Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Western Canon: Greece and Rome

The Ancient Greeks

Homer (8th century BC)

The Iliad

The Odyssey

The Thebais

The device of a plot was Homer’s invention: subsequent long poems, dramas, novels, and feature films are indebted to him. He is also the inventor of character in literature.

Hesiod (8th century BC)

The Works and Days

Theogony

Catalogue of Women

Bacchylides (5th century BC)

Archilochos (7th century BC)

Sappho (c.620 – c.565 BC)

Alkman

Pindar (518 – 438 BC)

The Odes

Nemean

Pythians

Olympians

Aeschylus (525 – 456 BC)

The Oresteia (458 BC):

Agamemnon

Choephoroe (Libation-Bearers)

Eumenides

Seven against Thebes (467 BC)

Prometheus Bound

The Suppliant Women (462/461 BC)

The Persians (472 BC)


Sophocles (c.496 – 406 BC)

Oedipus the King (429 BC)

Oedipus at Colonus (406 BC)

Antigone (441 BC)

Electra (staged 418 – 410 BC)

Ajax (441 BC)

Women of Trachis (430 BC)

Philoctetes (409 BC)

Ichneutae (Searching Satyrs)

Euripides (485 – 406 BC)

Electra (413 BC)

Cyclops

Heracles or Mad Heracles (Hercules Furens) (414 BC, performed c.420 BC)

Alcestis (438 BC)

Hecuba (Hecabe) (c.425/424 BC)

The Bacchae (The Bacchants)(shown 405 BC)

Orestes (408 BC)

Andromache (430/424 BC)

Medea (431 BC)

Ion (c.411 BC)

Hippolytus (428 BC)

Helen (412 BC)

Iphigeneia at Aulis (performed 406/405 BC)

The Phoenician Women (c.410 BC)

The Trojan Women (415 BC)

The Heraclidae (The Children of Heracles) (c.429/427 BC)

The Suppliant Women (c.422/421 BC)

Appolonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC)

The Argonautica

Aristophanes (c.448 – 385 BC)

The Clouds (423 BC)

The Birds (414 BC)

The Frogs (405 BC)

Lysistrata (Demobilize the Army) (411 BC)

The Knights (Hippeis)

The Wasps (422 BC)

The Assemblywomen (also called The Parliament of Women)

The Peace (performed in 421 BC)

The Thesmophoriazusae (411 or 410 BC)

The Ecclesiazusae

Plutus (388 BC)

Herodotus (c.480 – 425 BC), father of history

The History (nine books)

Thucydides (c.460 – c.400 BC)

The Peloponnesian War

Heraclitus (c.540 – c.470 BC)

Empedocles (c.490 – c.430 BC)


Plato (427 – 347 BC)

Symposium (360 BC)

Dialogues

Republic (Politeia) (380s or 370s BC)

Statesman (Politicus) (360s BC)

Laws (350s and 340s BC)

Cratylus

Phaedo

Gorgias

Protagoras

Theaetetus (c.368 BC)

Sophist

Apology

Phaedrus

Euthyphro

Crito

Charmides

Laches

Lesser Hippias

Greater Hippias

Meno

Parmenides (c.370 BC)

Timaeus

Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)

Ethics

Poetics

On Generation and Corruption

Rhetoric

Metaphysics

Sophistical Refutations

Politics

On the Sky

Hellenistic Greeks

Menander (? 342 –291 BC)

The Girl from Samos

Longinus, Dionysius Cassius

On the Sublime

Callimachus (c.310 – c.240 BC)

Hymns and Epigrams

Theocritus

Idylls

Plutarch (AD c.46 – c.120)

Lives

Themistocles

Cimon

On the Malice of Herodotus (De Malignitate Herodoti)

Pericles

Timoleon

Demosthenes

Aesop (c.620 – c.560 BC)

Fables

Lucian (AD 117 – c.180)

Satires

The Romans

Plautus, Titus Maccius (c.254 – c.184 BC)

The Braggart Soldier

Pseudolus

The Rope

Amphitryon

Terence, Publius Terentius Afer (c.190 -? 159 BC)

The Eunuch

The Girl from Andros

The Mother-in-law

Lucretius, Titus Lucretius Carus (? 97 – 54 BC)

The Way Things Are

Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106 – 43 BC)

On the Gods

Horace, Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 – 8 BC)

Satires

Epistles

Persius, Aulus Persius Flaccus (AD 34 – 62)

Satires

Catullus, Gauis Valerius (84 – 54 BC)

Attis

Vergil (Virgil), Publius Vergilius Maro (70 – 19 BC)

Eclogues

The Aeneid

Georgics

Lucan, Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (AD 39 – 65)

Pharsalia

Ovid, Publius Ovidius Naso (c.43 BC – AD 17)

The Art of Love

Metamorphoses

Epistulae heroidum or Heroides

Juvenal, Decimus Junius Juvenalis (AD c.60 – 140)

Satires

Livy, Titus Livius (59 BC – AD 17)

Martial, Marcus Valerius Martialis (AD? 43 -? 104)

Epigrams


Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (4 BC – AD 65)

Tragedies (Medea, Hercules furens)

Petronius, Gaius Petronius Arbiter

Satyricon

Apuleius, Lucius

The Golden Ass

Works Cited and Consulted:

Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994.

Grant, Michael. The Classical Greeks. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1989.

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