Get a comprehensive view of your particular area of interest through these scholarly handbooks and guides
A Companion to Vergil's Aeneid and Its Tradition by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781405175777Publication Date: 2010
The Homer Encyclopedia ONLINE by Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PA4037.A5 H58 2011ISBN: 9781405177689Publication Date: 2011Looks at the artistry and historical and cultural background of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homeric scholarship, and Homeric reception from antiquity to the present.
Brill's Companion to Prequels, Sequels, and Retellings of Classical Epic by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9789004249356Publication Date: 2018
These resources can help you come up with dates, names, additional vocabulary and variant spellings for your research. They can also help you develop a better understanding of your topic or give you ideas for comparisons and contrasts.
- Classical Receptions in the Visual and Performing ArtsLink to individual titles in this online Bloomsbury series including Classics and video games, Classics and heavy Greeks and Romans on the Latin American Stage
- Oxford Handbooks Online: ClassicsCurrently more than 35 handbooks with nearly 1,400 articles (chapters) covering as many discrete topics within broad fields within Classical Studies.
- Briills Companions to Classical Studies OnlineFollow the link to all of the companions available througn links in the Franklin Catalog
- Wiley-Blackwell Companions to the Ancient WorldIndividual volumes on discrete topics, available in print and in some cases electronically. Located on the shelves in Van Pelt or via the Web. Coverage of literature, history, and culture. Most of these companions are ONLINE
A Selection of Primary Texts
The Odyssey by Call Number: Van Pelt Library PA4025.A5 W56 2018ISBN: 9780393089059Publication Date: 2017A new translation by Penn professor, Emily Wilson
The Aeneid by Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PA6807.A5 R83 2008ISBN: 9780300119046Publication Date: 2008"Ruden's translation follows Vergil's content faithfully, and the economy and fast pace she achieves are true to his own unflagging narrative force"
Tacitus' Germania by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780191828355Publication Date: 2016Oxford Scholarly Editions
- Dickinson College CommentariesIncludes Tacitus' Agricola edited by Professor Damon and selections in Latin with commentary from the Aeneid, Cicero, Ovid, and Caesar. Selections in Greek with commentary includes texts from Homer, Lucian's True Histories, Pseudo-Demosthenes and more
Other resources
- Eidolon (Classics without Fragility)A contemporary and often iconoclastic look at classical texts
- Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR)Update daily, a book review database for new editions and critical analysis of classical studies broadly speaking. If it has been published, you are likely to find it summarized and reviewed here.
Use keywords or subject terms to search article databases
These databases will also uncover book chapters along with articles in journals
- JSTORJSTOR provides access to about 119 archaeology journals and 78 classical studies journals. It can be tricky to find just the right articles because it is searching every word in every article in the database. You may want to watch this short video on how to search JSTOR for classical studies.
- L'Annee PhilologiqueThe standard database for research in the broad area of Classical Studies. It indexes the current scholarship from over 1,500 journals and as well as books, edited volumes and conference papers. (Compare with JSTOR). Watch a short video on how to search L'Annee Phil.
- Oxford Bibliographies Online ClassicsAn online resource to academic articles. Focused on multiple aspects of ancient studies including archaeology, history, literature, economics, and more. For a quick tour on how best to use, see this short video.
Julian Calendar preserved on stone from earychurchistory.org
- Google ScholarUse this link to search Google Scholar to incorporate Penntext access to Penn subscribed and owned resources. Scroll through at least several pages for best results.
- Articles+Penn Libraries' equivalent to Google Scholar -- all of our subscribed and open access content. Search by keyword and subject terms or search authors and titles -- connect to online content or find print in Penn Libraries collections
Bilingual Editions
- Digital LoebDigital Loeb provides fully searchable access to the entire bilingual Loeb library of critical editions of Greek and Latin text. Find editions of the Odyssey, Iliad, Aeneid, Herodotus, Sappho, and most ancient Greek and Latin texts. You'll want to explore other translations as well.
- Oxford Scholarly Editions OnlineLike Loeb, provides bilingual editions of the ancient Greek and Latin authors. Follow this link, then scroll down to see link for "only classical authors." Follow this link, then click on "Browse authors."
The Ancient becomes Modern
Classical Reception
This link takes you to the Bloomsbury platform for Classical Studies and Archaeology --and brings together titles on classical reception. Individual titles in the corresponding online Bloomsbury series include: Classics and video games, Classics and heavy metal music, Greeks and Romans on the Latin American Stage, Blockbusters and the Ancient World: Allegory and Warfare in Contemporary Hollywood, and many more.
Oxford University Presses series on Classical reception in the contemporary world. The series includes 172 titles and include Classicisms in the Black Atlantic, Classics and Media Theory, Living Classics: Greece and Rome in Contemporary Poetry, Ancient Rome and Victorian Masculinity. Many of these titles are online.
Brill's companion series takes a more straight forward approach to literary reception but does take you into the modern world.
Penn Libraries
All Penn Libraries are currently closed, please contact Rebecca Stuhr for assistance in finding relevant material online, or for assistance in using books by mail or pickup@penn. Please see our Phased Service availability for the most recent updates on access to the libraries.
- Van Pelt-Dietrich LibraryCollections focus on humanities and social sciences (but not exclusively). Includes books for history, literature, philosophy, politics, economics ..
- Fischer Fine Arts LibraryCollections focus on art history, architecture, urban and landscape studies, "above ground" archaeology (structures, artifacts)
- Museum LibraryCollections focus on anthropology, world-wide ancient archaeology, Egyptian history
Research Assistance
Rebecca Stuhr is the librarian specialists for Classical Studies.
You can arrange individual appointments or ask questions by email by contacting Rebecca at stuhrreb @ upenn.edu or click the button just below to find a time that works for you:
Please contact me for assistance at any time by email or use the link above to schedule an appointment. You may also want to connect with a librarian by chat--see box below to connect or send in a question.
A sampling from the catalog
Afro-Greeks: Dialogues between Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Classics in the Twentieth Century by Call Number: ONLINEISBN: 9780199575244Publication Date: 2010Greenwood focuses on the ways in which Greco-Roman antiquity has been put to creative use in Anglophone Caribbean literature. Available in print and online.
The Classical Tradition: Greek and Roman Influences on Western Literature by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 0198020066Publication Date: 2004A reissue in paperback of a title first published in 1949.
Classics in Post-Colonial Worlds by Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PR9080.5 .C6 2007 and onlineISBN: 9780199296101Publication Date: 2007From colonial authority to Post-colonial resistance
Crossroads in the Black Aegean: Oedipus, Antigone, and dramas of the African diaspora by Call Number: text available onlineISBN: 9780199217182Publication Date: 20086Also available in print: Van Pelt Library. PR9343 .G64 2007
Graeco-Roman Antiquity and the Idea of Nationalism in the 19th Century by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9783110471786Publication Date: 2016This interdisciplinary volume explains the phenomenon of nationalism in nineteenth-century Europe through the prism of Graeco-Roman antiquity.
Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age by Call Number: ONLINEISBN: 9780674975552Publication Date: 2018-How the alt-right has appropriated ancient texts to support their misogynistic and racist ideology. Also available in print: Van Pelt - New Book Display. HN49.R33 Z83 2018
On Civic Republicanism: Ancient Lessons for Global Politics by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781442625464Publication Date: 2018Explores the relevance of the ancient concepts of republicanism and civic virtue to modern questions about political engagement and identity.
The Golden Age of the Classics in America by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780674032644Publication Date: 2009Richard explores how Greek and Roman classics became a centerpiece in American antebellum culture. Knowledge of the classics extended beyond privileged males to women, African Americans, and frontier settlers.
When Worlds Elide: Classics, Politics, Culture by Call Number: Van Pelt Library. DF77 .W48 2010ISBN: 9780739122747Publication Date: 2010Looks at the use of ancient authors and events to analyze contemporary national and world debates.
