DICES is an international research collaboration for the study of direct speeches in Greek and Latin epic poetry from Homer to Late Antiquity.

The heart of the project is an effort to construct a comprehensive, authoritative database of direct speech in Greek and Latin epic. Standard identifiers for characters and textual loci permit us to draw on (and contribute to) an extensive ecosystem of linked open data for Classics, further broadening the potential reach of our analysis.

DICES will organize two successive workshops to increase the cohesion of the planned multi-author publication, facilitate cooperation between the participating authors, and to provide training and support for the use of the developed digital tools of the DICES database. The first workshop, at the University of Rostock (Germany), 30 June – 2 July 2022, will be used for the presentation of early ideas, forging collaboration and demonstrations of digital tools and methods; the second workshop, at Mount Allison University (Canada) in the summer of 2023, for presentations of final drafts, troubleshooting, and brainstorming for future projects.

The first joint project will be a peer-reviewed, edited volume showcasing experimental digital methods and new possibilities for diachronic analysis of direct speech and related categories in the epic tradition.

For a more detailed description of the database, please see here.