Reddit reviews The Iliad

Hmm...

What originally got me into the field, even though it maybe sounds cliche, is the Iliad. Fucking phenomenal story. The Fagles translation is my favorite, although Fitzgerald's is also quite good, and Lattimore's gives you a good sense of the concise directness of the Greek original. There are a few parts you really should just skip for your first reading, though... I can fill you in on those.

Second, Aeschylus' Oresteia, which is fucking awesome, and crazy. And my non-classicist SO says Ted Hughes' translation is the best, so try that one.

Third, Herodotus. The first attempt at historical writing that we have from the western tradition, and full of great stories, great storytelling, and insight into antiquity. Herodotus would probably be near the top of my list of people from ancient Greece or Rome to get a beer with, along with Ovid and Sappho.

There are some good times to be had with the folks of the ancient mediterranean, for sure :)

I started to read more when I was trying to unplug. TV/Netflix/phones can really pull you out of reality, make your brain weak as you begin to lose control of your thoughts. Just try not watching TV/youtube for 3 days...why is it so hard? Are we addicted to screens or are we just lazy. Research neuroplasticity, and how you can make your brain work for you (any how you fall into additive traps when you lose control of your attention). A lot of people on here are recommending meditation, I can't stress how important this is.

Start by reading someting that interests you...check out r/suggestmeabook if you need some help. Also, I can recommend some great books:

• Snow Crash - Neil Stephenson // The best cyberpunk/sci-fi roller-coaster of a read I have come across.
  
• The Iliad - Homer / Fagles translaition // Read this to understand the mankind's greatest story about war, violence and masculinity - this is about the Trojan war (well 4 days near the end), and was widely considered to be the Bible for ancient Greeks.
  
• A Man on the Moon - Andrew Chaikin // Fascinating (and accurate) account of NASA's Apollo space program from start to finish.
  
• Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed - Ben Rich // Behind-the-scenes account of the Skunk Works program and the incredible achievements they made back in the day.
  
  Best of luck.
  
  

Far cheaper too. Only $12!

http://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe/dp/0140275363/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228146221&sr=8-1

Robert Fagles did a great contemporary translation.

Well, if it's old, it must be true. Clearly, the Iliad must be Holy Scripture. All hail Homer, and Saint Robert Fagles, his Prophet.

My uncle recommended a few Buddhist-based books to me:

Only Don't Know: Selected Teaching Letters of Zen Master Seung Sahn (http://www.amazon.com/Only-Dont-Know-Selected-Teaching/dp/1570624321)

A Zen Wave: Basho's Haiku and Zen (http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Wave-Bashos-Haiku/dp/083480137X)

My uncle is a really smart guy who identifies as atheist. He also recommended the following as books that helped him in his journey:

Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder (http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Gain-Disorder/dp/1400067820)

From Dawn to Decadence (http://www.amazon.com/From-Dawn-Decadence-Western-Cultural/dp/0060928832)

Beowulf, Seamus Heaney translation (http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Verse-Translation-Bilingual-Edition/dp/0393320979)

The Iliad, Robert Fagles translation (http://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe-Edition/dp/0140275363/)

The Odyssey, Robert Fagles translation (http://www.amazon.com/The-Odyssey-Homer/dp/0140268863)

I'm the same way. We're all slaves to our own egos. Most of us go through life asleep, running on auto-pilot, feeding our self-image. The 24-7 pleasure-dome matrix doesn't do much to facilitate spiritual growth. I admit that I was this way for many years, I didn't know any better. It wasn't until I hit 30, after a year or two of chronic unhappiness and zombie syndrome that I started to question everything and ended up on this journey here.


Some stuff that helped me: watch this, read this and listen to this.

Do you meditate? It has helped me a lot. I also exercise 4 - 5 X/week (mostly weights, 5x5s and swimming...maybe one day I'll get into yoga) and recently went nofap. I do feel different. If you haven't checked out r/EOOD, take a look. We're all in this together.

For fairy tales, I recommend the following:

• The Victorian Fairy Tales Book
  
• Norton's The Classic Fairy Tales
  
• Norton's The Great Fairy Tale Tradition
  
• The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales
  
• My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me
  
• Any and all of Andrew Lang's Colored Fairy Books (the first two focus on collections of well-known tales, but most of them are sort of themed/grouped geographically and have fairy tales from all over the world)
  
• The Complete Fairy Tales of George MacDonald
  
• The Names Upon the Harp: Irish Myth and Legend
  
• I'm a big fan of the various "Annotated" Fairy Tale collections, like the Annotated Brothers Grimm, Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, and Annotated Hans Christen Andersen, though I don't always agree with the editorializing. It's a whole series, so I'm only going to link to a couple.
  
• On that note, look for book collections put together and/or edited by Maria Tatar and Jack Zipes. They're the two most prominent fairy tale scholars at the moment and basically have an unofficial duopoly on the fairy tale academic criticism market.
  
• Also, a special shout-out to P.J. Lynch's illustrated version of East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and really all of the fairy tales books that Lynch illustrates. They're beautiful.
  
  
  For mythology and classical studies, there are a couple that are basically required reading for any Mythology or Classics class. Since several people have already recommended anthologies of Greek myths, I'm going to err more on the "Classics" side of the conversation:
  
  
• Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell
  
• The Odyssey, Homer (I recommend the Fagles translation due to its prominence in academia and its status as one of the best translations of the work)
  
• The Illiad, Homer (again, Fagles translation)
  
• The Aeneid, Virgil (again, Fagles has a translation that's very good). My bias as a Latin student, however, leads me to also recommend Pharr, which has no real use to you if you don't know Latin but it's the most popular all-time textbook version of the Aeneid)
  
• Metamorpheses, Ovid
  
• You also probably want to look at some Greek plays like the Sophoclean Tragedies/Three Thebian Plays

Lol don't take me too seriously. i only just picked it up and am working my way through it. I really enjoy Robert Fagles' translation