Entertainment/Literature - Classics
The Hare and the Tortoise, The Fox and the Grapes – Aesop (620 – 560 BC)
Prometheus Bound – Aeschylus (526 – 456 BC). Known as “the father of Greek tragedy”
The Oresteia Trilogy (Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides) – Aeschylus
Agamemnon details the homecoming of Agamemnon, King of Argos, from the Trojan War
Choephoroe (The Libation Bearers) deals with the reunion of Agamemnon's children, Electra and Orestes, and their revenge. Orestes kills Clytemnestra to avenge the death of Agamemnon, Orestes' father
Eumenides in which Orestes, Apollo, and the Furies go before Athena and a jury consisting of the Athenians
Seven Against Thebes – Aeschylus, concerning the battle between the Seven led by Polynices, traditional Theban enemies (Argive army), and the army of Thebes headed by Eteocles and his supporters. Polynices and Eteocles are sons of Oedipus. The same story is told in Euripides' Phoenician Women
The Persians – Aeschylus. First produced in 472 BC, it is the oldest surviving play in the history of theatre
Aeschylus is often described as the father of tragedy. He fought at the battles of Marathon and Salamis. Aeschylus was reputedly killed when a passing eagle dropped a tortoise on his head
Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass – Apuleius (c. 124 – c. 170). The only surviving Latin novel
Greek comedies, Wasps, Birds, Frogs, Knights, Clouds, Peace, Plutus – Aristophenes (445 – 385 BC)
Cloud Cuckoo Land – in Birds
Aristophenes mocks intellectuals including Socrates in Clouds
The Frogs tells the story of the god Dionysus, who, despairing of the state of Athens' tragedians, travels to Hades to bring the playwright Euripides back from the dead
Lysistrata – Aristophenes. Women on sex strike, to try and end the Peloponnesian war
Poetics – Aristotle (384 – 322 BC). Classical work of literary theory, dealing mostly with tragedy
Nichomachean Ethics – Aristotle. The work consists of ten books and is understood to be based on notes from his lectures at the Lyceum which were either edited by or dedicated to Aristotle's son, Nicomachus. Also referred to as The Ethics
Anabasis of Alexander – Arrian (c. 86 – c. 160)
Poems to Lesbia – Catullus (84 – 54 BC)
Catullus's poems have been preserved in an anthology of 116 carmina, which can be divided into three formal parts: sixty short poems in varying metres, called polymetra, eight longer poems, and forty-eight epigrams
De Oratore, De Inventione, De Republica, De Legibus, Brutus – Cicero (106 – 43 BC)
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers – Diogenes Laertius (c. 3rd century AD)
Alcestis, Hyppolytus, Andromache, Hecuba, Helen, Electra, Trojan Women, Phoenician Women, The Bacchae, Iphigeneia in Aulis, Iphigeneia in Tauris – Euripides (485 – 406 BC)
Medea – play by Euripides, story of a woman who wishes for the death of her children for revenge against her husband, Jason
Orestes – Euripides. Orestes and his sister Electra murder their mother (Clytemnestra), and then turn against their aunt (Helen of Troy)
The History – Herodotus (490 – 425 BC). Known as “the father of history”
Theogony, Work and Days, Catalogue of Women – Hesiod (c. 8th century BC)
Iliad – written by Homer (c. 8th century BC), concerns events during the last (i.e. 10th) year in the siege of the city of Ilion, or Troy, by the Greeks. Hector kills Patroclus, and is then killed by Achilles. Iris is the divine messenger. Homer was blind
‘Rage’ – first word of Iliad
In the Iliad, the Amazons were referred to as Antianeirai (‘those who fight like men’)
Centaurs fought the Lapiths in Iliad
Wine Dark – sea in Iliad
Poseidon – ‘earth shaker’ in Iliad
Odyssey – written by Homer, concerns the events that befall the Greek hero Odysseus in his long wanderings after the fall of Troy with the goddess Calypso, and when he returns to his native land of Ithaca to meet his wife Penelope
‘Sing to me of the man, Muse’ – opening line of Odyssey
Ars Poetica – written by Horace (65 – 8 BC) Quintus Horatius Flaccus
Odes, Satires, Epistles, Epodes – Horace
‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ (it is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country) – Horace
Satires – Juvenal (55 – 130). Sixteen known poems divided among five books. Includes the lines ‘but who us going to guard the guards themselves’ and ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’
History of Rome from its Foundation (Ab Urbe Condita) – Livy (59 BC –17 AD)
The geese in the temple of Juno on the Capitoline Hill were said by Livy to have saved Rome from the Gauls around 390 BC when they were disturbed in a night attack
Lucretius (c. 99 – c. 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the epic philosophical poem on Epicureanism De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things
Epigrams – Martial (c. 41 – c. 104). Roman poet from Hispania
Menander (c. 342 – c. 290 BC) was the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. His work was lost in the Middle Ages and is known in modernity in highly fragmentary form, much of which was discovered in the 20th century. Only one play, Dyskolos, has survived almost entirely
Metamorphosis (features Pyramus and Thisbe, Echo and Narcissus, and Arachne), Tristia, Amores, Heroides, Isis – Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD)
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) – Ovid
On Nature – poem by Parmenides (late sixth or early fifth century BC). On Nature includes a section called ‘The Way of Truth’
Satyricon – sole surviving work of Petronius (c. 27 – 66). Implicated in Conspiracy of Piso
Victory Odes – Pindar (518 – 446 BC), who lived in Thebes. One of the nine lyric poets
In his Apologia, Plato (c. 427 – c. 347 BC) related Socrates' last words: “The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways – I to die, and you to live”
The Last Days of Socrates is a series of four dialogues by Plato which describe the trial and death of Socrates. The dialogues are Euthyphro, The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo
Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of ‘corrupting the young’
Menaechmi – Plautus (254 – 184 BC). Plot used by Shakespeare for Comedy of Errors
Naturalis Historia – Pliny the Elder (23 – 79). Killed during the eruption of Vesuvius
Epistulae (Letters) – Pliny the Younger (61 – 112). Nephew of Pliny the Elder. Witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius
Parallel Lives, Moralia – Plutarch (46 – 120)
Parallel Lives consists of 23 essays in which he compares a great Greek and a great Roman
The Histories – Polybius (c. 200 – c. 118 BC). Covers in detail the period from 220 to 146 BC
The Library of Alexandria collected the poetry of Sappho (7th century BC) into nine books. Lived on Lesbos. One of the nine lyric poets
Dialogues, Natural Questions, Phaedra, Medea, Oedipus – Seneca (4 BC – 65 AD)
Simonides of Ceos (c. 556 – 468 BC) was one of the nine lyric poets esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria
Oedipus Tyrannus (Rex) – Greek tragedy, written by Sophocles (495 – 406 BC) around 425 BC. The subject of the play is Oedipus, son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta. The play is one of Sophocles' three Theban plays (Oedipus Cycle) to be produced; the others are Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone
Ajax, Electra, Philoctetes – plays by Sophocles
In 468 BC Sophocles took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the reigning master of Athenian drama, Aeschylus
Lives of the Twelve Caesars – Suetonius (70 – 140). Set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire
On Famous Men – Suetonius
Agricola, Germania, Dialogus – Tacitus (56 – 117)
Annals – Tacitus. Covers the reign of the four Roman Emperors succeeding to Caesar Augustus (14 – 68). The parts of the work that survived from antiquity cover (most of) the reigns of Tiberius and Nero
Histories by Tacitus, written c. 100 – 110, covers the Year of Four Emperors following the downfall of Nero, the rise of Vespasian, and the rule of the Flavian Dynasty (69 – 96) up to the death of Domitian
History of the Peloponnesian War – Thucydides (c. 460 – 400 BC)
Virgil (70 – 19 BC) was the author of the Eclogues (also called the Bucolics), the Georgics and the Aeneid, the last being an epic poem of twelve books that became the Roman Empire's national epic. A fictional depiction of Virgil was also Dante's guide through Hell and Purgatory in Dante's epic poem, The Divine Comedy
“I sing of arms and the man” – opening line of the Aeneid, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans. Breaking his journey in Carthage, he becomes involved with the queen, Dido and tells her about the fall of Troy. Dido burns herself alive when he leaves her. This is where the details of the Trojan Horse come from
Decus et Tutamen – ‘An ornament and a safeguard’, from the Aeneid
Venus – mother of Aeneas, described in the Aeneid
The Golden Bough is one of the episodic tales written in the epic Aeneid, book VI, which narrates the adventures of the Trojan hero Aeneas after the Trojan War
Anabasis, Hellenica – Xenophon (c. 435 – 364 BC)
Anabasis means ‘expedition’ and is an account of the war between two Persian princes, Cyrus and Artaxerxes
