/lit/ - Literature

All of them. Eventually they'll come for the Iliad itself.

>>14132098
The Iliad is an actual must read, everything else is optional.

What's the best translation of the Iliad?

Why is Hector always revered as the 'most heroic' of all the heroes in the Iliad? Do people just forget my boys Menelaus and Diomedes? Menelaus is literally fighting to get his wife back, and he acts like a real bro - meanwhile Hector thinks he's invincible, wants to slaughter all the greeks, desecrate Patroclus' corpse, and generally acts like a dick to anyone who isn't his wife.

>>11491465
>unironically wanting Nirvana
Peace is submission and stagnation.
Struggle creates greatness.

/lit/ my wife is giving birth soon and I was planning on exclusively only allowing his entertainment to be the Western Literary Tradition starting with The Iliad. No modern books, internet, or TV until he's at least 13. I guess I'm just wondering how much will he understand of The Iliad for instance if its read aloud to him as an infant? Would it be better to read something like the original Brother's Grimm fairytales or something?

/tv/ outdid you guys this year /lit/
>>>/tv/92108811

> run 3 laps around Troy
what dis he mean by this

>>10164028
>Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achille

Read Ovid's Metamorphoses. It's a source for an enormous amount of material you'll read in the future, and it's a wonderful work on its own anyway. It's about 400 pages long, but it's broken up into many very small chapters, so you don't need to read it straight through.

Read the Iliad, for the same reason you ought to read Metamorphoses, and because it's one of the greatest works of art ever created. ~550 pages but doesn't take very long to read. Consider fate, glory, and honor as you read it. Translation: Fagles, Fitzgerald, Lattimore. Read excerpts from each and go with the one you enjoy the most.

Re-read the Odyssey if you haven't read it in a long time. It's only about 400 pages. Both books are separated into 24 chapters, so you're only looking at about ~25 or ~17 pages per chapter. Consider temptation. Translation: Same as the Iliad.

Read Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides, then Seneca's Thyestes, then the Oresteia by Aeschylus, then the Three Theban Plays and Ajax by Sophocles. I believe each of these plays is only about 50-70 pages, ~1100 lines. For reference, Hamlet is a little over 4000 lines. They shouldn't take you very long, about 45-90 minutes each. Pay special attention to themes involving fate and free will.

If you enjoyed the Oresteia, read Sophocles' Electra and Euripides' Orestes.

Read Euripides' Medea and Apollonius' Argonautica to learn about Jason and the Argonauts and Medea.

Read Virgil's Aeneid to see Homer's influence on the Romans, and Virgil's attempt to writing something as good as the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Read Don Quixote, and make sure that you read both parts. It should total to over a thousand pages. You can read the first part (~600 pages) and then put it down and read the second part later if you want. Aside from being an incredible book on its own, it would influence a huge amount of writers like Dostoevsky, Flaubert, and Borges. It's commonly regarded as the first modern novel.

Read the Bible. Look up the most important books in it and read those if you don't want to read the whole thing.

The Greeks meme is abused and has lost a lot of its meaning here, but it's important to get a solid foundation in the classics. The Greek and Roman poets influenced (and continue to influence) art, literature, philosophy, etc., for thousands of years after they were created. When you read the Metamorphoses you will see its contents everywhere, and you'll finally learn the myths that we all vaguely know, like Icarus flying close to the sun, Midas, etc. These things are constantly referenced and if you read them now you will have a greater appreciation for literature and you'll be able to experience that joyous moment when you see the heart of an ancient author beating in a modern work.

So I've started reading this for the first time. I read 'A Brief History of Ancient Greece' and 'Mythology' to warm myself up but nothing prepared me for the absurd amount of names dropped, of people and places, in the part where he's listing off the battalions in book 2. I just know I'll struggle to keep track of all this. Any tips to improve my reading of this Anons?

What's the /lit/ approved translation of the Iliad?

So lads, I'm thinking of unironically dabbling in the Greeks but my question is: must I start with Homer? I would much rather start with something lighter- perhaps Hesiod and some plays- but I fear that many paths will lead back to Homer.