Woo hoo! After some not-so-subtle prodding by yours truly, Keely from We Went Outside and Saw The Stars has decided to host a Greek literature challenge for 2016. I’m so excited about this challenge as it will allow me to choose books from one of my favourite periods.
General Rules:
• the Ancient Greek Reading Challenge 2016 runs from the 1st of January to the 31st of December 2016
• I will be accepting sign ups throughout the rest of 2015 and all through 2016.
• You don’t have to blog about each text, or any, but the purpose of this challenge is to encourage everyone to read Ancient Greek texts so it would be amazing if you spread Ancient Greek love around the blogosphere!
• If there is enough interest I’ll make check in posts semi often so you can link your reviews or just general comments about this challenge as you see fit.
• Everything counts for this challenge: plays, essays, non-fiction history, poetry, fragments of texts, criticism etc. As long as it is an Ancient Greek text or a modern text about Ancient Greece it counts! I’ll personally be reading texts from Ancient Greece and the Byzantine Era so you can make this challenge whatever you want it to be.
• I’ll also love it if you would be interested in writing guest posts here related to this challenge. The more the merrier!
• Most of all HAVE FUN and spread your passion for Ancient Greek texts. This genre could always use more love.
The Levels:
• Level One: 1-4 Texts
• Level Two: 4-6 Texts
• Level Three: 7-9 Texts
• Level Four: 10-12 Texts
• Level Five: 12+ Texts
I will be aiming for Level Five as I have plans to read as many Ancient Greek plays by the four greats (Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes).
List of (some) Ancient Greek Texts:
****a lot of ancient greek texts only survive in fragments but i’ve included these in this list if you’re still interested in reading some of them
• Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey
• Hesiod: Works and Days and Theogony
• Archilochus of Paros: Fragments
• Sappho: Poems
• Alcaeus: Fragments
• Pindar: Epinikia and Fragments
• Aeschylus: The Suppliant Maidens, The Persians, The Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides
• Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Ajax, Electra, Trachiniae, Philoctetes
• Euripides: Rhesus, Medea, Hippolytus, Alcestis, Heracleidae, The Suppliants, The Trojan Women, Ion, Helen, Andromache, Electra, The Bacchae, Hecuba, Heracles Mad, The Phoenician Maidens, Orestes, Iphigenia Among the Tauri, Iphigenia At Aulis, The Cyclops
• Aristophanes: the Archarnians, the Knights, the Clouds, the Wasps, the Peace, the Birds, the Frogs, the Lysistrata, The Thesmophoriazusae, the Ecclesiazusae, the Plutus
• Herodotus: Histories
• Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War
• Xenophon: Anabasis, Apology, Symposium, Memorabilia
• Aristotle: Metaphysics, On the Soul, On Poetics, etc. A complete list can be found here (x)
• Plato: Republic, On Justice, On Virtue, etc. A complete list can be found here: (x)
• Theocritus: Idylls and Epigrams
• Callimachus: Hymns, Fragments
• Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautica
• Menander: Fragments
I’m not sure what I’m going to choose to read, but I have some literature on my Classics Club list that I should get to, and then there are so many other possibilities.
Menander – Fragments
Aristotle – Nicomachean Ethics, Poetics
Ovid – Metamorphoses
Plato – The Republic, Meno, Crito, Phaedo
Plutarch – Lives
Aristophanes – Birds, Lysistrata
Euripides –
Aeschylus – The Suppliant Maidens, The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound
Sophocles – Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra, Philoctetes
Ooo, I can’t wait to get started!
