Oresteia

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1. stevesycombacctDec 2020
   I can narrow it down to a top 4, if that's permissible.

   * The Man Who Was Thursday, by GK Chesterton

   * The Oresteia, by Aeschylus

   * Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand

   * The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan

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2. doonesburyDec 2020
   Oresteia - Aeschylus: is great read!
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3. CalChrisSep 2020
   Back stories help, and so with the Odyssey it really helps to have read the Oresteia (yes, Aeschylus is writing later) before the Odyssey, in my opinion, this helps more than having read the Iliad. It helps because the Telemachy (the first four books with Telemachus) compares Telemachus (he's such an entitled twerp) to Orestes and then in the 11th book Odysseus descends into the underworld and questions Agamemnon. So it helps to know what they're talking about.

   With the Iliad, it helps to know about the Judgment of Paris but I think my prof at Berkeley simply recited it. I don't know what the 'classic' telling would be.

   Of course it helps to have read the Iliad and the Odyssey before the Aeneid. The first half, the Odyssean half, is just a lot more fun because of Dido. She's like Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. But when Dido does what Dido did then in the Iliadic second half you're stuck with stoic Aeneas (and Turnus) and Aeneas is just not that interesting.

   I would say:

     1. Judgment of Paris (somehow, somewhere, Robert Graves?)
     2. Iliad (I'm a huge fan of Lattimore)
     3. Oresteia (at least Agamemnon)
     4. Odyssey
     5. Aeneid
   

   I could never get into Joyce but I may give him another try.
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4. sramsayFeb 2019
   War and Peace came immediately to mind for me as well, but mostly because I do not think I have ever read a more magnificent novel.

   I'm a literature professor, and in academic literary study, we don't spend a lot of time talking about which books are "better" than others. But personally? I'll just never get over that one.

   I suppose I'd have to add Aeschylus' The Oresteia (the oldest of the ancient Greek tragedies we possess, and the only complete trilogy). I was a truly terrible high school student, who I think just barely got into college. Reading The Oresteia as a freshman made me decide that one way or another, I would have to figure out how to read and study literature for the rest of my life.

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5. bobcostas55Jun 2015
   Start with A Brief History of Ancient Greece to get a sense of the social-political-historical context. If you have time, Hamilton's Mythology.

   Then Homer. Opinions vary on which translation of the Iliad is best (and it makes a huge difference). I'd stay away from Pope which is more of a remake than a translation. Lombardo is very modern. Lattimore is typically used for academic purposes. I would recommend Fagles.

   After that, it depends on what you're into.

   Philosophy? Pre-Socratics -> Plato -> Aristotle. What you choose here again depends on what you're into. There's politics, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, etc.

   History? Herodotus -> Thucydides -> Xenophon (The Landmark series for all 3)

   Theater? Oresteia, Medea, the Theban Cycle.

   Mythology? Hesiod.

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6. antiterraJul 2011
   And you would, validly, be deserving of the same retaliation by any children of the exec, who you barbarously forced to watch the execution. You should read the Oresteia, just for the small chance you might suddenly grasp the ideal of justice.

   Arguing for lynch mob vengeance shows you are completely inept at managing your feelings of righteous anger, potentially sociopathic in your inability to empathize, unconcerned with accuracy or the case of false positives, and just as lame-brained as every single idiot that hit a car in the Vancouver riots.

   Furthermore, you should also know that Axelrod's tit-for-tat game theory strategy wins in iterative situations that continue past the first reaction and also relies on forgiveness.

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