Reading Recommendations After Xenophon

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tdbenedict
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Reading Recommendations After Xenophon

Post by tdbenedict »

I just finished Anabasis and thought it was terrific - the Greek was straightforward and I'm a history buff, plus a great story.

What is the natural step after Xenophon for history? Herodotus? (But I'm not familiar with the dialect). I've read Josephus Jewish War. I understand Thucydides is quite difficult; not sure I'm up for that yet. Thanks.
Tim Benedict
cwconrad
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Re: Reading Recommendations After Xenophon

Post by cwconrad »

tdbenedict wrote:I just finished Anabasis and thought it was terrific - the Greek was straightforward and I'm a history buff, plus a great story.

What is the natural step after Xenophon for history? Herodotus? (But I'm not familiar with the dialect). I've read Josephus Jewish War. I understand Thucydides is quite difficult; not sure I'm up for that yet. Thanks.
Herodotus would be a good read after Xenophon; the Ionic dialect is not at all difficult to get used to (the old rule: every long alpha in Attic is eta in Ionic) and it moves along easily. There are at least a couple nice and inexpensive selection-texts with aids:
http://www.amazon.com/Herodotus-Histori ... otus+Greek
and
http://www.amazon.com/Herodotus-Book-Br ... otus+Greek.
I think you'd find Josephus a more difficult transition, but my experience has always been with undertaking a new author that one labors over several chapters to gain familiarity with style and basic vocabulary and then begins to sail pretty smoothly.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Reading Recommendations After Xenophon

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Homer. Not only is dactylic hexameter loads of fun, but once you get used to the dialectical differences, you can actually read it fairly rapidly, and get through large amounts. Vocabulary can be a problem, but nothing Autenrieth can't solve.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
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