St. John's College, Annapolis Great Books List

Wow! Now that's a reading list!

Like you, haven't read enough from it and at this point, probably won't.

 

I find some of the titles interesting. For example, in the Senior Year, Faulkner is listed with Go Down Moses but not The Sound and the Fury. In the Sophomore Year, Beethoven is listed with his Third Symphony but neither his Fifth nor his Ninth.

Tim Reynolds

 

From the St. John's College list--I am on Homer's Iliad.

Translations
Richmond Lattimore (University of Chicago Press, 1951)
Robert Fitzgerald (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2004)
Stanley Lombardo (Hacket Publishing, 1997)

Commentaries
Norman Postlethwaite (University of Exeter Press, 2000)
Malcolm M. Wilcox (University of Chicago Press, 1976)

Other Media
In search of the Trojan War (Michael Wood, BBC, 1985)
Troy the movie, starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, & Diane Kruger (Wolfgang Petersen, Warner Bros, 2004)

Bob's one-line comment
Everyone needs to make a lifetime study of the Bible, Shakespeare, and Homer. You cannot understand England and the United States until you know all three.

. . .

Why is Pendar's Odes not on the list? I've got him going too!

Translations
William H. Race (Loeb Classical Library, 2 vols. 1997)
C. S. Conway & Richard Stoneman (Everyman Library, 1997)
Frank J. Nisetich (John Hopkins University Press, 1980)
Richmond Lattimore (University of Chicago Press, 1947)

Bob's one-line comment
If you have never seriously played sports, you need to study Pendar's Odes to understand what all of the hoopla is about.

...Bob

 

Yup, Go Down Moses is pretty weak compared to The Sound and the Fury (once you figure out how to read it).

...Bob

 

Opps! I misspelled Pindar in my first post. It is corrected in this post.

Shows what kind of classical student I am.

. . .

A Word about Pindar, Poet of the Greek Olympics
Pindar was a Greek poet who wrote victory odes for Greek athletes competing in the original Greek Olympics. Such athletes were from wealthy families and by all accounts, Pindar made a nice living from his poetry and song. Pindar was born in Kynoskephalai, a village on the outskirts of Thebes (the chief city in Boiotia). He belonged to the clan of the Aigeidai, prominent in Thebes and Sparta. He was born during the 65th Olympiad (520-516 B.C.), probably in the year 518. He studied pipe-playing, choral direction, and music. He composed until 452, with a lifespan of 80 years. His death is set arbitrarily at 438. (Race, 1997, Vol. 1, Introduction, p. 5).​

And now, a sample of Pindar's poetry.

Olympian Ode 5, epode 2, lines 15-16 (4 translations)

Toil and expense, for deeds of courage,
Must ever be the cost of valour's
Accomplishment, hidden
Within the veil of danger. But to those
Who wins the victory,
Even amidst their citizens
Comes the reward of wisdom's reputation. (Conway & Stoneman, 1997, p. 34)

Always attendant on valor, work and substance struggle to win
the end veiled in danger;
but when men succeed, even their neighbors think them wise. (Lattimore, 1947, p. 13)

Always, in the contest for excellence,
expense and labor
struggle to achieve an exploit
whose end
lies veiled in danger--though the public
thinks it sees wisdom in success. (Nisetich, 1980, p. 101)

Always do toil and expense strive for achievements toward
an accomplishment hidden in danger, but those who succeed
are considered wise even by their fellow citizens. (Race, 1997, vol. 1, p. 97)



REFERENCES
Conway, G. S., & Stoneman, Richard, trans.; Stoneman, Richard, ed. (1997). Pindar: The Odes and Selected Fragments. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co. [Originally published Everyman, 1972].

Lattimore, Richmond, trans. (1947). The Odes of Pindar. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Nisetich, Frank J., trans. (1980). Pindar's Victory Songs. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Race, William H., ed. & trans. (1997). Pindar I: Olympian Odes, Pythian Odes, Vol. 1. In Henderson, J., ed., The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.​

I hope you enjoy the above.
I hope no one gets upset with classical Greek poetry.

...Bob