4 ms·
> mostly philosophers No wonder you say you can find the Greek stuff "pretty boring." There's so much more to Greek literature than philosophy. Try * Homer -
by thirteenfingers 11y ago
> mostly philosophers
No wonder you say you can find the Greek stuff "pretty boring." There's so much more to Greek literature than philosophy. Try
* Homer - the closest thing the Greeks had to the Bible, yet so different in spirit in that it raises unanswerable questions about the Greeks' beliefs, without affirming them
* Aristophanes - slapstick humor
* Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus - the great tragedians
* Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon - some of the greatest historians ever, although they fall somewhat short of our modern standards for historical rigor
* Lysias - mainly valuable as a record of the Greek legal process
* Lucian - for satire (if you don't like philosophers, you'll love Lucian)
- eru 11y agoArchimedes' "Sand Reckoner" is pretty readable, too. And people have been known to read Euclid for fun. (Or at least as much fun as a modern math textbook.)
- rokhayakebe 11y agoAh, but isn't Homer the father of Greek Philosophy. Many may say it is Socrates, but Socrates calls on Homer more often than I can remember anyone else.
- mpyne 11y agoThucydides is especially interesting for me since he was a historian--but far from being a dispassionate observer, actually played a small role in the history he was trying to describe (as you hint at when discussing their rigor).