I'm trying to start with the Greeks, I got down most if the actual books I should read.
But I'm not sure on the specific editions I should try to get. I looks like I should look into the Landmark editions of histories like Herodotus and Thucydides. Maybe the Complete Works of Plato for him.
Is there any other recommendations on specific editons?
Those choices sound good.
Pope translation for Homer isn't a good idea- he takes a lot of liberties and the whole thing is in bombastic singsong couplets. Try Lattimore (preferably an older printing, the new ones are hideous and lack his brilliant introduction), or maybe Fitzgerald. Avoid Fagles.
Don't cheat yourself with "The Three Theban Plays". Complete volumes of Sophocles are plentiful- even the Signet's edition (Roche) is fine. I can't quite say the same for Æschylus. But the tragedies are so short there's nothing wrong with reading an old translation online in a sitting.
I have the Modern Library's 'Basic Works of Aristotle', which seems fine (with the relevant works and avoiding On Animal Genitals and such), though it's pretty lacking in commentary and elucidation.
I'd say that you don't really need to read in any given order, but that might be because I pretty familiar with Greek mythology from childhood when I started reading.
'Start with the Greeks' should be 'Read the Greeks'. You really don't need them to read anything else. They're not an means to something else, but worthwhile in themselves.
Make sure to pick up Virgil's Æneid. I can't recommend a translation though.
don't fall for the meme dude, only reed first hand work. History of Peloponnesian War, Xenophon, Plato, Homer... everything else is fluff.
>unironically reading the greeks past Aristotle and Herodotus
I read through the complete extant works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in the four volume set by Richmond Lattimore and David Grene. Some of the translations are lame, but the overall convenience and construction of the set is worth it to me. I've found that if you don't know a translation to look for, Loeb classics are always good but hard to get your hands on. For Homer I'd recommend Lattimore, and for The Republic I'd recommend Allan Bloom. That's all I got.
> He actually read all the Greeks
> start with the Greeks
> in English
> Japanese image board
Don't forget to send ur wife to the temple- my niggas waiting
Landmark editions are good but not necessary. They'll give you a lot of extra information, but personally some of my favorite parts of reading Thucydides was being forced to become familiar with Greek geography; if you're planning on reading Roman or even later history afterwards, I think it's valuable to learn what and where everything is. Oxford classics is always a safe bet for translations, too.
This user had solid suggestions. My only disagreement would be to not discount Fagles for Homer. He's not perfect (no translator is) and takes a lot of heat on lit, but is fine for a first time reading of Homer. If you're not already used to reading verse, let alone epic poetry (which you probably aren't if you haven't read Homer), it may be frustrating to both learn the story and grapple with the verse all at once. Nothing wrong with reading a prose translation first and then (as you totally should) revisiting Homer again with a different translator.
Also, like that user said, I would generally suggest complete texts of any author. It's much more convenient and often even cheaper to just get the complete works of Plato or a tragedian than it is to assemble them from different volumes. Absolutely get the complete Plato (Cooper edition). Try to find an old box set of Greek tragedy on abebooks (otherwise you're looking at like $80+ to piece together Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides from publishers like Penguin). The only Greek I wouldn't stress getting in complete form is Aristotle; as the above user said, there is a lot of Aristotle that you probably won't care to read (e.g., "the history of animals") and that Modern Library "basic works" edition, from what I remember, contains pretty much everything that even an intermediate reader of Aristotle would want. Just about half of all of Aristotle is content with fairly broad appeal, like Politics, Metaphysics, the two Ethics, etc.
I can't imagine reading Homer, especially the battle scenes in the Iliad, in prose, without lineation. That's just a further alienation from the original, and it sounds like a nightmare to my ADHD-addled mind. Get Fagles if he'll let you read in verse.
>it's all translations
Is this board even trying anymore ?
t. Kozveposter
right-to-left: Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar, Greek: An Intensive Course, Cassel's new Latin dictionary, Catullus, Tusculum Æneid, Loeb Virgil vol. I, Iliad I-XII, Greek learning adjuncts, and in the shrinkwrap Æschylus with Latin translation from 1805.
semi-pseud but still.
any Plato?
I have two random books of dialogues, but only in English. These were just the books I have in the original Latin or Greek, or for learning the classical languages.
A
Plato is a genius, to listen to a good audio book of his dialogues (I love Phaedrus ), or Symposium is simply heavenly
this is kind of a generalizarion but I kind of agree
look up what you find interesting and read it. coincidently, the ones i found interesting are the same this user said
Dumb question: Is the dialogue in The Republic an actual conversation being recorded?
No one thinks that it is.
Me neither. I just jumped into it without any background information, so I just felt like asking
No Platonic dialogue is 'actual', in the vulgar sense of the word.
For the love of god, don't start with the Republic, it's one of the biggest and most demanding dialogues, begin with the Apology.
I don't know, I'm really liking it so far. Book III at the moment. I'll be fine
Just make sure you go back to the beginning afterwards.
>starting with Republic
kill me
>Read Lattimore's Iliad
>It's shit
I HAVE BEEN MEMED ON BY YOU FUCKS FOR THE LAST TIME
Good riddance.
Fuck you nigger your board is being invaded.
Enjoy Thucydides History OP! :)
What about the Buckley translation? Any opinions on that?
Why is this such a big deal?
Republic builds on a lot of already-heavily developed Platonic ideas. It's by no means their grand culmination, but it certainly is in many ways a big step.
Can it stand alone? Yes. It will be mostly lucid. But as with all the dialogues, its references and constructions are not explicit, but require some familiarity or at least some warmup if you're to recognize them and understand why they're significant.
If you're only ever going to read Republic, better that you read it than that you don't. But if you ever plan to read other dialogues, both earlier and later, both simpler and deeper, it's silly to read Republic first when you could give yourself some practice with basic structures of usually very brief Platonic dialogues, and at least approach one or two Platonic topics piecemeal, before committing to a 250 page text which draws and builds on pretty much the entire subject matter, style, and philosophical framework of Plato's writings.
It's not unreadable; it's just an inefficient approach if you ever intend to read more Plato. Better to first read Euthyphro to see what will likely be your first "What is F" question; or Phaedo to see an early conception of Forms; or Meno to see Recollection; or Crito to see the reciprocal obligation which will play such a crucial role in the Republic's Cave.