So, I wanna start with the Greeks, but where do I start?
Besides like Homer, what is THE essential Ancient Greek literature?
Prometehus Bound
It's an ancient play, one of the oldest we have, about a simple man who was horrifically punished by the powers that be for the terrible crime of trying to bring light to the common people.
In the words of Aeschylus, "No good deed goes unpunished".
>>7865849
there you start
>>7865849
Homer was Italian, dumbass. He wrote Dante's Divine Comedy.
>>7865849
I wouldn't read Homer if you want to read "the Greeks".
Ilias and Odyssey are badass but they are just cool storys. Might not be what you are searching for. If you want a cool story with historical interest go ahead.
>>7865958
Wasn't that the guy from the Simpsons?
>>7865970
Don't be stupid, that's a cartoon.
There you are. Word on the street is that Robert Grave's book on Greek Mythology is better than Edith Hamilton's but I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.
>>7865997
Shit, wrong chart.
>>7866019
really?
>pope translation
Meme on you crazy diamond
>>7866019
caesar is boring as fuck and ovid came some 500 years later
>>7866039
Whenever i see someone shitting on the Pope translation I can conclude they are a pleb who has never read homer.
>>7866152
Dude start with the Greeks and resume with the Romans are two entirely different memes
RwtR:
>ovid
>Virgil
mostly
>>7865997
Graves isn't great if you're going for accuracy. He might be more enjoyable, but he isn't more accurate.
OP, listen. You want to read the tragedies of Aeschylus, Euripedes, and Sophocles. If you're intersted in History, try Herodotus. If you're interested in philosophy, go with Thales > Anaximander > Anaximenes > Parmenides > Heraclitus > Zeno > Plato (Socrates) > Diogenes > Aristotle. These are the important ones. However, you can skip every philosopher except Plato and Aristotle if you really want. It's just fun to know who they are responding to.
>>7866178
SENECA
CICERO
Deipnosophistae
>>7866116
Whenever i see someone advocating for the Pope translation I can conclude they are a pleb who has only read the Pope translation.
>Classical scholar Richard Bentley remarked, "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer.".
>>7866209
the most famous literary btfo ever (and he's right)
>>7866209
>one guy has an opinion
cool.
I can name two people off the top of my head that consider pope's Iliad/Odyssey not only the best translation but one of the greatest works ever in any language:
>Samuel Johnson pronounced the greatest translation ever achieved in English or in any other language.
>Fagles and Knox praise the Pope translation in their introduction as the best ever
>>7866227
samuel johnson?! hahahahahahhahahahahhahahaha who is that????
>>7866190
>Graves
Graves is a whole bunch of fun, but Hesiod's Theogony is better than Hamilton for intro to myth.
If the guy looking to read the Greeks for philosophy from >>7865454 is still around >>7866190 is listing the preSocratics I didn't bother but add Democritus. Rest of this post is philosophy order I was going to give you before thread was deleted:
Get a book on pre-Socratics. Read that first.
Read Xenophon's symposium and Plato's symposium.
Read Plato's Apology (his defense of Socrates) and Aristophanes' the Clouds.
Read Plato's Republic which is his outline of utopia.
Then read Gorgias and Phaedrus by Plato alongside Aristotle's Rhetoric.
You should be able to find a book with a mixture of Diogenes of Sinope and Aristippus anecdotes.
Beyond that, you don't need to know much because you've learnt how to argue a point you don't even have.
>>7866152
Here's one for the Vikings. Don't seem to have one for Romans.
>>7866178
>RwtR
had to look this up tbqh
>there are people here right now who haven't even read Homer, let alone Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Sophocles, Aristotle Aristophanes, Ovid and Euripides
jesus christ how barbaric
but of course, all of you read Infinite Jest and Gravity's Rainbow, you are so different and unique!
and of course, all the references to ancient literature in those books flew over your head because you never read it
>>7866270
>no Aeschylus
you couldn't understand the tragedy you outline
>>7866274
Rekt
>>7866283
>pre-Socratic
lol
>>7866294
>lol
Shut your goddamn laughing face, Democritus, I'm sick of it.
>>7866314
don't worry, anon, we have to share a board with you too
>>7866333
whos that guy supposed to be
>>7866345
some obscure one
>>7866345
Heraclitus.
>>7866359
Never read his works tbqh...
>>7866364
There are only a few fragments left.
>>7865849
>"translated" by Mr. Pope
>>7866411
I don't get it, why the quotation marks? It is a translation.
>>7866424
Protestant autistic tantrum.
>>7866424
It's more of a remake, really
Dryden (1631-1700) aimed at a version of the Iliad “such as would have been composed by the original author were he alive now and writing in English.” Pope (1688-1744) latinized unfamiliar Greek gods, elided the rough corners of heroes’ gross conduct, and skated over Homer’s fascination with fatal wounds, all in the interests of poetic and social decorum. Neither was much interested in recreating a distant heroic world. “It is a pretty poem, Mr Pope,” said the Greek scholar Bentley, “but you must not call it Homer.” Indeed not; but it is a superb Augustan creation.
>>7865873
Go to bed Clay
>>7865873
>simple man
You sure you read it, my man?
>>7866152
this it missing some stuff and obviously not in chart form but it should get you started.
>>7866630
>this it missing some stuff
Such as?
>>7866630
Needs more poetry tbqh
All these charts should come with epub files, so nobody reads the wrong translations.
>>7865873
He was a fucking titan, not a simple man.
Why would anyone start with these when there are much better works around?
Anyone seriously thinks that people wrote better 2000 years ago than they do now?
No fucking way.
Start with Diogenes and end with Diogenes.
>>7869266
This.
>>7869247
>Muh new stuff is intrinsically better
>>7869683
Well, yeah.
People back then weren't as smart and as educated as we are today. Imagine giving them something like Infinite Jest of Ulysses to read, they wouldn't understand a single page of it, not even a sentence. Meanwhile, we can understand Homer with no problems because how how simple he is.
>>7869717
>we can
who's we? it seems to imply you're included.
>>7869717
>people back then weren't as smart
>>7869717
>>7869247
>I MEAN CMON
>ITS THE CURRENT YEAR
>>7865997
I know Plutarch was in the Roman era, but he was still Greek.
I think the fact he is never discussed with "the greeks" is a realtragedy
>>7870006
Plutarch helped kick off the Koine era. If you mean Attic Greeks, thank fuck that fanclub died down a little after Plutarch.
>>7865873
>about a simple man who was horrifically punished by the powers that be for the terrible crime of trying to bring light to the common people.
>how to read old literature: the spooked method
>>7865849
Just gonna be honest. To start, you should learn Greek. No one here will tell you so; this makes them wrong. Reading Greek lit in English may convey plot; it is less likely to convey thought correctly; it is NEVER able to convey beauty of of deliberate composition.
>>7870325
m8, you know you can condense that down to
>start with Pharr
when you're not worried about your e-peen. it's coming across as 'so shrunken inside you it's physical hubris' rn and you might want to tame that
>>7870332
I'm sorry, I'm not a show watching manchild.
>>7870332
>implying negros know shit about the ancient greek literature
The Wire is so fucking unrealistic, I dropped it at the second season.
>>7870474
this is bait
>>7869247
They did. Why do people write better now?
>>7870493
You really think Ancient Greeks (especially Aristotle) would come up with the same philosophies and accept the pantheon of gods as a given if they had Newton's Principia?
>>7870490
Watch that clip again.
>Promathus Bow
>Asillyus
He didn't even pronounce it properly.
>>7870522
They'd probably laugh at him for speaking Latin tbqhw/ufam
>>7870529
A brilliant con man might I add.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAQv6KTfQow
Genius.
starting with the greeks here... i am reading "The Trojan War" by Barry Strauss, it's a good book to start with IMO, i've been introduced to key people and what they were like, with a little insight into what they wore and their personalities. This book so far has told me about some of the lifestyle of the greeks too.
>>7871259
Remember not to just read one book and take everything it says as a guaranteed truth
Guys, how difficult is it to learn ancient Greek? How long can I expect it to take? I was thinking about learning a language for /lit/ reasons and I was initially going to go with French, but I suppose if I'm going to get into Greek /lit/ I might as well learn the language.
>>7866237
> kalevala
>>7871307
what do you suggest then?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristophanes
good laughs
>>7870546
Is this show worth watching? And at what season should I start?
>>7872995
It's very good. Start at 1.
>>7872047
Strauss isn't bad; that anon is just giving a general reminder to not take as gospel everything a single author says, in case he has a particular bias.
