The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World

This work will be enormously helpful to all students of antiquity. In conjunction with Margaret Howatson's Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (1989), it will give readers the basic information required to understand the classical world. That said, I must point to one omission that is so strange as to be positively weird. At its beginning (pp. x-xii), the Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World contains a list of 56 "Major Authors from Homer and Hesiod to Plutarch." How, oh how, can Sappho not be on this list? Her lesser contemporaries Alcaeus and Alcman are there, but she is not--nor, for that matter, is any other woman. Perhaps a subsequent edition will right this injustice.

For once you can judge a book by its cover: both are stunning! I know of no other scholar who has so magically wedded a meticulous eye with a continual consideration for the lay reader. Reading this book you feel the presence of an author who truly loves the Classical World, in its broadest sense: encompassing literature, history, philosophy, and sociology. Whether you've always loved the classics or always hated them, I urge you to read this book.

This is not a stripped down version of the old book, but contains much new material and much that has been rewritten. It is an indispensable reference book, not only for the classical student but for the general reader, and marvelous value. I cannot recommend it highly enough.