Greek and Latin classics - reading list, in order?

[LarrySanger]

Has anybody anywhere compiled a list of Greek and Latin classics (to read in translation, at least at first) in order of accessibility, perhaps for purposes of study by homeschoolers? I'm aware that this has been a matter of some debate through the ages, but it would be nice to have a list to start from.

 

I found this, but it's just a start: http://thelatinschool.org/booklistclassical/

 

Another list, for middle school! http://homeschoolconnectionsonline.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-greece-reading-list-for-middle.html

 

Here's a massive list: http://www.classicalcurriculum.com/ModelCurriculum.htm... the originals don't seem to be introduced until 9th grade.

[Tress]

If I remember correctly the last link is to a curriculum site that contains some weird stuff ("high-brow, high-IQ curriculum"?), you might need to check it out a bit more before using their lists. HTH.

 

Otherwise I'm :bigear:

[ElizaG]

Here's the way it was traditionally done, more or less.  

 

Primary through middle school age:

 

- fables in translation

- adaptations of classic stories, e.g. tales from Homer (ancient Greek children would have heard and probably memorized the original, but we're in a different cultural context )

 

Junior high school age:

 

- fables in the original (along with the beginning exercises of the progymnasmata, if using these)

- history:  Nepos, Livy, Xenophon, Herodotus, etc.

- selected letters

 

Middle high school age:

 

- poetry

- treatises such as Cicero's "De Amicitia"

- orations

 

Late high school age:

 

- philosophy; this would traditionally have been studied more in the 20s and later, but if you wanted to get to some of it in high school, it would go here

 

 

Note that teachers in classical schools, since ancient times, would only have used selected passages from the authors being studied.   You can find some examples of 19th and early 20th century school editions on archive.org, or quite cheaply on eBay, etc.   With the modern editions such as Loeb or Penguin, which are put together for adults, the above ranges wouldn't apply.  The parent would have to pre-read each book, to make sure the contents were suitable. 

 

ETA:  Of course, the vintage school editions would be in the original Latin or Greek, nearly always without translations.   Until the 20th century, English versions of the classics were done for pleasure reading, and the ones for children were more in the category of adaptations.    (Though one could argue that all translations are adaptations -- so that the difference between, say, a loose verse translation and The Children's Homer can be seen as one of degree, rather than kind.)   

[Corraleno]

If I remember correctly the last link is to a curriculum site that contains some weird stuff ("high-brow, high-IQ curriculum"?)...

 

Like strongly discouraging people from studying Spanish, since most Spanish speakers are uneducated and low-IQ and we wouldn't want to emulate low-brow people of low IQ, would we?

 

:ack2:  

 

[SarahW]

 

 

Note that teachers in classical schools, since ancient times, would only have used selected passages from the authors being studied.   You can find some examples of 19th and early 20th century school editions on archive.org, or quite cheaply on eBay, etc.   With the modern editions such as Loeb or Penguin, which are put together for adults, the above ranges wouldn't apply.  The parent would have to pre-read each book, to make sure the contents were suitable. 

 

ETA:  Of course, the vintage school editions would be in the original Latin or Greek, nearly always without translations.   Until the 20th century, English versions of the classics were done for pleasure reading, and the ones for children were more in the category of adaptations.    (Though one could argue that all translations are adaptations -- so that the difference between, say, a loose verse translation and The Children's Homer can be seen as one of degree, rather than kind.)   

 

 

Can you link a few examples of the 19th c. school books?

 

I have downloads of various books called "Greek Reader" and the like, which have selections of various texts with some lexical aids in the back. Are those the types of books you're referring to?

[SarahW]

 

 

I found this, but it's just a start: http://thelatinschool.org/booklistclassical/

 

 

 

In case you don't know, LHS/Memoria Press is based on Latin Centered Curriculum. That book has slightly different reading lists (different in both 1st and 2nd edition).

[Hunter]

Years ago my son used the reading lists in Climbing Parnassus. And he sometimes just randomly picked a Loeb Classic off the shelf at the bookstore.

[Hunter]

My son liked doing math in Greek. A lot of Greek math is in Koine like the new testament. The website is still up after all these years.

 

http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/classics/nugreek/contents.htm#conts

[ElizaG]

Can you link a few examples of the 19th c. school books?

 

I have downloads of various books called "Greek Reader" and the like, which have selections of various texts with some lexical aids in the back. Are those the types of books you're referring to?

Just guessing here, but the "reader" might have been for beginners.   Greek language and literature were generally studied less than Latin in US schools.  After the change to the elective system, many students avoided Greek altogether. 

 

Here are some examples of school editions:

 

Selected Lives of Nepos

Caesar's Gallic War

The Seventh Book of Xenophon's Anabasis

 

One way of finding them on archive.org is to search on the name of a popular textbook publisher (e.g., Appleton, Allyn & Bacon, American Book Co., Longmans, or whoever published the one you have) + the name of the author. 

 

ETA:  The Epodes and Carmen Seculare of Horace contains a list of other textbooks in the series "White's Grammar-School Texts."   These would have been for the first stage of classical education.  In the UK, the second stage would have been at college, e.g. at Oxford, where the study of classics was known as "reading Greats."  

 

As in the US, there wasn't a clear delineation between the two stages.  The more academically strong preparatory schools would have been doing more advanced work, so that the college work might have seemed easy by comparison. 

 

And in some educational systems (e.g., Germany), the whole course would have been finished by age 18 or 19.   So there was a lot of variation.

[SarahW]

Thanks. That Gallic War edition looks really nice. The notes and vocab in the back doesn't seem to translate well to the ebook format though, it'd be even more of a pain to flip back and forth.

 

Much more accessible to a learner than a Loeb, though. The only thing similar I can think of which is currently in print is the Bryn Mawr Commentaries.

 

This is one of the Greek Readers. Includes Fables and Anabasis. The notes are quite extensive, and it looks well done. I'm just trying to figure out how it was used, or intended to be used.