NOTHOS v6 — Medusa Edition

Ancient Greek Philology • Mythology • Semantic Search • Local AI

🏛️ Live Greek Dictionary Demonstration

The animation below demonstrates NOTHOS searching the Ancient Greek LSJ dictionary, prioritizing exact lemmas, cross-references, and semantic matches.

Try the dictionary

nothos research "Ἑρμῆς" --no-ai --top-k 5
nothos research "μυστήριον" --no-ai --top-k 5

Try the dictionary

nothos research "μυστήριον" --no-ai --top-k 5

nothos research "Ἑρμῆς" --no-ai --top-k 5

Portable semantic search

NOTHOS currently uses SQLite-backed embeddings for semantic retrieval.

A portable FAISS index is planned as an optional search backend. A prebuilt FAISS index can be distributed alongside the LSJ dictionary and embedding-model configuration, allowing users to avoid rebuilding the dictionary embeddings.

The same compatible embedding model is still needed to generate vectors for new search queries.

Ancient Greek philology, mythology, semantic search, and evidence-aware research powered by LSJ dictionaries and local Ollama models.

Features

• Ancient Greek LSJ semantic search
• Greek lemma definitions and lexical evidence
• Ollama-powered research explanations
• Mythology knowledge graph research
• JSON, Markdown, HTML, and plain-text exports
• FastAPI REST API
• Interactive OpenAPI documentation
• Cross-platform command-line interface
• Medusa terminal artwork
• Installation diagnostics

Requirements

Python 3.11 or newer, subject to dependency compatibility.

Python dependencies:

• NumPy
• Requests
• FastAPI
• Uvicorn

External dependencies:

• Ollama for embeddings and AI explanations
• Chafa for Medusa image rendering (optional)
• FIGlet for terminal typography (optional)

Python dependencies are defined in pyproject.toml and requirements.txt.

Installation

macOS

brew install python chafa figlet
./install.sh
source .venv/bin/activate
nothos doctor

Ubuntu / Debian / Pop!_OS

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python3 python3-venv python3-pip chafa figlet
./install.sh
source .venv/bin/activate
nothos doctor

Fedora

sudo dnf install -y python3 python3-pip chafa figlet
./install.sh
source .venv/bin/activate
nothos doctor

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S --needed python python-pip chafa figlet
./install.sh
source .venv/bin/activate
nothos doctor

Windows PowerShell

Install Python 3.11 or newer, then run:

.\install.ps1
.\.venv\Scripts\nothos.exe doctor

Windows Terminal is recommended for Unicode and ANSI support.

The ASCII banner works without Chafa.

Ollama

Install Ollama separately.

Default models:

• Embeddings: embeddinggemma-2
• Chat: gemma3:4b

Download the models if available in your Ollama installation:

ollama pull embeddinggemma-2
ollama pull gemma3:4b

Check the configured model names before downloading.

Environment variables:

Variable	Default	Purpose
OLLAMA_URL	http://localhost:11434	Ollama server
NOTHOS_EMBED_MODEL	embeddinggemma-2	Embedding model
NOTHOS_CHAT_MODEL	gemma3:4b	Mythology chat model
NOTHOS_EXPLAIN_MODEL	gemma3:4b	LSJ explanation model
NOTHOS_NO_BANNER	unset	Disable original banner
NO_COLOR	unset	Disable ANSI colors

Use the same embedding model that created your existing vector database.

Command-line interface

Display help:

nothos --help
nothos research --help
nothos serve --help

Research a Greek lemma:

nothos research "μυστήριον"

Retrieve LSJ evidence without AI:

nothos research "μυστήριον" --no-ai

Increase semantic results:

nothos research "Hermes" --top-k 20

Research mythology:

nothos research "Who was Hermes?" --engine mythology

Research flags

Flag	Purpose
--top-k N	Number of retrieved results
--engine lsj	LSJ research
--engine mythology	Mythology research
--no-ai	Retrieve LSJ evidence without AI
--format text	Plain-text output
--format json	JSON output
--format markdown	Markdown output
--format html	HTML output
-o, --output PATH	Save to a file
--banner auto	Automatic banner
--banner full	Full Medusa banner
--banner compact	Compact banner
--banner ascii	ASCII-only banner
--banner none	Suppress banner

Export examples

JSON:

nothos research "μυστήριον" --no-ai --format json --output reports/mystery.json

Markdown:

nothos research "Hermes" --format markdown --output reports/hermes.md

HTML:

nothos research "Galen" --format html --output reports/galen.html

Text:

nothos research "Apollo" --format text --output reports/apollo.txt

AI reports currently contain captured research text. No-AI LSJ searches return structured lexical results.

Medusa banner

The original banner renderer is preserved in tools/nothos_theme.py.

Its image is located at assets/medusa.png.

Commands:

nothos banner
nothos banner --style full
nothos banner --style compact
nothos banner --style ascii

Chafa renders the image when available in an interactive terminal. Otherwise NOTHOS uses its text fallback.

REST API

Start the server:

nothos serve --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8790

Local API documentation:

http://127.0.0.1:8790/docs

OpenAPI specification:

http://127.0.0.1:8790/openapi.json

Health

curl http://127.0.0.1:8790/health

LSJ search

curl -G http://127.0.0.1:8790/api/v1/search --data-urlencode "q=μυστήριον" --data-urlencode "top_k=5"

AI research

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8790/api/v1/research -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"query":"Hermes","top_k":5,"ai":true,"engine":"lsj"}'

API endpoints

Method	Path	Description
GET	/health	Health check
GET	/api/v1/search	Semantic LSJ search
POST	/api/v1/research	AI or non-AI research
GET	/docs	Interactive documentation
GET	/openapi.json	OpenAPI specification

Security

The REST API has no authentication.

Keep it bound to 127.0.0.1 unless you implement authentication and additional security controls.

Existing research engines

NOTHOS v6 preserves:

• nothos.py
• nothos_run.py
• tools/lsj_rag.py
• tools/clean_lsj.py
• tools/search_lsj.py
• tools/nothos_theme.py

The unified CLI is implemented in nothos_cli/.

Databases

Existing LSJ databases:

• data/dictionaries/lsj.sqlite3
• data/dictionaries/lsj_embeddings.sqlite3

The v6 CLI and API do not require re-ingestion.

Do not interrupt active embedding jobs.

Do not publish SQLite databases, WAL files, or journal files without checking redistribution rights.

Tests

python -m unittest discover -s tests -p 'test_v6_cli_api.py' -v
python -m compileall -q nothos_cli

Troubleshooting

Medusa image does not display

Install Chafa and confirm that assets/medusa.png exists.

Greek text appears incorrectly

Use a UTF-8 terminal and a font with Greek character support.

Ollama connection fails

Confirm Ollama is running and the configured models exist.

Exact lemma is missing from semantic results

Semantic search currently ranks by vector similarity. Exact-lemma prioritization is a planned improvement.

API connection refused

Start the server:

nothos serve --port 8790

Installation diagnostics

nothos doctor

Research limitations

Semantic similarity is not proof of lexical identity.

LSJ references are not independently verified quotations from ancient manuscripts.

AI-generated explanations can contain errors and should be checked against the underlying Greek evidence.

License

No repository license has been declared. Source code, dictionary data, and imported passages may have different redistribution requirements.

🐍 NOTHOS — Greek Dictionary Demonstration

nothos research "Ἑρμῆς" --no-ai --top-k 5

Exact Greek lemma matches · LSJ cross-references · Semantic search