Which GREEK CLASSICS to read?

[BAYLOR]

Here's someone's list of Greek classics to consider. Does anyone see anything there that you'd care to nominate for the present discussion, especially if it hasn't been mentioned already?

A Greek reading list

It was four or five years ago that I launched my little Roman reading project, and, now that that project is winding down, or up, I am beginning to plan for a similar project focused on the Greeks.…

cburrell.wordpress.com

It's amazing what works survived the destruction of Library of Alexandria and the Dark Ages and yet, it's only a fraction.

 

[J-Sun]

Here's someone's list of Greek classics to consider. Does anyone see anything there that you'd care to nominate for the present discussion, especially if it hasn't been mentioned already?

A Greek reading list

It was four or five years ago that I launched my little Roman reading project, and, now that that project is winding down, or up, I am beginning to plan for a similar project focused on the Greeks.…

cburrell.wordpress.com

Almost all of it has been mentioned, at least generally (though this gives specific Lives of Plutarch distributed throughout the chronological list, for instance) but I'm not sure that "Longinus" was mentioned and his notion of the sublime has been a major concept in aesthetic philosophy/theories of criticism since. It's put together with a bare version of Aristotle's Poetics and a prose version of Horace's Ars Poetica in a Penguin volume and I think there's a better one with another piece or two in it from Oxford World Classics. I'd also echo some of the recommendations under "Supplements" but I was trying to stay on the "classics" topic and not get into the secondary material. I think it was J. R. Hamilton who described Tarn as "whitewashing" Alexander while saying that Green "color-washed" him, which may be apt but Green's biography certainly is colorful, detailed, and enjoyable. And Bury and Kitto are part of that cluster of British classical scholarship that so interests me.

(BTW, Extollager, I received that copy of Philology I ordered. Unfortunately, it was cocked, dented, and had a loose hinge, despite being sold as "very good" but, after some persistence, I got things straightened out and still have it as a reading copy. With luck, I'll be able to read it and talk about it while we're both still alive.)

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I know he is borderline Greek/Roman but I love Plutarch.

It's kind of like reading a trashy magazine.

 

[Elentarri]

If you are going to read Greek classics I recommend the Landmark series, simply because of all the extra material and maps etc. So far they have the Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, Landmark Julius Caesar: The Complete Works; Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, Landmark Thucydides: Guide to the Peloponnesian War; Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika; and Landmark: Xenophon's Anabasis.
I'm waiting for the Landmark Polybius: The Histories (if they ever get around to it).

There is also The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus, which is something like a Greek mythology encyclopedia.
Constellation Myths by Eratosthenes can be considered an extension of the above, since it is also in semi-encyclopedia format.

Ovid's Metamorphoses also provides extensive details about Greek mythology There are various verse translations (Rolphe Humphries and Horace Gregory translation seem perfectly understandable to me) but also a prose translation by Mary M Innes, which reads just fine and is fairly accurate as far as I can tell.

There is the usual Illiad and Odyssey by Homer, as well as the Aeneid by Virgil (more a Roman thing?) Incidentally, I found a Macmillan Collector's Library edition of the Odyssey translated by "Lawrence of Arabia" in a used book shop recently. I thought that might be interesting to compare to my Fagles translations.

But I also enjoyed Voyage of Argo (aka Jason and the Argonauts aka the Argonautica) by Apollonius of Rhodes.

Then the collection of Greek Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes, and Aristophanes.

OFF TOPIC: If you want a book that provides an analysis of Celtic myths (it's not a story book) then James MacKillp's Myths and Legends of the Celts is very useful.

 

[Lostinspace]

Going back to the list at A Greek reading list, the most obvious missing author is Polybius Polybius - Wikipedia.

 

[Bick]

Going back to the list at A Greek reading list, the most obvious missing author is Polybius Polybius - Wikipedia.

Perhaps because he was a Roman Greek, and his histories are principally of Roman history (notably the Punic wars)?

 

[BAYLOR]

Going back to the list at A Greek reading list, the most obvious missing author is Polybius Polybius - Wikipedia.

I have a copy of Polybius The Histories Oxford worlds classic edition . It's great stuff.

 

[Bick]

I have a copy of Polybius The Histories Oxford worlds classic edition . It's great stuff.

Yeah, but he mostly wrote it in Rome, about Rome, long after most of the other stuff on the list - it's 'Roman' really (albeit he wrote in Greek), not part of the classical Greek canon.

 

[BAYLOR]

Yeah, but he mostly wrote it in Rome, about Rome, long after most of the other stuff on the list - it's 'Roman' really (albeit he wrote in Greek), not part of the classical Greek canon.

Oh

 

[Brian G Turner]

Here's someone's list of Greek classics to consider. Does anyone see anything there that you'd care to nominate for the present discussion, especially if it hasn't been mentioned already?

A Greek reading list

It was four or five years ago that I launched my little Roman reading project, and, now that that project is winding down, or up, I am beginning to plan for a similar project focused on the Greeks.…

cburrell.wordpress.com

The thing is, you're talking about all written works there - histories, plays, philosophy, and so on. Figure out which area you'd actually like to read.

Personally I find the histories more engaging because that's my key interest. Plays can be interesting, but it helps to know context which even published guides don't cover in enough detail. Philosophy is privileged old men talking about their opinions and doesn't appeal.

 

[Extollager]

"Philosophy is privileged old men talking about their opinions and doesn't appeal."

Oh dear! Where would I begin -- !

Funny how so many young people reading Plato have been intrigued by his works, whether Shelley or, say, the present Chronster and his friend Bryan reading Plato on their own in college days....

 

[CupofJoe]

I enjoyed reading Euripides' Medea. Can't remember the translation but it was in verse. Missed seeing on stage, which I regret.

 

[J-Sun]

If you are going to read Greek classics I recommend the Landmark series, simply because of all the extra material and maps etc. So far they have the Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, Landmark Julius Caesar: The Complete Works; Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, Landmark Thucydides: Guide to the Peloponnesian War; Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika; and Landmark: Xenophon's Anabasis.
I'm waiting for the Landmark Polybius: The Histories (if they ever get around to it).

You cost me a bunch of money! I recommended the Landmark books myself, but I had no idea the Anabasis and Caesar existed. And now you've got me pining for Polybius, too. I don't know whether to thank you or not.

 

[Bick]

"Philosophy is privileged old men talking about their opinions and doesn't appeal."
Oh dear! Where would I begin -- !

That's what I thought!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Oh dear! Where would I begin -- !

Why not start with a reading of Epicurean philosophy? I hear there are a lot of books on that, especially after new ones have been recovered from Herculaneum. After all, Epicurus is said to have written over 300 works. Exciting reading, yes?

 

[Extollager]

Actually, my remark was rhetorical, meaning that I was dismayed by the comment about philosophy and privileged old men. I’ve read and enjoyed a lot of Plato’s dialogues, and the seeming disdain for such, as I took the comment to be expressing, was regrettable.

 

[Brian G Turner]

It's okay, I'm being facetious - Plato is still on my reading list - but he seems to be the height of Greek philosophy, rather than typical of it. And apparently there was an awful lot of it...

 

[hitmouse]

I find Socrates to be a lot more interesting than Plato.