Austrian Academy of Sciences unlocks Ancient Greek with Mistral

Overview

The Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), together with its Austrian Archaeological Institute, partnered with Mistral and services partner Reply to build Apollo, described as the first advanced large language model for Ancient Greek. Apollo is trained on a specialized corpus of 600 million words of historical Greek text plus tens of thousands of published inscriptions and papyri, helping researchers reconstruct damaged texts and identify thematic connections across collections. The OeAW reports Apollo turns work that once took years into hours, addressing over one million unread Greek papyri worldwide, with future phases planned for semantic search and handwritten inscription decipherment.

The challenge

For centuries, scholars have grappled with the limitations of manual transcription and interpretation of Ancient Greek texts. With over one million unread Greek papyri worldwide, including tens of thousands held by the Austrian National Library, the sheer volume of fragmentary inscriptions and documents has made comprehensive analysis a daunting task. Traditional methods are slow, labor-intensive, and often unable to reconstruct heavily damaged texts.

The solution

Partnering with Mistral, OeAW is developing Apollo, described as the first advanced Large Language Model for Ancient Greek, trained on a specialized corpus of 600 million words from historical Greek texts, alongside tens of thousands of published inscriptions and papyri. Mistral's expertise in building state-of-the-art models, combined with services partner Reply, provided the foundation for Apollo's development, ensuring a secure, European-based infrastructure.

Reported business value

Apollo helps researchers reconstruct damaged texts and accelerate discoveries that once took years into hours, with future phases planned to support semantic search and handwritten inscription decipherment.