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/lit/ - Literature

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13673931 No.13673931 [Reply] [Original]

Casualfag here. Just finished The Illiad and The Odyssey and I plan to read next the tragedies by Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides. What are the other Greek essentials necessary to understand Western literature? Or should I move on to the next big thing after the Greeks (The Bible?)? No history or other bullshit, please.

>> No.13674336

Aristophanes. Mostly wrote about women fucking everthing up for the men

>> No.13674343

which Iliad translation did you read or other reccomend? I already read Fagles but I didn’t like the translation and I want to read it again

>> No.13674362

>>13673931
Greek "history" is essential to their contribution to the west, there understanding of themselves and our understanding of them. Herodotus being the most important arguably (a log of war obsessed basement-dwellers in here will argue Thucydides or maybe Xenophon's war stories.) You should read Plato. Aristotle is tedious. Obviously the Romans are the 'next big thing'.

>> No.13674589

>>13674343
not him but try Buckley

>> No.13674811
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13674811

>>13674336
fpbp

>>13673931
gj fren. Aristophanes, like anon said. Also the Argonautica of Appollonius Rhodius. And Heroicus. You should also read the trial and death of Socrates, as there are quite a few similarities between Socrates and Jesus.

>> No.13674835

>>13674343
Try a prose translation like Butler.

>> No.13674840

>>13674343
Fitzgerald was good. I read Fagles like 15 years ago, it was alright but looking back at it now it's pretty meh.

>> No.13674842

>>13674343
I read Lattimore's Iliad and it was fairly enjoyable. The obvious answer is to just sample a whole bunch of translations and decide for yourself though, you can usually tell what a translator is going for right from the first page

>> No.13674851

>>13673931
>understand
>western literature

>> No.13674856

>>13673931
Literally read every classical Greek text you can get your hands on. Special highlights are the Herodotus's Histories, Apollonius's Argonautica, and Xenophon's Anabasis.
I'd recommend reading Plato's most famous dialogues at the least, they influenced the entire arc of subsequent Western thought. Aristotle is also important.
Read fucking everything though, it's great.