Appendix A - Wagner's primary sources

Summary

The “Introduction” to this book lists the names of all the ancient authors that I have been able to prove that Wagner mentioned in writing or conversation. This appendix, however, does not contain all of those names because I have limited myself here to only those authors whose books Wagner mentions by name. The two most important authors missing from this appendix are Pindar and Hesiod because, at least so far as I have been able to discover, Wagner never mentions any specific titles by these authors. But since these two poets receive ample treatment in the body of this book, I do not consider this a great drawback. At any rate, I think we can be certain that Wagner read both of these authors but uncertain as to what precisely he read. As for the authors of other primary sources, some of their works are mentioned so often by Wagner that to cite each instance would make the scaffolding bigger than the building, so to speak. So I have tried to include what I think are the most significant mentions and have footnoted these. The last thing to say about Wagner's primary sources from antiquity concerns his readings of Roman literature. One of the more interesting things to point out in this regard is not what the list contains but what it leaves out. Indeed, Wagner mentions few Roman works by name, and he tends not to regard these works with much esteem.