Areté Classical Studies Program

Fall Schedule 2011

2011-10-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

Fall is finally here! Our summer reading session has come to a close and we are ready to tackle some new books for the next study period. On tap are several wonderful choices selected the very end of the period, 1400-1599.

Once again, we are going to allow readers to choose which books they would like to read over the next few months.

William Shakespeare

Option 1: William Shakespeare's Plays and Sonnets

Any good reading program must contain it's fair share of Shakespeare, and our group is not to be left out. Therefore, this fall, readers who are not familiar with the plays of Shakespeare may want to read one or more of the following choices:

All other plays can be accessed via Bartleby.com's Oxford Shakespeare webpages.

In addition to the above plays, readers may want to also read through the Sonnets, which can be found here as well.

John Donne

Option 2: John Donne, Poems and Sermons

Readers may wish to read from a selection of John Donne's poems as well as his most famous sermons. A nice selection of poems can be accessed via Luminarium's website.

Izzak Walton's brief biography of John Donne is a nice compliment to reading the poems and sermons. You can find it here: http://www.bartleby.com/15/2/

Thomas Hobbes

Option 3: Thomas Hobbes "The Leviathan"

For readers interested in reading Hobbes, consider "The Leviathan" as an alternative to our other selections. You can find a very nice HTML formatted version via Oregon State's website.

Discussion questions as well as some general background information and study notes can be accessed via Sparknotes. General biographical information can be found via Wikipedia or another online encyclopedia.

Summer Courses, 2011

2011-06-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Well, summer has finally arrived here in Phoenix, and we are experiencing daily high temperatures in the upper 90's to low 100's (F and not C). It is a good time to stay indoors and read, so here is the summer schedule.

I have decided to offer this summer as an elective, and allow readers several books to read instead of just one. Perhaps this will generate more interest in the courses offered.

Option 1: Miguel de Cervantes, "Don Quixote"
Option 2: Edmund Spenser's, "The Faerie Queene"
Option 3: Christopher Marlowe's, "Doctor Faustus"

All three book choices span our period, 1400-1599, and are well-known novels.

Readers are free to choose to read one of the above books or they can choose to read them all. I will provide links and textual information for easy reading online as well as for finding hard copies at libraries or used book sources. Questions and other background information will be available here and in the Yahoo Group files section.

Updated Fall 2011 Schedule

For now, the following schedule seems doable. Fall readings will begin in September and run through December 2011.

William Shakespeare
John Donne

Updated Spring 2012 Schedule

For Spring 2011, the following selections will be scheduled:

Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"
Alexander Pope's "Rape of the Lock"
William Wordsworth

More details will follow, so stay tuned.

Option 1: Miguel Cervante's "Don Quixote"

For readers who would like to attempt this book, my suggestion is to read this over the entire summer. It is a long book, and will require two months of consistent daily (or weekly reading) to finish it.

Online HTML Text can be found here: http://www.classicreader.com/book/1148/
Audio Book at Librivox: http://librivox.org/don-quixote-vol-1-by-miguel-de-cervantes-saavedra/
Book notes: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/donquixote/
Study questions: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/lithum/adams/sq9.html

Option 2: Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queene"

For readers who want to read this book in Middle English, the following links are available.

Online version: http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/queene1.html
PDF Format: http://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/784/faeriequeene.pdf?sequence=1
Audio at Librivox: http://librivox.org/the-faerie-queene-book-1-by-edmund-spenser/
Book notes: http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/fqueen/
Canto by Canto reading guide: http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl331/fq.html

Option 3: Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus"

Online Text: http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/doctorfaustus/
Audio Book at Librivox: http://librivox.org/the-tragical-history-of-doctor-faustus-by-christopher-marlowe/
Book Notes: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/doctorfaustus/
Study Questions: http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl331/faustus.html

If you would like to join us this summer and read some great classical books, please feel free to visit our Yahoo Group here: http://groups.yahoo.com/areteclassical

2011 Reading Schedule

2011-01-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

We are still reading through the Renaissance, focusing now on the latter portion of the 16th century. Continuing on through the 16th and into the 17-18th centuries, we will focus on the following literature, philosophy, religion, and poetry:

Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes (1547-1616)
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
Essays by Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Doctor Faustus by Christoper Marlowe (1564-1593)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Sermons by John Donne (1572-1631)
Paradise Lost by John Milton (1608-1674)
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1628-1688)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Essays by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Book links, backgound information, study notes, and other important information will be posted as soon as we finish up Sir Thomas More's, Utopia.

Utopia by Sir Thomas More

2011-01-13T14:16:00.000-08:00

Utopia (in full: Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia) is a work of fiction by Thomas More published in 1516. English translations of the title include A Truly Golden Little Book, No Less Beneficial Than Entertaining, of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia (literal) and A Fruitful and Pleasant Work of the Best State of a Public Weal, and of the New Isle Called Utopia (traditional).[1] (See "title" below.) The book, written in Latin, is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(book)

Background on Sir Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (pronounced /ˈmɔr/; February 7, 1478[1] – July 6, 1535), also known as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important counsellor to Henry VIII of England and for three years toward the end of his life he was Lord Chancellor. He is also recognised as a saint within the Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion.[2] He was an opponent of the Protestant Reformation and of Martin Luther and William Tyndale.

More coined the word "utopia" - a name he gave to the ideal, imaginary island nation whose political system he described in Utopia, published in 1516. He opposed the king's separation from the papal church and denied that the king was the Supreme Head of the Church of England, a status the king had been given by a compliant parliament through the Act of Supremacy of 1534. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534 for his refusal to take the oath required by the First Succession Act, because the act disparaged the power of the Pope and Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In 1535 he was tried and executed for treason by beheading. More was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1886 and canonised, with John Fisher, in 1935. In 1980, he was added to the Church of England's calendar of saints.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_More

Articles from Luminarium
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tmore.htm

Links to Online Texts

Utopia at Oregon State
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/more/utopia-contents.html

Utopia at Online Literature
http://www.online-literature.com/more/utopia/

Utopia at Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2130

Study Notes and Guides for Utopia

Sparknotes for Utopia
http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/utopia

Study Guide with Detailed Information
http://thomasmorestudies.org/utopia/Utopia_guide_ed1.pdf

Schedule of Readings

This is a fairly short book, and could be read in a few weeks (depending on your own schedule). I would suggest reading it at your leisure and taking the time to think about what Sir Thomas More might be suggesting in this story. You might want to spend a little time and review some British History so that you can understand better why this book is so important. Thomas More lived during the reign of Henry the VIII. It was his stand against Henry's wish to divorce that eventually led to More's execution (a must see -- watch Paul Scofield's dramatization of More in the movie, "A Man for All Seasons").

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

2010-12-01T14:17:00.000-08:00

The Prince (Italian: Il Principe) is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus (About Principalities). But the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. This was done with the permission of the Medici pope Clement VII, but "long before then, in fact since the first appearance of the Prince in manuscript, controversy had swirled about his writings".[1]

Although it was written as if it were a traditional work in the Mirror of Princes style, it is generally agreed that it was especially innovative, and not only because it was written in Italian rather than Latin.[2] The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, in which the effective truth is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. It was also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time concerning how to consider politics and ethics.[3][4]

Although it is relatively short, the treatise is the most remembered of his works and the one most responsible for bringing "Machiavellian" into wide usage as a pejorative term. It also helped make "Old Nick" an English term for the devil, and even contributed to the modern negative connotations of the words "politics" and "politician" in western countries.[5] In terms of subject matter it overlaps with the much longer Discourses on Livy, which was written a few years later. In its use of examples who were politically active Italians who perpetrated criminal deeds for politics, another lesser-known work by Machiavelli which The Prince has been compared to is the Life of Castruccio Castracani.

The descriptions within The Prince have the general theme of accepting that ends of princes, such as glory, and indeed survival, can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince

Links to Online Texts

http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince00.htm

Study Notes for The Prince
http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/prince/

Suggested Reading Schedule

This book is very short, and can be read quickly. I would suggest reading it at your leisure, and thinking more deeply about the reasons why Machiavelli wrote this philosophical treatise.

Le Mort d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory

2010-06-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of http://www.celtic-twilight.com/camelot/malory/lemorte_darthur.jpg

Our next book will be Sir Thomas Mallory's, "Le Mort d'Arthur'. This is the classic tale that began the fascination with King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. A few years ago, I had the pleasure of reading T.H. White's, "The Once and Future King," which was awesome. I have not read Mallory's text, so I am really looking forward to it this summer.

This is a rather long book, and I think we will read as much as we possibly can given the time we have on the schedule. I found an online HTML text that seems very readable. I will post other links later, if I can find good translations, and they are easily accessed. I will also be posting study questions, but for now, here is some background information as well as a link to the HTML formatted book.

Background

You can read some interesting background information on Mallory as well as on his writing of this text here.

Online Texts

The following two websites have the book in HTML format. You can also download the text file through Project Gutenberg. I personally find HTML to be easier to read, but if you would rather download it to your computer, have at it.

Audio Versions

Librivox Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Resources

Reading Schedule

The following schedule is fluid and may change, given the nature of our readers preferences. However, for now, this is a good schedule to start this book.

June 14 - Book 1
June 21 - Book 2
June 28 - Book 3
July 5 - Book 4
July 12 - Book 5
July 19 - Book 6
July 26 - Book 7
August 2 - Book 8
August 9 - Book 9 (end of Vol. 1)
August 16 - Book 10 and on for readers who wish to continue with Vol. 2

Happy reading ~ Enjoy!

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

2010-05-11T10:24:00.001-07:00

Welcome Spring (or Summer for us in hot AZ!) Readers:

We are set to begin a four-week study in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. This is a quick reading through these stories, simply to give our readers a taste of Chaucer's wit and style. Feel free to join along with our reading group on this next adventure through late Medieval classical literature.

Lets begin reading through a few of the Canterbury Tales. I chose those which are most often read in college courses (and the ones I could find study
questions on -- LOL!) I think these will give you enough of a feel for these stories without having to read them all. If you want to read more, go ahead at
your own leisure.

Brief Background from Wikipedia

I would suggest reading the background on the Tales themselves, either at Wikipedia, in your own text, or as a general introduction at Sparknotes or Online-Literature.com.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales

Literature Study Guide from Sparknotes

Sparknotes will provide some good summaries of the tales, a great help for struggling readers who need a little hand-holding to help explain the story.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/canterbury/

Book Links

http://www.online-literature.com/chaucer/canterbury/

Modern Prose in PDF (each tale is it's own file)

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/webcore/murphy/canterbury/

Audio from Librivox

http://librivox.org/the-canterbury-tales-by-geoffrey-chaucer/

Schedule

Week 1 - Introduction and Prologue
Week 2 - The Knights Tale
Week 3 - The Miller and The Reeves Tale
Week 4 - The Friar and The Summoner's Tale

Guesstimate on reading: The Knights Tale is fairly long, the others are shorter readings. I would guess four weeks to cover these tales only. If at the end of this period, you all want to read some of the other Tales, we can add a few more in. Let' wait and see how every does with these stories, OK?

Begin date: you are welcome to start this week or next. I will post the first set of questions today and then will try and stay a week ahead of everyone.

I think you will enjoy reading these stories, and will find the modern translation (PDF files linked above) a good source (helpful notes and explanations are included).

Happy Reading!

Spring is Here

2010-01-30T07:49:00.000-08:00

The new schedule for Spring has been late in being posted. Partly this was due to some personal challenges that I am facing, and partly because our readers needed a bit more time to get through the holidays. Now that we are finished with Christmas and well into the New Year, it is time to start thinking about reading again.

We have been following the Great Books list from St. John's College. So far, it has proven to be a good program to follow. We have used online books and resources, mostly from the website: http://www.grtbooks.com. Another excellent resource, with links to not only resources that are online, but also to printed books (in several languages).

Presently, we are beginning the Middle Ages, approx. 1000-1600 AD. We just finished reading The Song of Roland, and are heading into more religious works (Aquinas and A Kempis). I am not sure if this is the track we want to take, after all, we spent a fair portion of time reading through earlier church works last year. I am thinking that we should stay with literature (story, fairy tales, etc.) for a while. I think our readers are more interested in story than in deep philosophy.

So with this decision in hand, here is the reading list for Spring 2010:

The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs

HTML (56 pages, indexed) at Bartleby.com (Translated by Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris)
HTML (364 KB; 128 KB zipped; 342/124 KB text file also available) of The Story of the Volsungs at Project Gutenberg (Translated by Eirikr Magnússon and William Morris)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

HTML (Multi-page) at Bibliomania
HTML (339 KB; 201 KB zipped; 255/97 KB text file also available) at Project Gutenberg, also includes Middle English text (Translator unknown)

Canterbury Tales

HTML frames at Librarius
Text File (1.62 MB; 639 KB zipped) at Project Gutenberg (includes Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Cressida, and other works)

Le Morte d'Arthur

Text file, vol. 1 (link page; 902 KB, or 295 KB zipped) at Project Gutenberg
Text file, vol. 2 (link page; 1.00 MB, or 332 KB zipped) at Project Gutenberg

The Prince

HTML (36 pages, indexed) at Oregon State's History of Western Philosophy course (Translated by W.K. Marriott)
HTML (Multi-page, indexed) at Sonshi.com (Translated by W.K. Marriott)
HTML (Multi-page, indexed; text file and PDF versions also available) at the Constitution Society (Translated by W.K. Marriott)
Text File (310 KB; 111 KB zipped; 298/109KB text file also available) at Project Gutenberg (Translated by William K. Marriott)

Utopia

HTML (Indexed, 10 pages) at Oregon State's History of Western Philosophy course
HTML (Multi-page, indexed) at the Constitution Society
Text file (231KB) at the Constitution Society
HTML (258 KB; 94 KB zipped; 254/93KB text file also available) at Project Gutenberg

This reading list will take us through Spring and into early Summer. We will then move into Renaissance literature and begin reading more familiar texts.

A reading schedule (of assignments) will be posted shortly, along with some background information and study help. Check out the Yahoo Group for specifics. Happy reading!

The Song of Roland

2009-09-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

We are a little behind on our reading schedule (due to some family illness), so we are just beginning to read "The Song of Roland." This will be one of our first Medieval Literature stories.

"The Song of Roland (French: La Chanson de Roland) is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in various different manuscript versions, which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in the 12th to 14th centuries. The oldest of these versions is the one in the Oxford manuscript, which contains a text of some 4,004 lines (the number varies slightly in different modern editions) and is usually dated to the middle of the twelfth century (between 1140 and 1170). The epic poem is the first and most outstanding example of the chanson de geste, a literary form that flourished between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries and celebrated the legendary deeds of a hero." - Wikipedia

Read the entire entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_roland

Text

There are a number of translations for this text available online. I have linked to several below. Feel free to read which ever text you find enjoyable. Sparknotes.com offers a free online study guide with some background and plot summaries -- good to use for review.

From the Medieval Internet sourcebook (O'Hagan trans.)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roland-ohag.html

From Harvard Classics (O'Hagan trans.)
http://www.bartleby.com/49/2/

From Sunsite (UC Berkeley - Moncreif trans.)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/roland/index.htm

Librivox (Moncreif trans) - Audio
http://librivox.org/the-song-of-roland-by-anonymus/

Schedule of Readings

I have adjusted our readings since we lost two weeks between reading Heloise's Letter and the start of this poem.

September 14-18
The Song of Roland
Verses I - LXXXVII
http://omacl.org/Roland/index.html

September 21-25
Verses LXXXVIII - CLXI

September 28-October 2
Verses CLXII - CCXXXIII

October 5-9
Verses CCXXXIV -CCXCI

Study Questions

I will be posting study questions as we move through this story. Enjoy!

Update - November 9, 2009

Our readers are behind, so we are going to stay with this poem for a few more weeks. If you are just joining us, feel free to begin with this study!

Peter and Heloise

2009-08-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

When I was in college, I was required to take a Medieval History course. It was a Humanities course, so we didn't just study history. We studied philosophy (a lot), literature, poetry, religion, and history. It was taught by a very kind older man, who loved, I mean loved, the Middle Ages. I didn't think I would like this period in time, and was terrified of studying philosophy (everyone I knew told me it was DIFFICULT!) This professor, though, was great. He made the study of these classic works really interesting. Yes, they were difficult to read and understand, but he had a way that made them come alive. He especially liked to read to his students (something very old fashioned), and we spent most every day listening to him read to us. One particular favorite of mine were the letters written by Peter Abelard to his lover, Heloise. My professor had a real affinity for St. Augustine and Peter Abelard. He loved them both, and we spent the majority of the semester studying these two men.

Our classical study group has just finished reading through 1001 Stories of the Arabian Nights. This series of stories was really enjoyabled, far more enjoyable than I thought possible. I had only read Ali-Baba (years ago), and while familiar with the tale of Alladin (thanks to Disney), had not really spent any time at all reading the other stories. I am glad we spent a couple weeks reading through them -- they are all great moral tales -- stories that make you chuckle a bit, but leave you with a definite impression of good/evil, wrong/right, etc.

As we close out our early Medieval readings, we begin to turn towards more significant "classical works" (not to put down Ali-Baba, but we are talking about Dante here!) Our next several readings will take us through the end of the year. These include the former mentioned letters of Peter Abelard, the Song of Roland and Summa Theologica (briefly chucked in between), then the power house book, The Divine Comedy. The latter will take the majority of our reading time, approx. 10 weeks to complete (probably longer, given the nature of the text). However, before we press on into the Middle Ages, we need to address the little letter written by Friar Peter Abelard (c. 1079-1142). Fr. Pierre Abélard, a 12th century philosopher, theologian and logician, is called "the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th Century" (by Chambers Biographical Dictionary). His love affair with Heloise is legendary -- true Medieval Soap Opera. We will only have time to read one letter, but the story itself is worth the investment of time.

Background

I am not going to post a bio of Peter Abelard, because this one over at Wikipedia is pretty good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_abelard

Our text is coming from the following resource at Fordham University (Internet Medieval Sourcebook). We will read the introduction and overall guide to the letter first. The actual letter will be read the following week. Both are short readings -- not more than a few pages -- so this week and next will be rather light (giving our readers time to finish up Arabian Nights, if they need to).

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/heloise1.html

Discussion will be limited, unless our readers have insight or questions.

Up Next

The Song of Roland
http://omacl.org/Roland/index.html (four weeks only)

Summa Theologica (just one essay - one week)
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FP.vi.html

The Divine Comedy (ten weeks)
http://poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/Danthome.htm

Next Book: Stories from 1001 Arabian Nights

2009-07-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers -- Good Tuesday Morning to you all!

I hope you all had a chance to finish up Beowulf last week. I am late postingour next readings, so please forgive me. Our next few weeks will be devoted toreading some of the 1001 Arabian Night stories (circa 800 AD). You do not haveto read them all, unless you wish to do so. Some of the more familiar taleswill come towards the middle to end of this series of readings (Aladin, Sinbad,Ali Baba, etc.)

If you don't want to read all of this post -- the schedule and link to the textare at the end. I would encourage you to read the Wikipedia article on thesetales. It will give specific literary device information that I think will behelpful to place these stories in their proper context as well as demonstratehow influential they became through succeeding literary generations (in story,play, music, and film).

Enjoy!

BRIEF BACKGROUND (Harvard Classics)

"THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS" is one of the great story-books of the world. Itwas introduced to European readers by the French scholar Galland, who discoveredthe Arabic original and translated it into French in the first decade of theeighteenth century; but its earlier history is still involved in obscurity.There existed as early as the tenth century of our era a Persian collection of athousand tales, enclosed in a framework which is practically the one used in thepresent collection, telling of a King who was in the habit of killing his wivesafter the first night, and who was led to abandon this practise by thecleverness of the Wezir's daughter, who nightly told him a tale which she leftunfinished at dawn, so that his curiosity led him to spare her till the taleshould be completed. Whether more than the framework of the Arabian collectionwas borrowed from this Persian work is uncertain. The tales in the collection of Galland and in more complete editions discovered since his time are chieflyPersian, Indian, and Arabian in source, and in ultimate origin come from all theends of the earth. No two manuscripts have precisely the same contents, and someof the most famous of the tales here printed are probably not properly to beregarded as belonging to the collection, but owe their association with theothers to their having been included by Galland. Thus "Ali Baba and the FortyThieves" is found in no Oriental version of the "Nights," and "`Ala-ed-Din andthe Wonderful Lamp" was long supposed to be in the same situation, though withinrecent years it has turned up in two manuscripts.

Both the place and the date of the original compilation are still matters ofdispute among scholars. From such evidences as the detailed nature of thereferences to Cairo and the prevailing Mohammedan background, Lane argued thatit must have been put together in Egypt; but this opinion is by no meansuniversally accepted. As to date, estimates vary by several centuries. Burton,who believed in a strong Persian element, thought that some of the oldest tales,such as that of "Sindibad," might be as old as the eighth century of our era;some thirteen he dated tenth century, and the latest in the sixteenth. There isa fair amount of agreement on the thirteenth century as the date of arrangementin the present framework, though they were probably not committed to writingtill some two centuries later.

Of a collection of fables, fairy-stories, and anecdotes of historical personagessuch as this, there can, of course, be no question of a single author. Bothbefore and after they were placed in the mouth of Shahrazad, they were handeddown by oral recitation, the usual form of story-telling among the Arabs. As inthe case of our own popular ballads, whatever marks of individual authorship anyone story may originally have borne, would be obliterated in the course ofgenerations of tradition by word of mouth. Of the personality of an originaleditor or compiler, even, we have no trace. Long after writing had to someextent fixed their forms, the oral repetition went on; and some of them could beheard in Mohammedan countries almost down to our own times.In the two hundred years of their currency in the West, the stories of the"Nights" have engrafted themselves upon European culture. They have made thefairy-land of the Oriental imagination and the mode of life of the medievalArab, his manners and his morals, familiar to young and old; and allusions totheir incidents and personages are wrought into the language and literature ofall the modern civilized peoples. Their mark is found upon music and painting aswell as on letters and the common speech, as is witnessed by such diverseresults of their inspiration as the music of Rimsky-Korsakoff, the illustrationsof Parrish, and the marvelous idealization of their background and atmosphere inTennyson's "Recollections of the Arabian Nights," "Barmecide Feast," "OpenSesame," "Old Lamps for New," "Solomon's Seal," "The Old Man of the Sea," "TheSlave of the Lamp," "The Valley of Diamonds," "The Roc's Egg," Haroun al-Raschidand his "Garden of Delight,"—these and many more phrases and allusions ofevery-day occurrence suggest how pervasive has been the influence of thiswonder-book of the mysterious East.

The translation by E. W. Lane used here has been the standard English versionfor general reading for eighty years. The translations of "`Ali Baba" and"`Ala-ed-Din" are by S. Lane-Poole and for permission to use the latter we areindebted to Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

INTRODUCTION (from Wikipedia)

One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of folk tales and other stories. Itis often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English languageedition (1706), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment[1].

The original concept is most likely derived from a pre-Islamic Persian prototypethat probably relied partly on Indian elements,[2] but the work as we have itwas collected over many centuries by various authors, translators and scholarsacross the Middle East and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their rootsback to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamianfolklore and literature. In particular, many tales were originally folk storiesfrom the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are mostprobably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Haz?r Afs?n (Persian: ???? ?????,lit. Thousand Tales). Though the oldest Arabic manuscript dates from the 14thcentury, scholarship generally dates the collection's genesis to around the 9thcentury.

What is common throughout all the editions of the Nights is the initial framestory of the ruler Shahryar (from Persian: ??????, meaning "king" or"sovereign") and his wife Scheherazade (from Persian: ???????, meaning"townswoman") and the framing device incorporated throughout the talesthemselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed withinother tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more.

Some of the best-known stories of The Nights, particularly "Aladdin's WonderfulLamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad theSailor", while almost certainly genuine Middle-Eastern folk tales, were not partof The Nights in Arabic versions, but were interpolated into the collection byits early European translators.

Note 1: For the rest of this introduction, please see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_One_Thousand_and_One_Nights

Note 2: See the Harvard Classics introduction here:http://www.bartleby.com/16/1002.html

SCHEDULE

These stories are short, so it is possible to read through them quickly. Feelfree to read a few or all of them!

July 13-17
Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights: Nights 1-3, 3-9
http://www.bartleby.com/16/

July 20-24
Nights 9-18, 24-32

July 27-31
Nights 32-36, Nights 537–566

August 3-7
Nights 566–578, 738–756

August 10-14
The Story of `Ala-ed-Din and the Wonderful Lamp and The Story of `Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

LINKS to the TEXT

Harvard Classics (follows our schedule)
http://www.bartleby.com/16/

Beowulf, an Introduction

2009-05-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Beowulf. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Introductory Note

"WHEN our Teutonic ancestors migrated to Britain from the Continent of Europe, they brought with them the heroic songs in which their minstrels were accustomed to celebrate the deeds of their kings and warriors. In Section xvi of “Beowulf” will be found a short description of the recitation at a feast of this kind of lay. Perhaps as early as the seventh century of our era, after the introduction of Christianity, an unknown poet gathered material from these lays and composed the epic of “Beowulf.” Besides the stories, he took from the older songs their metrical form and many features of style; but how far he retained their actual language there is no longer any means of knowing. A good deal of comment and reflection he must have added; and the structure of the epic is certainly due to him. He did not sing or chant to a harp as his predecessors in the treatment of this material had done; he wrote a book to be read. “Beowulf” is thus not folk-song, but belongs to a much more conscious and developed stage of art than the popular ballad.

The exploits narrated in the poem belong to the life of Germanic peoples before they crossed the North Sea, and at least one of the characters can be identified with a historical personage. Hygelac was the Danish king Chochilaicus, who was killed in a raid into the countries near the mouth of the Rhine, not far from 520 A.D.; and as he was the uncle of Beowulf, this fixes approximately the date for the historical prototype of our hero. But the events of the poem are legendary, not historic. The fights with monsters and dragons, which occupy so much of the poem, are clear evidence of the large extent to which the marvels of popular tradition had attached themselves to figures whose historical identity had already become shadowy. Some scholars have even tried to interpret the persons and events of the poem as mythology; and while one can not deny that mythical elements may have become interwoven, yet the poet believed his hero to be thoroughly human, and his foes to be such ghosts and monsters as are still believed in by the peasantry in many parts of Europe.

From Professor Gummere’s translation, which preserves with great skill the essential metrical features of the original, accent and alliteration, one can get a good idea of the rhythmic vigor of the old English. The translation is made from the solitary text which has come down to us, a manuscript of the tenth century, now in the British Museum.

Although, as has been said, the chief materials of the poem must have come from the Continent, much of the detail giving a picture of life at an old Germanic court is likely to have been drawn from the England of the writer’s own day. “Beowulf” thus comes to have, in addition to its interest as the earliest extended imaginative work extant among the Teutonic peoples, a special value for the light it throws on the culture and ideals of character prevalent during the first centuries of the English occupation of Britain."

----

Some readers may find a children's retelling of the story easier to digest at first. If you choose to read a children's version, make sure to follow it up with the original (links provided in previous post).

Stories of Beowulf told to Children by H.E. Marshall
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=marshall&book=beowulf&story=_contents

Legends of the Middle Ages by Helene Guerber
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=guerber&book=middle&story=beowulf

Legends Every Child Should Know by Hamilton Wright Mabie
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=mabie&book=legends&story=beowulf

European Hero Stories by Eva March Tappen
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=tappan&book=european&story=beowulf

How to Use a Children's Story

The advantage of reading a children's story is that the myth is told in a simplified way. You will be quickly introduced to the main characters and given a very simple and straightforward plot. Once you are familiar with the tale, how it unfolds, and who the major characters are, you can then begin to read the adult version (modern prose if you are still faint of heart). It is also a good idea to use Sparknotes.com and read through the character analysis, plot summaries, etc. along the way.

Enjoy!

Beowulf

2009-05-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

This will be our first classic read during our summer session. The following links will provide access to online texts or to paperback versions, should you wish to purchase a copy or find one through your libary.

HTML Versions

HTML (45 pages, indexed) at Bartleby.com (Translated by Francis B. Gummere)
HTML (498 KB; 134 KB zipped; 292/108 KB text file also available) at Project Gutenberg (Translated by Lesslie Hall)
Original text with modern version (side by side) -- Includes notes, history, character summary, etc.
Sparknotes summary and study guide and complete text

Available at Amazon.Com or other book stores:
Paperback edition, verse translation by Seamus Heaney (W.W. Norton & Co, 2001, 215 pg). Paperback edition, verse translation by R.M. Liuzza (Broadview Pr, 2000, 248 pg).
Paperback edition, verse translation by Ruth P.M. Lehmann (Univ of Texas Pr, 1988, 119 pg). Paperback edition, verse translation by Charles W. Kennedy (Oxford Univ Pr, 1978, 121 pg). Paperback edition, prose translation by David Wright (Penguin USA, 1957).
Paperback edition, prose translation by E. Talbot Donaldson (W.W. Norton & Co, 2001).
Thrift Paperback edition, translation by Robert Kay Gordon (Oxford Univ Pr, 1992, 57 pg).
Audio Cassette edition, unabridged? (record says "unabridged selections"), read by Flo Gibson (Audio Book Contactors, 1999, 2 cassettes).
Audio CD edition, unabridged, read by translator Seamus Heaney (HighBridge Co, 2000).

Summer Schedule 2009

2009-04-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

Our reading group will be moving into the Middle Ages after we complete our study of Church history. The schedule for summer and fall reading is listed below:

Session 1

Beowulf (c. 725)
Tales from the 1001 Nights (or, 1001 Arabian Nights) (c. 850?)
Letters of Abelard and Heloise (c. 1130-1136)
The Song of Roland (c. 1100)
Summa Theologica (1265-1273)
The Divine Comedy (c. 1306-1321)
Canterbury Tales (c. 1386)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Late 14th Century)
La Mort D'Arthur by Thomas Malory

Session 2

The Prince (c. 1505 or 1515; pub. 1532)
The Courtier (1528; Hoby's tr. 1561)
Utopia (1516)
Ninety-five Theses (1517)
Essays (1575)
Don Quixote (1615)
The Faerie Queene (1596)
Essays (1601)
Doctor Faustus (1593?; pub. 1604)
Sermons (c. 1615-1631)
The Leviathan (1651)

For a PDF schedule of our reading list and assignments, click here!

Spring 2009 Schedule

2008-12-28T08:05:00.000-08:00

Our spring study begins with the early Middle Ages and consists of Church History. To join our the Yahoo reading group, please visit:

http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/areteclassical

Here is the posted reading schedule for Spring 2009:

January 5 - Eusebius, book I
January 12 - Eusebius, book II
January 19 - Eusebius, book III
January 26 - Eusebius, book IV

February 2 - Athanasius, Intro-Chapter 4 (Eusebius, book V)
February 9 - Athanasius, Chapters 5-9 (Eusebius, book VI)
February 16 - Augustine, book 1 (Eusebius, book VII)
February 23 - Augustine, book 2 (Eusebius, book VIII)

March 2 - Augustine, book 3
March 9 - Augustine, book 4
March 16 - Augustine, book 5
March 23 - Augustine, book 6
March 30 - Augustine, book 7

April 6 - Easter break
April 13 - Augustine, book 8
April 20 - Augustine, book 9
April 27 - Augustine, book 10

May 4 - Augustine, book 11
May 11 - Augustine, book 12
May 18 - Benedict, Chapters 1-30 (chapters are very short)
May 25 - Benedict, Chapters 31-73

The online texts are linked from my blog below.

Enjoy!

Reading Group Starting Up Again

2008-12-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

After a long break, the Arete Classical Studies reading group is back in action. Thanks to our dedicated reading members (116 of them) who didn't unsubscribe when I announced that I needed to step down last fall -- we are set to begin a new semester after the Christmas break.

One of our members will be leading a study in Church History. Stay tuned for more details or join us at http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/areteclassical

Classical Reading Lists

2008-09-02T07:14:00.001-07:00

Dear readers,

For those of you who would like to continue reading through the classics on your own, here are some suggested book lists:

The Well-Trained Mind

I am currently using this listing with my high schooler. I have created a PDF checklist along with a brief summary of how to keep a history notebook. It can easily be adapted for an adult reader:

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cheps/pdf/greatbooks.pdf

St. John College

This is the book list I used for this group. I simply followed their outline for Freshman-Senior Seminar studies.

Santa Fe Reading List:
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/SFreadlist.shtml
Annapolis Reading List:
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/ANreadlist.shtml

The St. John's reading lists are broken out by book and suggested pacing, which is very handy. They do change their lists yearly, so it might be good to book mark their website.

I hope this gives you some direction and focus for your reading studies. I do appreciate all the lovely comments regarding our group and send everyone my best wishes.

I will post these links to my blog:

http://areteclassical.blogspot.com so they will be available online indefinitely. I will continue to keep my blog updated (depends on my time) with any pertinent updates and/or links to study articles.

~Carol H. :o)

Group Closing

2008-08-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

I have made the decision to close the Arete Classical Study reading group due to my inability to continue coordinating the readings. There is another classical reading group for home school mom's here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheClassicalReview/

This group has over 360 members and is currently reading Charlotte Bronte's Wuthering Heights. The format is more conversational and the reading is selected for enjoyment moreso than by chronological order.

Wishing you all happy reading,

Carol H.
List Moderator for Arete Classical Studies

Spring Reading

2008-03-01T22:17:00.000-08:00

Spring 2008 begins our term study of high church history including the writings of Eusebius, Athanasius, Augustine, and St. Benedict. These writings are important works of the church and are wonderful to read through slowly and study carefully. Please feel free to take your time and read these at your leisure.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 265-339)

Eusebius of Caesarea (c 263 – 339?[1]) (often called Eusebius Pamphili, "Eusebius [the friend] of Pamphilus") became the bishop of Caesarea in Palaestina c 314.[1] He is often referred to as the father of Church history because of his work in recording the history of the early Christian church, especially Chronicle and Ecclesiastical History. An earlier version of church history by Hegesippus, that he referred to, has not survived.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebius_of_Caesarea

Ecclesiastical History (c. 325)

HTML (Multi-page, indexed, up to 285KB) at Christian Classics Ethereal Library (Translator unknown)
Paperback edition of Eusebius : The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine, translated by G.A. Williamson (Penguin USA, 1990, 434 pg).

St. Athanasius (c. 297-373)

Pope Athanasius I of Alexandria (c. 293-May 2, 373) also known as St. Athanasius the Great and St. Athanasius the Apostolic was a theologian, Pope of Alexandria, a Church Father, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century. He is best remembered for his role in the conflict with Arius and Arianism. At the first Council of Nicaea (325), Athanasius argued against Arius and his doctrine that Christ is of a distinct substance from the Father.

Athanasius is revered as a saint by the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches. He is traditionally regarded as a great leader of the Church by the Lutheran Church, the Anglican Communion, and most Protestants in general. He is chronologically the first Doctor of the Church as designated by the Roman Catholic Church, and he is counted as one of the four Great Doctors of the Eastern Church. His feast day is May 15 in the Coptic Orthodox Church, January 18 in the Eastern Orthodox Churches and May 2 in Western Christianity.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Athanasius

On the Incarnation (c. 318)

HTML (Single page, 180 KB) at Christian Classics Ethereal Library (Translated by Cardinal Newman; corr. by Henry Wace)
HTML (Single page, 191 KB) with introduction by C.S. Lewis, at Phil Johnson's Hall of Church History (Translator unknown)
Paperback edition (Eastern Orthodox Books, 1981).
Paperback edition (St. Vladimirs Seminary Pr, 1975).

Note: On previewing this document, the best edition to read is from Phil Johnson's Hall of Church History. It offers a very nice introduction by C.S. Lewis and then breaks down the document into manageable chunks. The CCEL version includes a lot of ancillary writings AND now you must login to be able to download their files. So, let us read the shortened version as I think it will be easier on us all.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

Saint Augustine (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430), Bishop of Hippo, was a philosopher and theologian. Augustine, a Latin Father and Doctor of the Church, is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. Augustine was radically influenced by Platonism. He framed the concepts of original sin and just war. When Rome fell and the faith of many Christians was shaken, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the material City of Man. Augustine's work defined the start of the medieval worldview, an outlook that would later be firmly established by Gregory the Great.

Augustine was born in present day Algeria to a Christian mother, Saint Monica. He was educated in North Africa and resisted his mother's pleas to become Christian. He lived as a pagan intellectual, took a concubine, and became a Manichean. He later converted to Christianity, became a bishop, and opposed heresies, such as the belief that people can deserve salvation by being good (Pelagianism). His works—including The Confessions, which is often called the first Western autobiography—are still read around the world. In addition he believed in Papal supremacy.

In Roman Catholicism and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinian religious order. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the theological fathers of Reformation teaching on salvation and grace. In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is a saint, and his feast day is celebrated annually on June 15, though a minority are of the opinion that he is a heretic, primarily because of his statements concerning what became known as the filioque clause. Among the Orthodox he is called Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed. "Blessed" here does not mean that he is less than a saint, but is a title bestowed upon him as a sign of respect. The Orthodox do not remember Augustine so much for his theological speculations as for his writings on spirituality.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo

Confessions (c. 401)

HTML (13 pages, indexed) at New Advent Catholic Supersite (J.G. Pilkington)
HTML (16 pages, indexed) at Christian Classics Ethereal Library (Translated by Albert C. Outler)
Adobe Acrobat document (594 KB) at Christian Classics Ethereal Library (Translated by Albert C. Outler)
Text file (615 KB) at Project Gutenberg (Translated by E.B. Pusey)

For the stout of heart, reading The City of God is quite illuminating.

St. Benedict (c. 480-540)

Saint Benedict of Nursia (born in Nursia, Italy c. 480 - died c. 547) was a founder of Christian monastic communities and a rule giver for monks living in community. His purpose may be gleaned from his Rule, namely that "Christ … may bring us all together to life eternal". The Roman Catholic Church canonized him in 1220.

Benedict founded twelve other communities for monks, the best known of which is his first monastery at Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy. There is no evidence that he intended to found also a religious order. The Order of St Benedict is of modern origin and, moreover, not an "order" as commonly understood but merely a confederation of congregations into which the traditionally independent Benedictine abbeys have affiliated themselves for the purpose of representing their mutual interests, without however ceasing any of their autonomy.

Benedict's main achievement was a "Rule" containing precepts for his monks, referred to as the Rule of Saint Benedict. It is heavily influenced by the writings of St John Cassian (ca. 360 – 433, one of the Desert Fathers) and shows strong affinity with the Rule of the Master. But it also has a unique spirit of balance, moderation, reasonableness, and this persuaded most communities founded throughout the Middle Ages, including communities of nuns, to adopt it. As a result the Rule of St Benedict became one of the most influential religious rules in Western Christendom. For this reason Benedict is often called "the founder of western Christian monasticism".

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Benedict

HTML (multi-page, indexed) at the Order of St. Benedict (Translated by Leonard Doyle)
Paperback edition, edited (translated?) by Timothy Fry (Vintage Books, 1998, 112 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by Anthony C. Meisel and M.L. Dei Mastro (Image Books, 1975).

This will end our readings in church history and begin our study of Medieval literature.

Updated Schedule for December

2007-12-14T15:08:00.000-08:00

As usual, life has once again intervened and I have had to let my reading program slide. I am thankful for the dedicated readers we have on our group and how they endeavor to persevere despite my lackadaisical approach to running our list! With the Christmas Holiday's fast approaching, I would like for us to take a well-deserved break in reading and rejoin after the first of the year. In looking over our schedule, I see that we have skipped over Plutarch and are marching right on through Tertullian.

So for those that would like to read over the break, here are some suggested reading links for Tertullian:

Wikipedia article on Tertullian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertullian (good general background)

followed by time spent at>

The Tertullian Project
http://www.tertullian.org/anf/index.htm

The Noddy Guide to Tertullian
http://www.tertullian.org/readfirst.htm

A Popular Modernising Tale
http://www.tertullian.org/chi.htm

Famous Quotes
http://www.tertullian.org/quotes.htm

Who read Tertullian in Antiquity
http://www.tertullian.org/witnesses/witnesses.htm

The Renaissance Rediscovery
http://www.tertullian.org/rediscovery.htm

Selected Works
--------------------

I have lost my link to the Great Books and am quite distressed. This listing gave me a brief rundown of each writers most famous work. It was indeed handy. Since Tertullian wrote many, many short works, I am simply going to suggest you browse through this section here and choose any that are of interest to you:

http://www.tertullian.org/works.htm (read introduction in English) The links are commentary on each work. You will find a listing of English translations of his works here:

http://www.tertullian.org/anf/index.htm

If you decide you would like to read the commentary, please do so. Read as much or as little as you like and after the break, we will discuss anything that touched your heart or stirred your soul.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed Hanukkah!

Early Church History

2007-10-02T10:28:00.000-07:00

Fall has finally arrived and school is in session. Arete Classical Studies Program begins it's fall reading schedule on October 1, 2007. Please join us as we read and study the following GREAT BOOKS:

Antiquities of the Jews by Titus Flavius Josephus

Josephus (37 – sometime after 100 CE), who became known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a 1st-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70. His works give an important insight into first-century Judaism.

Parallel Lives by Plutarch

Mestrius Plutarchus (c. 46 AD - 127 AD), better known in English as Plutarch, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia [Greece], a town about twenty miles east of Delphi. His oeuvre (work of art) consists of the Parallel Lives and the Moralia.

Writings of Tertullian

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian, (ca. 155–230) was a church leader and prolific author of Early Christianity. He also was a notable early Christian apologist. Tertullian, a Romanized African, was born, lived and died in Carthage, in what is today Tunisia.

Schedule of Readings

October 1-31, 2007: Josephus
November 1-30, 2007: Selected lives of Plutarch
December 1-20, 2007: Writings of Tertullian along with some philosophical discussion on early Church history. Possibly will require time in January to complete.

Biographical Information

Online Texts

Antiquities of the Jews (Wesley Center Online)

Plutarch at Internet Classic's Archive

Plutarch at Project Gutenberg

Writings (Christian Classics Ethereal Library)

Suggested Pacing

All of these writings with the exception of the Lives are short and easy to read. Josephus's work is 20 chapters long with each chapter approximately 3 pages in MS Word. Plutarch's Lives are each around 20-30 pages long. We will be reading select Lives and will read them in Parallel the way Plutarch originally wrote them. Tertullian's writing is approximately 50 chapters with each chapter approximately 2 pages in MS Word.

Josephus should take us five weeks to complete. Each week plan on reading 4-5 chapters or about 12 to 15 pages.
Plutarch will take us five weeks to complete. We will look at 4-5 of the most well-known Lives.
Tertullian will take us five weeks to complete. Plan on reading 10 chapters or about 20 pages each week. We will spend some time looking at the other philosophers of the period, most namely Origen.

Class Discussion

Class discussion is encouraged by not required for participation. Study notes will be provided whenever possible, however, we encourage you to read and think deeply on each work and then give a thoughtful opinion or your impression of each piece. There are no right or wrong anwers so enjoy this study and learn something new from it.

~Enjoy!

Ovid's Metamorphoses

2007-06-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC – Tomis, now Constanţa AD 17), a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. Ranked alongside Virgil and Horace as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature, Ovid was generally considered the greatest master of the elegiac couplet. His poetry, much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, had a decisive influence on European art and literature for centuries.

The Metamorphoses

The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms according to Greek and Roman points of view. Probably written in 8 BCE, it has remained one of the most popular works of mythology, being the Classical work best known to medieval writers and thus having a great deal of influence on medieval poetry.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphoses_%28poem%29

Metamorphoses, Book I contains 15 Chapters || read in HTML || Download as PDF

The Poetry of Horace

2007-06-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

June 2007 begins our term study of Latin Poetry. We have several wonderful selections scheduled including: The Works of Horace (Odes, Epodes, Satires and Ars Poetica) and Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.

Background and Links to Texts

While in Greece, Horace joined the army of Brutus and fought at Philippi as military tribune. As a result of being on the losing side against Octavian and Mark Antony, Horace's family's property was confiscated.

In 39 B.C., after Augustus granted amnesty, Horace became a secretary in the Roman treasury. In 38, Horace met and became the client of the artists' patron Maecenas, who provided Horace with a villa in the Sabine Hills. Augustus favored Horace, commissioning him to write the Carmen Saeculare for the Secular Games of 17 B.C.

When Horace died at age 59, he left his estate to Augustus and was buried near the tomb of Maecenas.

Source: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/horace/g/Horace.htm

Notes on Reading Horace

Many scholars prefer John Dryden's translation of Horace and usually we try and read the very best translation to date. However, Dryden's version is not available online. If you have access to it and would like to read it, please feel free to do so. For our online readers, we will be using Christopher Smart's translation (1767) which is available through a variety of free sources.

Brief background on English Poet, C.M. Smart, from wikipedia.org

Complete Works from Project Gutenberg (Text)

The Works of Horace by Christopher Smart, A.M. of Pembroke College, Cambridge; includes Odes, Epodes, Satires and the Book of Poetry

Complete Works from Perseus (HTML/Web)

Works of Horace

Note: While I find the Perseus system awkward to read, the advantage to using their website is that all the footnotes and scholary helps are conveniently located at the bottom of each page.

Complete Works Other Formats

The Works of Horace by C.M. Smart (PDF)
The Works of Horace by C.M. Smart (HTML/Web)

Selected Works from Project Gutenberg (Text)

The Art of Poetry, translated and with notes by George Colman
The Odes and Carmen Seculare, translated by John Conington
The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry, translated by John Conington

Study Questions

Questions on Ars Poetica by Arnie Sanders, Goucher College
Questions on Odes (scroll to bottom) by Dr. Chuck Platter, The University of Georgia

Roman History

2007-01-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

January 2007 begins our term study of Roman History. We have several wonderful books scheduled including: Julius Caesar's Military Commentaries, Livy's History of Rome and Seutonius' biographical account of the Twelve Caesars. We also will read through some Latin poetry and begin a short study on the early Church fathers.

Caesar's Military Histories

Our first book will be Julius Caesar's commentaries, considered to be among the finest source of military history from Antiquity. We will read two books, The Gallic Wars and The Civil Wars.

I have created PDF versions are here in case you want to print them off and bind as a book:

History of Rome by Titus Livius

Our second book will be Livy's History of Rome. Livy wrote several volumes which have been translated into 36 books. These are available for free download through Project Gutenberg. For our reading assignment, we will read Roman History, Books 1-3, by Livy (translated by John Henry Freese, Alfred John Church, and William Jackson Brodribb, 1904). I have also included Books 1-10, considered to be best introduction to Roman History, for those who wish to read a more direct version.

Roman History, Books 1-3 by Livy (trans. John Henry Freese, Alfred John Church, and William Jackson Brodribb, 1904)
History of Rome, Book I by Titus Livius at Project Gutenberg
Paperback edition of Early History of Rome: Books I - V of the History of Rome from Its Foundation, translated by Aubrey De Selincourt (Penguin USA, 1991).
Paperback edition of The War with Hannibal (book numbers unknown but probably 21-30), translated by Aubrey de Selincourt (Viking Press, 1965).
Paperback edition of Rome and Italy: Books VI - X of the History of Rome from Its Foundation, translated by Betty Radice (Penguin USA, 1982, 376 pg).
Paperback edition of Rome and the Mediterranean: Books XXXI - XLV of the History of Rome from Its Foundation, translated by Henry Bettenson (Viking Press, 1976, 699 pg).

A PDF version of this book is available here:

Roman History trans. by John Henry Freese, Alfred John Church, and William Jackson Brodribb, 1904
Livy, Book 1, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905
Livy, Book 2, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905
Livy, Book 3, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905
Livy, Book 4, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905
Livy, Book 5, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905
Livy, Book 6, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905
Livy, Book 7, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905
Livy, Book 8, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905
Livy, Book 9, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905
Livy, Book 10, Everyman's Library, trans. by Rev. Cannon Roberts, 1905

A HTML version of this book is available here:

Livy's Histories, Books 1-10

The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by C. Suetonius Tranquillus

Our third book on Roman History will be Seutonius's biography of the Twelve Casears. This book is available free through Project Gutenberg.

The Twelve Caesar's (446 pgs)

A PDF version of this book is available here:

The Lives of the Twelve Caesars and His Lives of the Grammarians and Poets

Or read just separate lives in PDF (each Life is short):

HTML Portions are here:

Stay tuned for more...

Virgil's The Aeneid

2006-01-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

Our first book in our Medieval History rotation will be Virgil's epic poem, "The Aeneid". There are many, many translations available online, in libraries, and reprinted and distributed through popular booksellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookstar).

The links below include online translations as well as suggested translators (most popular). Please feel free to use whatever source you may have on hand or locally available.

General Background on Virgil

Wikipedia article on Virgil
http://www.virgil.org/ - great resource!

Collected Works

Biography

Suetonius: The Life of Virgil, an English translation.
Vita Vergiliana, Aelius Donatus' Life of Virgil in the original Latin.
Virgil.org: Aelius Donatus' Life of Virgil translated into English by David Wilson-Okamura
Project Gutenberg edition of Vergil—A Biography, by Tenney Frank.

Commentary

Virgil in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance: an Online Bibliography
Virgilmurder (Jean-Yves Maleuvre's website setting forth his theory that Virgil was murdered by Augustus)
The Secret History of Virgil, containing a selection on the magical legends and tall tales that circulated about Virgil in the Middle Ages.

Online and Paperback Texts

HTML (12 pages, indexed) at the Litrix Reading Room (Translated by John Dryden)
HTML (12 pages, 69-99 KB) at MIT Classics Archive (Translated by John Dryden)
Text file (606 KB) at MIT Classics Archive (Translated by John Dryden)

Available at Amazon.Com:
Paperback edition, translated by Allen Mandelbaum (Bantam Classics, 1981).
Paperback edition, translated by Robert Fitzgerald (Vintage, 1990).
Thrift Paperback edition, translated by Charles J. Billson (Dover, 1995).
Audio Cassette edition, unabridged, read by Frederick Davidson (Blackstone Audio Books, 1997).

Study Guide from SparkNotes.com

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/aeneid/ - very helpful. Read along with this translation http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/aeneid/

Study and Discovery Questions

D.H. Mills has a study/discovery question page online (Syracuse University)
Longwood University Aeneid page

Plato and Philosophy

2005-10-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

The next course in our Ancient History rotation will be reading what is considered to be among the greatest philosophical works ever created; namely, the works of Plato. There are many, many translations available online, in libraries, and reprinted and distributed through popular booksellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookstar). The links below include online translations as well as suggested translators (most popular). Please feel free to use whatever source you may have on hand or locally available.

Our study of ancient philosophy will bring this study in Ancient history and culture to a close. We will read The Republic first and then depending on time and interest, the Apology, Crito and Phaedo. We will also read some Aristotle, either Nicomachean Ethics or selections On Happiness, On The Highest Good or Poetics

Plato

The Republic (c. 360 BC)

HTML (10 pages, indexed) at the Litrix Reading Room (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
HTML (Multi-page, indexed) at The Constitution Society (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
HTML (11 pages, 52-110 KB) at MIT Classics Archive (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
HTML at Perseus/Tufts (Translated by Paul Shorey)
Text file (680KB) at MIT Classics Archive (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
Text file (655KB) at Wiretap (ftp) (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
Text file (681KB) at The Constitution Society (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
Hardcover edition of Plato : Complete Works (Hackett Pub Co, 1997, 1808 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by G.M. Grube (Hackett Pub Co, 1992, 320 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by Benjamin Jowett (Vintage Books, 1991, 397 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by Francis M. Cornford (Oxford Univ Pr, 1988, 366 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by Allan Bloom (Basic Books, 1991, 487 pg).
Audio CD edition, unabridged (Agora Pubns, 2001).

Apology (c. 360 BC)

HTML (single page, 81 KB) at MIT Classics Archive (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
HTML (single page, 66KB) at the Constitution Society (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
HTML at Perseus/Tufts (Translated by Harold North Fowler
Text file (59KB) at The Constitution Society (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
Hardcover edition of Plato : Complete Works (Hackett Pub Co, 1997, 1808 pg).
Paperback edition of Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, translated by F.J. Church (Prentice Hall, 1956, 88 pg).
Paperback edition of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, translated by Benjamin Jowett (Prometheus Books, 1988, 138 pg).
Audio Cassette edition, unabridged, of Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito (Agora Pubns, 1995).
Audio CD edition, unabridged, of Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito (Agora Pubns, 1998).

Crito (c. 360 BC)

HTML (single page, 43 KB) at MIT Classics Archive (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
HTML (33 KB) at the Constitution Society (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
HTML at Perseus/Tufts (Translated by Harold North Fowler)
Text file (28KB) at The Constitution Society (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
Hardcover edition of Plato : Complete Works (Hackett Pub Co, 1997, 1808 pg).
Paperback edition of Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, translated by F.J. Church (Prentice Hall, 1956, 88 pg).
Paperback edition of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, translated by Benjamin Jowett (Prometheus Books, 1988, 138 pg).
Audio Cassette edition, unabridged, of Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito (Agora Pubns, 1995).
Audio CD edition, unabridged, of Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito (Agora Pubns, 1998).

Phaedo (c. 360 BC)

HTML (single page, 200KB) at MIT Classics Archive (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
HTML (166KB) at the Constitution Society (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
HTML at Perseus/Tufts (Translated by Harold North Fowler)
Text file (145KB) at The Constitution Society (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
Hardcover edition of Plato : Complete Works (Hackett Pub Co, 1997, 1808 pg).
Paperback edition of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, translated by Benjamin Jowett (Prometheus Books, 1988, 138 pg).

Aristotle

Nicomachean Ethics (c. 350 BC)

HTML (10 sections, 47-76 KB) at MIT Classics Archive (Translated by W.D. Ross)
HTML (Multi-page, indexed) at the Constitution Society (Translated by W.D. Ross)
HTML at Perseus/Tufts (Translated by H. Rackham)
Paperback edition, translated by J.E.C. Welldon (Prometheus Books, 1987, 358 pg).
Thrift Paperback edition, translated by D.P. Chase (Dover Pubns, 1998).

Greek Tragedy

2005-06-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

The next course in our Ancient History rotation will be reading the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. There are many, many translations available online, in libraries, and reprinted and distributed through popular booksellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookstar). The links below include online translations as well as suggested translators (most popular). Please feel free to use whatever source you may have on hand or locally available.

This entire course should take us 9 weeks to complete.

Aeschylus

We will be reading from Aeschylus' Oresteia (Trilogy). The Oresteia consists of three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers (The Choephori) and Eumenides. The plays are available online through MIT Classics Archive as well as in paperback from favorite translators.

Agamemnon
The Libation Bearers (The Choephori)
Eumenides
Paperback edition of Aeschylus I : Oresteia, translated by Richmond Lattimore (Univ of Chicago Pr, 1983, 172 pg).
Paperback edition of The Oresteia, translated by Ted Hughes (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2000, 208 pg).
Paperback edition of The Oresteia, translated by Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1984, 335 pg).

Sophocles

We will read the Theban Tragedies by Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone

Antigone
Oedipus the King
Oedipus at Colonus
Paperback edition of The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles, translated by Paul Roche (Plume, 1996).
Paperback edition of Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra, translated by H.D.F. Kitto (Oxford Univ Pr, 1998).
Paperback edition of Antigone (Plays for Performance), translated by Nicholas Rudall (Ivan R. Dee Inc, 1998, 64 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by Richard Emil Braun (Oxford Univ Pr, 1990, 101 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by Declan Donnellan (Consortium Book Sales & Dist, 2000, 62 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by Neil Curry (Theatre Communications Group, 2001, 80 pg).
Mass Market Paperback edition of Sophocles : The Complete Plays, translated by Paul Roche (Signet, 2001, 176 pg).
Paperback edition of Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra, translated by H.D.F. Kitto (Oxford Univ Pr, 1998).
Paperback edition of Electra (Plays for Performance), translated by Nicholas Rudall (Ivan R. Dee Inc, 1993).
Paperback edition of Electra and Other Plays, translated by E.F. Watling; also includes Ajax, Philoctetes, and Women of Trachis (Viking Press, 1953).
Mass Market Paperback edition of Sophocles : The Complete Plays, translated by Paul Roche (Signet, 2001, 176 pg).
Thrift Paperback edition, unabridged, translated by George Young (Dover Pubns, 1995, 56 pg).
Audio Cassette edition (Audio Forum, 1996).
Paperback edition of The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles, translated by Paul Roche (Plume, 1996).
Paperback edition of Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra, translated by H.D.F. Kitto (Oxford Univ Pr, 1998).
Paperback edition of Oedipus the King (Plays for Performance), translated by Nicholas Rudall (Ivan R. Dee Inc, 2000, 64 pg).
Mass Market Paperback edition of Sophocles : The Complete Plays, translated by Paul Roche (Signet, 2001, 176 pg).
Thrift Paperback edition (Dover Pubns, 1993, 54 pg).
Audio Cassette edition, unabridged, with Michael Sheen and full cast (Naxos Audio Books, 1999).
Audio CD edition, unabridged, with Michael Sheen and full cast (Naxos Audio Books, 1999).

Euripides

Our last look at Greek Tragedy will be to read several plays by Euripides (The Father of Modern Drama).

The Trojan Women
The Medea
Electra
Paperback edition of Euripides, 1 : Medea, Hecuba, Andromache, The Bacchae; translations by Eleanor Wilner, Marilyn Nelson, Donald Junkins, and Daniel Mark Epstein (Univ of Pennsylvania Pr, 1997, 296 pg).
Paperback edition of Euripides III : Four Tragedies : Hecuba, Andromache, The Trojan Women and Ion, translated by Richard Lattimore (Univ of Chicago Pr, 1958, 256 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by E.P. Coleridge (Players Press, 1999).
Paperback edition of Euripides, 2 : Hippolytus, Suppliant Women, Helen, Electra, Cyclops; translations by Richard Moore, John Frederick Nims, Rachel Hadas, Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, and Palmer Bovie (Univ of Pennsylvania Pr, 1997).
Paperback edition of Euripides V : Electra, The Phoenician Women, The Bacchae, translated by Richard Lattimore (Univ of Chicago Pr, 1969, 228 pg).
Paperback edition of Euripides, 3 : Alcestis, Daughters of Troy, The Phoenician Women, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus; translations by Fred Chappell, Mark Rudman, Richard Elman, Elaine Terranova, and George Economou (Univ of Pennsylvania Pr, 1998, 392 pg).
Paperback edition of Euripides III : Four Tragedies : Hecuba, Andromache, The Trojan Women and Ion, translated by Richard Lattimore (Univ of Chicago Pr, 1958, 256 pg).

Yahoo Study Loop

2005-02-15T12:10:00.000-08:00

Our study group is located at Yahoo. Membership is restricted and requires approval (to prevent spammers) from the moderator. Anyone is welcome to join our study group -- please sign up and send us a short introduction that tells us a little about yourself and why you would like to join our group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/areteclassical/

For more information, please contact us at areteclassical-owner@yahoogroups.com.

Great Books Lists

2005-02-15T12:09:00.000-08:00

All of the books we will be reading are available online as easy to read e-texts. You are welcome to read using any translation you may have on hand or can borrow from your public library. Many readers enjoy reading from more than one translation and feel they can better experience the beauty of the writing when they read a more modern translation (in english prose).

Links to Great Books

Great Books Archive: http://www.grtbooks.com/
The Litrix Reading Room: http://www.litrix.com/readroom.htm
MIT Classics Archive: http://classics.mit.edu/index.html
Christian Classics Ethereal Archive: http://www.ccel.org/
Internet Medieval Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

St. John's College Reading Lists

Reading List: http://www.sjca.edu/asp/main.aspx?page=1302

Mortimer Adler's Great Books Reading List

http://www.literarycritic.com/adler.htm

Homer's The Odyssey

2005-02-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

Our next book in our Ancient History rotation will be Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey. There are many, many translations available online, in libraries, and reprinted and distributed through popular booksellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookstar). The links below include online translations as well as suggested translators (most popular). Please feel free to use whatever source you may have on hand or locally available.

As usual, we will post to the User Group using one of the online e-texts (Samuel Butler translation). You are welcome to read along with us through the group list, or at your own pace using another text/translation. We will be posting study questions from Dr. Donald Mills Greek Literature Course (Syracuse University). These questions are posted as discussion starters -- feel free to join in or post any of your own questions that you may have during your reading assignment.

Our reading pace will be approximately two chapters per week for 12 weeks. This will allow us to finish Homer around the end of March.

Homer's The Odyssey

In Print

Greek/English Hardcover edition in two volumes, translation by A.T. Murray (Harvard Univ Pr, 1995):
Vol. 1 - Books I-XII
Vol. 2 - Books XIII-XXIV
Paperback edition, translated by E.V. Rieu, introduction and notes by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics, 1992, 394 pg).
Paperback edition, translated by Richmond Lattimore (Harper Perennial, 1999, 374 pg).
Paperback edition of The Children's Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy - a condensation of the Iliad and Odyssey (Aladdin, 1982, 247 pg).

Study Guides and Discovery Questions

The Code of Hammurabi

2005-02-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

The Code of Hammurabi (1792 to 1750 B.C.)

The next book in our Ancient History rotation will be a study of the ancient laws of Hammurabi. For this study we will be using the Avalon Project at Yale University for our source. Charles F. Horne, Ph.D. writes this about King Hammurabi:

"Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world's first metropolis. Many relics of Hammurabi's reign [1795-1750 BC] have been preserved, and today we can study this remarkable King . . . as a wise law-giver in his celebrated code. Hammurabi is the first "example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them."

A brief overview of Babylonian law is explained here by Rev. Claude Hermann Walter Johns, M.A. Litt.D: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hammpre.htm

Historical Context

"The Code of Hammurabi (also Hammurapi), the most complete and perfect extant collection of Babylonian laws, was developed during the reign of Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 B.C.) of the first dynasty of Babylon. The code consists of Hammurabi’s legal decisions, which were collected toward the end of his reign and inscribed on a diorite stele set up in Babylon’s Temple of Marduk, a temple named for the national god of Babylon. The 282 case laws include economic provisions (prices, tariffs, trade, and commercial regulations), family law (marriage and divorce), as well as provisions dealing with criminal law (assault, theft) and civil law (slavery, debt). Penalties for breaking the laws varied according to the status of the offender and the circumstances of the offense. The code survives only in the Semitic Akkadian tongue, but it is clear that it was also meant to apply to the non-Semitic Sumerians, representing an integration of the traditions of both peoples. Hammurabi’s Code is the most complete record of ancient law in existence." (Source The LibertyFund.org http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/AuthorBioPage.php?recordID=0113)

Wikipedia has an excellent biography on King Hammurabi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi Please read this short bio or use your encyclopedia and lookup background reference information on this ancient ruler.

Helpful Explanations and Other Versions

The Avalon Project's e-Text at Yale Universities School of Law has the L.W. King translation (1901) online with commentary by Charles F. Horne, (1915) and Claude Hermann Walter Johns, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed, 1910. This is the version I will be posting to the list.

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hammenu.htm

Fordham University has King's translation online as well. This version is a 'plain' copy which might prove useful for those who would like to print a section to read at a time.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html

The LibertyFund has a downloadable e-text of this codex, translated by Robert Francis Harper in 1904. For those of you who prefer reading a printed book, this might be a good translation to download and print out:

http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/Book.php?recordID=0762

Richard Hooker's (Washington State University) Online Archive has King's 1901 version here,
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM

Please feel free to choose an e-text version that works best for you.

Paperback Resources

For those who prefer a paperback edition, here are some popular choices. Your library may have copies, so check there first. Neither book was available in my public library so I am not sure of their exact availabilty worldwide.

The Code of Hammurabi (Paperback)by L. W. King, ISBN 1419157035 (in print through Amazon.com)
The Code of Hammurabi King of Babylon (Paperback) by Robert Francis Harper, ISBN 1410201023 (OOP available through used booksellers - pricey!)

Reading Schedule

The Code of Hammurabi is broken into three parts: introduction, the law, and epilogue. There are approximately 282 laws and while they cover a number of topics, they really do not break out into specific groupings to aid in our reading. My suggestion is that we simply read through them as follows:

1st post: Introduction
2nd post: Laws 1-50
3rd post: Laws 51-100
4th post: Laws 101-150
5th post: Laws 151-200
6th post: Laws 201-end
7th post: Epilogue

This will take us through November and into December. We will break for the holidays and then pick up Homer's The Odyssey in January.

Study and Discovery Questions

As you read each law, consider the following:

Who is involved?
What are they told to do or not to do?
What are the stated consequences of complying or not complying with the law?

For general discussion on this book:

What was “The Code of Hammurabi”?
Why was it important?
What do we learn from it about attitudes toward gender, class, and justice in Mesopotamian societies?

Other Good Links

Babylonian Art
History of Babylonia
Oriental Institute - Map of the region
Metropolitan Museum of Art - Mesopotamian Timeline

The Epic of Gilgamesh

2005-02-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

The next book in our Ancient History rotation will be another epic poem entitled, The Epic of Gilgamesh (author unknown). There are several good translations available online, in libraries, and reprinted and distributed through popular booksellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookstar). The links below include online translations as well as suggested translators (most popular). Please feel free to use whatever source you may have on hand or locally available.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Popular Modern Versions - Reprints

In addition to these online e-texts, there are many good translations available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, many classics collections, as well as Dover and Signet Thrift collections. Listed below are a few of the more popular modern prose translations.

Paperback edition, verse translation by Danny P. Jackson, illustrated by Thom Kapheim (Bolchazy Carducci, 1997, 115 pg).
Paperback edition, verse translation by Maureen Gallery Kovacs (Stanford Univ Pr, 1989, 122 pg). Paperback edition, translated by Benjamin R. Foster (W.W. Norton & Co, 2001).
Paperback edition, prose translation by John Harris (Writers Club Press, 2001, 105 pg).
Paperback edition, verse translation by John Gardner and John Maier (Random House, 1985, 304 pg).

Other Good Links

Babylonian Art
History of Babylonia
Oriental Institute - Map of the region
Metropolitan Museum of Art - Mesopotamian Timeline

Study Guides and Book Notes

Many people find study guides helpful when reading classical literature. The following links include study guides, notes, and discovery questions to help you in your reading assignment.

Study Guide - http://www.classics.ucsb.edu/courses/Gallucci/CLASS36/S01/Gilgamesh.html
Study Guide - http://novaonline.nv.cc.va.us/eli/eng251/gilgameshstudy.htm
Overview - http://vc.wscc.cc.tn.us/engl2410/2002/unit1/02GilgameshPro&Part1.htm

Tenative Reading List

2005-02-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

Ancient Period (to 240 B.C.)

Unknown: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Code of Hammurabi
Homer: Iliad, Odyssey
Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus
Euripides: The Trojan Women, Medea Electra
Aristophanes: Clouds
Thuycidies: Peloponnesian War
Herodotus: Histories
Plato: Apology, Crito and Phaedo
Aristotle: Poetics; Ethics

Late Roman to Early Middle Ages (240 B.C. to 1000 A.D.)

VirgilL: Aeneid
Caesar: Gallic and Civil Wars
Livy: History of Rome, Books I-V
Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars
Horace: Odes, Epodes, Satires and Poetry
Ovid: Metamorphoses, Book I
Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews
Plutarch: Lives (various)
Epictetus: The Discourses
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: Meditations
Tertullian: Writings
Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History
Anthanasius: On the Incarnation
Augustine: Confessions
St. Benedict: Rule of St. Benedict
Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the Church
Beowulf
Tales from 1001 Arabian Knights

Middle to High Medieval Period (1000 to 1400 A.D.)

St. Anselm of Canterbury
The Mabinogion
Peter Abelard
The Song of Roland
The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs
St. Francis of Assisi
(Magna Carta)
St. Thomas Aquinas
Dante Alighieri
Francesco Petrarch
Geoffrey Chaucer
Thomas à Kempis
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Renaissance to Reformation (1400 to 1600)

Sir Thomas Malory
Nicolò Machiavelli
Desiderius Erasmus
Baldassare Castiglione
Sir Thomas More
Martin Luther
St. Ignatius of Loyola
François Rabelais
John Calvin
Michel de Montaigne
Miguel de Cervantes
The Book of Common Prayer
Edmund Spenser
Francis Bacon
Christopher Marlowe
William Shakespeare
John Donne
Thomas Hobbes
Izaak Walton
Rene Descartes

Age of Revolution and Enlightenment Book List (1600 to 1800 A.D.)

Brother Lawrence
John Milton
The Mayflower Compact
Moliere (1622-1673)
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
John Bunyan (1628-1688)
John Locke (1632-1704)
Jean Baptiste Racine (1639-1699)
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716)
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
Voltaire (1694-1778)
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
John Wesley (1703-1791)
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
David Hume (1711-1776)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
James Boswell (1740-1795)
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
John Jay (1745-1829)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
James Madison (1751-1836)
Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804)
William Blake (1757-1827)
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Articles of Confederation (1777)
Washington Irving (1783-1859)
Constitutional Convention Debates (1787)
Constitution of the United States (1787; effect. 1789)
Anti-Federalist Papers (1787-88)
Federalist Papers (1787-88)
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
John Keats (1795-1821)
Mary Shelley (1797-1851)
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)

Industrialization to the Modern Era (1800 to Present)

Alexandre Dumas (père) (1802-1870)
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1859)
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Emily Brontë (1818-1848)
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
George Eliot (1819-1880)
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
Jules Verne (1828-1905)
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Mary Mapes Dodge (1830-1905)
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
Lewis Carrol (1832-1898)
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935)
William James (1842-1910)
Henry James (1843-1916)
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
William Butler Yeats (1856-1939)
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Max Planck (1858-1947)
John Dewey (1859-1952)
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
H. G. Wells (1866-1946)
Stephen Crane (1871-1900)
Marcel Proust (1871-1922)
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Jack London (1876-1916)
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
James Joyce (1882-1941)
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975)
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
Mortimer J. Adler (1902-2001)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
George Orwell (1903-1950)
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991)
Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Aleksander I. Solzhenitsyn (1918- )
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Why Read Classical Literature

2005-02-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

The Areté Classical Study Program was created out of a sincere desire by the moderator to study the 'great books' of Western Civilization using a path to progress approach, from antiquity to the modern era. The goal is first and foremost for self-education with a secondary purpose of being able to construct and defend a coherent, biblical worldview as a result of this self-studied approach.

For most of us, the idea of attending a Great Books school, such as St. John's or even Biola University, is the farthest thing from our minds. Our lives are rich and full with home, children, and other ministry obligations. College studies are behind us and now we earnestly seek to prepare our children for such things. Yet the desire to continually learn and grow is God-given and is always before us. What role does education play in the lives of mothers? Are we to forgo new studies and simply concentrate on helping our children learn? This moderator believes that the role of education for a mother is of vital importance and that our job to nurture, to train, and to raise Godly children will only be enlarged when we undertake the task to study along side of them.

Mrs. Alfred Booth offers the following commentary on the subject of "The Influence and Teaching of the Educated Mother," in a paper given at the Bristol Conference of Women Workers, 1893/4:

What, then, is education? Who is the educated mother? What ought her teaching and influence to be?

What is education? We are apt to think we know very well what education is, and when asked this question give an answer which we hope will satisfy ourselves and others. When, however, we begin to think seriously on the subject we are surprised to find how dim and hazy our opinions are, and we cannot be satisfied until we try to classify them and arrive at some definite conclusions. Speaking of education therefore in reference to women as mothers, I should venture to say its first and prime object ought to be to make women think, and that all education which does not tend to make thinking easy and natural fails of its object and is not education.

The original meaning of the word educate is to draw forth; education should therefore aim at drawing forth all the different powers of human beings. True education should train the intellect, establish principles, and regulate the heart. In answering the question, what is education? --especially in reference to girls --I would strike this threefold cord, believing that if the intellect is trained to habits of thought by the development of its faculties, the conscience to the perception of the reasonableness of principles founded on intelligible moral laws, and the heart to a wise regulation of its spontaneous action, we may hope for results which will be most likely to prepare women for the particular duties and responsibilities which motherhood brings.

She continues with...

Who, then, is the educated mother? The educated mother is pre-eminently a woman who thinks, and the results of her regulated thought will be seen in the daily administration of her home.

The educated mother must, however, be much more than a nursery machine and a technical instructress. Realising that the children of to-day will rapidly develop into individuals keen to learn and be taught, she will always be alive to the necessity of cultivating her own mind, and the work of self-education and improvement will go on for her while life lasts. It is absolutely necessary a mother should know how to care for the small bodies, but it is equally important she should understand and satisfy the unfolding intellects of her children. It is a painful spectacle, that of a mother who has allowed her children to outstrip her as thinking beings, and can no longer keep pace with them in their pursuits and interests.

The educated mother knows this, and will keep well in touch with all the interests of life. Religion, politics, social and philanthropic problems are all of absorbing interest to her, and she recognises she can keep her children's confidence, some of whom probably are cleverer then herself, only by habits of thoughtful interest in all which concerns humanity. Beyond this the educated mother will seek to prepare her sons and daughters for that trying period in their lives when, emerging from childhood, they stand on the threshold of woman and manhood, oppressed often by new, bewildering thoughts, and open to guidance in a peculiarly sensitive and receptive manner. For this critical period the mother has already prepared herself by her knowledge of laws human and divine, and she earnestly endeavours to be herself the guide of her developing children.

and concludes with the following remarks:

In conclusion, the influence and teaching of the educated mother is all for righteousness; and the formation in her children of character, based on self-control and self-sacrifice, the daily object of her life.

The Influence and Teaching of the Educated Mother By Mrs. Alfred Booth [Paper read at Bristol Conference of Women Workers. Reprinted by kind permission of Bristol Ladies' Association for the Care of Girls.] 1893/4 Parents Review Volume 4 pgs 081-090

It is therefore our desire to enable mother's to continue to educate themselves through a classical study program. With the advent of the Internet the canon of Western thought is now readily available to everyone regardless of their physical location. There is therefore no reason for a mother to not be able to continue to enrich and enlarge her education for any reason: whether cost, inconvenience, or lack of companionship.

Please http://groups.yahoo.com/group/areteclassical consider joining us as we study the great minds and masterpieces of our civilization. It is an education you will not want to miss!

Reading Rules

2005-02-15T11:29:00.000-08:00

Our desire on the Areté Classical Study list is to create a spirit of sharing and discussion where everyone is welcome to post comments, thoughts and opinions on the books we read. As such we do ask that every post be respectful and that all comments are made without causing offense to other readers. We understand that our readers perspective will vary according to their upbringing and their religious beliefs. It is therefore imperative that we show respect at all times and that we remember to pose our questions in a thoughtful manner worthy of intellectual discovery.

All readers are welcome to join us
We are a predominately Christian reading group
We read with a Biblical Worldview
We discuss readings in light of the Bible
We all agree to disagree on some points
We do not allow any foul or abusive language on the list
We do not allow any solicitation whether for products or services
We understand that we all are learning and that there isn't always a 'clear cut' answer
You do not have to read every book listed
You do not have to read at the suggested pace
You are welcome to post your comments and or questions to the group
You are free to unsubscribe and resubscribe at your discretion
All posts are screened for content and at the sole opinion of the moderator may be edited or removed
Members may be removed at any time and for any reason (although this has never happened) should they break the rules above or become aggressive or antagonistic towards the Moderator or any member.
This is a slow paced non-intellectual reading group -- you do not have to be a Biblical or Classical studies scholar to read. Most of our members are home schooling parents, retiree's or book lovers who like to read at a gentle pace.

If you can abide by our reading rules, you are welcome to join us! You can subscribe via the website at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/areteclassical/

About Our Program

2005-02-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

About The Program

This list was created in March of 2005 by Carol Hepburn (List Moderator). Initially, her desire was to read the 'great books' of Western Civilization and wondered (rather innocently) if anyone else would be interested in joining her. She posted to the Ambleside Online and Charlotte Mason discussion lists and much to her surprise, several readers expressed an interest in participating. In very short order a group list was setup at Yahoo and a reading schedule created.

About The Moderator

Carol Hepburn is a home schooling mother who studied the "great books" during the course of her college studies. Through her degree program she came to love the study of Humanities (History, Art, Music, Literature and Philosophy). Now a full-time mother (of a Junior High student), she is rekindling her love of 'great books' and is preparing for the advanced study of classical literature as her student faces the challenges of Junior and Senior High School.

Statement of Faith

Many people have inquired if this study group maintains a statement of faith or a biblical standpoint as a guideline for discussion and study of these books. The short answer is yes and no. While Carol is a Christian, she believes in creating a spirit of study without placing specific boundaries on the members/participants (other than her strict code of ethics when it comes to email and group discussion lists). The Areté study loop is open to all interested readers and while predominately Christian, there is no 'faith based' requirement to join. We welcome readers of all faiths and backgrounds. However, please note that the purpose of this group is to read and discuss the great books of Western Civilization through a Biblical Perspective (see below).

Biblical Worldview

The term "Biblical Worldview" has become popular recently and means different things to different people. In an effort to provide some standard measurement, this group list endeavors to study the 'great books' of our civilization through a Biblical Worldview or perspective. This means that we use the Bible as our standard and maintain the position that God is Creator of the Universe and Author of all life. Everything we read and study we use for edification (understanding and learning); therefore, everything we read must be viewed with the Bible as our starting point in time and place.

Why We Choose to Read and Study Classical Literature

Our goal in studying Classical Literature will be:

to learn to listen and to read carefully (slowly and purposefully)
to learn to think clearly and to learn to express oneself persuasively
to comprehend our position in space, time, and culture and our relationship to other places, other times, and other people
to appreciate and learn from the differences between our own time and place and those of other cultures
to enjoy a wider range of beauty as we widen our exposure to great works of literature
to devote oneself to continued learning, using the tools of learning acquired in the previous five points
to evaluate and ascribe the proper significance to all of the above in the light of a biblical perspective
to construct and defend a coherent, biblical worldview as a result of our on-going education

(excerpted from http://www.schola-tutorials.com/prepare.htm and modified by the moderator)

A Community of Learning

Our desire on the Areté Classical Study list is to create a spirit of sharing and discussion where everyone is welcome to post comments, thoughts and opinions on the books we read. As such we do ask that every post be respectful and that all comments are made without causing offense to other readers. We understand that our readers perspective will vary according to their upbringing and their religious beliefs. It is therefore imperative that we show respect at all times and that we remember to pose our questions in a thoughtful manner worthy of intellectual discovery.

The Books and Content

Some of the classical books we will read will have adult themes and content. This may cause discomfort to some readers who feel that it is inappropriate to read or study classical books. We understand that tolerance of such themes and content will vary and therefore there is no pressure to read any book listed or to participate in the associated discussion. We do offer the following caveat: the books listed are those considered to be GREAT BOOKS and deemed through the test of time to contain significant value for intellectual study. We believe that there is value in studying the culture and the beliefs of the peoples and nations in our past and that through persistent study of these books today we can gain a deeper understanding of our modern world. It is only through our dedication to this study and our pursuit of self-education that we will be able to defend our own faith and biblical viewpoint when called upon to comment or expound on the significance of these great works.

We hope you will consider joining us as we study the great minds and masterpieces of our civilization. It is an education you will not want to miss!

Homer's The Iliad

2005-02-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

Homer's Iliad

Our first book in our Ancient History rotation will be Homer's epci poem, The Iliad. There are many, many translations available online, in libraries, and reprinted and distributed through popular booksellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookstar). The links below include online translations as well as suggested translators (most popular). Please feel free to use whatever source you may have on hand or locally available.

Popular Modern Versions - Reprints

E.V. Rieu (Penquin Classics)
A.T. Murray (Loeb Classics)
Stanley Lombardo (Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated)
R. Lattimore (University of Chicago Press)
R. Fitzgerald (Everyman's Library Edition)
W.H. Rouse (Signet Classics)
A.Lang (Collector's Library)
R. Fagles (Penguin USA)
S. Butler (Dover Thrift Edition)

Other Good Links

Study Guides and Book Notes

Many people find study guides helpful when reading classical literature. SparkNotes has a complete classics library available online for free.

Study and Discovery Questions for Homer's The Iliad

Study and Discovery Questions are courtesy of http://duke.usask.ca/~porterj/CourseNotes/IliadStiles.html#unit2 by Lewis Styles; The Iliad Study Questions from SparksNotes.com, and Carol Hepburn (Arete Moderator).

Books I and II

As we ease into Book I and II, we need to begin to focus on the main characters as Homer portray's them. Homer uses descriptive language to help us gain an understanding into each character's personality as well as their strength's and weaknesses.
In Book I, we are introduced to the main characters as well as to the central theme of the story. How would you describe the following characters (use Homer's words):
- King Agamemnon
- Achilles
- Argives/Achaeans/Danaans (the Greeks)
- Odysseus/Ulysses
Do you note any behavior, actions or attitudes that seem to show up throughout this first book?
In addition to mortal characters, Homer gives us a glimpse into the life of the gods on Mt. Olympus. What impression do you have of the gods? How do they behave? What characteristics would you use to describe each god (again use examples from Homer's words):
- Zeus/Jupiter
- Hera/Juno (Pallas)
- Athene/Minerva
- Aphrodite/Venus
- Poseidon/Neptune
- Ares/Mars
- Hephaestus/Vulcan
Lastly, share with us your impression of the book thus far. Did you like it? If you would like to share your narration with us on Book I, please do so.

Books III and IV

Thersites = "bold one."

the ugliest = aischistos = "most ugly, most shameful."

It seems like just yesterday . . . at Aulis: actually, it was nine years before.

aegis = a sort of shawl that Athena (and other gods) wear and use like a shield—for protection and to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies.

Ares . . . sister Eris = "Strife."

What do you think Homer intends to show the reader (about Agamemnon's character, about the morale of the Achaeans, about Odysseus) in the scenes detailing Agamemnon's plan to "test" his troops and its result?
Why do you think Homer included the episode of Thesites' abuse of Agamemnon and his chastisement by Odysseus? Why is it OK for Achilles to abuse Agamemnon but not OK for Thersites to disrespect him? Why do you think the troops laugh?
What do you think the scepter / staff could symbolize?
What do you think of Paris' answer to Hector? Why do you suppose the people of Troy haven't just gotten rid of Paris and / or Helen?
Why do you think Menelaus agrees to the truce and single combat?
What do you think is Helen's view of her situation? Who does she blame for her predicament? Who would you blame?
Now a strange question: where do you think Helen's emotions come from?
What do you think would happen to Helen if Aphrodite "let go" of her?
Why does Aphrodite rescue Paris? Why do you think Helen gives in to Paris?
why do you think the gods love some men, women, and cities and try to destroy others? Why does Hera want peace?
Why do you think breaking the truce brings "glory" to Pandarus?

Books V and VI

Now that we have actually experienced war for the first time in the story -- what are your thoughts, feelings, impressions of the Greek's battle with the Trojans?
In Book 4, we see Helen in more detail. What do you think of Helen? Do you think she loved Paris? Do you think she planned on a 10 year war being fought over her and the attempt to recover her?
Many scholar's refer to the 'rage of Achilles' in this book. Do you see Achilles' rage? If so, how would you characterize it and do you see it develop/change from book to book?
Near the beginning of Book 6, a seer (his brother) tells Hector to do something. Compare his reaction to the reaction of Agamemnon when a seer tells him to do something; what is revealed, or rather, re-emphasized?
At of the end of Book 6, what do you think of Hector and Priam, in contrast to Agamemnon and Achilles? Why? What exactly is each side fighting for? How would you evaluate each of these two things?
Compare Hector's interview with Helen in Book 6 with the scene between Priam and Helen in Book 3. What is odd about both these scenes? What do you make of Helen, in light of them? Of Priam and Hector?
At the end of Book 6, we have seen much of the horror of war. What do you think Homer is telling us about war? Does he like it?