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About the Photos...
This section contains texts from ancient Greece and Rome, primarily about
Classical Pagan beliefs. However, any text which has survived from this
period of antiquity is, by definition, a classic. Many of these texts were
only saved from the flames of the dark ages in locations remote from Rome
and Athens, such as the legendary city of Timbuktu in central Africa, Irish
monastaries, and by Islamic scholars in centers of learning as Baghdad.
Greek
HOMER
Works of Homer:
The Iliad of Homer,
Samuel Butler translator [1898]
The Odyssey of Homer,
Samuel Butler translator [1900]
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter
The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer in Greek
HESIOD
Works of Hesiod:
Hesiod's Theogony
Works and Days
ORPHEUS
The Hymns of Orpheus,
by Thomas Taylor [1792]
SAPPHO
The Poems of Sappho
English and Transliterated Greek
The Poems of Sappho (Unicode)
English and Greek
The Songs of Bilitis
by Pierre Louÿs, tr. by Alvah C. Bessie [1926]
A famous hoax, which has had a huge impact on our modern perception of Sappho.
HERODOTUS
The History of Herodotus
parallel English/Greek
English tr. by G. C. Macaulay [1890]
The epochal conflict between the Greeks and Persians, by 'the Father of
History.'
AESOP
The Fables of Aesop
APOLLONIUS RHODIUS
The Argonautica parallel
English/Greek.
English tr. by R.C. Seaton [1912]
The primary text for the story of Jason, the Argonauts, and the quest for
the Golden Fleece.
AESCHYLUS
The Dramas of Aeschylus
ARISTOTLE
The Works of Aristotle
SOPHOCLES
The Dramas of Sophocles
EURIPIDES
The Dramas of Euripides
PLATO
The Dialogues of Plato
PYTHAGORAS
The Golden Verses of Pythagoras,
by Florence M. Firth [1902]
Roman
VIRGIL
Works of Virgil:
The Aeneid English
and Latin
The Eclogues
J.W. MacKail tr. [1934]. English and Latin
The Georgics
J.W. MacKail tr. [1934]. English and Latin
APULEIUS
The Golden Asse By Apuleius.
Translated by William Adlington. [1566]
The Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of The Marriage
of Cupid and Psyche By Apuleius.
Translated by William Adlington. Illustrations by Dorothy Mullock [1914]
PLOTINUS
The Enneads of Plotinus
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS
Meditations 247,149
bytes
LUCRETIUS
On The Nature Of Things
By Titus Lucretius Carus 447,623 bytes
OVID
Works of Ovid:
Metamorphoses
English and Latin
Amores, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris and Medicamina
Faciei Femineae English and Latin
PETRONIUS
Gaius Petronius:
The Satyricon of Petronius
PRIAPEIA
The Priapeia Translated
by L.C. Smithers and Sir Richard Burton [1890] English and Latin
TACITUS
The Works of Tacitus
parallel English and Latin text.
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
The preeminent Latin historian of the first century CE.
EMPEROR JULIAN
Two Orations of the Emperor Julian
Translated by Thomas Taylor [1793]
Other Roman resources
The Royal Museum at Naples,
Being Some Account of The Erotic Paintings, Bronzes, and Statues Contained
in that Famous "Cabinet Secret", by Stanislas Marie César
Famin [1871]
Sixty lithographs of erotic Roman art and artifacts.
General
Bulfinch's Mythology
Bulfinch's able retelling of the classic myths has
served as an introduction to the subject for generation of readers.
The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for my Children
by Charles Kingsley [1901]
A retelling of the myths of Perseus, Jason and the Argonauts, and Theseus
for young adults, with lavish art-deco illustrations.
The Sibylline Oracles
Translated by Milton S. Terry [1899].
The (pseudo)-Sibylline Oracles are ancient books of prophecy.
Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe
by Donald A. Mackenzie. [1917]
A survey of what is known about the civilization of ancient Crete.
The Dionysian Artificers
by Hippolyto Joseph da Costa [1820].
Ancient Fragments by
I. P. Cory [1832]
The Mysteries of Mithra
by Franz Cumont [1903]
Learn about the religion that might have taken the place of Christianity.
The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism
by Franz Cumont [1911]
Roman paganism later incorporated a diverse set of beliefs including ecstatic
near-eastern religions, a wide range of goddess cults, dualism from Persia,
and astrology.
Pagan Regeneration: A
Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman World, by Harold R. Willoughby
[1929]
Taboo, Magic, Spirits:
A Study of Primitive Elements in Roman Religion, By Eli Edward Burriss [1931]
The Religion of Numa
And Other Essays on the Religion of Ancient Rome by Jesse Benedict Carter
[1906]
An excellent history of the evolution of Roman religious ideas.
Pagan and Christian Creeds
by Edward Carpenter [1922]
Carpenter explores the similaries between Christianity and ancient mystery
religions, as well as the similiarities between the narrative of Christ
and other solar heros.
Ancient Art and Ritual
by Jane Harrison [1913]
The Mycenaean Origin of
Greek Mythology by Martin P. Nilsson [1932,
not renewed]
Greek Popular Religon
by Martin P. Nilsson [1940, not renewed]
About the photos
I took the photographs in this section in 1971 on an Easter Week tour
of Greece with a group of High School classics students from Southern California.
Escorted by nuns (I was one of the only public school students in the group),
our tour visited Athens, Delphi, Mycenae and Knossos. The photos were taken
with a cheap Instamatic. I recently found these photos and scanned some
of them to accompany this section
[View] The photo on this page is the
Temple of Poseidon at Sounion. Isadora Duncan danced there. I threw the
last watch I ever owned into the sea from this promontory.
[View] The photo on the works of Homer
index page is the entrance to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae. A fabulous
hoard of gold artifacts was found in it when it was excavated, including
a gold death mask which Schliemann decided was that of Agamemnon. The interior
is shaped like a beehive and has bizarre acoustics.
[View] The photo on the Iliad index
page is the arch of the Lion Gate at Mycenae; many of the key figures of
the Iliad (if they actually existed) must have walked under this arch.
[View] The photo on the Odyssey index
page is a view of the Aegean which I took from the cruise ship taking us
to Crete.
[View] The photo on the Bulfinch index
page is a panorama of the Acropolis.
[View] The photo on the Aesop index page
is yet another view of the Acropolis.
[View] Yet another view of the Acropolis.
Another photo I haven't found a home for:
[View] The Palace of Minos at Knossos,
interior detail.
These previously unpublished images are © 2002, J.B. Hare, all rights
reserved.