Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, known by the abbreviation LIMC, set out to do something that had never been attempted at full scale: catalogue every representation of mythology in the plastic arts of classical antiquity. Not the myths themselves, not the texts, but the objects. Painted vases, sculpted friezes, coins, sarcophagi, gems. Scholars from nearly 40 countries would contribute to it, writing in four languages, across nearly three decades. When the project was done, it ran to eight main volumes, two index volumes, and a supplement. How does a project that large hold together? And why, when the first volume appeared, did specialists greet it with what one reviewer called understandable caution?

• 2. An International Undertaking

  ›

  Scholars from nearly 40 countries contributed entries to the LIMC, each writing in whichever language they chose. The result is a reference work where entries appear in English, German, French, or Italian, sometimes shifting from one to the next across consecutive pages. No single scholarly language was imposed on the contributors. Each brought the depth and conventions of their own academic tradition to the task. That multilingual character is not incidental. It reflects how widely the study of classical mythology is distributed across the modern world, with major research communities in Germany, France, Italy, Britain, and across North America. The project's American institutional base is the Alexander Library of Rutgers University, which serves as the U.S. home for the LIMC and its associated resources.

• 3. The Long Arc of Publication

  ›

  Volume I, covering mythological names from Aara through Aphlad, appeared in 1981 from Artemis and Winkler Verlag in Zurich and Munich. The series advanced steadily through the alphabet: Volume II in 1984 ran from Aphrodisias to Athena; Volume III in 1986 reached Eros and Amor; Volume IV in 1988 extended through Herakles; Volume V in 1990 pushed through Kenchrias; Volume VI in 1992 covered the Kentauroi; Volume VII in 1994 ran to Theseus; and Volume VIII in 1997 closed with Zodiacus and a supplementary sweep. The 1999 release of two index volumes completed the main series, one devoted to museums, collections, and archaeological sites, the other to literary and epigraphical sources that mention lost works. A final supplemental volume appeared in 2009 from Artemis Verlag in Dusseldorf, bringing the total project to a close 28 years after it began.

• 4. Caution, Then Conviction

  ›

  Brunilde Ridgway, writing in the American Journal of Archaeology in 1987, described the reception of the first volume as marked by understandable caution. A project of this ambition can stall, fragment, or fail to deliver on its stated scope. Her own view changed after the second volume appeared, covering the range from Aphrodisias through Athena. At that point, she wrote, no reservations should remain. The project had proved it could sustain its method across a second full volume. That shift from caution to conviction is a telling measure of what the LIMC demonstrated in its early years. Scholarly skepticism about long-term collaborative reference projects is rational; the LIMC overcame it volume by volume.

• 5. Structure and Organization

  ›

  Entries run alphabetically through the names of mythological figures. Each entry is paired with black-and-white illustrations, and those images are indexed directly to their respective entries. Robin Hard, in the Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology, described the LIMC as providing full and detailed information on the objects it covers. The index volumes released in 1999 give the whole set a second layer of access: one index organizes material by museum, collection, and site; the other connects literary and epigraphical sources to entries in the main volumes, including references to works that no longer survive. That two-track indexing lets researchers approach the catalogue from the objects themselves or from the ancient texts that mention them.

• 6. How Scholars Have Described It

  ›

  William Hansen, in Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans, called the LIMC monumental. Pura Nieto Hernandez, in a research guide published by Oxford University Press in 2010, described it as an indispensable research instrument. Hard's Routledge Handbook called it magnificent. These are not routine compliments for a reference work. The LIMC is also accessible online through a database maintained at weblimc.org, called the Digital LIMC, which is updated independently of the print publication and carries a multilingual interface that mirrors the language policy of the print volumes. Unlike the bound series, the online database can absorb new scholarship and newly catalogued objects without waiting for a new print run, keeping the record open in ways the volumes themselves cannot.