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/lit/ - Literature

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16040086 No.16040086 [Reply] [Original]

Reading Works and Days right now.
Fuck, I want to go back. Life was so much better back then. Very comfy read. It's so fascinating how proficient people were back then. They knew stars, oriented by them, knew animals and plants, various signals sent by nature, etc. Nowadays it all seems lost, and considered as something obscure and useless for common people.
Also, Hesiod's tale about "iron" people is very true. We have forgotten honour, everybody lies, criminals and degenerates are admired. This seems like the dawn of this generation of men. But, according to Hesiod, every next generation was worse than the previous one. What could the post-iron people even be?
Anyway, what are some comfy, idyllic books? I have already read Virgil's Eclogae and Georgica.

>> No.16040112

>>16040086
>They knew stars, oriented by them, knew animals and plants, various signals sent by nature, etc. Nowadays it all seems lost, and considered as something obscure and useless for common people
Learn it instead of bitching about how it's lost

>> No.16040225

>>16040086
The Histories by Herodotus. Whole thing is comfy. Most of it is just folk tales
>that time Samos stole a bowl from Sparta
>that time the thief impressed pharoh and banged pharohs daughter
>that time xerxes had the Aegean whipped and chains thrown in
>that time hippocleides didn't care

>> No.16040321

>>16040225
>when the Egyptians have to let noble women's dead bodies sit out for several days so the people mummifying them won't fuck their dead bodies

>> No.16040339

>>16040086
This book is boring drivel. Do people shill for the Greeks because they lack the imagination to identify literature which is good and useful?

>> No.16040355
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16040355

If you liked Virgil's Eclogues you should read Theocritus' Idylls. They are the very beginning of the pastoral tradition in poetry and they are where Virgil got the inspiration to write the Eclogues from.

>> No.16040367

>>16040339
Did we read the same thing? Maybe your translation was just shit?
Works and Days is very engaging read and very easy and comfy. Try reading Virgil - that can be tedious.
The first half of Works and Days is basically a book on ethics and how to live a good life, mixed with some myths here and there. Only later it becomes a bit more specialized in agriculture.

>> No.16040372

>>16040086

Are you sure everybody lies or are you singling out one specific person?

>> No.16040376

>>16040086
i like how hesiod accidentally immortalized his personality quirks of being scared of horses and not getting along with his brother

>> No.16040463
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16040463

Blocks your path.

>> No.16040776

>>16040367
>Maybe your translation was just shit?
He was probably filtered and is bitter about his stupidity.

>> No.16040860

>>16040372
Not him, but I'm absolutely sure the overwhelming majority lie with impunity, so much that it's become completely normal to do so. This sounds (and is) pretty autistic, but in my youthful years I was obsessed with moral perfection. I was hypersensitive to any inconsistencies in people's words, so that I could find out if anybody was as moral as I was trying to be. Literally it was just a matter of time. Everybody eventually lied without exception, and even I had to forego my ideal if I didn't want to end up on the streets.

>> No.16041238

>>16040086
>Life was so much better back then.
How did you draw that conclusion? Hesiod's entire point is that life absolutely sucks in his day