Classics and World Religions

On Thursday, February 11th, we will be hosting a recruitment information session for prospective members at 6 p.m. Pizza will be provided! Prospectively, we will hold the recruitment in Ellis 111. Any student with a B average in two or more quarters of either Latin or Greek is eligible

Just yesterday I discovered that our printed set of Brill’s New Pauly has now been completed in 15 volumes; the online version of English-language version of  Der Neue Pauly is also finished, A-Z. The online encyclopedia of the ancient world is a great place to look up quick information on people, places, and things from Greco-Roman antiquity.

Also of note: four of the five volumes of the accompanying set on the Classical Tradition are also available in English now, both in print and online.

Finally, there are two  Supplements which appear to be in print for only, not online:

1. Chronologies of the Ancient World: Names, Dates, and Dynasties: a compilation of names and dates of rulers from Mesospotamia in the 3rd century BC through a Synoptic Chart of the Patriarchates
2. Dictionary of Greek and Latin Authors and Texts: listings that  define “the primary stages of each work: papyri, scholia, manuscripts, early and authoritative modern editions, translations, and commentaries

The call number for the English-language printed volumes is DE 5 N4813; they are in the reference collection on the 2nd floor of Alden Library. Here is a link to connect to the online version (available only to Ohio University).

No, the title of this post is not a typo. It’s the name of a web page from Ed Donnely, who has made a list of the whole series of volumes in the Loeb Classical Library (arranged by their catalog number). There are links to the full text–at Google Books and/or the Internet Archive–for all items that are out of copyright and consequently available online. For those volumes still in copyright, there are links to sources for purchasing them.

This should be a big time-saver for anyone needing a quick look-up in a Loeb–just beware that (1) many Loebs are not (yet?) available from this page, and (2) the texts and translations of available titles are pretty old.

For Veterans’ Day/Armistice Day:

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Charles Ellwood Jones, who maintains the blog AWOL: The Ancient World Online, has just posted a lengthy list of open access journals on the ancient world. If you’re not familiar with the term Open Access is “the principle that all research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication…”

The journals listed cover both the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman World, and in some cases date back to the nineteenth century. A few of the English language titles are:

• American Journal of Archaeology Online Book Reviews
• British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan (BMSAES)
• Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR)
• Bulletin of the School of Classical Studies at Athens
• Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies (GRBS)
• Illinois Classical Studies
• Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World
• New Voices In Classical Reception Studies
• The Pompeiiana Newsletter
• Review of Biblical Literature (RBL)
• Scholia Reviews

One word of warning, however: based on my brief perusal of the complete list, at least a few of the journals do not appear to have complete open access. Upon trying to view or download an article, a message appeared saying that I was not subscribed and asking for payment for the articles.

Eta Sigma Phi is currently accepting new and/or prospective members. Feel free to drop in on a meeting if you’re interested. Meetings are held on Mondays at 6 p.m. in Ellis 213b.

Free GREEK tutoring is offered Mondays and Wednesdays from 7 p.m.-8 or 9 p.m. in Ellis 213b.

Free LATIN tutoring is offered Mondays and Thursdays from 7 p.m.-8 or 9 p.m. in Ellis 213b.

For private tutoring, contact your professor for the list of available tutors and/or visit the AAC webpage.

L’Année Philologique, the major database for Classical Studies, has had major updates over the summer. The process of converting the older printed volumes into online format is now complete: As of June 2009, the time span of the database extends back to 1924, the year the annual printed volumes began publication.

For items pre-dating 1924, let me recommend strongly that you give Periodicals Index Online a try.

On the modern end of the time spectrum, L’Année Philologique  “will pre-publish online the latest available records from the different offices prior to their publication in the print volume and the annual update of the database. The list of journal issues and edited volumes posted online will be updated each month on this page. These records are fully retrievable through a search in the database, but are displayed in a separate tab (Interim records).”

Professor Jim Andrews and Royce Best

The Harry Hultgren Award is recognition of an outstanding Latin student.