Plato and Philosophy

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

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

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

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

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

• Litrix Reading Room - Samuel Butler Translation
• Blackmask.com - Samuel Butler
• Bartelby Archive - George Chapman Translator
• SparkNotes.com - Theodore Buckley Introduction
• Fordam University - Ancient Sourcebook (Andrew Lang)
• Bartelby Archive - Harvard Classics (Andrew Lang)
• Project Gutenberg (Andrew Lang)
• Adelaide University - Alexander Pope

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

• SparkNotes.com - Odyssey Study Guide
• Syracuse University - Study Questions to Homer's Odyssey

The Code of Hammurabi

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

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

• The Epic of Gilgamesh - N. K. Sandars Translation
• Mesopatamia Ancient Text, translated by Maurine Kovacs
• Maurine Gallery Kovac's translation
• Robert Temple's Free Verse
• Digital Library Book
• Online Literature

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