Great Books Program Readings

Courses 3,000 Years in the Making

“To read is an act of creation in which no one can do our work for us.” —Proust

Great Books of the Ancient Greeks Weekly Readings
Great Books of the Ancient Greeks I
First Semester
Great Books of the Ancient Greeks II
Second Semester
Weekly Readings
Weekly Readings
Before the first class read the article
The Great Conversation; Theogony by Hesiod; and Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus (we will send you links to these).
Week 1
Orientation: Intro to the Great Books
Theogony - Hesiod
Prometheus Bound -Aeschylus
Week 17
Peloponnesian War* -Thucydides
Week 2
The Iliad - Homer
Week 18
Peloponnesian War* -Thucydides
Week 3
The Iliad - Homer
Week 19
Fragments* - Presocratic Philosophers
Week 4
The Odyssey - Homer
Week 20
Ion, Meno - Plato
Week 5
The Odyssey - Homer
Week 21
Gorgias - Plato
Week 6
Agamemnon, Libation Bearers,
Eumenides - Aeschylus
Week 22
Republic* - Plato
Week 7
Trojan Women, Alcestis - Euripedes
Week 23
Republic* - Plato
Week 8
Aesop’s Fables* -Aesop
Week 24
Symposium - Plato
Week 9
Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus -Sophocles
Week 25
Apology, Euthyphro - Plato
Week 10
Antigone - Sophocles, Hippolytus - Euripides
Week 26
Crito, Phaedo - Plato
Week 11
Histories* - Herodotus
Week 27
Poetics, On the Heavens*, On the Soul* - Aristotle
Week 12
Histories* - Herodotus, Lycurgus, Solon - Plutarch

Week 28
Ethics*, Metaphysics* -Aristotle
Week 13
Thanksgiving week, no classes
Week 29
Spring Break – April 4-12
Week 14
Lycurgus, Solon - Plutarch, Pericles, Alcibiades -Plutarch
Week 30
Aristotle - selections
Week 15
Pericles, Alcibiades -Plutarch
Week 31
Aristides, Alexander -Plutarch
Week 16
Oral Exams
Week 32
The Oath, On Ancient Medicine,
On Airs, Waters, Places - Hippocrates
Week 33
Elements*, Euclid
Week 34
Oral Exams
*Selections