So I really did decide to start with the Greeks. And honestly, I don't get it...

So I really did decide to start with the Greeks. And honestly, I don't get it. My main impression is that it's just a bunch of Proper Nouns fighting. Sounds silly, but that's just what it seems like to me. It's just endless amounts of names, names, names. I don't understand how you can possibly keep them all straight. How can you be immersed in the story when every paragraph new names are introduced?

it's for real men cuck. Ancient action flick. Fucking epic. Car crashes, murders, masculinity, women inferiority and lots of blood. Praise Kek

It's supposed to be a historical text, not just a play. Read it as such.

checked

And you should've read something like Hamilton's Mythology book beforehand. Other than that, most of the names don't actually matter. But if you want to be a true patrician, keep a piece of paper and pen(cil) handy when you read, make family trees, take notes, etc.

I'm finishing the Illiad now, and the names that recur enough tend to stick. Those that don't, probably weren't so critical anyway.

this man's mind is cucked by memes, pay no attention to him. Just a worthless drone in the hivemind, obeying Veeky Forumss orders (as evidenced by the fact that he didn't even address your point).

I've always been more taken with the odyssey than the iliad. more fantastical imo. give that a try.

What translation? I'm reading Lattimore and Popes Iliad side by side right now and it is incredible. The Iliad is a good place to start because it's an entertaining fantasy war story. If you can't appreciate it maybe classic lit isn't for you (yet)

Many people are named but you only really need to keep track of the main heroes, it's generally pretty obvious who's really relevant

>he haven't memorized the catalog of ship

if you dont relish in the Iliad you have no soul (read: you're either a nu-male or a woman)

Started this too, and finished the first two books. It's very good so far but the massive name dropping of the kings and leaders was tremendously excruciating to go through.

What did the version of the Illiad that Aristotle made for Alexander the Great look like?

He abridged it right?

I can never understand people NOT enjoying Homer or Greek plays in general.

t nu-male

he conjured up the fitzgerald translation

What personally kept me interested in homer was trying to figure out if he was the first westerner to begin the transition of a hero no longer needing to be part god. I started with the myths, and to my memory all the hero's were somepart the son of a major god. Still want to know the significance if any for the reasons why he did so.

teen thread

I read fitzgerald first and now reading pope, any other version that is a must read?

you mean Odysseus? Yeah, he’s a pretty smart lad. The way he talks to Achilles (half-god) makes me hmmmm

Are the Samuel Butler translations adequate? They're the only ones that you can easily access online for free - they seem to be in public domain

Read up on bicameral mind theory

This may seem like a stupid question, but I tried looking it up and couldn't find an answer.

What source do translators use for these ancient greek stories? What is the oldest written copy?

Almost every single major character in the Iliad and the Odyssey is part God. Sure, neither Odysseus mother or father are gods, but his grandfather is the son of Hermes.

Most good translation have a section dedicated to how they went about their translation, and which sources they used.

>soul
>existing

Many of them don't have any existent copies prior to the Middle Ages. The most well-attributed Greek text is the New Testament, which has drastically more ancient textual evidence than any other text.

What about Hector? That guy is fucking badass.

for example, the best translation of Iliad is based on Venetus A... It’s a manuscript from the 10th century AD that contains the story of Iliad, the explanation of difficult words used in the story, as well as some other stories.

The origins of Venetus A is disputed.. Supposedly it origins from the "four-man commentary" (Aristonicus, Didymus, Herodian, and Nicanor).. The compilation of their work is the basis for Iliad. They lived 600-1000 years before Homer...
Tl;dr: Homer’s version doesn’t exist or is yet to be found

>Tl;dr: Homer’s version doesn’t exist or is yet to be found
wrong. you really think God would let one of his holy texts be lost forever?

We can easily compare our version of Homer's Illiad with what Plato says on The Republic and your whole hypotesis crumbles inmediately.

it’s not my hypothesis

Hector is the son of Priam, who himself is the son of Laomedon, son of Ilus, son of Tros, son of Astyoche, daughter of the river God Simoeis, herself a daughter of the titan Oceanus.

Skip the Catalogue of Ships if you want.

I have the Land translation. Any good or should I get something else

Read Anabasis instead.

>ancient action flick
>women inferiority
>cuck
>praise kek

kill yourself
this is cringe

It's also just great poetry

Thálatta! Thálatta!

>I cry everytime

>skip, like, three pages on a 300p. book
It won't make any difference. Why do people make such a big deal of the catalogue? It's so early in the book nothing actually happens until a bit after chapter III