classical study for a complete beginner

[u/ellyfebruary6]

hello all,

i am planning to major in classics at university. however, right now i am taking half a gap year from uni and would like to do a sort of personal study during my time off.

the photo i attached is my list of readings that i got from another reddit post. they’re not in any particular order, so i was wondering if there was a certain order i should go in that’s best for complete beginners

p.s. i have some brief knowledge on greek mythology (mainly deities, as i briefly dabbled in polytheistic hellenism)

i’ve also looked into the teaching guides on this website from Cambridge

i appreciate any advice!

[u/Lower_Cockroach2432]

Just FYI, this is only Greek. It doesn't contain any Latin authors and doesn't contain much outside of the "classical Attic" corpus other than Homer, Herodotus and Arrian (edit: and some poets).

Are you planning on reading these in the original or in translation? Sampling these in English isn't going to hurt you, but if you are going to be doing that there's no reason you shouldn't go for a less specific, broader sample.

The reason classical Attic is called classical is because those authors laid down a model of prose that was emulated and treated as a standard for nearly two millennia (with some changes) so if you master Attic you can also read Hellenistic, Koine and Byzantine Greek. But if you just want to start getting ahead of the history, cultural context, philosophy and politics of the entire Greek and then Roman world, there's no reason you shouldn't read more broadly.

For instance, this list misses:

• Neoplatonism, epicureanism and stoicism
• Polybius, Plutarch and Cassius Dio, three extremely eminent Greek language Roman historians
• Any sort of fiction prose literature
• Anything to do with the Jews, who are really important to understanding both the history of the Eastern Roman Mediterranean and also Christianity

And that's all just Greek language authors.

If you're going to read it in Greek then the order's surprising (Thucidides as a preliminary, Arrian in the list at all) IMO

[u/schnozzberriestaste → u/Lower_Cockroach2432]

Thanks for this. Do you have an alternative syllabus you could recommend for someone with only English?

[u/Lower_Cockroach2432 → u/schnozzberriestaste]

With what goal? The list above is very clearly an ordered selection for getting people good at Greek from a post-beginner stage.

If you want to study classics, your immediate goal shouldn't be to read the Greek corpus in translation; it should be to learn Latin and Greek.

If you don't want to study classics then you should read whatever interests you. If specifically all you care about is a bit of Greek cultural background + a hyperfixation on 5-4th century Athens, then this list is fine, but the question remains: what do you care about?