Top Ten Ancients - a concise list

[AuntieM]

A while back I asked for your suggestions about the must-read literature for the Ancient period. These are rhetoric-level writings. I wanted to know what the top ten suggestions would be, the ones that you would do if you only had time enough to brush the treetops on a great books study. There were no lists just alike, and most of the replies I gathered (from that thread and others) included many more than ten titles. What follows is a compilation of the most popular suggestions, based on their frequency of recommendation. Certainly the items I've included (or omitted) are up for debate! But these are what I'd call the bare bones of the Ancient Great Books (based solely on my polling, not on their individual "greatness"!!!)... here goes...

 

Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 2500 BC (Ferry translation, or abridged Westwood)

Iliad c. 850 BC (Homer, Lattimore translation)

The Odyssey c. 850 BC (Homer, Lattimore translation)

Theban Trilogy - Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone c. 490 BC (Sophacles)

The Republic c. 375 BC (Plato)

The Histories c. 441 BC (Herodotus)

The Aenid c. 30 BC (Virgil, Fitzgerald translation)

The Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans c. 100 AD (Plutarch)

 

Books of the Bible:

Genesis (early ancient)

Exodus (early ancient)

Job (early ancient)

Daniel (c. 165 BC)

I & II Corinthians (c. 58 AD)

 

There were a couple of mentions of the Bhagavad Gita and works of Confucius, to expand study into the eastern realm.

 

A few titles came up because they were either set in that time period, or they help lay the groundwork for understanding the context of the period. However, they are not in themselves ancient literature. These included:

Mythology (D'Aulaire or Edith Hamilton)

Julius Caesar (William Shakespeare)

Cat of the Bubastes (G.A. Henty)

SPQR series (fiction by John Maddox Roberts)

 

I'm sure there are many other titles that could be added to this list, these were just the ones mentioned.

 

These were named as HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR TEACHER:

The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature by Howatson

The Gilgamesh Reader

The World of Odysseus

SparkNotes

Compact Guide to World Religions (Halverson)

thegreatbooks.com study guides

 

There were also many Apologetics titles suggested to teach worldview studies along with great books, I can list them if anyone is interested.

 

I really do hope someone finds this helpful! It was comforting to me to know that most of these titles are included in the curriculum we've decided to follow, and if I need to skip over anything in the interest of time, well, I just won't skip one of the titles on this list!

 

Okay, you can let me know if this helps, or load up your tomatoes!

[Beth in SW WA]

Thank you for sharing this list :)

[Laura in OH]

...There were also many Apologetics titles suggested to teach worldview studies along with great books, I can list them if anyone is interested.

 

Thank-you for compiling and posting this! And, yes, I am interested in the Apologetics list as well.

 

:)

[SusanAR]

This is much the same as my list for this year; although we will be reading Julius Caesar and Jonah and only portions of Herodotus and Plutarch. My ds is working on the background paper for Gilgamesh today and will begin reading it tomorrow.

 

Susan

 

 

BTW, I required Til We Have Faces for summer reading- it is a favorite at our house!!

[Laurie in CA]

Thanks for this list and I was glad to see that Tapestry of Grace includes most of this. Whew!

[mommaduck]

Looks like Omnibus' list as well :D