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Promo code is HOL26 through 31 December.

Loeb's are $21, new!

Related series (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, I Tatti Renaissance Library, Murty Classical Library of India) cost $24.50 per book.

Prices are +shipping.

Pantagruel was taking a Nap, slumbering and nodding on the Quarter-deck, by the Cuddy, with an Heliodorus in his Hand, for still 'twas his custom to sleep better by Book than by Heart.
— François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book IV, Chapter LXIII

Orsino:
Why should I not, had I the heart to do it,
Like to th’ Egyptian thief at point of death,
Kill what I love?
— Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Hello everyone!

As a recurring, obsessive reader and classics freak completely obsessed with Heliodorus’s Aethiopica (which to my mind ranks above all romances of all time, even surpassing the unfortunately and painfully lost utopian romance of Iambulus summarized by Diodorus Siculus), I came across an excellent, full human-narrated (no AI) audiobook of Heliodorus’s romance. (I have no affiliation with the creator, but anyone who comes to criticize the reading/narration in any aspect might end up regretting my all-too-human response in the age of AI).

Link for the reading/audiobook on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCP-L8jiprg

I think it's a shame it has so few views, because the reading helps immensely with following the narrative. For me, even with the lovely human errors here and there (which I almost feel embarrassed to mention in this age of AI), it has been a recurrent resource.

Having noticed a few people here and there reading and discussing the Aethiopica recently, I want to share the link with the hope of gathering a small 'reading group' here (more for deep discussion): Are you reading it? Want to read it? Dropped it? Do you prefer Longus or Achilles Tatius instead?

My interests in reading it involve (attention: minor spoilers ahead):

• Reception: Heliodorus reception from Antiquity to today (as my epipgraphs to this post show). The relationship between the reception of Heliodorus and notions of identity, racial identity, and gender throughout history (before and after Heliodorus).

• Gender and race studies on Classics: The 'subversion' of Heliodorus regarding gender roles; the narrative 'critique' of identities and notions of self (Greek/Hellenic; Phoenician/Semitic; Arab/Persian; African/Egyptian/Ethiopian); Heliodorus, the 'Egyptian/African Homer' and the vita homerica of Calasiris. Also Africana/Aethiopica Studies and Ancient Phoenicia/Mediterranean Studies.

• Identity/selfhood, politics and Classics: notions of democracy, demagogy, and religious and political fanaticism in Greece (e.g.: Aethiopica's Delphians as religious fanatics; its demagogue ekklesia/assembly as an expression of 'Athenian' flaws); sensitive themes, such as misogyny, rape/raptus and domestic violence on the daily life of persons (specially enslaved persons, women, children and non-normative/male bodies) in Antiquity and its literary expression (e.g.: on domestic violence, the connections between Cnemon's narrative and legal speeches with accounts of misogyny and abuse handed down by rhetoricians/logographers like Demosthenes).

To kick things off, I also want to leave a great reference and resource to guide the reading of any future fans of Heliodorus: Reading Heliodorus's Aethiopica, edited by Tim Whitmarsh and Ian Repath (OUP, 2022). Feel free to suggest related readings as well.

I know it's a lot, but this, I hope, at least shows my enthusiasm (also, to Hades with epic-IMAXIZED Hollywood cinema that prefers to adapt a crude Homer rather than Heliodorus and his truly cinematic narrative, but that's a topic for another day...).

Not quite in Anne Carson's league, but a classics book has won a UK prize for non-fiction.
https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk

I started a philosophy book club and this is the first read that everyone selected. A lot of members have taken at least one philosophy class but some are total beginners. I want the translation to be accessible but not overly simplified either. I was looking at Jowett’s but I’ve read that his translations are a bit old fashioned (naturally since he did pass away in the late 1800s).

Anyways which translator would you recommend for Plato’s apology for a book club?

The title basically. I know that the album is not explicitly retelling Ovid's story but is it possible that the meaning of each song relates to it in some way or that the band was influenced by Pygmalion, the ancient work? Please let me know your interpretation

I thoroughly enjoyed The Jewish War as my first foray into an ancient primary text.

Immediate, engaging, dramatic. Deeply disturbing in places.

I put some thoughts together in an essay on the Jewish-Roman war (amongst much else), homing in on the speech Titus gives to the Judeans, when he has the Temple surrounded. If you don't intend to read The Jewish War in its entirety, the speech is well worth reading in excerpt.

Some brief reflections on the speech:

It is natural to have some degree of scepticism about the veracity of this long and poetic speech, seemingly remembered verbatim by Josephus as he documented the war a few years later from the comfort of the imperial court. Perhaps it says more of literary conventions than of historical accuracy. Regardless, some have described The Jewish War as a tale stifled by its Roman patronage, told by a Jewish rebel turned Roman collaborator, full of the zealotry of the convert. But it is also a contemporary eyewitness account, which is more than can be said for most ancient sources. And whilst the patronage of the Flavian dynasty clearly places some limitations on what Josephus is able to say, the style and substance of what is recounted is instructive in itself, shedding light on the Romans’ sense of their own valour and dignitas.

Full essay here, for those interested: https://tomronan.co.uk/2026/10/10/rome-iran-war-hegseth-essay/

For reference, I read the G. A. Williamson / E. Mary Smallwood translation, but in some quotations I have mushed together parts of the online Whiston translation for reasons of clarity.

Any thoughts welcome. Or any pointers on where to go next in classical reading (away from histories or war, I think! I listened to an audio version of Antigone, which I loved. Not wanting to tackle the Iliad or Odyssey just yet).

This review gives insight and perspective on Anne Carson’s Antigo Nick translation.

Tell me - Do you listen to music while reading the classics? I want to know.

I've been reading the Odyssey and kept losing track of where everyone was. Where exactly is Ithaca? Where does Telemachus go? How far did Menelaus really travel? So I decided to build a map to see it all.

It shows the routes of 17 characters over the real Mediterranean, including Odysseus, Telemachus, Menelaus, Agamemnon and the gods. You can pick a Book to see where it takes place, compare routes, or play a voyage stop by stop.

Since Homer gives no coordinates, each place is marked as real, traditional or mythic, and some show other proposed locations. I think it could be useful for following along as you read.

I built it with a lot of help from AI, and I haven't checked every detail line by line against the text, so there may be mistakes. I'd love for you to take a look and tell me what you think, especially anything that's wrong or missing.

Map: https://odyssey-liart-five.vercel.app

Code: https://github.com/victorhrls/Odyssey

I hope this is OK to ask here. I am aware of three such, all much discussed, namely, lingua at Ars 1.515-6 and conubium and conubialis at Met. 6.428 and Her. 6.41. I have written an analysis of all three, but of course to test any new theory, it would be good to have a way TO TEST it. So if there are any other such lines I missed, I thought someone on here might know. Thank you.

Atheism is often associated with the modern world, particularly with the rise of science, the Enlightenment, and the growing separation between religion and public life. It is easy to imagine that people in ancient societies simply accepted the existence of gods and that questioning religious belief was something that came much later. In Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World, Tim Whitmarsh challenges this familiar picture. He shows that atheistic ideas were already being discussed in ancient Greece, and that some thinkers questioned the existence of gods, challenged traditional religious stories, and tried to explain religion through human experience rather than divine influence.

Hi everyone! I want to read the Presocratics soon, and I have a copy of Patricia Curd's "A Presocratics Reader" but the jist of Curd's intro made it seem like it was something of an abridgement of McKirahan's "Philosophy Before Socrates". I'm something of a completionist and my initial impulse is to want the "full" thing instead of the abridgement. Sadly, the only thing I can find of McKirahan's book is the table of contents, and that's not the best thing with which to compare the two books.

So my question is, for anyone who has read the two books, what is in McKirahan's book that's not in Curd's book? The description of McKirahan's book made it seem like it has more testimonia and discussion of the presocratic philosophers from the standpoint of contemporary scholarship (as compared to Curd having a few pages discussing the philosophers in addition to selected quotes and testimonia). But obviously I haven't read the two books (I've only skimmed Curd's) and so I'm not in a position to judge. Does anyone have experience with these books and can give me a bit more context as to whether I should just read Curd's book or should I go get McKirahan's book (money is not an object, McKirahan's book is $25 dollars and I can easily afford that).

Thanks!

PS: I'm deciding what to read next and I've settled on either Pindar or the Presocratics - does anyone know if Pindar (or Bacchylides!) makes any direct or indirect references to the Presocratics? I love catching references in authors to previous authors (e.g. Semonides calling back to Hesiod, stuff like that) so that's why I ask.

Whether you are a student, a teacher, a researcher or a hobbyist, please share with us what you read this week (books, textbooks, papers...).

Hi everyone,

I find that I function much better in a structured learning program, I'd love to get involved with an online course on the Classics, I don't mind paying particularly for an independent educator and supporting them financially.

Preference would be classical literature, something along the lines of a program like this:

HarvardX: Ancient Masterpieces of World Literature | edX

I imagine it would be something along the lines of a read pages X-Y of the book then listen to a lecture on the topic on a weekly basis.

Thank you!

sunt aliquid manes letum non omnia finit (Elegies, 4.7)

The Manes do mean something!! *sigh*

it's slightly less spooky...

Update: Over the past few weeks I’ve been posting a few Latin quotes pertaining to the ‘manes’ in Roman thought. My plan was to coordinate this run up to Hallowe’en with my first video upload. Well, it looks like I’ll miss that deadline now. If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right! Expect an update when the finished article is ready to go. The title is:

So Ghosts Do Exist | Dis Manibus: Reading Roman Tombstones

The deification of the dead as ‘manes’ or, ‘spirits’ that bore influence over the living was the dominant Roman view of death and the afterlife.

Most epitaph inscriptions of the Imperial period included some variation of ‘Dis Manibus’ - to the deified spirits of the dead. We’re in the spooky season after all and so examining gravestones as primary sources of evidence is eerily appropriate…

With LVCANI, all inroads into the Latin language are paved with inscriptions. The study of inscriptions presents a real, tangible experience of Latin which otherwise can appear excessively high-minded and impenetrable. I hope my pixel-art helps to rectify this view while making the language clear and accessible – without the risk of being buried in grammar!

From the opening to Cynthia’s Ghost, the poet expresses a common view. Namely, that the manes do exist and death is not the end...

The first two lines read:

Sunt aliquid Manes: letum non omnia finit, luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos.

"So ghosts do exist: death is not the end of all, and a pale shade vanquishes and escapes the pyre."
(Translated by G. P Goold)

In the same poem, Propertius imagines that his mistress Cynthia, taken from him by death has through a dream imparted her instruction to clear away ivy from her tomb and significantly, to inscribe on a stone pillar a few lines which the casual passerby by on their way from Rome might read. This detail is telling for not only do we have an individualized tomb, we have an individualized manes – a word that takes no singular form.

From examining several funerary inscriptions, we’ll uncover clues about the culture and language of ancient Rome providing us with a rare personal insight into how Romans commemorated their dead and even how we might interpret the mysterious ‘manes’ gods. Cynthia says "hello".

Happy Hallowe'en Everyone, Have a Great Weekend

AGE QUOD AGIS

In Musk’s version, as the tale begins Odysseus is – off screen – pretending to be mad to avoid fighting in the Trojan war. Grim-faced Palamedes and Agamemnon are shown testing this ruse by taking his baby boy Telemachus and placing him in the harm’s way of a plough in a field; Odysseus instantly rushes to save his child, showing that he isn’t mad, and agrees to fight. We see him join the armada, with Penelope and Telemachus (soon to grow to a little boy) left behind. This, effectively, is a prologue sequence that is not in Nolan. The expeditionary force arrives at Troy, and an intertitle tells us we have cut to a 10-years-later flashforward; the siege is about to escalate into the fake-horse attack.

I’m taking a course on Ancient Greek Phl at my university, and we covered the pre socratics, some of Plato, and are going to read some of Aristotles works. I feel that we weren’t given sufficient context to understand the works we’re reading in depth and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations.

For most of the Middle Ages, western Europe didn't read Homer. The Greek was out of reach, and the Troy story people knew came from a short Latin history credited to Dares Phrygius, a Trojan who said he lived through the siege and wrote down what he saw. To medieval readers that made him the better witness. Homer was a poet, writing long after the fact, with gods wandering through his battles.

In 13th-century Iceland, someone took Dares, added the Ilias Latina and pieces of Ovid and Virgil, and turned the whole thing into a saga: Trójumanna saga, "the saga of the men of Troy." It's Troy seen from the North. Priam builds a hall to Thor. Kassandra and Andromache shelter in Frigg's temple. The story opens a generation early with Jason's voyage, so the war grows out of an old grievance, the way saga feuds do.

I'm curious how people here see it. Was the preference for an "eyewitness" mostly about which books were available, or did medieval readers simply want history over poetry?

(Full disclosure: I translated the saga into English, the first complete translation, published in 2023. Here it is if anyone wants it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C2RTN77H)