Philosophers of the old times

[Rigas]

Hey,

 

I want to start a journey in 2024 to learn about the Greek and Roman philosophers of the ancient times. My first question is wether to read their works in Greek or in English. I’m a native greek speaker, but I like reading books in English, because I believe the translations are better. In this occasion however it’s a bit different since they wrote their works in ancient greek.

My second question is if anyone has a list and an order in which to read their works, to better dwell into their ideas.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Brian.]

3 hours ago, Rigas said:

Hey,

 

I want to start a journey in 2024 to learn about the Greek and Roman philosophers of the ancient times. My first question is wether to read their works in Greek or in English. I’m a native greek speaker, but I like reading books in English, because I believe the translations are better. In this occasion however it’s a bit different since they wrote their works in ancient greek.

My second question is if anyone has a list and an order in which to read their works, to better dwell into their ideas.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Anything that is translated will lose something, I think that is unavoidable. Whether it is worth reading the works in Greek is hard to say because I imagine ancient Greek differs to modern Greek language, I could be wrong though. I have read some of the Stoic works so I can offer some advice there. I think the best book to start off with is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and then probably The Enchiridion by Epictetus. I recommend these are they are an easy place to start, especially Meditations.

[Hayley]

I agree with Brian regarding translations. I’d definitely read the originals if I could! 

 

I hope you’ll share your reading journey with us too, I’d love to hear about it 😄.