The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (GE)
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (GE), referred to by some as BrillDAG, is the English translation of Franco Montanari’s Vocabolario della Lingua Greca (GI). With an established reputation as the most important modern dictionary for Ancient Greek, it brings together 140,000 headwords taken from the literature, papyri, inscriptions and other sources of the archaic period up to the 6th Century CE, and occasionally beyond. This new Greek-English dictionary is an invaluable companion for the study of Classics and Ancient Greek, for beginning students and advanced scholars alike.
Translated and edited under the auspices of The Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek is based on the completely revised 3rd Italian edition published in 2013 by Loescher Editore, Torino.
- The principal parts of some 15,000 verbs are listed directly following the entry and its etymology
- Nearly all entries include citations from the texts with careful mention of the source
- Especially rich in personal names re-checked against the sources for the 3rd Italian edition, and in scientific terms, which have been categorized according to discipline
- Each entry has a clear structure and typography making it easy to navigate
Top Highlights
“This Greek-English project is presented as an enhancement of lexicography, which is an intuitive procedure, not an exact science—a fact that sometimes eludes even the most advanced students of Greek. As John Chadwick points out in the introduction to his pathfinding Lexicographica Graeca: Contributions to the lexicography of Ancient Greek (1995), modern lexicographers have tended to treat ‘as a positive fact’ the opinions of ancient lexicographers, which, as useful and necessary as they are, must be considered merely a starting point for understanding the semantics of a given lemma, that is, of any word to be defined.” (Page vii)
“of hair and sim.: σοί τε κόμην κερέειν for you I would have cut my hair Il. 23.146; κ.” (source)
“it is to be emphasized that the lexicon is not a translation of the Italian definitions in and of themselves” (Page vii)
“by George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford 1843” (Page v)
“to have full authority: ἀνδρός over man NT 1Tim. 2:12” (source)
Endorsements
This work now effectively supersedes the older Liddell-Scott-Jones (LSJ) lexicon.
—Larry W. Hurtado, retired, University of Edinburgh
The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek is fast becoming one of my favorite books. Congratulations to everyone at Brill on this monumental achievement!
— James D. Ernest, PhD, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
For a number of years now, scholars at ease in Italian have benefitted enormously from the riches, layout, concision, and accuracy of Professor Montanari's Vocabolario della Lingua Greca, with its added advantage of the inclusion of names. Hence classicists in general will welcome the English version of this very valuable resource.
—Professor Richard Janko, University of Michigan
Franco Montanari is a giant in our field, and his Dictionary is a major leap forward for us….
—Professor Gregory Nagy, Harvard University
Its comparative perspectives and the provision of new lexical data will surely serve to enrich the texts being studied. This is a splendid work and all those responsible for its production and translation are to be most warmly commended.
—Paul Foster, University of Edinburgh, The Expository Times 129, 4.
[...], the new Brill Greek dictionary is a most welcome addition to the current lexicographic store for Ancient Greek and is set to become a primary resource for the study of Ancient Greek, especially as regards non-literary texts and post-classical authors.
—Panagiotis Filos (University of Ioannina), Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Reviews
- Panagiotis Filos, Bryn Mawr Classical Review: Review of The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek
- Daniel M. Gurtner, Themelios 41:2: Review of The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek
- Larry Hurtado, “A New Greek-English Lexicon”
- Tavis Bohlinger, Logos Academic Blog: “A Side-by-Side Comparison of Brill’s GE and LSJM: Which Is Better?”
Awards
- Winner of the 2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award
Franco Montanari is Professor of Ancient Greek Literature at the University of Genoa (Italy), Director of the Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione Classica, of the Centro Italiano dell' Année Philologique and of the Aristarchus project online, and a member of numerous international research centers and associations. Apart from the Vocabolario della Lingua Greca he has published many other scientific works on ancient scholarship and grammar, archaic Greek epic poets and other Greek poets of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, including Brill’s Companion to Hesiod (2009) and Brill’s Companion to Ancient Greek Scholarship (2015).
Madeleine Goh is professor of classical studies at the University of Maryland. She is a specialist in Homer and the Greek language.
Chad Matthew Schroeder has a PhD in classical studies from the University of Michigan. He is a former fellow at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, and is the author of articles on ancient Greek literature, particularly on writers of the Hellenistic period.
- Publisher’s product page
- 28-page preview (PDF)
- Flier
- Brill Linguistics Blog: Prof. Montanari about The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek
- Video Interview: Brill’s Dictionary of Ancient Greek—Franco Montanari Interview
- Logos Academic Blog: A Side-by-Side Comparison of Brill’s GE and LSJM: Which Is Better?
- Logos Forums: Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek
- Typos & Corrections
Reviews
16 ratings
Dennis Adams
2/22/2024
diederick pütter
11/16/2022
Alessandro
10/20/2022
Forrest Cole
11/9/2021
Mike Harris
10/21/2021
Jonah Steele
9/28/2021
Benjamin Allen
8/6/2021
Timothy Lanzilotta
5/16/2021
This is a great resource! Will Faithlife be putting out a Bibliography Expansion as is being done for BDAG? It would be really helpful.
charlie Fiddler
4/10/2021
MR
11/11/2020
