Our next Book Club selection is the The Natural History of Pliny the Elder. We will be focusing on Book 7: “Man” although you can read others as well if you wish. Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) is a Roman author. His most famous work is The Natural History which consists of thirty seven books on geography, anthropology, zoology and many other different topics. He died during the eruption of Vesuvius… Read more
Our next Book Club selection is from Lucian, whose satirical dialogues poked fun at philosophers and mythological characters. We will be reading The Dialogues of the Dead; here are a selection of translations available free online: Translation by H.W. & F.G. Fowler: Online at theoi.com or Online at sacred-texts.com Translation by William Tooke: Dialogues of the Dead starts at (printed) page 191 Online at archive.org Translation by Howard Williams: Dialogues of the… Read more
Our first Book Club selection for the new year is from Claude Calame: Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece, which is available from the Center for Hellenic Studies Publications website. We will all read Chapter 1, “Introduction”, and then if you wish you can read any other chapter of your choice. You can find the Alcman Fragment 1 “Partheneion,”—translated by Gregory Nagy—in the Sourcebook, or on the CHS website. The… Read more
The Book Club is taking a break over the holiday season, although discussion is still taking place in the forum. Meanwhile here is a foretaste of what is to come during the early part of 2018 to start a new year of varied classical reading both from primary texts and from secondary sources: Claude Calame: Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece Lucian: Dialogues Pliny the Elder: Natural History Look… Read more
This month’s Book Club discussion will be on selections from the poetry of Horace. We will be reading Odes from Book 4, which comprises 15 poems and from which you can read as many as you wish; and a selection from the Satires. You can choose which to read, but here are some suggestions: Book 1 Satire 4 ‘A Defence of Satire’, Book 1 Satire 10 ‘On Satire’, Book 2… Read more