The most obvious and the most difficult place to start. Its important to remember (and I’ll keep coming back to this, to remind you) that there are all sorts of different kinds and readers. What will appeal to some will not appeal to all. There are those that will be fascinated by the epic of Gilgamesh or the Kojiki, or the Mahabharata, or the Analects of Confucius, but for most readers the starting point is Ancient Greece.
For me, Homer is a must, but both epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, can be daunting because of their length and because of their context. The Iliad introduces us to war, before it had any glamour (beyond everlasting individual fame). The battles are gruesome and graphic and the ending is a profound and tragic musing on human nature and life itself. But the cast of characters and the list of place names is staggering so, perhaps, you might have more of a taste for the Odyssey. Many of the stories will seem vaguely familiar and the story is hugely entertaining. And Odysseus, himself, should be the chief strategist of any political party that you favour – which is precisely the role he plays in the Iliad. Wily, sneaky, amoral, flawed and always winning; he’s a lot of fun. (And whichever one you chose –though more through the Iliad than the Odyssey – you are opening a window onto the Bronze age, amazing and gone for 3,200 years.)
And while we are here, honorable mention must be given to some heavy-duty poets. Sappho is by far the best but mostly survives in fragments. Tyrtaios of Sparta was an apologist for warfare, but a good poet:
Stand straight in the front rank with your shield before you
and see your life as your enemy; the darkness of
Death should be welcome as the light of the sun.
Archilocus of Paros was a professional soldier as well as a poet:
Some barbarian is waving my shield, since I was obliged to
Leave that perfectly good piece of equipment behind
Under a bush. But I got away, so what does it matter?
Let the shield go; I can buy another one equally good.
and he understood how the Greek phalanx was unbeatable:
The fox knows many tricks, the hedgehog only one.
One good one.
And Simonides of Cos became immortal with two lines:
Stranger, go tell the Spartans
That here we lie, obedient to their commands.
And before we move on, I will also mention three other writers that also deserve attention. Herodotus, who is known as the Father of History, Thucydides whose recounting of the war between Athens and Sparta is still unbeatable, and Xenophon, a bit of an upper-class twit but whose story of the Anabasis of the mercenaries is fabulous without being fabular.
And then there’s the theatre.
It’s absolutely astounding how many Greek plays we do not have. In comedy we have some of the plays by Aristophanes but none by any other comic playwright, except one later decadent. We have some plays by the three most famous tragedians but none by anyone else – and there were scads of other tragic playwrights. The principal difficulty with what remains is that the best of them are the least enjoyed because they engaged so deeply with their own time, events and culture that unless you are equipped with a knowledge of those things they can be very difficult to follow. Aristophanes is hilarious (best chance of “getting” him is The Frogs) but he is so topical that most of the humour is lost except his sensational lewdness as in Lysistrata. Aeschylus is positively brilliant but over most of our heads, Agamemnon is worth a try but your need to know the mythical background to get it. Euripides is the most modern and his musings on the evils of war are brilliant. Socrates can be so obscure at times that no one has a clue what he’s up to but the daring of presenting Oedipus Rex (about a city enduring a terrible plague) to a city enduring a terrible plague is breathtaking; and to watch Oedipus, consumed by his own arrogance, embracing his own foul end is mesmerizing. I could read most of these plays over and over again but they are not for all.
I cannot confess to being a great fan of Roman Literature. I have never been able to finish the Aeneid and Cicero can be enormously pompous; although sometimes witty and apt: "I feel we should do well to follow the advice of Themistocles. Someone asked him whether he ought to give his daughter in marriage to a man who was disreputable but rich. “Personally,” he replied, “I like a man without money better than money without a man”. Cicero, On Duties
The histories of Livy are, at times, extremely interesting but they are longer than an opera by Meyerbeer. Horace is practical, but dull. The works of two Roman playwrights have survived. Plautus can be very funny (even his prologues) but Terence is as dreary as his name portends. Both playwrights stole their plots from (now lost) Greek comedies. For my money, if you want to read the Romans, read Catullus and Ovid. They are satirical, witty and sexy.
You have to forgive the Romans, but until they conquered Greece, they were not even aware that there was literature.
Medieval Literature
After the fall of the classical world, it’s slim pickings for a while. But there are a number of gems available, depending on the kind of material you like to read. If you like amusing tales of bawdry, adventure and travel – and a true window on the medieval world (without chivalry, pointless warfare and a ridiculously wealthy nobility) then Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is right for you. Try and get a version that is translated into modern verse from the original Middle English that it was written in.
In fact, I should make a confession right here. I was at the cusp before a series of educational “reforms” (unfortunately) kicked in. I was in the last year that got taught Latin in public school and the last year in graduate school that was required to “learn” Old and Middle English in order to acquire a Masters in English Literature. That knowledge has been of more use to me than almost anything else that I have learned in a classroom.
If you are more inclined to stories of adventure in a dark world of magic and heroism then you should have a look at Beowulf. Here you will need to find a good translation as the story was first written down in Old English. Finally, if you like all of the above and more, you can get hold of a good translation, read Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Be aware that “comedy” refers here (and in many other older pieces of literature) to a happy ending, although Dante is not averse to a bit of (sometimes brutal) joking. The general pattern with most readers is that they like Inferno a lot, Purgatorio less and find Paradiso bland and puzzling. But at least give the first book a shot – it might just pleasantly surprise you. Again, a good verse translation helps – Dorothy L. Sayers is fine.
Honourable mention here goes to Thomas Mallory’s Morte d’ Arthur. The classic version of the stories of Arthur and his knights has weathered well both time and Monty Python.
Les honourable mention goes to the Romance las Rose (originally in Old French and with two authors) and the poems of Francois Villon (who was a part time poet and a full time criminal). Some people love the works of Rabelais and other can’t stand them. Again, it’s a personal choice.
Before we move forward in time, one last word about the middles ages. The most popular literature – aside from Dante and Chaucer (and a few other rather tedious best sellers) – of the era were the Corpus Christi plays that were performed every summer in the major population centers of Europe. Many have been lost in time and to suppression by the zealots of Protestantism, but many are being performed again today throughout Europe. I will mention the York Cycle by name as it is the most complete. The Oberammergau Passion play, in Germany, is almost impossible to get tickets when it is performed every ten years.
International Literature to
Before we move into the Literature of the Renaissance and the Early Modern I’m going to take this opportunity to at least take a stab at naming some works that might be considered as representative pieces of the National Literatures of some other countries that have also gained a wide international celebrity. The list is by no means exhaustive, just representative of what I have read and I will be adding to it, no doubt.
From Japan – The Tale of Genji. Written by a lady-in-waiting named Murasaki Shikibu, in the 11th century. It just might be considered the first novel ever written.
From China – Water Margin. Attributed to Shi Nai’an (1296-1372) it tells the story of 108 outlaws who gather in the Marsh Land to overthrow the government. Many of the main characters have become household heroes to the Chinese and it was even turned into a television series under the government of Mao. It has had an enormous influence.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION (VISUALLIZE MULITIPLE ORANGE CONES).
