Self-Study Classical Education
At a late(er) point in life, I have come to realize what I have missed out on by not having a classical humanities education. (My undergrad was in computer science.) Using Noet, what would be a recommended self-study curriculum to rectify this omission?
Thanks!
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It's a great question with a broad spectrum of available answers. Before I recommend anything (even if you have unlimited money, you don't have unlimited time [:)]), I've got a few questions for you: Do you have an area you'd like to focus on (philosophy, theater, history, etc.)? Are you interested in learning the languages? Are you more interested in a particular era? Do the Greek works or the Latin works interest you more?
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It's a great question with a broad spectrum of available answers. Before I recommend anything (even if you have unlimited money, you don't have unlimited time
), I've got a few questions for you: Do you have an area you'd like to focus on (philosophy, theater, history, etc.)? Are you interested in learning the languages? Are you more interested in a particular era? Do the Greek works or the Latin works interest you more?Answering those questions would be a good start for me, it seems.
History is probably my main interest. Languages are challenging for me, so I'd want to consider the necessary time commitment carefully. And the ancient era is of higher interest.0 -
You could choose to focus on particular interests as Lew suggests. Another approach is to work your way through a best-of type of selection as in the Harvard Classics collection:
https://www.logos.com/product/33084/harvard-classics-collection
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Are there any particular classical authors or works that you have read and particularly enjoyed?
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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Answering those questions would be a good start for me, it seems.
History is probably my main interest. Languages are challenging for me, so I'd want to consider the necessary time commitment carefully. And the ancient era is of higher interest.If you don't have the free Perseus Classics Collection, it's great to have it. The problem for using this as an intro is that there's so much stuff it's hard to find a beginning point and it's hard to put it all into context. There's a little help in Noet's Greek Classics Research Library, but the focus there is on the Greek language.
If I were in your position, I'd consider the Bristol Classics Classical Literature Collection. This includes the slender volume by Timothy Duff, The Greek and Roman Historians, which looks like a good introduction to a topic you expressed special interest in. This collection also includes material on the poets and orators. It would be hard to understand any classic text without understanding a little of the larger literary milieu, including poetry, rhetoric, drama, and Homer. Many ancient writers constantly refer to these aspects even in their history writing or in their philosophy. And keep in mind you'll usually get a better picture of ancient historiography than you will of ancient history by reading ancient historians.
Regarding rhetoric that I mentioned above -- which was a discipline that occupied a major place in ancient Greco Roman education -- you may also consider the collection of essays edited by Stanley Porter, Handbook of Classical Rhetoric in the Hellenistic Period, 330 B.C–A.D. 400.
There are so many ways to go, but these resources might provide a good foundation. Others will no doubt have other good suggestions.
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I did a little deeper digging to see what Bristol has to offer in Logos/Noet. Something like Bristol Classics Greek and Roman Studies Collection looks like it has some great material to help build an understanding of that world. If my "to read" list wasn't ridiculous, I'd probably jump all over that one.
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Given your name, you must of course read Virgil's Aeneid before anything else, if you haven't read it yet.
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Everything starts with Homer. Read and re-read the Iliad and the Odyssey, and then move out from there in concentric circles (Plato, Sophocles, Herodotus, Xenophon; Virgil, Ovid, Caesar, etc.). It is the classic of the classics, the bible of the Greco-Roman world. A moveable feast.
(Incidentally, this thread brought to my attention that the Bristol Classics Culture and History Bundle now has a ship date!)
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