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Tags: ancient classic

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  The Epic of Gilgamesh: An English Verison with an Introduction (Penguin Classics)

  by Anonymous

  Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu are the only heroes to have survived from the ancient literature of Babylon, immortalized in this epic poem that dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. Together they journey to the Spring of Youth, defeat the Bull of Heaven and slay the monster Humbaba. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh's grief and fear of death are such that they lead him to undertake a quest for eternal... (more)
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  The Republic of Plato

  by Plato

  Plato's "Republic" is widely acknowledged as the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an enquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation other questions are raised: what is goodness; what is reality; what is knowledge? "The Republic" also addresses the purpose of... (more)
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  Arthurian Romances (Dover Value Editions)

  by Chretien De Troyes, Chre?tien

  Taking the legends surrounding King Arthur and weaving in new psychological elements of personal desire and courtly manner, Chretien de Troyes fashioned a new form of medieval Romance. The Knight of the Cart is the first telling of the adulterous relationship between Lancelot and Arthur's Queen Guinevere, and in The Knight with the Lion Yvain neglects his bride in his quest for greater glory. Erec and Enide... (more)
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  Meditations (Penguin Classics)

  by A. S. L. Farquharson, Marcus Cornelius Fronto, Gregory Hays, R. B. Rutherford, Marcus Aurelius, George Long, Aurelius Marcus, G. M. A. Grube

  A new translation of the philosophical journey that has inspired luminaries from Matthew Arnold to Bill Clinton Written by an intellectual Roman emperor, the Meditations offer a wide range of spiritual reflections developed as the leader struggled to understand himself and the universe. Marcus Aurelius covers topics as diverse as the question of virtue, human rationality, the nature of the gods,... (more)
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  King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (Little Golden Book)

  by Emma Gelders-Sterne, Barbara Lindsay

  Wizards and knights! Queens and quests! The tales of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table are legendary favorites whose appeal transcends time. This gorgeously illustrated collection–unavailable for decades–combines the work of renowned illustrator Gustaf Tenggren with captivating storytelling, and reignites the magic of an age long ago and far away.
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  Laws: Plato (Great Books in Philosophy)

  by Benjamin Jowett, Plato

  In the Laws, Plato describes in fascinating detail a comprehensive system of legislation in a small agricultural utopia he named Magnesia. His laws not only govern crime and punishment, but also form a code of conduct for all aspects of life in his ideal state from education, sport and religion to sexual behaviour, marriage and drinking parties. Plato sets out a plan for the day-to-day rule of Magnesia,... (more)
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  Tales of Robin Hood (Library of Fantasy and Adventure Series)

  by Tony Allan, Felicity Brooks

  A collection of tales about the legendary outlaw and champion of the poor, Robin Hood.
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  Fragments (Penguin Classics)

  by Heraclitus

  In the sixth century b.c.-twenty-five hundred years before Einstein-Heraclitus of Ephesus declared that energy is the essence of matter, that everything becomes energy in flux, in relativity. His great book, On Nature , the world's first coherent philosophical treatise and touchstone for Plato, Aristotle, and Marcus Aurelius, has long been lost to history-but its surviving fragments have for thousands of years... (more)
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  HOMER THE ODYSSEY

  by Homer, E. V. Rieu

  Robert Fagles’s stunning modern-verse translation—available at last in our black-spine classics line The Odyssey is literature’s grandest evocation of everyman’s journey through life. In the myths and legends that are retold here, renowned translator Robert Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer’s original in a bold, contemporary idiom and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor,... (more)
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  The Penguin classics

  by Plautus

  One of the supreme comic writers of the Roman world, Plautus (c.254-184 BC) skilfully adapted classic Greek comic models to the manners and customs of his day. This collection features a varied selection of his finest plays, from the light-hearted comedy "Pseudolus", in which the lovesick Calidorus and his slave try to liberate his lover from her pimp, to the more subversive "The Prisoners", which raises serious... (more)
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  The Orignal Four Arthurian Romances

  by Chretien DeTroyes

  Erec Et Enide, Cliges, Yvain – The Knight of the Lion, Lancelot – the Knight of the Cart. Chretien De Troyes has had the peculiar fortune of becoming the best known of the old French poets to students of mediaeval literature, and of remaining practically unknown to any one else. The acquaintance of students with the work of Chretien has been made possible in academic circles by the admirable critical editions... (more)
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  The Iliad

  by Homer

  "Each new generation is bound to produce new translations. <Lattimore> has done better with nobility, as well as with accuracy, than any other modern verse translator. <In> our age we do not often find a fine scholar who is also a genuine poet and who takes the greatest pains over the work of translation."--Hugh Lloyd-Jones, New York Review of Books
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  Dialogues. (English.)

  by Hugh Tredennick, Plato

  Socrates spent a lifetime analyzing ethical issues, and the "Euthyphro" finds him outside the court-house, still debating the nature of piety with an arrogant acquaintance. "The Apology" is both a robust rebuttal to the charges of impiety and corrupting young minds and a definitive defence of the philosopher's life. Later, condemned and imprisoned in the "Crito", Socrates counters the arguments of friends urging... (more)
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  Selections. (English.)

  by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, John M. Cooper

  This volume offers new translations of the most important of Seneca's "Moral Essays": On Anger, On Mercy, On the Private Life, and the first four books of On Favours. They give a full picture of the social and moral outlook of an ancient Stoic thinker. A General Introduction describes Seneca's life and career and explains the fundamental ideas underlying the Stoic moral, social and political philosophy in the... (more)
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  Metamorphoses

  by Ovid, Ted Hughes

  Ovid’s sensuous and witty poem brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation—often as a result of love or lust—where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and... (more)
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  Selections. (English.)

  by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

  Based on the legends used in Greek drama, Seneca's plays are notable for the exuberant ruthlessness with which disastrous events are foretold and then pursued to their tragic and often bloodthirsty ends. Thyestes depicts the menace of an ancestral curse hanging over two feuding brothers, while Phaedra portrays a woman tormented by fatal passion for her stepson. In The Trojan Women, the widowed Hecuba and... (more)