Links for downloading a variety of ancient Greek dictionaries.

Thanks to the internet there is a vast array of ancient Greek dictionaries available for the translator. This was unheard of even ten years ago. This speeds up the process of translating by a factor of at least ten times.

These dictionaries are all old, and there are no copyright restrictions. Some are not English-Greek dictionaries, the majority are non-text searchable, large pdf files. This is the state of the best available today.

Sure, Perseus’ online Lidell and Scott Dictionary is the best for speed and easy access, no question. None of the other solutions come close to its speed and ability to enter a verb in whatever form, identify it, and find the root meaning.

There are some weaknesses of Lidell and Scott’s Dictionary. The first one is that it hardly delves into the realm of Ecclesiastical usage. Secondly, it is not exhaustive. Not every word can be found here.

One should always start at Perseus and if the word does not exist in this database, or the definition seems too narrow or some other problem, then it is time to go to the other dictionaries.

There are many websites that house these ancient Greek dictionaries, but many of them are not easy to navigate through, nor does any one site have all the dictionaries together. It requires some effort to locate and download the files. For your convenience, they are all found here below.

Many of the links will connect you to a personal DropBox file. With these ones, a click on a link will immediately start a download for browser viewing. Once that is complete, find the “Save Page As” in your browser menu and save the document to your hard drive.

A few are direct links from Google Books. Follow the instructions from Google to download. It isn’t always necessary to download the books to use them. One can do search queries within the book using Greek text online. This cannot be done if the file is downloaded. This online search query isn’t always consistent but does sometimes provide quick results.

There are many more ancient Greek dictionaries available at Google, but the ones listed here are used more frequently.

• E.A. Sophocles’ Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods. Memorial Edition. New York: Charles Scribner and Sons. 1900. Thanks to George Valsamis at Ellopos.net for recommending this one.

• Dictionnaire Grec-Française Paris: Garnier Frères, 1865.

• A New Greek and English Lexicon; Principally on the plan of the Greek and German Lexicon of Schneider by James Donnegan. Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Co. 1836.

• Lexicon graeco-latinum manuale ex optimis libris concinnatum. E.F. Leopold, ed. Lipsiae: Caroli Tauchnitii. 1852.

• Cornelius Schrevel’s, Lexicon manuale Græco-Latinum et Latino-Græcum. Petrus Steele, ed. New York: Collins and Hannay. 1825.

• Stephanus’ Θησαυρος της Ελληνικης Γλωσσης is part of a multi-volume series. Some pages are missing scans or are scanned poorly. Some versions found on Google Books, such as volume 5, have copies that are missing a whole section, while other volume 5s have it. The link to volume 5 here is the full work.

  The volumes listed below are the series published by Firmon-Didot. The books range from publishing dates of approximately 1817-1842. Due to the varying dates, there may be some inconsistencies between the books. Volumes 1a to 8 are the actual dictionary volumes, while volume 9 is an index. There are volumes containing glossaries after this, but due to space limitations, these are not included.

  • Stephanus Volume 1a Α – Ἀλῶρος
  • Stephanus Volume 1b Ἅμα – Ἄντος
  • Stephanus Volume 2 Β – Δ
  • Stephanus Volume 3 Ε
  • Stephanus Volume 4 Ζ – Κ
  • Stephanus Volume 5 L – O
  • Stephanus Volume 6 Π
  • Stephanus Volume 7 Σ — Τ
  • Stephanus Volume 8 Υ — Ω the end section has articles on grammar and orthography.
  • Stephanus Volume 9 This volume contains an index only.
  
  
  

  Θησαυρος της Ελληνικης Γλωσσης, a Greek-Latin dictionary, is over four hundred years old, but has yet to be surpassed in comprehensiveness. The typesetting and the structure of the earliest editions are difficult to follow, but the editions printed in the 1800s and later make it much easier to use. Only the editions 1800 or later are linked here. One can go on Google and find earlier versions.

  Almost every dictionary above owes its ancestry to Stephanus. Many simply are abbreviated forms, condensed, abridged, or anglicized versions based on this work.

  There is a rich history behind the Stephanus name and their contribution to Bible history. Θησαυρος της Ελληνικης Γλωσσης was spearheaded by Henri Estienne (also known as Henri Stephanus). This family’s history of publishing, collating manuscripts, and translating has had a major impact on the modern Bible, but hardly recognized.

  Some may ask, “what about Lampe’s Patristic Lexicon?” This one is a recent publication and does not qualify to be in any open source digital book library. Oxford University Press has not ported the printed version into any digital format yet either. Amazon.com has new ones listed from $304-578.00 US. The publisher has alienated a sizeable audience by its pricing and lack of digital availability. It is an OK dictionary, not as good as Stephanus’, and not worth the price. This pricing and availability may also put the book into a deep public slumber – a forgotten work that will sit quietly on a few dusty library bookshelves.

  For more complete information on how to utilize the Perseus digital library, and a more comprehensive listing of other resources, please go the section on dictionaries at the following article, Translation Tips on the Greek Church Fathers.