English put
u long As in English fool
u cons As English w
ui No English equivalent but think of slurring ooi
x As English x in box
y As in French u or German u (umlaut)
z (1) As English z
(2) Between vowels: = [zz]
(3) Perhaps in rendering some Greek words: = [zd]
1.2 What are the best translations of ...?
Good question :-)
Translations into English of most of the popular classical authors may
be found along with great authors of other periods in the Penguin
Classics series.
1.3 Who was ... ?
See section 2 for references to bibliographical dictionaries or
encyclopaediae.
1.4 What are the famous classical authors?
While a complete list of even important authors cannot be given here,
the ones below commonly appear on reading lists of graduate
departments of Classics. The format is:
Author's Name
dates: (approximate)
language of composition: (language in which the works were written)
genre: (quick & dirty encapsulation)
style: (some elaboration of the above category, with notes on meter,
dialect)
diff : (difficulty; of course, highly subjective. Rated from 1-10,
easiest to hardest :))
works: (not necessarily complete; fragmentary works excluded)
fun fact: (sometimes not very much fun and often descending to the
level of gossip)
Note that both Greek and Latin authors are together in the same list;
to distinguish between them, check the "language of composition"
field.
Aeschylus
dates: 525-456 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: drama
style: Classical Attic tragedy
diff : 8
works: Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Agamemnon, Libation-Bearers,
Eumenides, Supplices, Prometheus Bound
fun fact: Aeschylus was accidentally killed when an eagle dropped a
tortoise on his bald head, mistaking him for a stone. Definitely an
urban legend, but one which has existed since classical times.
Apollonius Rhodius
dates: flourished 3rd century BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: epic
style: Homeric vocabulary with some bold new similes and
anthropological/aetiological touches
diff : 6
works: Argonautica
fun fact: feuded with his teacher, Callimachus
Aristophanes
dates: 457-385 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: drama
style: Old Comedy
diff : 9
works: Acharnians, Knights, Clouds, Wasps, Peace, Birds, Lysistrata,
Thesmophorizeusae (Female Celebrants of the Thesmophoria festival), Frogs,
Ecclesiazeusae (Female Legislators), Wealth
fun fact: Among his favorite targets for satire included the
philosopher Socrates (in Clouds), the Tragic playwright Euripides (in Frogs),
and the politician Cleon (in Knights).
Aristotle
dates: 384-322 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: treatises on philosophy, ethics, natural science, political science,
literary criticism
style: Attic prose
diff : 7
works: Metaphysics, De Anima, Nichomachean Ethics, History of Animals,
Physics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics [fragmentary]
fun fact: wrote accounts of the constitutions of 158 Greek states.
Caesar (Julius)
dates: c.100-15 March 44 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: Commentaries (diaries of his military and political career)
style: concise and objective at first sight; really, a praise for his
own and his army's work. Refers to himself in the third person.
diff : 2
works: De bello gallico (The Gallic Wars), De bello civili (The Civil War)
fun fact:
Callimachus
dates: 305-240 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: verse (epigram, narrative elegy, satiric iambic, hexameter hymn,
epyllion [little epic])
style: learned, allusive
diff : 7
works: Epigrams from Greek Anthology, Aetia (Causes), Iambics, Hymns, Hecale
fun fact: Hecale, an epyllion, gets its name from the elderly woman who
lets Theseus crash at her house while on his way to slay the bull of Marathon.
Catullus
dates: 87-54 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: verse, elegies
style:
diff : 6
works: Carmina
fun fact:
Cicero
dates: 106-43 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: prose, political and legal oratory, philosophical dialogues and essays
style:
diff : 3
works: Orations: Catilinariae, Pro Caelio, In Caium Verrem (Against
Caius Verres), Pro Archia, Pro Domo Sua, Pro Milone. Rhetorical
essays: De Oratore, Orator, Brutus. Philosophical essays: De re
publica, De legibus, Tusculanae disputationes, Cato Maior De
senectute, Laelius de amicitia, De officiis. Letters: Ad Quintum
Fratrem, Ad Atticum, Ad familiares, Ad Marcum Brutum
fun fact:
Demosthenes
dates: 384-322
language of composition: Greek
genre: political and legal oratory
style: varied, avoids hiatus and successions of short syllables
diff : 4
works: For Phormio, Olynthiacs, Philippics, On the Crown
fun fact: sued his guardians for mismanagement of his inheritance at age 21.
Euripides
dates: 485-406 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: drama
style: Classical Attic tragedy
diff : 7 dialogue 10 choruses
works: Medea, Hippolytus, Ion, Bacchae, Iphigenia in Tauris, Helen,
Alcestis, The Suppliant Women, Electra, Hecabe, Heracles, The Women of
Troy
fun fact: We have more of Euripides than of any other Attic tragedian
because we have not only ten plays representing "the best of Euripides"
but also nine plays which seem to be from the epsilon through kappa volume
of the complete works of Euripides.
Herodotus
dates: 484-420 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: prose history
style: uses Ionian dialect lots of ethnography and anecdotes
diff : 5
works: Histories
fun fact: first surviving prose history in Greek
Hesiod
dates: flourished 700 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: creation-myth in verse, didactic poetry
style: epic vocabulary
diff : 6
works: Theogony, Works and Days
fun fact: Works and Days is ostensibly addressed to his MEGA NHPIE
(very foolish) brother Perses and consists of advice on practical skills
(farming, sailing, etc).
Homer
dates: eighth-sixth centuries BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: epic
style: brief, striking similes, about half each work is dialogue
diff : 5
works: Iliad, Odyssey
fun fact: "Homer" is usually considered scholarly shorthand for an
oral-formulaic tradition perhaps dating back to the fifteenth century
BCE that was written down during the above dates.
Horace
dates: 65-8 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre:
style:
diff :
works: Odes, Carmen Saeculare, Satires, Ars Poetica
fun fact:
Livy
dates: 59 BCE - 17 CE
language of composition: Latin
genre: history
style: language is poetic and expressive, characters easily become
heroes, influenced by hellenistic historians
diff : 9
works: Ab Urbe Condita Libri
fun fact: Legend has it that a man came all the way from Cadiz just to
look at him.
Lucretius
dates: c.99-c55 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: Philosophy and biology
style: Deep psycological investigation, rich and carefully controlled
language
diff : 8
works: De Rerum Natura
fun fact: Poisoned himself with a love potion, wrote the poem in lucid
moments (maybe lucid), committed suicide (slander of St. Jerome)
Lysias
dates: 459-380 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: political and legal oratory
style: smooth, moderate
diff : 6
works: Oration 1 (Against Eratosthenes), Oration 32 (Against Diogiton)
fun fact: Originally from Syracuse, Lysias and his brothers Polemarchus and
Euthydemus owned a shield-making workshop in the Piraeus.
Menander
dates: 342-289 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: drama
style: New Comedy
diff : 7
works: The Grouch, She Who Was Shorn, The Samian, Dis Exapaton (The
Double Deceiver)
fun fact: Menander was for the most part lost until this century, when
numerous papyrus fragments of Menander came to light.
Ovid
dates: 43 BCE - c.17 CE
language of composition: Latin
genre:
style:
diff :
works: Metamorphoses, Tristia, Ars Amatoria
fun fact:
Philostratus
dates: 170 - 245 CE
language: Greek
genre: biography
style: artificial
difficulty: 8
works: Lives of the Sophists, Life of Apollonius of Tyana
fun fact:
for further information: http://magna.com.au/~prfbrown/a_tyana0.html
Pindar
dates: 518-438 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: victory ode
style: uses a huge variety of meters and myths
diff : 9
works: Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian Odes, all to celebrate
victories in Greek athletic contests
fun fact: In Olympian 1, he criticizes earlier poets for spreading lies
about how the gods ate Pelops' shoulder.
Plato
dates: 429-347 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: philosophy
style: idiosyncratic Attic prose
diff : 3
works: Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Republic
fun fact: Early dialogues often show Socrates and an interlocutor
wrestling with a question which neither answers, but Socrates' achievement
is getting the interlocutor to admit that he does not know the answer.
Plautus, Titus Maccius
dates: 250-184 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: comedy
style: popular and brilliant, basically founded on mistakes, sometimes
vulgar. Some "archaic" features.
diff : 8 (He uses colloquial Latin)
works: Amphitruo, Asinaria (The comedy of the donkeys), Aulularia (The
comedy of the pot), Captivi (THe prisoners), Curculio (The weevil), Casina,
Cistellaria (Comedy of the box), Epidicus, Bacchides, Mostellaria (Comedy of
the Ghost), Menaechmi, Miles gloriosus (The blusterer soldier), Mercator
(the merchant), Pseudolus, Poenulus (The man from Cartaghe), Persa (The
persian), Rudens (The rope), Stichus, Trinummus (The three coins),
Truculentus, Vidularia (The comedy of the case)
fun fact:
Pliny (the Younger)
dates: 61/62-c.112 CE
language of composition: Latin
genre:
style:
diff :
works: Letters
fun fact:
Plutarch
dates: 50-120 CE
language of composition: Greek
genre: prose (especially biography)
style: many metaphors
diff : 2
works: Lives, Moralia (rhetorical treatises, moral essays, philosophical
dialogues and treatises, antiquarian works)
fun fact: For the last thirty years of his life, he was a priest at Delphi.
Propertius
dates: 1st century BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: poetry (elegies)
style:
diff :
works: Elegies (four books)
fun fact:
Seneca (the elder)
dates:
language of composition: Latin
genre: drama, letters
style:
diff :
works: Letter, Medea
fun fact:
Seneca (the younger)
dates: 55 BCE - 65 CE
language of composition: Latin
genre:
style:
diff:
works:
fun fact:
Sophocles
dates: 496-406 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: drama
style: Classical Attic tragedy
diff : 7
works: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Ajax, Electra,
Women of Trachis, Philoctetes
fun fact: According to Aristotle, he introduced to Tragedy the third
actor, scene-painting, and the fifteen-man (as opposed to the twelve-man)
chorus.
fun fact II: When he was about 90 years old, his heirs decided they
couldn't wait for their inheritance any more. So they applied to the
court for guardianship, explaining that Sophocles was not in his
proper mind any more and needed someone to take of his finances. At
that moment he was writing Oedipus at Colonus and in court he just
read what he had done so far. He didn't get any guardians.
Suetonius
dates: 69-140 CE
language of composition: Latin
genre: biography (mostly)
style:
diff :
works: The Twelve Caesars
fun fact: Had access to the Imperial Archives.
Tacitus
dates: 56/57 - (not before) 115 CE
language of composition: Latin
genre: history
style: very odd!
diff: 8
works: Annals, Germania, Agricola, Histories, Dialogus
fun fact:
Terence
dates: c. 195-159 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: comedy
style: very deep psycological investigation in his characters, frequent
monologues; inspired by Menander, he was never loved by his
contemporaries
diff : 7
works: Andria, Hecyra (The mother-in-law), Adelphoe (The brothers),
Heautontimoroumenos (The self-punisher), Eunuchus (The eunuch),
Phormio
fun fact:
Theocritus
dates: 300-260 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: bucolic lyric/mime
style: polished, deceptively simple
diff : 6
works: 31 short poems
fun fact: Poem 11 is a love song sung by the Cyclops Polyphemus to the
nymph Galatea, who has rejected him.
Thucydides
dates: 460-400 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: prose history
style: some poeticisms, elliptical, likes antithesis
diff : 10 (hardest prose author)
works: Peloponnesian War
fun fact: His account of Pericles' funeral oration, a wonderful piece
of pro-Athenian propaganda, is followed by a harrowing account of the
plague that struck Athens shortly afterward. He was the first
historian to dispense with "gods" and "oracles" as machinery of
explanation.
Tibullus, Albius
dates: 54-19 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: elegy
style: limpid and free of myths. Wrote of life in the country
sweetened by love
diff : 5
works: Corpus Tibullianum: the first two books are authentic, the
third is in doubt. He wrote elegies to Delia (First book) and Nemesis
(Second book)
fun fact:
Virgil Maro, Publius
dates: 15th October 70 - 19 BCE
language of composition: Latin
genre: idyll, epic
style: idyll: influenced by Teocritus, writes of shepherds' and
peasants' life in a celebrating way; epics: he tells the mytical
stories of Rome celebrating its origin and rulers in a clear and very
musical hexameter
diff : 6
works: The Aeneid, Georgics, Eclogues/Bucolics
fun fact:
Xenophon
dates: 428-354 BCE
language of composition: Greek
genre: prose (history, philosophy, treatise, etc.)
style: simple
diff : 1
works: Hellenica, Anabasis (March Upcountry), Household Manager
fun fact: The Anabasis, about the retreat of Greek mercenaries after
their employer Cyrus, brother to the Persian king Artakserksis, was
deposed in a coup, features a wonderful scene in which the Greeks at
last reach the sea and shout "THALATTA, THALATTA!!!" (The sea, the
sea!!!).
1.5 How do I translate ...?
You can make a post, and maybe it will be answered. You can buy a
pocket Latin<->English or Greek<->English dictionary, and do it
yourself. If you have access to a Classics Department, asking them
might prove helpful.
1.6 On what day did the week start in Roman times?
Quoting from "The Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris
and American Ephemeris and Nautical Alamanc" :
"The week was not originally an integrtal part of any calendar; in
its present form, it gradually became established in the Roman
calendar during the one or two centuries preceding the Christian
era. The Mosaic Law enjoining abstinence from work on every
seventh day had established the 7-day period as a Jewish measure of
time, and this Jewish week later passed into the Christian Church.
Meanwhile, shortly before the Christian era, an astrological
practice had arisen of attaching the names of the seven "planets",
the term at that time including the Sun and Moon, in cyclic
succession to successive days, in the order in which the planets
were supposed to rule the days. The planetary designations of the
days rapidly acquired widespread popularity, and became the
predominant usage throughout the Roman Empire. The coincidence in
the number of days in this astrological cycle with the number of
days in the entirely independent Jewish week led to the gradual
establishment of the planetary week without official recognition,
either civil or ecclestical."
The same source gives two references:
Gandz, S. "The Origin of the Planetary Week" Proc. Amer. Acad. for
Jewish Research, vol. 18, 213-254, 1949.
Colson, F.H., "The week" Cambirdge University Press, 1926.
Originally each *hour* of the day was governed by a different planet
(the doctrine of "chronocratories"; cf. "horoscope", "to observe the
hours"), and whichever planet fell on the first hour could be said to
open the day.
The seven planets divide the 24 hours three times with a remainder of
three; hence, if you cycle through the planetary sequence:
Saturn - Jupiter - Mars - Sun - Venus - Mercury - Moon
By taking every third planet, you will get:
Saturn - Sun - Moon - Mars - Mercury - Jupiter - Venus.
2 Bibliographies
2.1 Introductory Bibliography
If you know nothing about the classics, some recommended books are
listed here. They assume no knowledge, and will give you a sound
grasp in the basics.
%T The Oxford Classical Dictionary
%A (ed.) H.H. Scullard
%D 1970
%Z This gives solid (if unimaginative) articles on all major authors
%Z and subjects in Greek and Latin, usually with good bibliographies
%Z as well.
%T L'Annee Philologique
%Z THE bibliography of the classics -- it's not on computer yet, but
%Z give them time.
%T The Sound of Greek
%A W. B. Stanford
%T The Pronunciation and Reading of Ancient Greek: A Practical Guide
%A Stephen G. Daitz
%T Vox Graeca
%A W. Sidney Allen
%T Vox Latina
%A W. Sidney Allen
%T Pelican history of Greek literature
%A Peter Levi
%I Pelican
2.2 Advanced Bibliography
If, having completed a preliminary reading in the subject, you decide
you enjoy classics, here are books to give you more knowledge.
2.3 Specialised Bibliography
If you decide you are only interested in a narrow field of classics,
here are books that will extend your knowledge in one subject.
%T The Legacy of Rome: A New Appraisal
%A ed. Richard Jenkyns
%I Oxford University Press
%D 1992
%T The Legacy of Greece: A New Appraisal
%A ed. M. I. Finley
%I Oxford University Press
%D 1984
%Z Both these are excellent, and each article has suggestions for
%Z further reading.
%T L'Annee Philologique
%A Marouzeau
2.4 Introductory Latin
For the reader with little or no knowledge of Latin.
2.4.1 Classical
%A Balme, Maurice.
%T Oxford Latin course.
%I Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press
%D 1987-1988.
%T Cambridge Latin course. 2nd ed
%I Cambridge <Cambridgeshire> ; New York: Cambridge University Press
for the Schools Council,
%D 1982.
%A Goldman, Norma
%T Latin via Ovid: a first course.
%I Detroit: Wayne State University Press
%D 1977.
%A Griffin, Robin M
%T A student's Latin grammar.
%I North American 3rd ed. Cambridge <England> ; New York: Cambridge
University Press
%D 1992.
%A Jenney, Charles.
%T First year Latin.
%I Boston: Allyn and Bacon
%D <1975>
%A Jenney, Charles
%T Second year Latin. Boston: Allyn and Bacon
%D <1975>
%A Johnston, Patricia A
%T Traditio: an introduction to the Latin language and its influence.
%I New York: Macmillan
%D c1988.
%A Jones, Peter V
%T Reading Latin.
%I Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press
%D 1986.
%A Knudsvig, Glenn M
%T Latin for reading: a beginner's textbook with exercises
%I Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
%D c1982.
%A Lawall, Gilbert
%A Tafe, David
%T Ecce Romani.
%I White Plains, NY: Longman, Inc.
%A Moreland, Floyd L.
%T Latin: an intensive course.
%I <New ed.> Berkeley: University of California Press
%D c1977.
%A Sinkovich, Kathryn A.
%T Intermediate college Latin.
%I Lanham, MD: University Press of America
%D c1984.
%A Wheelock, Frederic M. (revised by R. La Fleur)
%T Latin: An Introductory Course Based on Ancient Authors.
%I 5th Edition. New York: Barnes & Noble
%D 1995.
2.4.2 Medieval
%A Beeson, Charles Henry
%T A primer of Mediaeval Latin; an anthology of prose and poetry.
%I Chicago, Scott, Foresman and Company
%D <c1925>
%A Collins, John F.
%T A primer of ecclesiastical Latin.
%I Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press
%D c1985.
%A Strecker, Karl
%T Introduction to medieval Latin.
%I 5. unveranderte Aufl. Dublin: Weidmann,
%D <c1968>
2.4.3 Specialised
%A Baranov, A.
%T Basic Latin for plant taxonomists.
%I Lehre, J. Cramer,
%D 1971 <c1968>
%A Gooder, Eileen A.
%T Latin for local history: an introduction. 2d ed.
%I London ; New York: Longman,
%D 1978.
%A Howe, George
%T Latin for pharmacists.
%I Philadelphia, P. Blakiston's son & co.
%D <c1916>
%A Stearn, William T.
%T Botanical Latin: history, grammar, syntax, terminology, and
vocabulary.
%A 3rd ed., rev. Newton Abbot, Devon ;
%I North Pomfret, Vt.: David & Charles,
%D 1983.
2.5 Advanced Latin
For the reader with several years study of Latin.
2.6 Introductory Greek
For the reader with little or no knowledge of Greek.
%A Schoder, Raymond V. & Horrigan, Vincent C.
%T A Reading Course in Homeric Greek (Books I & II)
%I Loyola University Press, ISBN 0-8294-0509-7
%D 1985.
%A Liddell, Henry George, & Scott, Robert
%T A Greek-English lexicon
%I Clarendon Press
%D 1961
2.7 Advanced Greek
For the reader with several years study of Greek.
3 Mythological Deities
Never been able to sort out Athena from Venus and remaining
perpetually confused about Mercury's role in life? Look no further.
%A Kravitz, David
%T Who's who in Greek and Roman mythology.
%I New York: C. N. Potter: distributed by Crown Publishers,
%D <1976> c1975.
%A Mercatante, Anthony S.
%T Who's who in Egyptian mythology.
%I New York: C. N. Potter: distributed by Crown Publishers,
%D c1978.
%A Morford, Mark P. O., and Lenardon, R.
%T Classical mythology. 4th ed.
%I New York: Longman,
%D c1991.
%A Powell, B.
%T Classical myth
%I Prentice Hall
%D 1995
%A Reid, J.D.
%T The Oxford guide to classical mythology in the arts 1300-1990's
%I Oxford: Oxford University Press (2 vols)
%D 1993
4 Timeline
GREECE: Bronze Age 3000-1100 BCE
Fall of Troy ~1200
Archaic Period 1100-480
Xerxes' invasion 482
Classical Period 480-323
Peloponnesian War 466-404
Alexander dies 323
Hellenistic Period 323-146
Roman Period 146 BCE - 565 CE
Byzantine Period 565 - 1453 CE
ROME: Regal Period 753-510 BCE
Republic 509-31
Empire 31 BCE -
Golden Age 1st century BCE - early 1st century CE
Silver Age Late 1st Cent CE - 2nd cent CE
"End" of Empire 476 CE
5 Glossary
Providing endless fodder for flamewars, here are some simple
definitions of terms you will meet in classics.
hapax legomenon (Gk., "said once") - a word or idiom attested (i.e.,
found in the body of known works) only once
crasis (Gk., "mixing") - the blending of two adjacent vowels, as when
a final vowel merges with the leading vowel of the following word.
E.g., "to onoma" (Gk., "the name") sometimes becomes "tounoma" (since
o + o = ou in Attic).
asper (L., "harsh") - the rough-breathing mark in Greek, indicating
(under the Erasmian system of pronunciation) a leading "h" sound on a
word beginning with a vowel. Cf. *lenitus.
lenitus (L., "relaxed") - the soft-breathing mark in Greek, indicating
the absence of an "h" sound before a leading vowel. Cf. *asper.
6 Computer Readable Materials
There are several institutions that offer electronic versions of
classics works and texts. They have varying quality and varying
restrictions on their use. Those known of are listed here.
Freely redistributable versions of various Latin texts, including all
of Vergil, Catullus, and Tibullus, and selections from Cicero, Caesar,
Horace, and others, are available from the project Libellus archive at
the University of Washington, Seattle. These can be had, in TeX form,
by anonymous FTP from host ftp.u.washington.edu, directory
/public/libellus/texts; some commentaries and other support files
(including a TeX-to-ASCII converter for the texts) are contained in
the other subdirectories of /public/libellus. These texts and support
files are also available, in a variety of formats (TeX, ASCII, RTF,
PostScript) through an experimental E-mail server, for those who do
not have Internet access; for more information about this service,
send mail to libellus@u.washington.edu with "help" in the message
body. Send comments, questions, etc. to perseant@u.washington.edu.
The Georgetown Catalogue Project for Electronic Texts have a directory
of electronic text projects in the humanities. The catalogues are
available by language and subject, and are available for anonymous FTP
from guvax.georgetown.edu:cpet_projects_in_electronic_text.
The Library at Dartmouth have a huge database containing and
concerning "La Commedia". To use it, telnet to
library.dartmouth.edu
and type
connect dante
Lectures by Robert Hollander on Dante are available for anonymous FTP
in ccat.sas.upenn.edu:/pub/recentiores named BARLOW.README, BARLOW.1,
BARLOW.2 and BARLOW.3.
6.1 Oxford Text Archive
The Oxford Text Archive provides texts with restrictions on
redistribution, usually for cost of copying and shipping. The texts
are of varying quality. The following is taken from their
informational blurb:
> Further details are given in the published Short List
> (which includes an order form) which is printed at least
> once a year. Write to:
>
> Oxford Text Archive
> Oxford University Computing Service
> 13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN, UK
>
> ARCHIVE@VAX.OX.AC.UK
>
> or FTP to black.ox.ac.uk:/ota
They have recently been able to make available some public-domain
texts for FTP.
7 Radio Programming
Currently there are two major shortwave services that provide Latin
programming. They are:
Vatican Radio (daily programming, mostly of a religious nature)
Radio Finland (weekly world news reports)
Times and frequencies are likely to change, so are not included in this
FAQ. Schedule information may be obtained from the following:
World Radio and Television Handbook (WRTH)
(1993 Edition, ISBN #0-8230-5924-3)
Billboard Publications
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
USA
Usenet newsgroup rec.radio.shortwave and the shortwave FTP archives
at nic.funet.fi under /pub/dx.
Credits
Nathan Torkington <gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz>, Tracy Monaghan
<monaghan@cac.washington.edu>, Owen Ewald <ome@u.washington.edu>,
ptrourke@acs.bu.edu (Patrick Rourke), kbibb@maui.qualcomm.com (Ken
Bibb), b-ogilvie@uchicago.edu (Brian W. Ogilvie), stigh@itk.unit.no
(Stig Atle Haugdahl), "Jim Ruebel" <S2.JSR@ISUMVS.IASTATE.EDU>, Neil
Bernstein <nwbernst@unix.amherst.edu>, kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith
Morgan), Risto Kotalampi (rko@cs.tut.fi), Konrad Schroder
<perseant@u.washington.edu>, pef@dcs.qmw.ac.uk, Irene Gassko
<irina@cs.bu.edu>, Jamieson Norrish <jamie@akeake.its.vuw.ac.nz>,
James F. Tims <p00168@psilink.com>, Daan Sandee <sandee@Think.COM>,
Mark Eckenwiler <eck@panix.com>, Richard Lee Winterstein
(rlwinter@relleno.engr.ucdavis.edu), Rich Alderson
<alderson@cisco.com>, Andrew Gollan <adjg@softway.sw.oz.au>, John
P. Adams" <hcfll004@huey.csun.edu>, Michael Covington
<mcovingt@ai.uga.edu>
--
Rich Alderson You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
what not.
--J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@netcom.com _The Notion Club Papers_
Last-modified: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 22:20:13 GMT