Nietzsche Prerequisite Reading

I'm new to philosophy and very interested in Nietzsche after research on about 2 dozen philosophers. What is some good prerequisite reading if I'm mainly interested in Nietzsche?

Start with the greeks.

I think you can read twilight of the idols without much trouble. The Greeks are the most important though for the rest of his works. Especially birth of tragedy. Reading some Schopenhauer also wouldn't hurt.

I plan on getting the complete works of Plato and Aristotle. Anything else I should add as far as the Greeks go?

Nah, just read a book about the pre socratics and then start reading the young plato dialogues and go up to aristotle.

Read the illiad, odyssey, pre-socratics, Plato's dialogues. There you go, you're (mostly) nietzsche ready. Socrates and plato are far more important to nietzsche than aristotle.

just read nietzsche

nietzsche is not a philosopher

he is an aphorist

Fuck da greeks. Have an understanding of modern philosophy - The changes made from Descartes to Kant (particularly from Hume to Kant). Of the Greeks just get the basics on everything up through Plato.

Sure kid.

you're a fucking faggot

look how mad these worshippers of this convoluted arational mystical storyteller get after i stated the obvious truth

look at this giant fucking faggot talking shit about one of the top 5 minds of all time

Honestly, you'll find out as you read him. A large amount of his work is critiquing other philosophers, or cultures, or esteemed individuals in general.

If you read him chronologically, and do research on any name he happens to mention, you should do fine.

Although, if you really want to have something under your belt beforehand... start with the Greeks. Namely, the Pre-Socratics — Thales, Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Socrates and Plato. You should also be familiar with and have some experience reading Hesiod and Homer, the Greek tragedians Aeschylus and Sophocles, Shakespeare, Bacon, Byron... Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nietzsche was a fan of him... Max Stirner, they say Nietzsche borrowed from him a little and he probably did. And lastly, Schopenhauer, because much of Nietzsche's philosophy is a response to Schopenhauer's; not a direct response, mind you, but reading Schopenhauer had a lot to do with why Nietzsche even began writing, because he wanted to say the opposite of what Schopenhauer said.

Thanks for this. As far as researching the other names he drops, would a Wikipedia-esque summary of these people's main contributions/points be sufficient?

Maybe some of the Pre-Socratics (read Heraclitus' Fragments though, they're short and interesting and the most important to Nietzsche), but you should really at least read a sampling of work from most of the names there. Hesiod's Theogony, Homer's Odyssey, Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Byron's Manfred. If you really want to just read summaries of these, you might actually do better listening to audiobooks of them.

Dont bother with the greek shit,modern philosophy started with Hegel

prerequisite writing is a meme. don't fall for it. just look up words you don't understand.

read or better yet watch and listen to some chomsky

Here's the go to list. If you just want to understand Nietzsche you don't really need to start with the greeks even though Nietzsche discusses Plato a lot, you should probably catch up on that. Then you should become familiar with Kant and Schopenhauer. I dispense with the bravado and just lay it to you straight. Kant is fucking tough and you'll probably cry a little while simultaneously sweating profusely attempting to read him. Schopenhauer is quite easy to understand. You'll really get more out of Nietzsche after that.

the Stoics, Freddy had some beef with em