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DACL: Digital Ancient Cypriot Literature

The DACL project aims at the creation of a new searchable digital library of Ancient Cypriot Literature (Archaia Kypriaki Grammateia/Αρχαία Κυπριακή Γραμματεία), a magisterial six-volume corpus of Ancient Cypriot Literature authored by A. Voskos, K. Michaelides and I. G. Taifacos and published by the Leventis Foundation between 1995 and 2008. This digital library will be prepared, hosted and maintained by the Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Center (STARC) of the Cyprus Institute. The corpus covers the ancient Cypriot literary production in a time span of c. fifteen centuries (from 7th century BC to 5th-6th century AD) and examines it through its wide range of literary genres (epic, lyric and dramatic poetry, epigram, prose etc). Each volume contains a sketch of the history of each genre, information on the writers and their works, as well as the texts themselves (Ancient Greek and Latin) accompanied by translations in Modern Greek, detailed commentaries, lists of different manuscript readings of the texts, a rich Bibliography and an Index. The AKG corpus consists of 3603 pages in total and comprises the literary work of sixty four Cypriot – or, in some cases, thought to be Cypriot – writers as well as seventy two epigrams composed by various authors. The ancient text runs to 517 pages.

The DACL digital library will be accessible online providing web access to its textual resources and will be a valuable supplement to other large-scale digital libraries in classics (TLG, Perseus, etc.). It will address and be extremely useful for experts (in Classical Studies, Ancient History, Archaeology, Art History, Philosophy, Medical Science, Linguistics, Religious Studies etc.) and non-experts alike. At its earlier stages,  it will provide translations of the ancient texts in Modern Greek. At a later stage,  it will also offer translations in English. Furthermore, the DACL project will engage its users further with Ancient Cypriot Literature and beyond the context of the six published volumes in different ways with technology’s support. This will be achieved through links of individual words, concepts and names within the texts with Ancient Greek and Latin Dictionaries (e.g. LSJ and Lewis & Short respectively) and the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, through timelines of writers and the significant places and events in their lives and through maps by which the users will become familiar with the toponyms that are mentioned in the texts.

Additional Info

  • Acronym: DACL
  • Center: STARC
  • Funding Source: LEVENTIS FOUNDATION
  • CyI Funding: €117.000
  • Starting Date: 01/09/10
  • End Date: 31/08/13
  • Coordinator: CyI / STARC
  • Partners:

    N/A