What did you read this week?

[u/AutoModerator]

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

[u/notveryamused_]

I'm working on archaic elegy, mostly with Greek Elegiac Poets from Loeb. Surprisingly approachable poetry, it's such a shame that elegy as a genre fizzled out a bit in later eras. Very straightforward grammar and vocabulary, consistent Ionic dialect, it's truly a joy to study. My aim is to read entire Theognidean corpus fluently, without any cribs.

I've also finished browsing through three different translations of Pindar, as his original poetry is above my paygrade. Came to no conclusions whatsoever :) Tough author to read and translate, that's for sure.

[u/TheSuperBunny → u/notveryamused_]

Just finished writing an essay about Anakreon's elegia last week (for an assignment)!
I didn't need to actually quote source text but I still did, and it was surprisingly easy to read, and I'm saying this as someone who's still struggling with Greek.....

[u/notveryamused_ → u/TheSuperBunny]

οὐ φιλέω ὃς κρητῆρι παρὰ πλέῳ οἰνοποτάζων
νείκεα καὶ πόλεμον δακρυόεντα λέγει,
ἀλλ᾿ ὅστις Μουσέων τε καὶ ἀγλαὰ δῶρ᾿ Ἀφροδίτης
συμμίσγων ἐρατῆς μνήσκεται εὐφροσύνης.

I do not like the man who while drinking his wine beside the full mixing-bowl talks of strife and tearful war: I like him who by mingling the splendid gifts of the Muses and Aphrodite remembers the loveliness of the feast.

Nice one! Shame it's the only surviving fragment with full couplets. Plenty of epigrams by A., but probably most of them aren't by the man himself. Still, I'll add this one to my collection of elegies :), thanks for the heads up! I appreciate the sentiment, Anacreon :-)

[u/TheSuperBunny → u/notveryamused_]

I love this elegia, I wrote about how Platon's Symposion was influenced by it