Greek Writers
Greek Writers
Sophocles, Athenian playwright, Riley Collection
After you have explored the Reading Passages, use this page to find a text on a topic that interests you. It is organized by genre, by date (within each section, authors are arranged chronologically), and by difficulty (an asterisk denotes an author that is "easier"). Click on an author to learn a bit more about each one. After you have found an author, visit Perseus' Greek and Roman Materials page (below) to access individual works.
PROSE
Biography: Plutarch, Parallel Lives (biographies of notable Greeks and Romans)
Biology/Medicine: Hippocrates (many works on medicine attributed to him); Aristotle; Theophrastus, On Plants; Galen (many works on medicine); Aelian, The Nature of Animals
History and Biography: Herodotus, History of the Persian Wars; Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War; *Xenophon, Hellenica (Greek history from 411-363 BCE), Anabasis (March of the Ten Thousand); Polybius, History (esp. Rome's war with Hannibal and the early 2nd century BCE), Josephus, Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities; *Arrian, Campaigns of Alexander the Great, *Appian, History of Rome (esp. 1st century BCE); *Cassius Dio, Roman History (esp. 69 BCE-46 CE)
Mathematics: Archimedes, Geometry; Euclid, Elements (in the Loeb Library Greek Mathematics)
Mime: Herodas, Mimiamboi
Mythology and Religion: Andocides On the Mysteries, Philo (three works on the Pentateuch); Josephus, Jewish Antiquities; *Greek New Testament; *Apollodorus, Library of Greek Mythology; *Pausanias, Description of Greece
Novel: *Chariton, Chaereas and Callirhoe; Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale; Achilles Tatius, Leucippe and Clitophon; Longus, Daphnis and Chloe; Heliodorus, An Ethiopian Story
Politics and Philosophy: The Old Oligarch, Constitution of the Athenians; *Xenophon, Memorabilia (Memoirs of Socrates); Plato; Aristotle; *Plutarch, Moralia; *Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
Satire/Fantasy: *Aesop, Fables; Theophrastus, Characters, *Lucian, A True Story and Dialogues; Babrius, Fables
Library of Hadrian, Athens, ca. 125 CE
POETRY
Comedy: Aristophanes, 11 comedies including Clouds, Birds, Lysistrata, Frogs; *Menander, 1 complete play, Dyscolus (the Grouch), and large portions of 5 others
Lyric and Elegiac Poetry: Sappho, Anacreon, Attic Scolia (drinking songs), Theognis, *Solon (all in the Loeb Library Greek Lyric), the Greek Anthology (includes epigrams and short poems by both men and women poets [in the Loeb Library Greek Anthology])
GREEK READING GROUPS
Let's Read Greek (Louis Sorenson)
ON-LINE TEXTS
Mischa Hooker's Greek Literature (classicsindex wiki)
Perseus' Greek and Roman Materials (Perseus) hyperlinked to Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon and a morphological analyzer.
PRINTED TEXTS AND COMMENTARIES
If you can't find what you are looking for on-line at Perseus or simply prefer books to on-line texts, here are a few publishers who specialize in texts and commentaries for intermediate Greek students:
Bryn Mawr Classical Commentaries (distributed by Hackett Publishing)
Loeb Classical Library (not commentaries, but Greek text with English translation on facing page)
Photo: Library of Hadrian, copyright © 2000 by John Gruber-Miller.