Classical Mythology - Greek

The STLCC Libraries offer numerous resources on Mythology both Greek and those of other world cultures.  Print resources include those that cover the myths themselves, theories of mythology, creation myths, poetry, etc... 

Looking for a more convenient way to access you favorite Greek Poetry.  Visit the Perseus Digital Library's Greek and Roman Collections to view these myths in Greek or English translations.

Keyword searching allows one to search multiple fields for desired terms.  Searching in this manner is less reliable for it will retrieve numerous results, many of which will be unrelated to the desired topic.  If you are unsure as how to search for your topic, keyword searching can get you started by finding resources which can be used as reference points for more detailed searches.
 
Examples of keyword searches include:
   
    Greek AND god*
    myth* AND Greek
    Homer AND (Iliad OR Odyssey)
    (poet* OR play*) AND Greek
 
Boolean Operators: The terms AND, OR, and NOT are called Boolean Operators.  They are used to denote links between search terms.

• AND - Retrieves records that contain only both search terms
• OR - Retrieves records that contain either term separately, but not both.
• NOT - Eliminates unwanted results from your search.  Example: searching ‘Myth NOT Roman’ will give any record that has the term ‘Myth’ as long as it does not also contain the term ‘Roman’.

Multiple Boolean Operators can be used in one search.  Adding ( ) around terms to group them together.
    Example: Greek AND (myth or play) locates records that have the terms Greek AND myth, Greek AND play, but not Greek AND both terms myth AND play.
 
Truncation: Used to find multiple variations of a search term.  By adding * to the end of a search term, one will search multiple variations of the term from the point at which the truncation was added.
    Example: Search myth* retrieves myth, myths, mythology, mythological, etc... 
    Example: Search god* retrieves god, gods, goddesses

Subject searching utilizes Library of Congress Subject Headings, which designate the appropriate headings used for a particular subject.  In this way all subject headings are uniform for ease of of access.  Subject searching is more precise than keyword searching, for one will retrieve records of a particular topic rather than those with random word combinations.  Each record in the catalog lists its LC subject headings as hyperlinks that can be used to quickly access material on the same topic.

Examples of subject searches include:

• Mythology, Classical
• Mythology -- Dictionaries
• Mythology -- Encyclopedias
• Mythology, Greek
• Epic Poetry, Greek
• Greek Poetry
• Greek Drama
• Gods, Greek
• Goddesses, Greek

Author searching can be difficult when dealing with authors of the ancient world.  It was common for people to not have a surname.  Keyword and Subject searching can lead to the discovery of Greek authors and the proper spelling of their names.  Since they typically have only one name, that is the term by which you would search.  

Examples of author searches include:

• Aeschylus
• Aristophanes
• Euripides
• Hesiod
• Homer
• Sophocles

ArcherSearch is a search tool (discovery service) that searches many sources simultaneously. 

You will find books, ebooks, videos, articles, and links to databases or library guides. Get the most out of ArcherSearch by using the limits listed under All Filters under the search box.