/lit/ - Literature

>>14608893
i thought everyone said it was kino

Is it bad if I have no interest in reading the Odyssey but am eager to reread the Iliad again in a different translation?

>>14608919
no

>>14608893
Imagine the army Megan of Baltimore could summon to her aid.

>>14608919
The odyssey and iliad appeal to two different types of reader, this is natural.

>>14608915
I know, I just wanted to post about it it. It’s so fucking awesome. The depth of the plot is astounding. All these characters with conflicts with one another

>>14608919
The Odyssey was painfully boring if you ask me. It is only interesting if you're really digging into the deeper meanings and such. The Iliad was a blast.

>>14608893
I started this and I have absolutely no freaking idea whats going on an uttermost confusing way. Is it normal? Am I retarded? Am I getting filtered by greeks? Please help me.

>>14608937
go on

>>14609089
I am having no trouble understanding it and i don’t read poetry or anything.
Ignore the line breaks. Read it like a normal book

Currently contemplating if I should order 10 out of the 15 books listed in this guide.
Which 5 should I not order for now?

>>14609089

It helps to have a general understanding of greek mythology and the gods first. Also read the Fagles translation, it's very modern.

>>14609126
I'm stupid, there's 13 books.
Anyway, which should I get? Anything I can leave out?
I already read Song of Achilles and very much enjoyed it.

>>14608996
it's good shit

>>14608893
When will this meme end? The Odyssey is vastly superior.

>>14609135
>>14609126
That is an incomplete list, it doesn't mention the Anabasis, quite literally the most interesting of all the Greek writings.

If you enjoyed the Illiad, then you will love the Anabasis. It's more exilerating, probably because it was written by one of the Generals who participated in the expedition as opposed to being written about by someone who heard tales about the expedition (The Illiad was written possibly a hundred or two years after the Trojan war).

>>14609126
>>14609135
I know he wasn't Greek and it was written much later than the Illiad, but The Trojan Epic by Quintus was good. It picks up where the Illiad leaves off.

>>14609172
The Aeneid is so much better than both

>>14609216
The first half is great, but the second is worse.

>>14609194
>>14609207
Thanks for the replies, is this graph better?
If I, a beginner, were to pick up 10 books to start with, out of these two graphs, which ones should I get?
My goal with reading these would be to eventually enjoy all of the stories, tragedies & epics written by the greeks.
I want to get a good historical perspective too, though, and understand how they were placed in the world and time.

>>14609243

That's a better chart.

>My goal with reading these would be to eventually enjoy all of the stories, tragedies & epics written by the greeks. I want to get a good historical perspective too

With this in mind,

>Bibliotheca - Apollodorus
>The Illiad - Homer
>The Odyssey - Homer

If you enjoyed the Illiad more than the Odyssey read a few of these next:

>The Histories - Herodotus
>The History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
>The Anabasis (of Cyrus) - Xenophon
>The Anabasis of Alexander - Arrian (Not included in this chart, but if you like the prior 3 and Illiad, you will like it)
>The Republic - Plato

If you enjoyed the Odyssey more than the Illiad read a few of these next:
>Medea and Other Plays - Euripedes
>The Oresteia - Aeschylus
>Lysistrata / The Acharnians / The Clouds - Aristophanes
>The Three Theban Plays - Sophocles

>>14609075
>deeper meanings
Cringe. There is no symbolism in The Iliad or The Odyssey. Stop believing the bullshit coming from the mouth of Freud or Marx.

>>14609539
Thanks a lot for the suggestions anon, I'll be picking some of them up and will post after reading them!

>>14609539
>starting Plato with the Republic
No!
>>14608919
It took longer for Odyssey to click with me on the same level as the Iliad, but it did.

>>14609683
>>starting Plato with the Republic
>No!
Why not?
Please give suggestions based on
>>14609243
&>>14609126
Posts

I really liked it when I read it in middle school. That and War And Peace were probably most most significant accomplishments in middle school.

>>14609561
There is a ton of extremely hamfisted and obviously intentional symbolism in both.

>>14609126
Nigger, go to your public library. I know your an urbanite.

>>14609695
Plato 's works are like a lesson plan. They build on one another. The Republic will go right over your head if you try to cheat and skip ahead. Plato is extremely enjoyable to read anyways, especially his early stuff, so it would be stupid not to.

>>14609741
But I'm not, sorry?
>>14609743
So what would the suggestions be then?

"start with the Greeks" is literally the /lit/ motto, tourist

>>14609743
>Plato 's works are like a lesson plan. They build on one another. The Republic will go right over your head if you try to cheat and skip ahead.

Yea I can't argue against that, I suppose I should have just put the entirety of Plato's works instead of just The Republic

>>14609093
Don't cast such american incantations towards me.

>>14609126
>No Anabasis
>No Argonautika
>No Medea

terrible list, truly awful.

>>14608919
The Odyssey always struck me as the less interesting and powerful of the two books, but it does have a very adventurous feel to it that resonates with many people, particularly younger readers.

The Iliad is pure kino. Powerful emotional scenes, great fight scenes, tragedy, heroism, it's got pretty much everything. It cannot be overstated how important of a work it is. I reread it every year in August.

>>14609695
>>14609126 is the better of the two in my opinion, although I disagree with some of it suggestions. Definitely start with Edith's Mythology and segue into Fagle's translations of Homer. Fagles is the cleanest modern translation available, read other translations later if you are still interested. The supplementary material by Strauss is not necessary at all, but still very interesting. If anything I'd read it AFTER.

Herodotus offers some similar insights, albeit misguided, but is a far better view of the mindset of the Greeks during his lifetime, and all the crazy myths and propaganda are very entertaining. For that I would definitely recommend the Landmark edition over Penguin, (or any other) same for Thucydides. Landmark is generally leagues above its competitors even if some may argue translations may be a bit dryer. (and in the more modern translations, this is certainly not the case) The sheer amount of information and the way it is presented really makes the choice a no brainer.

Hesiod is /not/ necessary and Edith will cover the most important parts of his work as she wisely tries to avoid using Ovid as a source, but his works are pretty entertaining and worth reading in my opinion. Of everything available, I found Oxford to be most enjoyable.

As for the playwrights, Sophocles is a MUST, but the definitive translation is highly contested. Roche is certainly fine, but Yeats' translation of King Oedipus is fucking awesome and I recommend you at least watch the movie:
https://youtu.be/TonLOAkc1OY

The recommendation for the Persocratics is adequate, and the Complete Plato is pretty much unbeatable. I do not know if I'd recommend the Complete Aristotle, but by this point if you have not skipped about too much, you should have grown past being an indecisive pussy and should be able to decide how to approach him at your discretion.

tl'dr Penguin is vile for anything beyond Homer and should be avoided.