Classics Viewer

Note: If you have trouble loading the app after an update, save bookmarks, uninstall and reinstall. Only updating the app will not update the data.

An Android and iOS app for reading ancient Greek and Latin texts offline. Browse works from Homer, Plato, Virgil, Cicero and many other classical authors - all stored locally on your phone with no internet required.

NOTE - NEW: There is now a download option within the menu to optionally retrieve the large full db from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. This has interlinear for all Greek and Latin plus a latin dictionary in addition to the Greek one. A few Akkadian and Sumerian texts are there as well. Another option exists to download the full Chamberlain Iliad audio. Audio licensed as CC-BY, © 2016, 2017 by David Chamberlain. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: https://hypotactic.com/my-reading-of-homer-work-in-progress/

NEW: Parsing fixes Dec. 21, 2025. Uninstall and reinstall to get data update. NEW: Added Alphabet practice option for learning alphabets. NEW: Align button on text view takes you to same place in first transalation and vice versa. The settings option to put interlinear translation first will work with as well. Export function saves current source or translation to file.

NOTE: Patreon page may be disabled at some point while pending Patreon site support for new age verification requirements.

Patreon links below added for production hosting purposes. All db files are free and can be also be generated locally using create_perseus_database.py script after data-sources repo links are cloned.

Beta: Extended db support with First1k data (https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek/tree/master). 300+ authors, 900+ works, some untranslated. 40G free on device needed. perseus_texts_extended.db.zip https://www.patreon.com/posts/classics-viewer-141298606 (free)

SAMPLE DATABASE:

• Greek: 10 authors, 259 works
• Latin: 2 authors, 6 works
• Total: 12 authors, 265 works

FULL DATABASE:

• Akkadian: 1 author, 1 work
• Greek: 91 authors, 772 works
• Italian: 1 author, 3 works
• Latin: 40 authors, 230 works
• Old English: 1 author, 1 work
• Sumerian: 1 author, 11 works
• Total: 135 authors, 1,018 works

EXTENDED DATABASE:

• Akkadian: 1 author, 1 work
• Arabic: 1 author, 1 work
• Coptic: 29 authors, 51 works
• Greek: 388 authors, 2,049 works
• Hebrew: 39 authors, 39 works
• Italian: 1 author, 3 works
• Latin: 40 authors, 230 works
• Norse: 1 author, 22 works
• Old English: 1 author, 1 work
• Pali: 1 author, 5 works
• Persian: 1 author, 1 work
• Sanskrit: 270 authors, 270 works
• Sumerian: 1 author, 11 works
• Syriac: 4 authors, 39 works
• Total: 778 authors, 2,723 works

NEW: Suggested reading list bookmarks to import READING_LIST_GREEK.csv

Features

• 📚 100+ Greek and Latin authors with complete works
• 🔍 Tap any word to see dictionary definitions and find other occurrences
• 🌐 English translations available for most texts
• 📱 100% offline - no internet connection needed
• 🎨 Customizable display - adjust text size, colors, and reading preferences

Quick Start

Prerequisites for building app

• Android Studio
• Android device or emulator (Android 5.0+)
• Python 3 (for building the database)
• ~2GB free disk space

Building the App

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/threedlite/classicsviewer.git
   cd classicsviewer

2. Build the database (required first time only)

   cd data-prep
   python3 create_perseus_database.py sample
   cd ..

   This creates a sample database with selected authors. Takes about 3-4 minutes.

3. Deploy to your Android device

   ./deploy_simple.sh

   The app will install and launch automatically.

Alternative: Build in Android Studio

1. Open the project in Android Studio
2. Make sure the database exists: app/src/debug/assets/perseus_texts.db.zip
3. Click "Run" to build and deploy

Using the App

1. Select a language - Choose Greek or Latin
2. Browse authors - Tap an author to see their works
3. Select a work - Choose from available books/sections
4. Read and explore - Tap any word for definitions, swipe for translations

Troubleshooting

App crashes on startup?

• Clear app data: adb shell pm clear com.classicsviewer.app.debug
• Reinstall: adb uninstall com.classicsviewer.app.debug then redeploy

Build fails?

• Make sure you have Android SDK installed

• Check that ./gradlew is executable: chmod +x gradlew

• *.md files are mostly genereated by Claude and may not be entirely up-to-date.

Data Sources

Texts are from the Perseus Digital Library:

• Greek texts from canonical-greekLit
• Latin texts from canonical-latinLit
• Morphological data from Wiktionary

License

This project uses texts from the Perseus Digital Library. See LicenseActivity.kt and individual text files for specific licensing information.

Other unaffiliated projects

A more in-depth morphological system, which I have not incorporated but is likely to be more accurate, is here: https://bitbucket.org/ben-crowell/lemming/src/master/README.md

A project based on similar source corpora with CC-BY-SA 4 license. There may be a possibility of incorporating their parsing and lemmatization strategies in the future.

https://github.com/OperaGraecaAdnotata/OGA