An Index to Roscher's Lexicon of Mythology

compiled by Jonathan Groß 
ORCID 0000-0002-2564-9530 
jgross85 [AT] gmail [DOT] com

1. Introduction

1.1. General Disclaimer

This index file was created as a private research project with the goal to make the wealth of information in Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher's "Detailed Lexicon of Greek and Roman Mythology" (Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie) more accessible to everybody.

Roscher's Lexicon, originally published by B. G. Teubner in Leipzig from 1884 to 1937, is the most complete resource on Greek and Roman mythological names to date and also encompasses mythological (and religious) subjects from Sumeran, Akkadian, Babylonian, Hittite, Egyptian, Celtic, Germanic and other neighbouring cultures.

The Lexicon was reprinted three times in the latter half of the 20th century (by Georg Olms in Hildesheim), even after its pictorial content had been superseded by the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (1981–1999, 2009). Unfortunately, since the last reprint of 1992/1993, Roscher's Lexicon has been out of stock at both publishers (Olms and De Gruyter Brill).

Since the late 2000s, Roscher's Lexicon (the 6 main volumes and 4 supplements) was digitised by initiatives such as Google Books and the Internet Archive, and its contents can now be viewed there (with OCR text). One prominent use case of these scans is the German Wikipedia, where more than 2,500 pages use Roscher's Lexicon as a reference with a link to a scanned page in the Internet Archive.

1.2. Licensing

This dataset is released under the CC0 1.0 Universal License (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en). I chose this license in order to maximise the usefulness of the data to everybody.

Use and reuse of this data is strongly encouraged, and one use case has already been initiated by the author:
-https://mythogram.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Project:Roscher%27s_Lexicon_of_Mythology (presentation of the information from the index file as Linked Open Data, finished on 28 May 2024 with emendations until 5 August 2024)

Although not technically required by the licensing agreement, the author would appreciate being informed about other uses of the data.

The contents of the Lexicon themselves are mostly in the Public Domain as of 2024. Additionally, many of the smaller entries do not reach the threshold of originality. This includes most of the cover addenda.

2. Description of Data

The index file is formatted as tabular data. This file was created with LibreOffice Calc (originally in 7.6.6.3, in LibreOffice Calc 24.2 as of version 1.1 of this file) and is stored in its native .ods format. For convenience, an .xlsx version is also provided. Both files are practically identical, but the .ods file is to be regarded as the 'original'.

Data is stored in several tabs:
(A) 'main alphabet' with the headwords of the main work (excluding addenda and corrigenda from the covers; for these see below).
(B) 'cover addenda' with the additional entries
(C) 'authors' with information on the authors
(D) 'fascicles' with information on the individual issues of the Lexicon

The Tabs are available separately as .csv files (with tab separation, so strictly speaking it should be .tsv).

Tabs A and B are almost identical in structure, with the columns:
A     id             = unique entry ID (not authoritative, just a means to identify individual entries)
B     headword         = lemma of the entry as stated by the Lexicon
C     subject_type         = classification scheme for the subject matter of the article (again, not authoritative and in places even contentious)
D     vol             = volume number
E     fascicle         = issue number (not found in most exemplars, assigned according to my own research)
F     date             = publication date of the entry (inferred from the issue date of the fascicle)
G–H    col1,2             = start and end column
I     colspan         = span of columns
J–M    author1,2,3,4         = author of the entry (please refer to Tab C, column A)
N    entry_type         = classification of entry (article, cross-reference, addendum, correction)
O    scan             = URL to a scan of the start column in the Internet Archive
P    Wikidata         = ID of the Wikidata item representing the subject (incomplete as of Version 1.1)
Q    FactGrid         = ID of the FactGrid item representing the subject (mostly missing as of Version 1.1)
R    Mythogram         = ID of the (bibliographic) Mythogram item representing the Lexicon entry
S    redirect_target = target headword as stated, if the entry is a cross-reference
T    remarks         = remarks on the entry or subject (such as 'non-entity', 'duplicate', 'double lemma')
U    PD            = if the entry is in the Public Domain (either 'yes' or year where it enters the PD)

Tab B has two additional columns, which are mostly empty as of version 1.1
V    referring_to         = target entry (in the main alphabet) of the correction or addenda
W    excerpt         = textual excerpt from the entry

Tab C has information on the authors:
A    short_name         = for sorting reasons
B    full_name         = full name
C    Wikidata         = Wikidata item
D    FactGrid         = FactGrid item
E    Mythogram         = Mythogram item
F    yob             = year of birth
G    yod             = year of death
H    vols             = volumes contributed to
I    article_count     = number of articles written (not counting corrections and addenda from Tab B)
J–L    namestring1,2,3 = name as written in the Lexicon
M    remarks         = remarks on completeness and certainty of data

Tab D informs about the individual fascicles of the Lexicon as they appeared from 1884 to 1937:
A    no.             = fascicle number
B    vol            = volume(s) the fascicle belongs to
C    colspan         = column span of the fascicle
D    headwords         = headwords contained in the fascicle as advertised on the cover page
E    issue_date         = date of publication of the fascicle as stated on the cover page
F    quires             = quire numbers of the fascicle
G    quire_count         = quire count of the fascicle (calculated from column numbers: in some cases, at the end of a volume, quires were shortened, returning rational numbers here)
H    remarks         = remarks (in German)

3. Version History and Change Log

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Version 1.1 (August 11th, 2024)
-Tab A, column P (Wikidata Q-ids): added 2,380 out of 15,489 = 15.4%)
-Tab A, column R (Mythogram Q-ids): completed
-Tab C: added data for author Wilhelm Windisch (translated Cumont's article on 'Mithras')
-minor corrections to some entries (typos)
-volume number changed from 3.2 to 3.1 for 125 entries (Pasikrateia–Peirithoos)
-fascicle number changed from 104/105 to 106/107 for the last 12 entries (Tameobrigus–Kerberos [Nachtrag])
-addition of 11 missed entries, values in column A renumbered accordingly

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Version 1.0 (May 4th, 2024)
-Tabs A–B with complete and checked data for columns A–N and S
-Tab A with complete data for column O
-Tabs C and D with complete data

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Prior to publication:

-collection and checking of data (roughly 376 hours of work, started in July 2023 and finished on Star Wars Day 2024)