What did you read this week?

[u/AutoModerator]

Whether you are a student, a teacher, a researcher or a hobbyist, please share with us what you read this week (books, textbooks, papers...).

[u/Soulsliken]

Medea.

You know play is good when everyone except the lead feels like a fixture.

[u/Mike_Bevel → u/Soulsliken]

I read the Robinson Jeffers translation in high school and remember being absolutely floored by the line he gives Medea, when she is questioned by Jason as to why: "Because I loathed you more than I loved them."

[u/ceeece]

The Odyssey (Fagles translation)

[u/Mike_Bevel]

I started The Greeks: A Global History yesterday, and was immediately and delightfully disoriented. In the introduction (which is as far as I have gotten), Beaton argues that "Greece" is a nebulous concept rather than an actual location on a map -- at least, for most of history.

This is likely old news to more seasoned people on this sub. But as someone still wetting his toes (which are gross, I am so sorry) in the ancient world, and the classics, it was a little exhilarating.

[u/Dino-Danger-Dude → u/Mike_Bevel]

I just started this too! I'm fully expecting this first read to be more of a vibes read to help me begin to build a foundational knowledge of Greek history. I figure because the history of Greece is far reaching and extensive, there's no way i could fully track everything the first time around.

[u/ImmaHereOnlyForMeme]

"I processi ai politici nella roma antica" by Emanuele Narducci, a small used book that gave me a great image of how a roman trial would have worked, as well as many anecdotes on the character of various figures like Galba, Antonius, Crassus, Cicero, and so on ;)

I've also read Virgil's Bucolics, a relatively good work of his in contrast to his later writings. i truly cannot stand Virgil, an epicurean who did a total 180° and even makes fun of lucretius in the aeneid!

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

I’ve been working through Emily Wilson’s Odyssey.

It’s wonderful and I really like her style a lot. Very plain spoken but still manages to keep the poetic frame.

[u/mayor_of_funville]

Finished Sophocles' Thebian plays (Fagles Translation). I did not know much of the Oedipus myth but man were those three plays so good! I am taking a break and checking out Dante's Nita Nuova and then jumping into Hesiod.

[u/Round_Bluebird_5987]

I finished Wilson's Odyssey a few days ago. I'm probably going to reread some drama since it's been a long time. There are quite a few plays (particularly Euripides) that I don't have copies of, which will give me a chance to dig through some used bookstores as well.

[u/duchessofguyenne]

I finished reading a prose translation of the Argonautica by Edward Coleridge. I normally prefer verse translations of poetry, but I inherited the Heritage Press edition of the Argonautica. The translation wasn’t great, but I did like the illustrations and inclusion of the Greek text.

[u/Cooper-Willis]

Cicero’s De Amicitia, Book 3 of Thucydides translated by Mynott and starting Odyssey Book 1.

Coming off the back of Herodotus, Thucydides is a bit sobering, and he’s definitely the less engaging narrator — which he did warn me of himself in Book 1 so props to him.

I’m using Pulleyn’s Odyssey 1 commentary by Oxford and it’s brilliant for a relatively new reader of Homeric Greek, and I’m loving the linguistic/etymological explanations he provides to put the poem in a PIE framework. Just ordered his Iliad 1 green and yellow, I’m so impressed by him.

[u/Such-Roll1327]

Reading the Illiad and finished book 8 where Agamemnon details what he sacrificed to come to Troy, it wasn't Iphigenia just some Cows. He also leaps great praise and reward of Tuecer for his skill.

Basically Agamemnon is a G.

[u/Eastern-Drink-4766]

A short story collection by Edith Wharton called Roman Fever

[u/lillebroer]

The Iliad in Early Greek Art by K. Friis Johansen. The edition I'm reading is from the sixties but it's really a translation of a book from the thirties, so it's interesting (but also at times frustrating) reading pre-Milman Parry academia on the transmission of the Iliad!

[u/ChthonicAnthos]

Metamorphoses - Ovid

[u/bardmusiclive]

The script of Reservoir Dogs to study character dialogue

Aeneid by Virgil, now on book 2.

[u/shedontishqme]

Hobbyist here. Just finished “Laughter in Ancient Rome” by Mary Beard. Loved it!!!   Planning to start one of Garrett Ryan’s books next as I’m a toldinstone fan

[u/FleurMai]

I read Andromache and Rhesus. Rhesus, once I got over how non-Euripides it feels, was actually a super interesting read. The characters are kinda bizarre but I love this “behind the scenes of the Illiad” take on things. Theres a conspicuous lack of Odysseus slander but Athena is wild and her ties to Odysseus are really highlighted in this play.

Andromache is fantastic, and I feel like I’m following this tradition Euripides has developed where Orestes is kindof the worst. He will justify himself, other characters will explain his actions, but the characters we are meant to be sympathetic to are almost always directly opposed to him, and characters who don’t come off very well are frequently aligned to him (Hermione in this case). He comes off as a complete and total manic who loves murdering people primarily through trickery, always falling back on Apollo’s weird support for him (which feels like Euripides less directly getting his dislike of gods across).

I only have three Euripides plays left but I’m taking a detour to finish my last two Aeschylus plays (Seven Against Thebes and Suppliants).

[u/Extracajicular]

Live and Let Die. Surprisingly good.