Another collection of classical texts in English translation

Delighted to find this site, Theoi, contains a lot of translations of obscure classical authors. The site is New Zealand based, and most of the translations are from the Loeb library. Lots of these are actually out of copyright in the USA because the copyright was not renewed as the law required. I’m not sure of the details of NZ copyright law, but plainly it makes some good stuff available!

It’s great news to have all this online.  For instance, the Library of Apollodorus is a 2nd century handbook of Greek mythology, and so is one of our best primary sources for this subject.  The only thing that I found to regret is the copyright notice at the bottom, which claims copyright of the HTML formatting.  Whether this claim is legally valid I do not know (although it would seem untested at best); whether the site owner could really defend it I don’t know either (although that seems doubtful); but it’s ungenerous.  Freely you received, freely give.

On another note, we need to take the time to support the Loeb library, I think.  As a rule I have refrained from scanning material from it.  Hey, some of these volumes sell less than a dozen copies a year!  That won’t pay for storage even.

The Loeb series is our only popular series which prints both the Latin or Greek alongside the English.  The volumes have got cheaper over the years and now cost very little.  They are a treasure.   Let’s appreciate them.

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2 thoughts on “Another collection of classical texts in English translation

  1. Hi,

    Thanks for the note about this website, but more so to plug the Loeb series. What a phenomenal resource. Just think of what classical/ancient history/biblical studies would be like if we didn’t have it!

    I think most people spend too high a percentage of their book dollars on secondary sources. I make it a point to purchase several Loeb volumes a year.

    Bob.

  2. Hi Bob,

    Yes, I think so myself. The books are really very cheap these days, and frankly we take them for granted.

    It’s good to see that revised versions protected by copyright are coming out as well.

    Roger

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