Research Strategies in Classics: Section III: Primary Texts
So far we have focused on secondary sources. For primary
texts (i.e. works by Aristotle) you search the philosopher
as author and the individual work as title. You can combine an author
and title search by using keywords and boolean logic, e.g. aw=Aristot*
and tw=Politic*. This yields several hits listing various editions and
translations, some with commentaries. For example, the Greek
text with a parallel English translation in the set of volumes of the
Loeb Classical Library located in the stacks on 8th
floor and in the Study Collection on the mezzanine at call number PA3611.A1.
- Politics is found in vol. 44;
- the Greek text with scholia in Oxford Classical Texts (Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis) v. 15 (PA 3405.S8);
- the Greek text with a parallel French translation and an apparatus criticus in the Collection des Universités de France: l'Association Guillaume Budé (Budés) v. 74 (PA 3641.B8).
You can also perform a search by line and section beginning at 1339a (Book 8) of Politics in the Perseus Digital Library (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/). You can choose either the Greek text or its English translation.
In English translation the works of Aristotle
can also be searched and read as part of the Past
Masters database.
Note: To describe and understand fully Aristotle's
theories on music in tragedy, you may need to go beyond Politics
and consult Aristotle's entire corpus, especially Poetics (for
his discussions on tragedy); Metaphysics and On the Heavens
(De caelo) on his theories on numbers (Pythagorean number theory);
On the Soul (De anima) on harmonics and music theory; Ethics
on ethical behavior and education, etc.
To search terms and concepts in the entire corpus simultaneously, use the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (Digital Studio, 2nd floor). This CD-ROM product covers the entire body of ancient Greek literary texts. Examples of search terms include:
To capture declined, conjugated and derived forms of the terms use a truncation symbol, which in the TLG is an < or an >. Example:
would include both:
