— Ch. 1 · Encyclopedia Genesis And Scope —
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae.
~2 min read · Ch. 1 of 5
The year 1981 marked the first publication of a massive project called the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. This encyclopedia catalogued representations of mythology in the plastic arts of classical antiquity. It emerged as a multivolume work published serially over nearly three decades until 2009. The initial volume covered entries from Aara to Aphlad and appeared that same year. Publishers Artemis & Winkler Verlag released it from their offices in Zürich, München, and Düsseldorf. Scholars described this effort as the most extensive resource of its kind available at the time. They noted it provided full and detailed information on ancient mythological imagery.
International Scholarly Collaboration
Nearly forty countries contributed scholars to prepare the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae. These international experts wrote entries in their own language of choice. The resulting text appears variously in English, German, French, or Italian across different volumes. This multilingual approach created a unique scholarly landscape for classical studies. Contributors included researchers from diverse academic backgrounds working together on a single monumental task. Their collective effort spanned decades and required coordination among many national institutions. The project demonstrated how global cooperation could produce a definitive reference work on ancient art.Alphabetical Organization And Illustrations
Entries within the eight main volumes follow an alphabetical arrangement system. Each entry includes black-and-white illustrations indexed directly to its respective topic. The first volume covers Aara through Aphlad while subsequent volumes continue the sequence. Volume four specifically addresses Eros in Etruria through Herakles. An index volume published in 1999 catalogues museums, collections, and sites. Another index from that same year lists literary and epigraphical sources mentioning lost works. These visual records allow researchers to trace specific mythological figures across centuries of artistic production. The systematic layout makes navigation possible despite the sheer scale of the collection.