Self-Paced High School Literature 1: The Ancient World

For our study of literature of the Ancient World, we're looking at the growth of Western Civilization, which begins in Greece, and a few centuries later, the Romans pick up where the Greeks leave off. Our survey of the Great Books of the Ancient World therefore begins with the powerful epics of Homer, moves through Athenian plays and philosophy, and covers Plutarch and a Roman epic before including two works from other eras (one of Shakespeare). See course book list below.

For this self-paced class:

• Students have access to recorded lectures from their course and can choose which books to read and in what order.
• Students will have access to weekly reading pacing guides and auto-grade quizzes.
• This class does not include live class sessions or teacher support.
• All recordings will be available from September 2 through the end of the following August.    
• Book & Reading List

There are many options for acquiring these books. You can order them from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or another online retailer. If you want to save money, you can check them out of the library. For most, you can get e-book versions or access them online and read them on your computer screen. Please note any particular edition or translation, as those are the ones you need; if no specifics are included, any version will work. 

• Mythology, by Edith Hamilton
• The Iliad, by Homer (Samuel Butler translation)
• The Odyssey, by Homer (Samuel Butler translation)
• Greek Drama, by Bantam Classics or the 4 plays within it (all are available online and in e-book form):
• Agamemnon, by Aeschylus
• Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles
• Medea, by Euripides
• Antigone, by Sophocles

• Aesop’s Fables (There are several options here. I’m asking students to read a large number of these fables, which are all very short. There are several inexpensive print compilations you can get, but they are also all available online. Note: if you own a compilation and it doesn’t contain some of the assigned fables, look them up online.)
• Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis
• The Dialogues of Plato (We are reading the following three dialogues, so if you get a collection, be sure it contains these; all are available online, as well):
• Apology
• Crito
• Euthyphro

• The Republic, by Plato
• Poetics, by Aristotle (any English translation will work)
• The Aeneid, by Virgil (Mandelbaum translation) 
• Plutarch’s Life of Caesar (I don’t recommend purchasing the entire collection of Plutarch’s Lives since we will only be reading one short section. In the syllabus, I provide links to online versions.)
• Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare