The Oxford Classical Dictionary (review)

No one reading this review needs to be told the value of The Oxford Classical Dictionary (hereafter OCD), which has provided in one volume a summary of classical scholarship for English readers. OCDwas conceived in 1933 to serve as a replacement for Sir William Smith’s dictionaries [Greek and Roman antiquities (1842, ²1870), geography (2 vols., 1873–78), and biography and mythology (3 vols., 1880)] while modeled on Friedrich Lübker’s Reallexikon der klassischen Altertums(1855; ⁸1914). Due to World War II and other circumstances, a number of the original editors had disappeared from the scene before OCD ¹could make its appearance in March 1949 in an 80 × 110 format with 971 dual-columned pages. OCD ²while undertaken in 1964, and prepared by 1967–8, did not see print until 1970 in a slightly reduced format (7.50 × 100), smaller print, with 1176 pages, wherein all previous articles were submitted to scrutiny though not all were altered or added to by the original or another contributor. Of the six original editors, only one remained [Howard Hayes Scullard] with the assistance of an original contributor now co-editor [Nicholas Geoffrey Lempriere Hammond]. The original list of 169 contributors had been augmented by 157 more, with the absence of only 11—yet this total was a veritable Who’s Who of a previous generation in Anglo-American classical studies. Many new articles appeared; yet OCD ²remained essentially an updated revision of OCD ¹with some greater attention to archaeological ingredients, and the inclusion of some recognition for “Christianity” [by William Hugh Clifford Frend].

OCD ³is clearly a totally reconceived volume, prepared 1991–4, under two entirely new editors [Simon Hornblower (Oxford, ancient history) and Antony Spawforth (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, ancient history and Greek archaeology)], assisted by 360 international contributors, six of whom served as “area advisors.” Thirty of the 360 had contributed to OCD ², but only Hammond to all three editions.

Included among its “6250” entries, 843 are specified in an index (xi–xiv) as new to this edition, published at the same format size as OCD2 but sporting 1640 pages even more tightly printed though in a font easier to read. Apparent are many entries related both to the more ancient Near East and to the religious developments within the whole classical world. Typical entries are portions of one column, with some examples reaching two or three; only fourteen exceed seven: “Rome (history)” with 24 (and more on the impact of Christianity); “Music” 20; “Law and procedure, Roman” 14; “Tullius Cicero” 11; “Virgil” and “Metre, Greek” 10; “Greece (prehistory and history),” “Medicine,” “Palaeography” and “Thucydides” 9 [the latter preserving with minimal augment the classic entry prepared by Henry Theodore Wade-Gery for OCD ¹!]; “Aristotle,” “Epigraphy, Greek,” “Literary theory and classical studies,” and “Tragedy, Greek” 8. Coming in at 7 columns are: “Dionysus,” “Epigram, Latin”; “Greek language,” “Legion,” and “Lex,” besides “Christianity” [by Philip Rousseau of New Zealand]. There is a shift from cognomen to nomen for the alphabetical location of “Roman proper names of the republican and imperial periods” which brings OCDmore into line with standard referencing such as Pauly-Wissowa’s Real-Encyclopädie. Abbreviations of “Authors and Books” (xxix–liv) remains valuable as a major bibliography for standard citations and significant literature.

There are some special features reflecting this new era and its gains from “disciplines informing classical studies,” such as anthropology, literary theory, and Marxism. “Sexuality” in all its dimensions, including “Love and friendship,” “Homosexuality,” and “Chastity (Christianity and),” is a new feature, and “Women” receive more thorough presence. Others than “Christianity” and “Jews” find treatment under “Religion . . . ,” including “Celtic,” “Etruscan,” “Greek,” “Italic,” “Minoan and Mycenaean,” “Persian,” “Roman,” “Thracian,” and surprisingly “Jewish”! Cross-references point to those other “religions” treated alphabetically, but entered with reference to “cults and myths” or “deities.” Rewritten but improved general entries include “mysteries” and “mythology.”

There are new entries for “Apocalyptic...