Ancient Greek texts

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Anthony Appleyard
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Ancient Greek texts

Post by Anthony Appleyard »

Compared to the amount of Ancient Greek prose and poetry that came down to us on manuscripts, how much more (and which texts) in proportion has been recovered on papyri found in Egypt?

Is there a full list of known Ancient Greek texts?

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opoudjis
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Re: Ancient Greek texts

Post by opoudjis »

(Anthony, I remember you!)

My former employer the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae published a list of all known Greek texts: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Xf ... anon&hl=el . It also has an online database of texts: http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/canon.php —which does not fully overlap. (Works known indirectly aren't going to be included, since the online canon is an index of texts in the TLG.)

The texts recovered through Papyrus are a relatively small number compared to the texts handed down by papyrus, especially if you count size rather than count of works. If you can search the online canon (I can't), search for "Pap" as medium of transmission. The major literary authors we have via papyrus are Menander and Philodemus; renowned texts also include the Constitution of the Athenians, the Ancient Greek novels, and lots of bits of the lyric poets.

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