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Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 9, 2019
This is considered one of the standard reference works for Homeric Greek, and having been advised by one of my college professors that the Homeric vocabulary was extensive, full of unique words that appear only once in the entire canon of ancient Greek literature, I was convinced to run right out and buy it.
Not knowing enough about Homeric lexicography, I can neither dispute nor confirm this book's predominance in its field. I am sure that it is quite comprehensive, and has proved helpful to numerous students. But the fact of the matter is, I NEVER used it in my studies. I either used the Liddell and Scott's Lexicon at the library, or the Perseus Project website at home. Everything in this book can be found in those works...
However, despite the fact that I did not use it much myself, I think it might make a useful addition to the beginning classicist's bookshelf - after all, Lidell and Scott is a huge tome, and very expensive. This book is reasonably priced, and quite specific.
Not knowing enough about Homeric lexicography, I can neither dispute nor confirm this book's predominance in its field. I am sure that it is quite comprehensive, and has proved helpful to numerous students. But the fact of the matter is, I NEVER used it in my studies. I either used the Liddell and Scott's Lexicon at the library, or the Perseus Project website at home. Everything in this book can be found in those works...
However, despite the fact that I did not use it much myself, I think it might make a useful addition to the beginning classicist's bookshelf - after all, Lidell and Scott is a huge tome, and very expensive. This book is reasonably priced, and quite specific.
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August 15, 2011There are two commercially available English dictionaries of Homeric Greek: Cunliffe and Autenrieth. Autenrieth is the author of the original German version; Robert P. Keep, a classical scholar who taught at the Norwich Free Academy, is the translator of this edition which was originally published in 1876. This book is a little smaller both in size and extent of coverage than Cunliffe's dictionary.
An introductory section entitled "The Chief Peculiarities of the Homeric Dialect" presents a concise treatment of how Homeric differs chiefly from Attic Greek. It is fairly thorough and helpfully included.
Individual entries are often immediately followed by parenthetical references that indicate important information such as (1) whether the word contained a digamma, or (2) a related noun form (for verbs) or verb form (for nouns). Verb entries clearly identify aorist, perfect or other tenses, as well as middle v. active forms.
Definitions usually include book and line references for specific meanings that are contextually unique. However, the old fashioned convention of referring to the books of the Iliad and Odyssey with upper or lower case Greek letters can be a challenge, unless you have an instantaneous recognition of what book omicron or rho refers to.
Overall this lexicon does not provide the same depth of coverage found in Cunliffe for the full range of inflected forms of a word (verbs especially) or for unique definitions of individual words and their locations in the Homeric poems. Still, it is a serviceable tool and helpful companion for reading Homer in Greek. In fact, Cunliffe often seems to give such a wealth of information for individual words that it can be a tad overwhelming to digest. Autenrieth gives you exactly what you need without the overkill.
An introductory section entitled "The Chief Peculiarities of the Homeric Dialect" presents a concise treatment of how Homeric differs chiefly from Attic Greek. It is fairly thorough and helpfully included.
Individual entries are often immediately followed by parenthetical references that indicate important information such as (1) whether the word contained a digamma, or (2) a related noun form (for verbs) or verb form (for nouns). Verb entries clearly identify aorist, perfect or other tenses, as well as middle v. active forms.
Definitions usually include book and line references for specific meanings that are contextually unique. However, the old fashioned convention of referring to the books of the Iliad and Odyssey with upper or lower case Greek letters can be a challenge, unless you have an instantaneous recognition of what book omicron or rho refers to.
Overall this lexicon does not provide the same depth of coverage found in Cunliffe for the full range of inflected forms of a word (verbs especially) or for unique definitions of individual words and their locations in the Homeric poems. Still, it is a serviceable tool and helpful companion for reading Homer in Greek. In fact, Cunliffe often seems to give such a wealth of information for individual words that it can be a tad overwhelming to digest. Autenrieth gives you exactly what you need without the overkill.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews