r/classics

Someone helped me out, thanks everyone! :) Hi everyone! I'm currently writing a master thesis on Ovid's Metamorphoses. There is an article that contains valuable information for my research, but my university doesn't provide access and as a student I'm to broke to pay to read it, haha. I know it is a small chance, but is there someone here who has the article available? I'm looking for "Jaap Loos, “More Astronomy in Ovid’s Daedalus and Icarus,” Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 16, no. 1 ( June 2019): 71–119." (I can read all his other articles, except for this one). I would be very grateful! ❤️

Hi all! As above, I’m starting the Open University’s BA (Hons) in Classical Studies in October this year. I already have an undergraduate law degree and an MA (in a subject somewhat related to law) but I wanted to study something completely different. I loved studying law and I now work in the industry but I have always felt that my education left me deprived of an appreciation of art, history, literature and politics. I’ve always been fascinated by Ancient Rome and Greece - and have read the odd Plato and some of the Stoics (fashionable I know) - but I can’t profess to have a deep understanding of the classics.

I’m looking for some reading recommendations for the next year or so before I actually start getting into some classics proper (the first couple of modules are general arts and humanities). I’ve got a Fatal Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum on my list and I’m hoping to put together a list of similar titles. Accessible, light, and fun, whilst also somewhat educational. Sorry if this has been asked and asked again. I’m new here.

I am an upperclassman undergraduate and a Classical Liberal Arts major. Through my advisor and primary professor, I did a directed study on Virgil, going through all his works in translation, Book 4 of the Aeneid in Latin, and some scholarly articles.

I am still completing the essay (I have an extension), and my professor approved of my thesis and says he really likes it. He is out traveling, though, so I cannot really ask him for further advice. Would anyone on here who is well-versed in the classics and/or a fellow student be willing to give me feedback or advice? Here is my introduction with the thesis in bold:

There is a reason Augustine’s Confessions has been often translated as poetry, as it is a kind of Christian poem or epic. While much of the work focuses on Augustine’s own experience, even that experience is made to teach the broader themes of God, human sin, and salvation, for the epic begins with the human state, “quia [Deus] fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te [since you (God) have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you].” The state of mankind is one of restlessness, “inquiet,” because, as Augustine experienced in his youth as he pursued elicit desires, fallen people seek to be fulfilled in earthly things rather than God himself, and the result is destruction, hate, and misery. Only when one is converted to obeying the divine will, as Augustine was by reading the command of St. Paul in Romans, can the darkness of passions be escaped. Out of the many experiences of isolation from God he had as a youth, one of them concerned his education and, in particular, Virgil.

He laments his early studies in Virgil, but he does not fault the Aeneid itself but his way of reading it. He read of Aeneas while “oblitus errorum meorum [forgetful of my own wanderings]” and wept for Dido who killed herself for love while not weeping for himself who “in his a te morientem [in these things was dying far from you].” If young Augustine had let it, as the scholar Andrew Fichter notes, the Aeneid would have been an “exemplum to move him in the direction of moral insight.” Yet is this merely rhetorical flourish or a forced reading on the part of Augustine? By no means, for, though Virgil was a polytheist over 400 years apart from Augustine, there is a reason Christian authors like Dante and Luther could not drive him from their imaginations. He was the poet “naturaliter Christiana,” and that includes in the way in which, as Augustine articulates, he outlines the human condition in Dido and its solution in Aeneas. The story of Dido and Aeneas is a moral tale in which Virgil demonstrates the destructive nature of disordered human passions and the necessity for them to be ordered to divine duty, foreshadowing Augustine’s notion of fallen human nature and conversion.

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Although he likes my thesis, I am still struggling with how to write it and whether it is in the best form possible. I am not sure if the best structure is to write a paragraph about some ideas in the Confessions and then several paragraphs showing the connections in Virgil, or something else. Right now, I'm just trying to exegete Book 4 and show how Augustine's reading is natural to the text itself.

And yes, I know it is only an undergraduate essay, so in some ways I may be overthinking it. However, I want to write something solid that I could submit to grad school if they ask for an example of my writing, and I also want to explore this topic further in my grad research, so I want a good foundation. My professor also has high expectations of me, and since this is one of the final essays I will be writing for my undergraduate degree, I want to make sure it is of high quality.

Thank you!

Hey. I'm new to the world of classic literature and I would love to know where to actually start. My first experience with classics was in a school where I had to read Sophocleses Antigone (which I enjoyed) and parts of the Odyssey and Iliad from Homer (which was difficult for me in that moment).

Last month I was looking for some sources for my essay about origins of poetry and I found Poetics by Aristotle. I read it and I thought that I want to know more about classics. I want to discover this world.

My question is: what were your beginnings like, what have you read and what do you recommend? I'm open to tragedies, comedies, philosophy etc.

Thank you for reading.

Hello!

I've been getting into reading Classical literature recently, and I was wanting some recommendations on what to read next.

I read the Iliad, and I LOVED it. I'm not normally big on war texts, but I really, really enjoyed it.

Next, I read the Odyssey, and, to be honest...fuck Odysseus. All my homies hate Odysseus. If Odysseus has no hater, I am dead. Not my favorite read.

I'm about halfway through the Aeneid now, and I'm enjoying it so far! I don't love it as much as the Iliad or loathe it as much as the Odyssey. I'm having a pretty good time!

As I'm approaching the end, though, I'm wondering where I should go next. I've heard of Ovid's Metamorphoses, but I'm not sure if it's a similar style to the things that I've read. Other than that, though, I'm not sure where to start. I know that if I go to the bookstore to try to look, I'll end up spending...all of my money. Does anyone have any pointers of good Classical lit that I might like?

Thank you!!

Hi — I'm interested in reading the Anabasis of Alexander but many of the copies I'm finding online look a bit fringe (I want a good readable translation, not one of those sketchy Amazon ones that looks like it was printed on someone's home printer and is full of misprints). Any recs for good versions/translations?

I mostly got into the Greek world through Rome, but I've always stayed very much Athens and Argos-friendly. I would explore the myths stemming more from Argos and the House of Atreus / Trojan War-Odyssey.

I decided to wander into the tragedians and poetry with one mission. Thebes.

I already know Sons Atreus and the early Argive myths, but not Thebes.

What a wild ride this city is. I mean the origin with Cadmus bearing the dragon's teeth and the Theban men spring into action, up comes this city of Thebes. Here we have the birth of Dionysus, god of wine, born of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cadmus.

The wreckage of Pentheus, grandson of Cadmus, to the destructive torture of the Maenads.

Later we have the foul deeds of the Labdacids. Laius, who raped the son of Pelops, here a curse got placed and Laius was killed by his own son, Oedipus, who slept with his own mother. This man who blinded himself and went off in misery.

Then we get the iconic Seven Against Thebes and with the two brothers. This tragedy by Aeschylus is incredible. Euripides has a play on it and so does Statius of Rome.

And then lastly, the destruction of the city, the war of the Epigoni.

In this whole city's mythos, one character really clicked with me, Tiresias, the blind old sage that has lived for many generations. This Tiresias is very fascinating.

I studied classical studies at uni, but haven't looked at a book relating to it since I left (3 years ago), and I kinda miss it. Especially literature and philosophy. Anyone have any articles/book/ other written media they enjoy reading that helps them keep up with their knoweldge?

Where does a casual reader start when it comes to the classics, particularly interested in becoming more acquainted with the foundational texts of history across Mesopotamia, Near East, Greeks & Rome.

Is there a chart or reading plan to show the recommended journey through history and perhaps the recommended translations for each book?

What are the best short overviews (5-10 pp.) of c. 5th cent. Greek history and Roman history (Imperial to Augustan)? I've recently been trying to learn more about these. Are there any that sketch the major events and trends and bring out the main themes? I have been reading the Oxford Anthologies of English Literature and the scholar at the beginning always gives a very incisive overview of the history and literature of the period at the beginning. I was looking for an equivalent--I love classical literature but want a bit of backgrounding. Thanks!

I quit my day job as a lawyer last year to go back to uni for a BA in classics, and, man, I'm really looking for some reassurance, because my friends and family all insist that I made a huge mistake. I am quite good at greek and latin, I love the field to death and I'm willing to work my ass off towards getting a PhD.

EDIT: Thanks for the mostly helpful answers. Alas, even in the face of reasonable counterarguments and insurmountable obstacles I remain unwaveringly delusional. Grad school it is. Some clarifications:

1. This is not a shitpost

2. I am 24 and a full time undergrad student (i.e. unemployed)

3. I detested law school and would rather kill myself than go back to practicing law

4. Money is not my biggest concern: university is free in my country, and I plan to mooch off my middle class parents till I'm at least thirty

5. I am set on getting a PhD, but if things do not work out I would not necessarily mind not working in academia.

Cheers, and maybe I'll come back to this post in five years' time to see how things have changed