# Perseus Digital Library

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Perseus Digital Library and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free online library of Greek and Latin texts, translations and tools, valued for its long track record and depth. Critics say it is incomplete and sometimes unreliable.

## Why people recommend it

- Long-running, well-established resource (2 comments): "Online tools to simplify this process like Perseus have existed for at least 15 years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49217721)) "Perseus has been around since 1987 & seems to have more features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49215843))
- Large collection of texts and tools (2 comments): "a large number of texts and translations and tools to go between all three" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48048169)) "Perseus has been around since 1987 & seems to have more features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49215843))
- Accurate, complete scholarly editions (2 comments): "has a more advanced presentation of the text (including the Teubner edtion)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46781104)) "Perseus had them all right, for what it's worth." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49222018))

## What people warn about

- Unreliable in places (1 comments): "it is incredibly unreliable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49217400))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Anna's Archive](https://hackerapproved.com/p/anna-s-archive.md): 134 recommend
- [Project Gutenberg](https://hackerapproved.com/p/project-gutenberg.md): 76 recommend
- [Standard Ebooks](https://hackerapproved.com/p/standard-ebooks.md): 34 recommend
- [Library Genesis](https://hackerapproved.com/p/library-genesis.md): 15 recommend
- [LibGen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/libgen.md): 12 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Perseus Digital Library", https://hackerapproved.com/p/perseus-digital-library/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).