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The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) is a digital library of Greek literature run as a research project at the University of California, Irvine. Classicists, philologists and historians use it to search the text of Greek authors by word and passage. This guide explains what each access tier gives you, how institutional access works, and how to cite it. Facts below come from the TLG’s own FAQ and home page, read on 2026-11-07, unless attributed otherwise.
What the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae is
The TLG describes itself as a research project at the University of California, Irvine whose primary goal is a comprehensive digital collection of all extant works of Greek literature from antiquity to the present era, together with search mechanisms for scholars and students. The name is Latin for “treasury of the Greek language”; the project’s own home page calls it “A Digital Library of Greek Literature.”
The collection was distributed on CD-ROM from 1985 to 2000; the last disc (CD ROM E) was issued in 1999, and since 2008 the TLG no longer issues or renews CD-ROM licences. Access today is online only.
Who runs it and what it covers
The TLG is a non-profit academic unit at UC Irvine and charges subscription fees to recover its costs. The FAQ gives the editor of the online library as Maria C. Pantelia. The Digital Classicist wiki (a scholarly secondary source) dates the project to 1972, describing it as the first humanities effort to build a large digital corpus of literary texts, and reports the online corpus at more than 110 million words across more than 10,000 works by about 4,000 authors, with an Abridged version of about 1,000 works by 70 authors. Those size figures are the wiki’s, not the project’s own FAQ, and they change as texts are added. The project’s FAQ says digitisation and editing of a requested missing text can take up to nine months.
Access tiers: what you get without a subscription
| Tier | What the TLG says it is | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Full TLG corpus | The complete searchable collection | Subscription: individual (one year) or institutional |
| Abridged TLG | A smaller corpus with the same search capabilities | Open to the public; the destination for users outside an authorised institutional IP |
| TLG Canon | A searchable database of all texts in the corpus (authors and works, bibliographies only) | Open to the public |
| TLG Lexica | A smaller corpus with the same functionality, plus lexica | Listed on the home page (see lexica below) |
There is no trial. The FAQ’s suggestion is to preview the whole Canon and the Abridged version, both open to the public, before subscribing. The lexica the TLG site names are the Online LSJ, the Cunliffe Homeric Lexicon, the Powell Herodotus lexicon, the Online LBG, Koumanoudes and the Historical Dictionary of Modern Greek.
How institutional access and individual subscription work
- Individuals: the FAQ lists a one-year subscription, quoting $140 at the time of reading. Check the current FAQ and Subscriptions page, since fees change. One-year subscriptions are not refundable.
- Institutions: price depends on institution size and the estimated number of users (not simultaneous users); at renewal, actual usage is also considered. New subscribers complete a questionnaire about anticipated use. Institutions may cancel at any time, with an administrative fee.
- Authentication: access is by IP address. Institutional users also create a username and password. If you connect through an authorised institutional IP, by campus network, proxy or VPN, you are directed to the full corpus; otherwise you land in the Abridged (open access) version.
- Library proxies: the TLG says it has no proxy-configuration expertise and points to OCLC’s EZproxy database stanza for Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (updated 2023-04-12).
For a research office or library, the practical point is that remote researchers need the institutional proxy or VPN, not just a personal account, to reach the full corpus. The sign-in link sits in the header of the TLG site, and the Subscriptions page is in the main menu.
Searching and using it
The TLG home page offers four entry points: the Full TLG corpus, the Abridged TLG, the TLG Canon and the TLG Lexica. The official Help files, linked from the Help menu, document the search interface itself. Encoding is documented on the site’s Encoding pages, which link the Beta Code Manual and the Beta to Unicode Guide (both PDF), relevant if you work with older Beta Code transcriptions of Greek.
Usage limits matter for heavy researchers. The licence prohibits copying, downloading and redistributing texts. You may copy short passages (a few lines) for research or handouts, but not larger portions. The TLG also caps the number of pages a user may access, mainly to prevent downloading; exceeding it can suspend access, usually restored within minutes (contact the TLG if not restored after a day). Editors preparing a new critical edition can ask the TLG whether a digital copy can be provided.
How to cite the TLG
The TLG’s FAQ asks that citations give the URL and the month and year of access, and notes that bibliographic formats vary; consult your style guide. Its own example for the online library is:
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae® Digital Library. Ed. Maria C. Pantelia. University of California, Irvine. https://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu (accessed _DATE_).
To cite a specific text, the TLG recommends citing the edition it reproduces, followed by the TLG and the access date, for example T.W. Allen, Homeri Ilias, vols. 2-3, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1931, Thesaurus Linguae Graecae Digital Library, with the passage URL and access date. This matters because the TLG reproduces particular editions, so a citation to the edition lets readers locate the same text.
Strengths and limits
- Strength: a single searchable corpus of Greek literature, with a public Canon for checking whether a work is included and a public Abridged version with the same search capabilities.
- Strength: missing texts can be requested through the Canon route.
- Limit: full-corpus access requires a paid individual subscription or an institutional IP.
- Limit: the licence restricts copying and bulk download, so it is a search and reading tool, not a data source you can export.
- Limit: the TLG is a corpus of Greek texts; it is not a Latin or translation resource, and the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae is a separate project.
Alternatives and companions
| Resource | How it relates (from CASRAI’s own guides) |
|---|---|
| Perseus Digital Library | Our guide covers what Perseus holds, how its Hopper and Scaife interfaces differ, and how it compares with the TLG. |
| Loeb Classical Library | Our guide covers searching the digital Loeb for Greek and Latin texts, canonical citations and access options. |
For the wider field, see What is classics?. For why an open Abridged tier exists next to a paid one, see the dictionary entry on open access.
FAQ
Is the TLG free?
Partly. The Abridged corpus and the Canon are open to the public; the full corpus needs an individual subscription or an institutional connection, according to the TLG FAQ read on 2026-11-07.
What is the TLG Canon?
The Canon of Greek Authors and Works is a searchable database of all texts in the corpus, listing authors and works (bibliographies only), not full texts.
Can I use the TLG offline or on CD-ROM?
No. The TLG is online only; CD-ROM licences stopped being issued or renewed in 2008.
What does Thesaurus Linguae Graecae mean?
It is Latin for “treasury of the Greek language.” It is a Greek-text corpus, not a translation service.
What is the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae?
A separate project from the TLG; this page covers only the Greek corpus at UC Irvine.
Sources
- TLG home page, https://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/ (read 2026-11-07)
- TLG Frequently Asked Questions, https://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/faq.php (read 2026-11-07)
- Digital Classicist Wiki, Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/Thesaurus_Linguae_Graecae (read 2026-11-07; secondary source for founding date and corpus size)
