Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology is an English-language biographical lexicon on persons from ancient Greek and Roman history. It was published by William Smith in 1849 and previously appeared in 1844 under a slightly different title.
The work, published in three volumes with a total of around 3,700 pages, is considered a classic work in lexicography of the 19th century. On the subject of antiquity, Smith also published the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities and the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography .
In this encyclopedia , in addition to the editor, who also wrote some articles, a total of 35 other people are named as authors, often ancient historians or other academic experts on the subject of the biographed person. Most of these co-authors worked at the universities of Oxford , Cambridge and Bonn and at the rugby school . A large part of the contributions on mythological topics comes from the emigrated German philologist and historian Leonhard Schmitz , who also made the findings of German ancient studies known in the United Kingdom.
Smith strived for a comprehensive list of all known people from antiquity, in his foreword he wrote:
“The biographical articles in this work include the names of all persons of any importance which occur in the Greek and Roman writers, from the earliest times down to the extinction of the Western Empire in the year 476 of our era, and to the extinction of the Eastern Empire by the capture of Constantinople by the turks in the year 1453. "
“The biographical articles in this work contain the names of all persons of importance who appeared in the works of Greek and Roman writers from the earliest times to the fall of the Western Empire in 476 and the fall of the Eastern Empire through the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453 occurrence."
Many of the definitions and articles used in the dictionary have also been referred to in recent work. Robert Graves , for example, was accused of the fact that the impressive source references of his work The Greek Myths can often be seen as direct and unchecked adoptions from the dictionary . The dictionary is now in the public domain and freely accessible on several websites on the Internet.
As far as the state of research at the time is concerned, his statements are still essentially reliable today, especially in those areas in which there has been no fundamentally new knowledge since the dictionary was published. Insights gained through more recent discoveries and research, such as those obtained from the decoding of the linear font B or more recent finds of writings and inscriptions , are of course missing. The resulting evaluation of individual certificates has changed many times in the meantime, taking into account further research work.
In 1867, William Smith LL.D. the work in three volumes by Little, Brown, and Company of Boston, Ma. out, the division was as follows at the time:
- Volume I: Abaeus - Dysponteus
- Volume II: Ea'rinus, Fla'vius - Nyx
- Volume III: Oarses - Zygia and Zygius
Also included are several tabular overviews and woodcuts of historical coins found, showing some of the biographed people.
List of authors
The following persons are named as authors in the 1870 edition; the articles not identified by name were written by the editor.
| A. | Alexander Allen (AA) Charles Thomas Arnold (CTA) |
| B. | John Ernest Bode (JEB) Christian August Brandis (Ch. AB) Edward Herbert Bunbury (EHB) |
| C. | Albany James Christie (AJC) Arthur Hugh Clough (AHC) George Edward Lynch Cotton (GELC) |
| D. | Samuel Davidson (SD) William Fishburn Donkin (WFD) William Bodham Donne (WBD) Thomas Henry Dyer (TD) |
| E. | Edward Elder (EE) |
| G | John Thomas Graves (JTG) William Alexander Greenhill (WAG) Algernon Sidney Grenfell (AG) William Maxwell Gunn (WMG) |
| I. | Wilhelm Ihne (WI) |
| J | Benjamin Jowett (BJ) |
| L. | Henry George Liddell (HGL) George Long (GL) |
| M. | John Morell Mackenzie (JMM) Charles Peter Mason (CPM) Joseph Calrow Means (JCM) Henry Hart Milman (HHM) Augustus De Morgan (A. de M.) |
| P | Wilhelm Heinrich Franz Plate (WP) Constantine Estlin Prichard (CEP) |
| R. | William Ramsay (WR) |
| S. | Leonhard Schmitz (LS) Philip Smith (PS) Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (APS) Adolf Stahr (AS) |
| U | Ludwig von Urlichs (LU) |
| W. | Robert Whiston (RW) |
Web links
- Scans of the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology , 1867 edition, online at the University of Michigan Library :
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Nick Lowe: Killing the Graves myth . In: Times Online , December 20, 2005. Retrieved September 8, 2010.