Subject Guide
Tufts University
35 Professors Row
Medford, MA 02155
Three Basic Searches
- library catalog + 150 million articles
- use for exploratory ("what's out there?") searches
- books, videos, etc. owned by partners and libraries worldwide
- click a button to have a book delivered here
- use when you're not sure we have a book, or if you know we don't
Background
-
Oxford classical dictionarySolid definitions and biographies of people, places, things, and cultural ideas from Greece and Rome. Also good for mythological genealogy. With references to primary and secondary sources.
-
New Pauly onlineA comprehensive encyclopedia of antiquity, with solid coverage of topics famous and obscure. Translated from German, and therefore quite thorough.
-
Concise Oxford companion to classical literatureGood coverage of authors, works, and plot summaries. Can't keep the Oedipus cycle straight? This is your source.
-
Grove encyclopedia of classical art and architectureBrief articles on the details of classical art: painters, styles, techniques, etc. From pre-history to the end of antiquity.
-
Oxford art onlineContains the massive and comprehensive Dictionary of Art, which has a bibliography and a substantial scholarly article on almost any artist, school, style, or type of work you can think of. See, for example, this article on vase painters
-
Oxford guide to classical mythology in the arts 1300-1990s (print)A two-volume set, in English, listing major and minor works of art on classical themes. More emphasis on painting, but includes sculpture, and important examples of other kinds of art. Also includes a good overview of the ancient literary sources.
Articles
-
L'Année philologiqueL'Année philologique, published by the Société Internationale de Bibliographie Classique, is a specialized bibliographic database of scholarly works relating to all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Its subjects are Greek and Latin literature and linguistics, including early Christian texts and patristics, Greek and Roman history, art, archaeology, philosophy, religion, mythology, music, science, and scholarly sub-specialities such as numismatics, papyrology and epigraphy.
-
Academic OnefileAbout a third of the Tufts electronic journal collection in one place. Covers all areas of the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Coverage is from 1980 to present and is updated daily. Primarily full text.
-
JSTORCovers about two dozen key journals in classics from volume 1, issue 1 to three to four years ago. All full text, all scholarly material. A very important resource, but if you want current material go to Academic Onefile.
-
Project MuseProvides current full-text coverage of key titles in Classics, including TAPA, the American Journal of Philology, Hesperia, and others.
-
MLA International BibliographyThis database is a classified listing and subject index of scholarly books and articles on modern languages, literatures, folklore and linguistics which has been compiled by the Modern Language Association of America since 1926.
Images
-
LIMC (print)The Lexicon Icononographicum Mythologiae Classicae is a visual dictionary of subjects in classical art, arranged so that you can see hundreds of depictions of a god or goddess in many genres. Includes an index by museum, which is helpful in clarifying which version of a myth you're looking at. It's in a million languages, but most of the information you'll want is in the form of images and the museums they're in. If there's a lengthy article here, there will also be one in the Oxford Guide.
Books Outside Tufts
Worldcat Local provides seamless access to millions of books through the Boston Library Consortium and research libraries worldwide.
Boston Library Consortium delivery time: usually 2-3 days
Libraries Worldwide delivery time: usually 7-10 days, sometimes less
Articles Outside Tufts
Need an article, or something else other than a book? ILLiad is the library service which coordinates borrowing these from other libraries across the US and, occasionally, around the world. The login/password is your Tufts username/password.
Articles: 2 days or less
Other stuff (dissertations, videos, etc.): varies somewhat, usually 7-10 days.
Abbreviations
Classics as a discipline uses a lot of abbreviations, because ANRW is easier to write than Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt.
Here are two sources of common abbreviations to refer to:
-
Oxford Classical Dictionary(includes authors and works as well as sources)
-
L'année philologique(abbreviations of journal titles)
Greek Spelling
Greek names can be confusing to start with. What's more confusing is that spellings seem to vary wildly. That's because there are a dozen different ways to convert Greek characters into the Roman alphabet. Sadly, this is also true for every other language: Greek looks slightly different in French, and in German, etc.
Morford's character glossary is a good resource for forms of names, and should cover the most common variations.
Rules of thumb
-os can be -us
-k can be -c
-o could be -o or -ω or -Ω
Citing Sources in MLA
Basics
- note that there's a rule for how to cite a work of art
Comprehensive Tisch Citing Sources help
Citing Classical Authors
Classical works are typically referred to in the text of your paper by chapter and verse, like Scripture, rather than in conventional footnote/reference style.
Plato Protagoras 309c
Virgil Aeneid 2.250-252
Note: For more formal publication, and if it's relevant to your argument, specify the edition of the work you're using with a full reference/footnote the first time you use it.
You can also use the abbreviations from the Oxford Classical Dictionary.
How to Cite a Work of Art in MLA (from Hacker Online)
Constable, John. Dedham Vale. 1802. Oil on canvas. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
- note: for this project it's probably fine to cite the LIMC numbers (Atalante 39) in text and include the full article information--see next item--in your Works Cited.
How to Cite Articles from LIMC
Boardman, John. "Atalante". Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. Vol. 2, pt. 1. 1981. 16 vols. Print.