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Oppian

The Texts on LacusCurtius

The Greek texts and their English translations by A. W. Mair, as well as the Introduction, are those found in the Loeb Classical Library'sOppian, Colluthus, Tryphiodorus, pp. xiii‑lxxx and 1‑515.

As almost always, I retyped the text by hand rather than scanning it — not only to minimize errors prior to proofreading, but as an opportunity for me to become intimately familiar with the work, an exercise I heartily recommend:Qui scribit, bis legit. (Well-meaning attempts to get me to scan text, ifsuccess­ful, would merely turn me into some kind of machine: gambit declined.) Here, mind you, what precedes is true only for the English translation and introduction: the Greek text is the result of a collaborative effort with the Perseus Project, where Perseus did the bulk of the work and I supplied some proofreading; thus the same Greek transcription can also be found on that site.

My own transcription has been minutely proofread. In the table of contents below, items are shownon blue backgrounds, meaning that I believe the texts to be completely errorfree; itemson red backgrounds would mean that I hadn't finished proofreading. As elsewhere onsite, the header bar at the top of each chapter's webpage will remind you with the same color scheme.Should you spot an error, however . . . please do report it.

Copyright

Text and translation were first published in 1928, and are now in the public domain pursuant to the 1978 revision of the U. S. Copyright Code, since the copyright expired in 1956 and was not renewed at the appropriate time, which would have been that year or the year before.(Details here on the copyright law involved.)

Line Numbering, Local Links

Every line in the Greek text is marked by a local link, according to a consistent scheme; you can therefore link directly to any passage. In the English translation, the beginning of each paragraph is marked.

You can toggle back and forth from text to translation at any specific section by clicking on the nearest flag; theGreek text and theEnglish translation will display in separate windows. On any unproofread pages, this toggling may be absent or erratic.

Similarly, for citation purposes, the Loeb edition pagination is indicated by local links in the sourcecode.

Apparatus

The Loeb edition here and there attaches to the Greek text a bit of apparatus criticus; it's surely not comprehensive. I've reproduced it.

The icon I use to indicate this author is one of the many charming drawings in a 1554 manuscript of Oppian, Xenophon and Manuel Philes,BNF gr. 2737 (modeled on the famousMarcianus gr. 479 of the 11c): on p. 13v., betweenCyn. I.385 and 386,and perfectly illustrating that passage. It is of course in the public domain, asstated by Gallica — a wonderful site, by the way —where the entire manuscript can be viewed, and even read without difficulty: the Greek is in a very clear hand.

I chose this particular illustration out of the hundred or so in that manuscript because both land and sea animals are represented. The thumbnails in my header and footer bars use a sea or land detail as appropriate to the page.

Images with borders lead to more information. The thicker the border, the more information.(Details here.)
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