Best Bets for Starting Your Research in...

:: Classical Studies::

Use databases to find articles on your topic. These databases are the best place to start.

• JSTOR
  An archive of academic journals in many disciplines, including history, archaeology, literature, philosophy, and classics. Date coverage: 19th century-recent years.
  
  
• Project Muse
  Collection of full text, peer-reviewed journal articles, with emphasis on the humanities and social sciences. Date coverage: 1993-present.
  
  
• Humanities Full Text
  Provides the full text of journal articles and other scholarly materials in the humanities. Date coverage: 1984-present.
  
  
• ATLA Religion Database
  Articles from major religion and theology journals, many in full text, representing all religious faiths and including ancient beliefs and mythology. Date coverage: 1949-present.
  

• Literature Online (LION)
  A fully searchable library of more than 330,000 English works of poetry, drama, and prose, plus literary criticism and reference resources. Also incorporates the MLA Bibliography. Includes classical literature in translation. Date coverage: 1700-present.
  
  

Tips: When searching databases, use AND, OR, and parentheses to focus your search. Combine synonyms with OR and put them inside parentheses.

The asterisk * symbol will search for all variations of a word. For example: democra* will search for democracy and democratic. Using quotes will search for a phrase.

Pindar AND ode*

Here are other examples:

“Funeral oration” AND Pericles

(Rome OR Roman*) AND (politics OR government)

Already have the citation? Find an article with citation linker!

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Find books using the library catalog. Browse these subjects to get general information on your topic.

1. Greece - Antiquities.
2. Latin literature - History and criticism.
3. History, Ancient.
4. Art, Roman.
5. Democracy - Greece - Athens - History.

Search the library catalog! Find books, media materials, and more.

Other searches:
Browse | Advanced Search

Tips: When searching the library catalog with keywords, use the dollar sign ($) to search for a word and all of its variations.

For example: drama$ will search for drama, dramatic, dramatist, etc.

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Reference tools such as dictionaries and encyclopedias are good places to start your research because they provide an overview of the topic as well as keywords, dates, and facts.

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Handbooks

• Oxford Reference Online Premium (Library database)
  In addition to a wide variety of general encyclopedias and dictionaries, this database also includes Who's Who in the Classical World, Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, the Dictionary of World Mythology, the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, and the Pocket Oxford Latin Dictionary.
  

• Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World
  Ref. DE5 .N4813 (vols. 1-9)
  English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, featuring information on all aspects of Greek and Roman culture.
  
  
• Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism
  Ref. PN681.5 .C57 (vols. 1-87)
  Designed to serve as an introduction to early authors and literary works, as well as to the most significant critics and commentators on these works.
  
  
• Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology
  Ref. BL715 .D56 1998
  Short, alphabetical entries on the most important gods, goddesses, mythological events and themes.
  
  
• Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology
  Ref. DE5 .E5 1996 (vols. 1-2)
  Guide to the archaeological remains of the Greeks, Romans, Etruscans, and other groups of the Agean and Asia Minor. Describes significant discoveries and excavations.
  
  
• Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World
  Ref. G1033 .B3 2000 (vols. 1-3)
  Contains clear, precise color maps reflecting Greek or Roman presence in the ancient world, from the ninth-century B.C. to the fifth-century A.D.
  
  

Tips: Try looking at the bibliography at the end of the entry for a list of other sources such as relevant journal articles and books.

When you have found books on your topic, look at the books on the shelf nearby to see if they are related to your topic.

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These web sites have been evaluated by librarians (that's a good thing) for your use in an academic setting.

• Ancient Greece
  http://www.ancient-greece.org/
  Provides a useful overview of the history, art, and archaeology of ancient Greece, with maps and images. Created by Professor Thomas Sakoulas of the State University of New York.
  
  
• Classical Language Instruction Project
  http://www.princeton.edu/~clip/
  Designed to help students practice and review Greek and Latin pronunciation. Listen to scholars reading excerpts from the works of Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace, and others.
  
  
• Diotima: Women and Gender in the Ancient World
  http://www.stoa.org/diotima/
  Includes scholarly essays, links to images of women in ancient art, and translated primary works by early women authors.
  
  
• Forum Romanum
  http://www.forumromanum.org/
  A wealth of information on Roman history and culture, including the "Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum," a digital library of literature in Latin.
  
  
• Perseus Digital Library
  http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
  Nearly 500 Greek and Latin classics in English translations, along with online dictionaries and grammar guides.
  

Tips: Any web site can be changed without notice, so be sure to evaluate every site you use.

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Use these short e-learning modules to get quick answers!

• MLA: a guide to the Publication Manual of the Modern Language Association
• Find a video/DVD in the library catalog
• Find an e-book in the catalog
• Need help creating a bibliography? Try RefWorks!
  • RefWorks import/export directions
  • RefWorks login information
  • RefWorks tutorial
    

Still have questions?

Curtis Ferree , Reference & Electronic Resources Librarian By phone at (203) 254-4000 ext. 2185 By e-mail at cferree@mail.fairfield.edu By Instant Message: AIM = cferree1 By Facebook IM the Reference Desk at FairfieldULib - AOL and Yahoo FairfieldUlib@hotmail.com - MSN

• Get help 24/7
• Via Web chat at http://www.fairfield.edu/lib_askalibrarian.html

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