Among the many merits I enumerated of the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD) (RR 2003/352) I did not mention its suitability as a source for “spin‐off” more specialist dictionaries. But this attractive, fascinating and invaluable new dictionary makes the possibilities very clear. In case, as you read this, you assume that if your library already has the OCD there is no point in considering this new title, let me hasten to disabuse you. This is not just a download of entries from the source book with little or no further work done to them, but a new dictionary in its own right, certainly using entries from the major work, but re‐editing them and recasting them all into a whole new reference book.
The content of the 1,650 entries is a selection from the OCD, 3rd edition of 1996 made by the two area advisers for that work, with the original entries edited to make them even more accessible with untransliterated Greek and “obscure language” removed. The references have been reorganized to take out in‐text references but provide notes on ancient texts as original sources at the end of each article. So, for the content, the virtues are retained of clear exposition of facts or stories, with explanatory analysis in both individual and broader contexts.
Broader contexts are very much in evidence: this is not just an alphabetical list of Greek and Roman gods and heroes with their stories re‐told. It is in itself a coherent work of scholarship, taking a broad view of ancient religion and myth and relating the individual entries to their own or a more universal context. The process begins with a ten‐page introduction, an extended essay on classical mythology, religious pluralism in the ancient world, and the reception of myths from antiquity to the present day. To avoid technical references in the entries, the introduction then carries a four‐page annotated bibliography of works on the subjects, complete with caveats on some other major reference works. To my pleasure (his The Greek Myths had a lot to do with my schoolboy interest in the subject) it mentions the still popular account of Robert Graves, with the eminently fair summary: “his narratives are lively and very readable (and indicate sources clearly), but his interpretations are wildly idiosyncratic, though not without interest”. Poor Graves; he so much wanted to be a scholar but the poet always won through. My only raised eyebrow in the bibliography is that there are only a couple Web sites mentioned.
In accordance with the inclusive aims of the OCD itself, and of this title, the selection of entries is very broad. A thematic index following the introduction helps reviewers assess that, but more to the point it helps readers make best of the book by finding and following up a host of related entries on many themes: Christian and Jewish authors, Egyptian and Etruscan gods, concepts, imagery, magic, organization of religions, places and rituals. The geographical and cultural spread is revealed in the list of local and regional religions: extending to British, Celtic, Mesopotamian and Scythian, as well as across the ancient Mediterranean world, including North Africa. Astrology, divination and other practices were all part of ancient religion, an intellectual and cultural construct usually far removed from almost anything we can conceive today; this, again, is spelled out where appropriate (“… the relation of Greek to English hymns is not at all simple”). The accompanying press release refers to the dictionary “disclosing the dark side of [the] ancient Mediterranean, … piercing the glittering surface of Greek and Roman thought”. So it does, and the resulting picture is of a world at once more remote but more comprehensible because of the range of scholarship and explanation provided here.
I am already having difficulty putting this book down to write my review: it is clearly and elegantly presented, with unobtrusive cross‐references by asterisks or direct references at the end of entries. It is supplemented by three maps and six genealogies. But it is above all a text to read, whether browsing at random or following a train of thought through the thematic index and cross‐references. As such it counts as a new and very felicitous work, by its structure and content taking the OCD into a new dimension. I can think of few, if any, general or educational reference collections which will fail to be enhanced by this authoritative, accessible and comprehensive new title on a subject of apparently perennial interest, despite the demise of teaching of Latin and Greek.
