The Primary Text resource contains works by these ancient Greek authors:
Aeschines
Aeschylus
Andocides
Antiphon
Apollodorus
Aristophanes
Aristotle
Bacchylides
Demades
Demosthenes
Dinarchus
Diodorus Siculus
Euripides
Herodotus
Hesiod
Homer
Homeric Hymns
Hyperides
Isaeus
Isocrates
Lycurgus
Lysias
Pausanias
Pindar
Plato
Plutarch
Pseudo-Xenophon
Sophocles
Strabo
Thucydides
Xenophon
Perseus 2.0 contains selections from the works of Aristotle, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Plutarch. The other authors are complete, but fragmentary texts are not included in this version, except in the cases of Bacchylides, the Homeric Hymns, and Hyperides.
Each Primary Text has an English translation. In many cases, the texts are
accompanied by notes. Notes from the Loeb editions are given for Aeschines,
Aeschylus, Andocides, Antiphon, Demades, Demosthenes, Dinarchus, Diodorus,
Herodotus, Hesiod, Hyperides, Isaeus, Isocrates, Lycurgus, Lysias, Pausanias,
Plato, Plutarch, Pseudo-Xenophon, and Xenophon. Although some notes are
attached to the Greek text (Plato, Symposium, and Sophocles, Oedipus
Tyrannus ), most are on the English translation. Aristophanes' Clouds,
Lysistrata and Acharnians have English translations and accompanying
notes by Jeffrey Henderson. Several plays by Euripides were translated and
annotated by David Kovacs: Andromache, Cyclops, Heraclides, Hippolytus
and Medea. The Pindar and Bacchylides translations, both by Diane
Svarlien, include her notes. Other notes are those prepared for the Loeb series
by J. G. Frazer (Apollodorus), W. H. Fyfe (Aristotle, Poetics), J. H.
Freese (Aristotle, Rhetoric), H. Tredennick (Aristotle,
Metaphysics), Oldfather, Sherman and Welles (Diodorus Siculus), and H.
L. Jones (Strabo).
Primary Texts are accessible from the Primary Text Index, which is reached from the Gateway and the Links menu. Texts can also be reached from the Lookup tool (see section 4.5.1).
Figure 8.1 Primary Text Index alphabetically by author.
The following illustration of Primary Text features will use the First Olympian of Pindar.
> From the Primary Text Index (alphabetically by author) scroll down and click on Pindar.
A list of that author's works appears. In figure 8.1, Pindar has been selected, and the available works of Pindar appear in the list on the right.
> To select a work, click its title. In this case, click Olympian 1.
A text card appears, displaying the beginning of the work.
Figure 8.2 Primary Text display.
Note that the structure of the First Olympian is given, with current strophe, epode and antistrophe appearing in this area. Also, the entire structural unit has been made to fit on one text card whenever practical.
If the text is a forensic speech, this area may display information about its structure. If the text is a prose work, nothing appears in this location.
Figure 8.3 Utility bar.
You may use the Go To feature to move to different references within the current work. You may also use Go To to move around in authors such as Herodotus and Homer, whose lengthy works consist of many books on several stacks. However, you cannot use the Go To feature to move to a location in a different work when that work is in a different stack, nor can you use it to go to work by a different author.
> Go to another line in the first Olympian.
When you click Go To, a dialog box appears for you to type in the chapter and section or line that you want to see (figure 8.4). Click the Go button to see the passage you selected. (You can also press Return if you have just typed in the reference.)
Figure 8.4 Using the Go To feature.
Note that the Go To dialog box shows the canonical abbreviation for this author and work that is required by the Lookup tool when you use it as a shortcut. For more information, refer to the instructions in chapter 4.5.1.
When you bring up the Go To dialog box, it contains your current location in the text expressed as a canonical reference, i.e., in the correct syntax for Perseus to look up the passage.
You cannot go to the text of another author using the Go To feature. Use the Lookup tool in the Links menu to go directly to another text reference.
When you click Find Text, a dialog box appears for you to enter the text that you want to find. The dialog box also has a pop-up menu to choose whether you want to search for Greek or English text (figure 8.5).
> Find other instances of words beginning with in Pindar's First
Olympian.
Figure 8.5 Using the "Find text" feature.
To type accented Greek into the Search For box, you must have GreekKeys 7.0 installed in your system. Please read "A note on typing Greek" in section 8.4.1 below.
To search for an English word or string of letters, choose English from the pop-up menu, lower left. Type the desired string into the Search For box and click Search.
NOTE: Usual Macintosh procedure is to double-click the mouse to select a word. The accents do not allow this action in the Greek font, however. You must click-drag the mouse in order to select a whole Greek word.
When all occurrences of the text in this work have been found and the search cycle begins to repeat itself, a dialog box informs you that the first piece of text has been found again.
For more powerful searches, use the Greek Word Search to look for all instances of a Greek word in Primary Texts. Use the English Index to look for instances of an English word.
> Go to Svarlien's note on lines 8-11 of Pindar's First Olympian.
Select the asterisk following the line "enfolds the wisdom of poets" in the English text. Click the button See Note. The note appears in a new window, which can be left open as you work on the text (figure 8.6).You can page through the notes using the Forward and Backward arrows on the Navigator Palette. Click See Note in Text to return to the annotated passage. Close the Notes window by clicking the box in the upper left.
Figure 8.6 Note to English text of Pindar's First Olympian.
Two works have notes keyed to the Greek text. Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus has notes by Sir Richard Jebb, and Plato's Symposium has extensive notes by Gilbert Rose, from the Bryn Mawr Classical Commentary (the English text of the Symposium contains the Loeb notes as well). Notes in the Greek text are not signaled by asterisks. To bring up the notes, select some Greek text within the line (figure 8.7). Click on See Note. A dialog window will appear. In the example in figure 8.7, there are three notes to line 1 of the OT. Click the note you wish to see, then click Go There. The note appears in a new window, and behaves just like the notes to English text described above. Please remember to hold down the Shift key when clicking Go There in order to keep the text window open.
See below for information on how to access Greek and English notes from the Text menu.
Figure 8.7 Notes to Greek Text.
Some notes have references to other ancient texts. When these works are part of Perseus, the citation is underlined. You can select the reference and choose Lookup from the Links menu to access it directly.
> Analyze the form of a Greek verb.
Select from line 4 of the First Olympian. Click
Analyze. Perseus analyzes
on a Morphological
Analysis card, showing the dictionary form of the word, and its parse (figure
8.8). You can then use the dictionary form of the word to conduct further
searches in selected authors and works. See below for more information on the
Philological Tools.
Figure 8.8 Analysis of from text of Pindar.
The parse "pres ind mp 2nd sg epic ionic" is explained in Online help for the Morphological Analysis philological tool. For more information on Online help, see chapter 3.3.
Primary texts can be displayed as two columns (Greek on the left, English on the right) or two rows (Greek on the top, English on the bottom). The Primary Text display is controlled by a button at the right of the screen, below the additional title information. The Primary Text display button shows two outlines of the display choices. You can also change the width of the columns or height of the rows to see more of the Greek or English text at one time. The default Primary Text display is two equal columns.
> Click the right half of the Primary Text display button to change the format of the text to rows rather than columns.
The Primary Text is now displayed in two rows.
> Click the left half of the Primary Text display button to return the format of the text to columns.
Note that the vertical dividing line between the columns has a dark, wide marker at its top. This marker can be dragged to the left or right to change the width of the columns.
> Point the cursor over the dark, wide marker at the top of the column dividing line.
When the cursor is over the marker, the cursor becomes a vertical bar with arrows on either side (Field-expander mode).
> Drag the marker to the left. Point the cursor over the marker again and drag it to the far right.
Note how the widths of the columns change according to the place where you released the mouse button. If you switch the display to rows, change the height of the rows by finding the marker at the left of the horizontal dividing line.
The effect of changing the display and enlarging the area containing the Greek text is particularly effective when working with poetry (figure 8.9).
Figure 8.9 Text card with display changed.
Figure 8.10 Text menu.
This feature is especially useful in the two texts where the notes are not marked by asterisks-Plato's Symposium and Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus.
Figure 8.11 Other Information about the text within Perseus.
When the list appears, choose a resource and click Go There.