Each of our Great Books Program online classes begin with a poem and a short discussion of poetry related to the week’s reading. Complete list of poetry can be found in our Great Books Study Guides.
Poetry for Week 3 of the Ancient Greek Year
Sea Fever, by John Masefield
I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the sea again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the sea again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
| 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). |
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| 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 |
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| Week 34 Oral Exams |
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| *Selections | |
