Did I get memed?

It's good op, especially as a reference
good on you for starting the right way, with the greeks

I just finished it a couple days ago. I thought it was great.

I wouldn't say its "good" or "bad". It basically reads like a sparknotes of greek mythology. Very informative.

Skip the chunk of the book that summarizes the Odyssey and Iliad and just read the actual books. The Norse mythology isn't bad idk why people would hate on it. And also it's not 'sparknotes', it's a compilation of the myths- they aren't shortened or condensed, but rather put together as complete as possible often using multiple sources.

But yeah, you kind of got memed. Just read Homer.

yes, but is a good meme

>not bulfinch

Elaborate

just meming
never read either bulfinch or hamilton

Recked. >Carl J. Richard comments that it was "one of the most popular books ever published in the United States and the standard work on classical mythology for nearly a century," until the release of classicist Edith Hamilton's 1942 Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes.[1]

How could reading mythology possibly be a meme?

And why ask us about it?

Just read it and decide for yourself.

>good on you for starting the right way, with the greeks

Just curious, why do people always say this is the right place to start?

BTFO
T
F
O

>asking lit about a lit meme, the redundant "do it yourself" poster; you are the mem my friend

It wouldn't make it any less true.

All that would mean is there are other people who see garish stupidity of this thread as easily as I do.

We come here to discuss things, including prospective reads. Deal with it.

The greeks are the foundation of western society, and include most of the earliest extant works of philosophy, theater, and poetry. The romans were heavily influenced by them, and they were obviously a huge influence on Europe and western civilization. Most famous writers were raised in the classical tradition. Hesiod influenced Ovid, Ovid influenced Shakespeare, Homer influenced Virgil, Virgil influenced Dante. And of course everyone knows the quote that all of philosophy is a footnote to plato.

Start with the greeks, resume with the romans, then all of western literature is opened to you.

Don't skip the summaries, they're good to know if you aren't familiar with the stories. Keep in mind that when these poems were performed everyone already knew the story, which is why they start in media res (in the middle of the story) and don't end with the actual end of the war.

Valued poster, I want more.

I recommend you read it in conjunction with other literature, like the first volume of "Mythology of all Races".

Here's a good book on Greek culture/history, and I also recommend "the world of odysseus" by M.I. Finley. You really don't need secondary sources, but they do help you realize the significance of the literature. I assume you've seen one of the three greek charts floating around here and it's not hard to figure out who you should read. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon for history about the conflicts with Persia and the Peloponnese. Hesiod's Theogony for the creation myth/genealogy of the gods, and Homer's Illiad/Odyssey for legendary history/myth. Read Homeric Hymns if you want to be comprehensive. For theater, Sophocles' Theban plays (Oedipus Rex), Euripedes' Oresteia and Sophocles Iphigenia for more on Agamemnon and his family. I'll make another post about philosophy since that's a big topic.

Obviously start with Plato for philosophy, the complete ones by John M Cooper is the one I've seen recommended here. But here are some good editions for single works: Hackett Classics "Plato: Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo" Start with these, as they are a good entry point to his philosophy and are all about Socrates trial and suicide which is by far the most well known event in philosophy. Then you could read the Republic if you want, but I'd say go for Modern Library Classics' "Selected Dialogues of Plato: The Benjamin Jowett Translation" This unfortunately includes Apology (included in the Hackett book), but that's the only duplicate. In this you should definitely read Symposium, but they're all worth reading. Then read the Republic, I recommend Oxford World Classics. By then you should be able to find out what to read on your own. Also check out plato.stanford.edu/ when reading philosophy, and do other research on wikipedia and other sites. You can never do too much research.

As for Aristotle just get the Modern Library Classics' "Basic Works of Aristotle" and read it front to back.

Good luck, the greeks are great and I'm glad I started with them

Also: Don't get the text books in the chart, the only book worth spending $50 is Plato's Complete Works. And again, do your research. Read the introductions (if it's a good version it'll have a good introduction), read everything you can online, and think about them not only in the context of the immediate period but also in the timeline of western civilization and literature. If you don't have the context it's hard to understand why they matter, and as you research you'll start finding other works to read.

Thanks man. I will use your post for reference as I continue. This is the sort of post I come to Veeky Forums for. Btw, do you have the "third" chart?

Unfortunately I only have my version which I've marked up, but it's all there except for the top row which was just original greek versions of homer and books on learning greek.

I started coming to Veeky Forums about a year ago, and while I enjoyed figuring out all this stuff for myself it helps having charts like these to guide you along. And now that I'm mostly done with the greeks/romans and moving on to more modern stuff, it's nice to pass on what I've figured out. While I'm at it (and since the lit chart is shit) here's my recommendations for the Romans. For epic poetry, the big one is Virgil and his Aeneid, which is the story of Aeneas (one of the heroes on the trojan side in the illiad) who fled troy for italy where he became the first roman hero and the ancestor of the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. This was written during Augustus' reign, and so Virgil made parallels between Aeneas "restarting" the Trojan people and Augustus bringing the roman people back to order after the civil war. Like I said earlier, Virgil was largely influenced by Homer. Then there's Ovid and his work the Metamorphosis, which is essentially a poetic mythological history of the world. Starting with the creation (based on Hesiod), then a telling of common myths (Narcissus, Echo, Pyramus and Thisbe on which Romeo and Juliet was likely based), then the Trojan War and eventually leading up to Julius Caesar. The main theme of course is change: "I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities". For history my favorite is Polybius and his history of the Punic wars, then there's Livy which covers from the legendary founding to I believe his time, but a lot of his work is lost except for about the first 40 or so books. These next few names I haven't read yet, but they're in my to read list: Suetonius, Tacitus, Herodian. Cicero and Seneca for philosophy, particularly political philosophy.

Also: get the oxford world classics "The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists" instead of the two separate penguin versions, but like the third chart says, they're only really for completionists. But they are only fragments, so if you really get into greek philosophy it's nice to see its roots. Keep in mind however that early greek philosophy was essentially an early form of science, trying to figure out what the world is made out of and whatnot. What made Socrates significant is he saw this as misguided, and leaned towards philosophy in the sense that we know it. How do we live well? What is morality? Can virtue be taught? What is virtue? He was the first true philosopher which literally means a lover of wisdom.

People need to stop seeking validation from this board. Just lurk and learn. Stop being autistic

Honestly should've read pic related