Ancient Literature Discussion (History, Myth, Philosophy &c.)

[LJ3]

Wasn't there something about Buddha's eyes seeing the entire world.

something Sun Wu Kong birth with him letting loose a beam of light that pierced the heavens

Heimdall

there has to have been something like Pure Eyes in folklore

[Leftovers]

More folklore than mythology, but the evil eye? Here's a piece on the Christian variant, and wiki has a whole list of other cultural examples.

[LJ3]

Argh I can't believed I missed that.

uh, wadjet?

[Sesto]

Reading Peter Wilson's "Heart of Europe" and man is it hard to follow

[Sesto]

does anyone have any suggestions for greek history?

reading this right now, but it's pretty short/basic and i'm nearly done already

[2Bad]

Plutarch

[2Bad]

And finally The Histories

congrats, you now know everything anyone actually knows about greek history

[2Bad]

more persian history than greek really, despite the cast

[Seika]

And finally The Histories

congrats, you now know everything anyone actually knows about greek history

Hellenike and Agesilaus.

Constitution and Constitution of the Athenians.

Arrian's Anabasis.

Polybios' Histories.

Didodoros' Library.

From the Founding of the City.

At least actually exhaust the major options.

[2Bad]

the memes

[Seika]

No memes allowed.

[Five_X]

does anyone have any suggestions for greek history?

reading this right now, but it's pretty short/basic and i'm nearly done already

What part of (ancient, I'm presuming) Greek history are you interested in? It's a vast swathe of time with a number of different eras. If you want Hellenistic recommendations, then I've got plenty: Ghost on the Throne, Dividing the Spoils, Robin Lane Fox's biography of Alexander, The Poison King (late Hellenistic, but still), and some more.

[Sesto]

was mainly looking for pre-hellenistic stuff

ended up picking up tom holland's translation of Herodotus' the histories

[GundamFSN]

Talking about good translation.

Is there a translation of Illiad and Odyssey which capture the spirit of the original language as close as possible?

[Seika]

I always recommend Martin Hammond's Penguin translation in that case (and in all others where someone isn't demanding a verse translation).

I did find an even more literalistic translation in the States this summer but don't remember whose it was.

[Five_X]

Alexander Pope's translation will always have a warm place in my heart, for a few reasons. Personally, though, the one I've mainly read is Robert Fagles' version.

[LegalLoliLover]

Both Odysseus and Lu Bu did the "shooting an arrow through a halberd hole" thing.

[Seika]

No.

[GundamFSN]

I always recommend Martin Hammond's Penguin translation in that case (and in all others where someone isn't demanding a verse translation).

Hmm, I'll try for this then. I'm not exactly looking for perfectly literal TL per se. I'm cool as long as the TL captures the essence of the poems, which I'm assuming the other cases encompass said aforementioned quality.

Thanks, Seika.

Alexander Pope's translation will always have a warm place in my heart, for a few reasons. Personally, though, the one I've mainly read is Robert Fagles' version.

Just curious, what are the reasons?

[Five_X]

Pope's translation makes liberal use of heroic couplets, almost ad nauseam, but it's also very vivid, flowing, and poetic which makes it very unique to read. Also, I used to live around Twickenham where he spent much of his life and where he built his famous grotto.