Great Books Reading Guides/Comprehension Questions?

[East Coast Sue]

I'm preparing to teach a course on Greek history & literature using great books, unabridged translations. Do you have any resources to recommend for comprehension or discussion questions? I am really needing some help with finding comprehension questions which capture world view, history, and literature. Any specific reading guide that you recommend? Which translations are better to use? We will cover Homer, Plato, Aesop, Euripedes, Herodotus, Aristotle...

 

Thank you for your advice!

 

Sue

[readwithem]

We watched all the Teaching Company DVDs that covered the Greeks. The little booklets that come with each set have discussion questions and suggested reading. Don't know whether your library carries any Teaching Company sets....

 

Otherwise you might check Sparknotes - here's the one for the Odyssey.

[Michelle in AL]

Omnibus 1 covers most of these. I used the translations Omnibus recommended. You can see which ones they recommend on the Veritas Press website. I really like the guides from http://www.centerforlearning.org if you're going to teach in a group setting.

 

I also learned about the elements of an epic and the epic hero and taught that with the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey and The Aeneid. I used the chapter on epics from How to Read Literature like a Professor along with information from online searches.

 

I learned about the history of greek drama from a couple of library books and taught that when we came to the greek plays.

 

Aesop is great to use for imitative writing or rewriting fables in your own words.

 

I have some lessons in old posts on my Omnibus blog listed below.