#this is called hymn to patroclus btw

[spineless-lobster]

Hgmngghhnnn okay so I composed this little tune on my lyre I have no idea how to write music I just fiddled around until I thought it sounded good. I cannot stress enough how much I am musically illiterate so please be nice to me

[aegialia]

I want to start reading the iliad and those types of books!! I'm not sure where to start though, and I can't find anything online. What books should I read that involve Greek/roman mythology?And what order should I read them? + any other comments/things I should know? Thank you in advance!!!

sorry for the late reply! i’ve broken this down into a few sections.

If you really don’t have much of a grounding in greek mythology/the trojan war, here’s where you should start:

if you want to read a good, easy to read, and short-ish summary of the whole war, i really like black ships before troy, a children’s version of the story. it’s the first thing i read, and it’s pretty accurate. also comes with pictures!

age of bronze is a graphic novel of the whole trojan war, good if you have a hard time with the language and style of epic poetry. i like some of it a lot and hate some of it a lot. 

honestly, reading the summary of the trojan war on wikipedia is a pretty good idea. the back story is weird, contradictory, and convoluted, and wikipedia is (usually) correct

once you have an idea of what’s going on, here’s where to go next:

the iliad. you really should start with it, if only because basically everything that’s written after it draws on it. 

everyone has an opinion of what translation is best. here’s my two cents: lombardo is easy to read and fun, but sometimes a little too modern. lattimore is pretty, but i don’t like how he translates stuff with women. fagles is decent, if kinda boring. pope has very archaic language, so avoid it your first read through. those are the most common translations i’ve seen, but there are others out there. please don’t read a prose version, They Are Evil (a lot of the time they cut out bits of the story and they lose all musicality)

after the iliad, the odyssey should come next. it’s got similar characterization and style to the iliad, so it’s easy to read

there are version of it written by the people who wrote ‘black ships’ and ‘age of bronze’. most translation advice remains the same

the aeneid seems like where you should go next, but i’ll warn you- it’s a bit of a drag. it’s got some fun bits, and then a lot of really boring bits

i don’t know of any modern adaptations of it, but you should definitely read a summary before reading it

as for translation, i’ve only read fritzgerald. it’s a good translation and easy to read. 

after the big three:

if you don’t want to read 12 books of aeneas whining, you can skip here after the odyssey

greek tragedy! there’s a lot of it, and it’s fun. there are three surviving playwrights, who i’ll talk about below

aeschylus: tbh, i haven’t read much of him. i liked ‘agamemnon’, but i’ve never gotten around to the rest of his works. he wrote a trilogy of plays about agamemnon’s homecoming and all the shit that went down after that called the oresteia. the only other one i’ve read is ‘7 against thebes’, which was boring

sophocles: not my fav, but he’s pretty great. ‘ajax’ is amazing, but very depressing. ‘philoctetes’ is kinda weird, but ok. 

euripides: i love euripides so much, man. my favorite is ‘the bacchae’, but it’s not about the trojan war. ‘the trojan women’, ‘hecuba’, and ‘andromache’ are all good and trojan-centric. i really liked ‘iphigenia in tauris’. ‘electra’ is hands down my favorite trojan war play. btw, he really hates sparta, which is why menelaus and all of his family are usually super evil 

i have no advice on translations, tbh. go and see the plays if you can

weirder and usually unread things:

fragments of the epic cycle: there were a bunch more epics than the two we have! unfortunately, we only have like 3 lines from any of them. they’re fun to read and have some neat side stories, but there are no modern translations that i know of

hesiod: we’ve got some bits of some stories from the trojan war from him. tbh, i haven’t read them much, he’s not my type

apollodorus has an account of the trojan war in his big book o’ myths

lycorphon’s poem ‘alexandra’ gives a neat perspective on the war from cassandra 

colluthus has a version of the abduction of helen, i am not a huge fan of it

tryphiodorus has a short little poem about the fall of troy. it’s kinda cool

seneca wrote a few plays set during the trojan war, i haven’t read them

statius wrote part of an epic about achilles. if i cared slightly more about achilles, i’d probably like it

dares of phrygia also wrote an account of the fall of troy, which i enjoyed

the posthomerica is fun, and full of death

ovid wrote some 

not classical, but about the trojan war:

dante’s inferno. you get to see all of your favs in absurdly wrong circles of hell (why is achilles in lust??? literally the most important thing about him is rage!!!!) and hang out with vergil

shakespeare’s ‘troilus and cressida’. idk man it’s a weird play. i kinda liked it, but it’s pretty removed from the iliad

there are a bunch of medieval romances based on it

helen turns up in ‘faust’

you probably know about the song of achilles. if not, it’s the story told by patroclus, focusing on his relationship with achilles. i have complicated feelings about it

‘helen of troy’ is the story from helen’s perspective. i haven’t read it, but i’ve heard it’s good

non-trojan war classical stuff:

there’s a ton of stuff about the argonauts, which is super fun

reading hesoid and ovid’s stuff is fun, b/c you get all the weird little stories

cicero is an engaging read, if an annoying dude

herodotus is fun if you like fake history. my fav roman historian is polybius, because he writes about carthage

reading basically anybody’s letters is fun

sappho and the other lyrical poets are lovely

i have a soft spot for the homeric hymns

the satyricon is one wacky adventure

general tips:

theoi.org has translations of most of the things i’ve mentioned, as well as a good reference guide to general greek mythology stuff

please don’t read de bello gallico. it isn’t fun and you’ll probably hate caesar

don’t watch troy. it’s terrible. it’s just so.so.so. bad

the movie version of the satyricon is bizarre and unpleasant to look at

there are twenty versions of every myth. there is no consistent characterization. medieval writers had weird ideas. most translations come from like 1920. 

none of this is essential, not even the iliad. these stories are ancient and nebulous and you can pick and choose what sounds interesting to you

if you’re confused by something (for instance- wtf is happening in the house of atreus), feel free to ask me. i love talking about this stuff So Much

there are also lots of people on tumblr with actual classics degrees and stuff who know more than me

i am a 17 year old who has taken a few years of latin classes. you don’t need a degree or a teacher to get into this stuff

have fun, ignore logic, laugh at ridiculous stuff, skim the boring bits

this is crazy long, sorry, i got Very into this