Which ancient Greek text did you start with?
The Republic, read it with zero introduction on Plato and philosophy and it was quite a fun read.
>>7878912
Oedipus.
>>7878912
The Odyssey
Iliad.
Homer and Hesiod, then Herodotus and Thucydides, then Sophocles and Euripides, then Plato and Aristotle.
From next summer on, I'll be learning ancient Greek so I'm looking forward to experiencing them all again. On the other hand, I'm not looking forward to spending £30-£40 on Greek editions of each, but life's a bitch.
>>7878971
Currently reading, and it's my first Greek ting. Can confirm that its fucking great
>>7878912
You need to go by the chronology: Start with Linear B.
Here is a dictionary:
http://www.palaeolexicon.com/Linear%20B
And here you can find the inscriptions:
http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/
What was the Greeks' version of "start with the Greeks"? Was it "start with Homer"?
The Histories, oddly enough
Antigone for a Classics class in high school
>>7880345
>"start with Homer"
pretty much
remember the library of Alexandria? most of the literature there was commentary on Homer's work.
>>7880345
Since it's pretty short, I highly recommend you read the remaining fragments of the Satyricon. It was my introduction to classical lit and it literally opens with a bunch of students bitching about having to sit through Homer class.
>>7878912
On a similar note, how many greeks should one read before moving to the medievals? And which ones? I've done the Republic, Organon and Nicomichean ethics. Is it fair that I should move on to Bacon and Descartes now, or should I read something more?
>>7878997
How do you go about learning ancient Greek
>>7880669
Do you mean starting with the Greeks as a whole, or only as philosophy?
If it's the latter, you may want to go back to the pre-socratics for at least a few days, jump around Plato a bit more (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, for sure), touch base with some Roman thinkers, and poke into Christian thought (definitely read the Bible).
If you actually want to read "the Greeks" then you'd better fucking buckle up because you haven't even scratched the surface of ancient history, poetry, drama, etc. But obviously not everyone will want to go down that rabbit hole.
>>7880323
This guy gets it. I hope we find some written PIE soon
>>7880769
Holy shit, good advice. Well played.
Basically without knowing Plato and Aristotle, the back and forth of their key ideas that take turns being in and out of vogue through the enlightenment will be totally lost on you.
Also, anything that interests you from the rennaissance is probably straight up jacked from the Romans (Dante, Shakespeare...) and you should definitely check out precedents before moving on.
>>7880669
read the Jews and Christians
>>7880785
Yup. It basically boils down to "how much time do you want to commit to laying down this foundation?"
People literally spend their entire lives studying specific corners of the ancient world; it's up to everyone to decide for himself how much time he wants to devote to the ancients before moving on. There's always more that can be learned, but obviously the returns diminish after a certain point.
>>7878912
>tfw dad was patrician enough to make this and the Odyssey the earliest stuff I read that wasn't a picture book.
>>7880845
>patrician
>Odyssey before Iliad
pick one, pleb
>>7880845
Edith Hamilton is for plebs.
ISBNs 0872208206 and 0872207218 are all you need for Greek mythology in English.
>>7880854
Make sure you get the Reeve translation - ISBN 0872207366.
>>7880854
Just remember that although it's considered the first political philosophy book, it also lays out Plato's metaphysics which make some parts of it seem ridiculous if you're looking for a prescriptive political text.
Enjoy!
>>7880859
i love you, anon
>>7878912
The new testament (Koine Greek though).
Other than that I both enjoyed Epictetus' Enchiridion and the Daphnis & Chloe romance novel.
Iliad in high school
>>7878922
what the fuuuuuuuck.
would you really advise someone to read the republic without anything before it? I can jump straight to the republic?
>>7880669
>skipping 2,000 years of philosophy
You should be fine.
>>7881517
But the idea is that thought of mankind developed constantly along with science, culture and religion. I wouldn't laugh at somebody who'd read some basic works of Greeks and Medievals and skipped straight to Descartes.
When I think about reading stuff like both Apologies, both Symposiums, St. Augustine, Thomas a Kempis (arguable, this is very good), books on pre-Socratics..it was unnecessary for my personal development. I enjoyed it, but I don't think it was necessary.
Greek works worth reading are: Republic, Nicomachean Ethnics, Metaphysics, chapters from Russel's book about pre-Socratics or from Early Greek Philosophy. Ok you could also read Symposiums actually to not miss Socrates. But spending up to half a year reading Greeks is hardcore nonsense. Depends how much you're busy in your 'real life', if you'd read and ponder on Greeks and Medievals it could take you from a year to year and a half.
>>7881405
(not him) I wouldn't advise it m8e. I've read all of the books up-till Plato at the Philosophy section on pic-related up (except for Xenophon, Menander, and Aristophanes' Knights, Peace, and Acharians; although I have them and planning to read them after Plato and Aristotle and only haven't read them because I've been working on the Greeks for over a year and got impatient). I'm a few dialogues in of the Hackett complete works edition of Plato, reading it from cover to cover, and although I'm far from reaching the Republic, oh boy, let me tell you this is some dense shit that exceeds everything before it on the list (that I've read), and I doubt the Republic will be any better seeing how (from what I've seen through flipping through the pages and hearing people talk about it) it's a pretty long dialogue which is pretty complex because parts of it are told by recantations like in Phaedo, which makes it difficult time-to-time to follow along and know whose speaking.
Characters in the dialogues I've read so far quote Homer's "Iliad' and "Odyssey", and Hesiod's "Theogony" and "Works and Days" all the time that I imagine those who haven't read them wouldn't know what they're talking about, and publishers like Hackett assume you've read them too and don't waste page-space explaining them but only linking you to parts of the books they're quoting from, and I doubt many other publishers are much helpful or try to explain those quotes specifically to those who haven't read them.
I recommend you read up on the works Homer and Hesiod, look at the Wikipedia page of the Trojan cycle, read some short summaries on Wikipedia or some other infosite about Greek lyric poets of the Dark Age, read Herodotus and Thucydides' histories, and look into a few tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripidies before starting Plato, and look into some academic article / summary of the Pre-Socratics and Sophists (I wouldn't recommend reading the entire Oxford or other compilations of them before reading Plato -- they're pretty disappointing as they're mostly all small obscure fragments and testimonies that barely tell you any of their philosophy making the whole thing frustrating and boring to read through before Plato. Although, I imagine, they're more interesting after reading Plato and Aristotle.)
>>7881557
thanks anon. i'm currently on the illiad. working my way up the greeks. i'm glad you gave me this advice :)
