I'm not a great article writer/essayist, so the topics will be broken up into simple lumps.
After The Iliad: a list of things to read
After completing the Iliad, which you can read for free here (by the translator and "sometime fellow of Trinity College," Walter Leaf, Litt.D,) you may like to move on to Homer's The Odyssey which (I believe) follows Odysseus' final moments in Troy to his return journey where he learns that his house is in complete disarray after an absence of twenty years, it sounds fairly domestic but is called "the world's greatest adventure story." There is also The Aeneid by Virgil which also follows the aftermath of the battle of Troy, when I have read all the books I already own, I plan on reading those stories next.
Future Reading List (a little ambitious, yes?):
The Odyssey by Homer
The Aeneid by Virgil
The Great Dialogues of Plato
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides
Euripides: The Trojan Women
Lysistrata and Other Plays; The Acharnians, The Clouds
Greek Lyric Poetry
The Histories by Herodotus
The Odyssey by Homer
The Aeneid by Virgil
The Great Dialogues of Plato
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides
Euripides: The Trojan Women
Lysistrata and Other Plays; The Acharnians, The Clouds
Greek Lyric Poetry
The Histories by Herodotus
So, yeah, Caitlin. Remember to come here and read these books sometime, okay? That's after you've read all the other books you own that you haven't read, you stupid girl.
3 comments:
Joyce's Ulysses is somewhat based on the Odyssey in terms of plot structure and classical references, while being set in Ireland in the early 1900s. I know, another book on top of all the others, though I remember seeing it in your Amazon Wish List a while ago. Happy reading Caitydork, whatever you go for.
In his play Travesties, Tom Stoppard has James Joyce say a speech on Homer:
"What now of the Trojan War if it had been passed over by the artist's touch? Dust. A forgotten expedition prompted by Greek merchants looking for new markets. A minor redistribution of broken pots. But it is we who stand enriched, by a tale of heroes, of a golden apple, a wooden horse, a face that launched a thousand ships -- and above all, of Ulysses, the wanderer, the most human, the most complete of all heroes -- husband, father, son, lover, farmer, soldier, pacifist, politician, inventor and adventurer.... It is a theme so overwhelming I am almost afraid to treat it. And yet I with my Dublin Odyssey will double that immortality, yes by God there's a corpse that will dance for some time yet..."
Don't feel silly for owning books you haven't read. I bought some books a while back I haven't read yet, and worse still my boss gave me two books by Dan Brown (one was The Da Vinci Code) which I have yet to read. Perhaps I should start my Tuesday night reading sessions again? :)
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