Medea by Euripides

Medea by Euripides
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So many amazing lines!

“Better a humble heart, a lowly life. Untouched by greatness let me live - and live. Not too little, not too much: there safety lies.”

“For of mortals, there is no one who is happy. If wealth flows in upon one, one may be perhaps Luckier than one’s neighbor, but still not happy.”

“And I do not fear to say that those who are held Wise among men and who search the reasons of things Are those who bring the most sorrow on themselves.”

And though this quote remains mostly true, I wonder how much Judaism and Christianity changed the balance of this:
“It's human; we all put self-interest first.”


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The Analects by Confucius

The Analects by Confucius


This is a great translation. I only compared it to one other but it far exceeded the other translation. The language in the Analects is clear and then followed by short paragraphs to explain the missing context or the connotation of particular Chinese words. I enjoyed the number of passages focused on education and respect, though the ones about the historical politicians held less interest for me.

(I don't rate religious or semi-religious texts.)

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Apology by Plato

Apology by Plato
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Interesting, moving, my favorite dialogue so far. Though we've all heard "the unexamined life is not worth living" I particularly enjoyed the full quote (depending on your translation this may vary obviously):

"And if I say again that the greatest good of man is to converse daily about virtue and all that which you hear me examining myself and others, and that the unexamined life is not worth living, that you are still less likely to believe. And yet what I say is true, although a thing of which it hard for me to persuade you."

This quote is a great precursor to Jesus:
“The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.”


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Euthyphro by Plato

Euthyphro by Plato
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is sort of interesting in terms of questioning the relationship between ethics and religion, but since it refers mostly to the pagan gods with various different opinions, some of the arguments are not that interesting.

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Meno by Plato

Meno by Plato
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This dialogue is Socrates's attempt to make the handsome Meno tell him what every instance of virtue has and only virtue has. Meno is a little slow and talks about "getting good things" rather than any soulful or golden-rule type answers.

Shortly thereafter, Meno tries to give up. So Socrates teaches a slave boy some geometry to prove that people are better off realizing all that they don't know rather than thinking they do know and being incorrect.

Then Socrates launches into some strange religious ideas he doesn't substantiate or explain in any convincing way. He ties reason and use of logic to "anamnesis" or recollection of a past life's knowledge.

Anytus comes by and makes death threats to Socrates.

Then is my favorite quote because it is the only part that makes sense to me:
"... none of us remarked that right and good action is possible to man under other guidance than that of knowledge (episteme);-and indeed if this be denied, there is no seeing how there can be any good men at all. "

But then Socrates goes on to say "right opinion" is just as good as knowledge. Seems dubious to me, since "right opinion" would likely still have a basis in knowledge of the things opined about or similar. Although, further research tells me that this might just be a bad translation, and Socrates is actually saying that a logical working out of a solution (via the Socratic method) is as good as knowledge.

Then finally Socrates concludes that since goodness isn't something we are born with, nor something we can learn, it must come from the gods. My online research tells me scholars disagree about whether he is being serious or sarcastically dismissing Meno because he can't be taught anything.

He certainly seems serious in the dialogue but he can't be because he's endeavoring to do the very thing he claims is impossible to do? Though, irony on top of irony, I don't know how effective Socrates has been in this dialogue. At least, I don't feel any smarter after reading this.


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The Republic by Plato

The Republic by Plato
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am reading Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World and pausing to read any of the books mentioned that I have not already read. In this case, I had read most of The Republic before but couldn't remember it so I went back and read the whole thing.

Great Books didn't give me a lot of help in analyzing or dealing with The Republic so I listened to a library audiobook course about The Republic. This definitely helped in understanding all the confusing arguments Socrates makes.

Plato describes Socrates engaging in a dialogue with Glaucon and numerous other Athenians and non-citizens about a number of topics. The first part is about justice and it mostly matches up to a modern (even Christian) conception of justice. Justice is not about the force of the powerful. It's about the soul, goodness towards even enemies, and the rights of weak.

The next part is about the perfect society, but not really, because Plato didn't believe in a modern-day Western conception of legal equality based on human rights. To his credit, his perfect society is feminist- women can do whatever men can do except things requiring a lot of physical strength. Unfortunately, his society is also based on eugenics, hierarchy with little opportunity for social movement, communist, and without families. To modern ears his perfect society sounds like the perfect Young Adult Dystopian Novel; a cross between The Giver and Allegiant. According to my audiobook course, this Socrates's conception of the perfect society is the direct result of Athen's recent defeat to Sparta. Many of the aspects are either taken from Spartan society or a "correction" of something in Athenian society that Socrates perceives to be at fault for Athen's loss.

Socrates also wanted philosopher kings. As such, the book is also about Socrates's conception of making philosophy a fixed study in the way that math and geometry have fixed answers. Which is certainly an interesting concept. Philosophy (at least popular philosophy) has moved so far away from that idea that the idea of real answers in ethics and philosophy is very appealing.

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Poetics by Aristotle

Poetics by Aristotle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aristotle discusses the forms and best practices of tragedy, comedy, and epic poetry. There’s a strong emphasis on The Iliad, The Odyssey, and parts of The Orestia (which I am familiar with) and some other works with which I am not familiar. His literary critique and description is surprisingly timeless. Also, it’s so short and readable that there’s no reason to put it off if it’s on your reading list.

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Sappho by Bliss Carman

Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics by Bliss Carman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I knew that of Sappho’s poetry there remained only a few fragments. As I read this book I thought, this is not as little as I thought... and I was pretty bored. Only after I finished did I realize that this was Bliss Carmen’s attempt to fill in what a full collection of Sappho’s poetry might have been like. So then I googled the original fragments and sure enough, there’s almost nothing. While some of the poems were lovely, I feel like I wasted a little bit of my life. A male poet in 1907 is probably quite a bit substantively different than the original woman poet in 600 BC, but I guess it was a serious attempt at applying his knowledge of the era and contemporary accounts of her poetry.

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The Oresteia by Aeschylus

The Oresteia by Aeschylus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recently reread this 20 years after my first reading in a college class, the details of which I cannot remember. I think we were studying the religion of mythology and their conception of justice? I don't remember what I thought the first time but on this reading at least, I am not impressed with that justice.

Part 1 "Agamemnon" is about Clytaemnestra murdering Agamemnon. I have a lot of sympathy for Clytaemnestra. Agamemnon killed their daughter Iphigenia. This is basically the most unforgivable crime I can imagine, but he's not in the least worried.

Clytaemnestra also killed Cassandra, which is maybe a little harsh, but Cassandra didn't seem especially worried about shacking up with a man who murdered his own daughter so maybe she has it coming a little bit too. Reading a more generalized Greek mythology in high school I loved the character of Cassandra, but Aeschylus doesn't really have a lot of patience for her, and that's fine.

Part 2 "The Libation Bearers" is about Orestes killing his mother Clytaemnestra to avenge his father's murder. This one is really intense, even compared to the first part.

Orestes kills his mother even after she begs him not to. Heartless. His motives are a bit dubious. Does he not know his father killed his sister Iphigenia? Is he actually just mad his mother sent him to live outside of the castle? Is he just a super religious opportunist who has to follow the Oracle or risk life-failure? Maybe all of these things.

Part 3 "Eumenides" is about Orestes's trial and is a travesty of justice.Orestes was either equally or *more* wrong in killing his mother Clytaemnestra than she was in killing her husband Agamemnon, Orestes's father.

The Gods spew total sexist nonsense that the child doesn't share the mother's blood. It's a ridiculous set-up having Athena, who didn't have a mother, judge the trial. The jury is obviously all male. Not to mention the irony that Agamemnon was such a bad father that he killed his own daughter, but he's considered the rightful parent.

My star math: 5 stars for part 1 and part 2, 2 stars for part 3. 12/3= 4 stars.

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The I Ching or Book of Changes by Anonymous

The I Ching or Book of Changes by Anonymous


This is the strangest book yet. It’s an ancient choose your own adventure prophesy book. The prophesy are written in the form of indecipherable aphorisms. Perhaps a lot is lost in translation.

“If you abandon jaws of it all and good fortune will prevail...”

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The Upanishads by Anonymous

The Upanishads: Translations from the Sanskrit by Anonymous


As a rule, I don't rate Holy Books. I will say this is more the sort of thing one would expect from a holy book if you were imagining the concept from scratch. The philosophy here overlaps a bit with Buddhism. It also does not depend purely on reasoning, as the philosophy can be better understood through the practical application of meditation. Not all of it makes great sense to me, but I'm not a great Yogi, so I wouldn't expect it to anyway.

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The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Art of War by Sun Tzu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm reading some of the commentaries now, but on its own, it doesn't make a huge impression on me. It has some good points. The focus on the compassion of the ruler and "the way" was particularly interesting. (Now I also want to read The I Ching / Book of Changes which discussed "the way." I read the Tao Te Ching.) Overall, though it doesn't give a lot of context inside the text, or have much that will make an impression in my memory.


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The Tanakh

Tanakh by Anonymous


Technically, I read the Old Testament, not The Tanakh, but it's the same books in a different order. It took me 6 months to finish.

As a rule, I don't rate or review Holy Books but I'll mention a few things that stood out to me. The Torah/Pentateuch is pretty tightly organized compared to the rest. The rules in Leviticus particularly grabbed my attention, which I wrote more specifically about in my Torah "review."

Much of the rest of the Old Testament is wars and God getting angry for his worshippers breaking rules, especially marrying those of other religions. A few notable exceptions: Song of Songs is very romantic, Jonah is the stuff of great adventure books, and the locusts are as scary as a Steven King novel.

The Christian order leaves a bit to be desired by ending on Malachi. The order of the final Jewish book is either uncertain or was not precisely set but ending on Chronicles is maybe a little better with the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

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The Torah: The Five Books of Moses

The Torah: The Five Books of Moses by Anonymous


The Torah is also the first five books of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, the Pentateuch. From Wikipedia: Bereshit/Genesis (בְּרֵאשִׁית, literally "In the beginning"); Shemot /Exodus (שִׁמוֹת, literally "Names"); Vayikra/Leviticus (ויקרא, literally "And He called"); Bəmidbar/Numbers (במדבר, literally "In the desert [of]"); Devarim/Deuteronomy (דברים, literally "Things" or "Words")."

I'm not going to rate or review holy books, but I will mention a few things mostly for my own reference in case I want to return to something specific later.

Genesis has the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and his two wives Leah and Rachel, and finally Joseph. Joseph becomes a big deal in Egypt because he is an effective food administrator.

After Genesis, the other four books are about Moses. Exodus is the most revolutionary. Leviticus has a lot of rules with harsh punishments. Numbers is largely a census that requires some skimming. Deuteronomy is very violent in the beginning, and then becomes a summary of the story of Moses and the rules of Leviticus. And then it becomes very violent again.

Some of the rules are fascinating. We hear about Biblical prohibitions of gay relationships all the time, but sleeping with a man's wife is also punishable by death (that would affect a lot of Congressmen which is perhaps why they are so silent on the matter). If a man rapes an unengaged virgin woman , the rapist must marry her. (But if she was engaged to a man, the rapist must be put to death.) Men may have multiple wives, but he can't disinherit his first born son even if the first born son comes from the wife he doesn't love as much. No wearing linen and wool together. A widow must marry her brother-in-law unless he totally refuses to marry her, which he shouldn't do. There is a harsh punishment for a step-brother and step-sister that marry too, and various other marriages that don't involve blood relations. There are so many more but these stood out in my memory for obvious reasons.

Also, I'm strangley curious about the "Nephilim":

"When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, 'My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.' The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown." (Genesis 6:1-4, New Revised Standard Version)

and:

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites' . . . So they went up and spied out the land . . . And they told him: '. . . Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.' . . . So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, 'The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. 33 There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.'" (Numbers 13:1-2; 21; 27-28; 32-33. New Revised Standard Version).

Numbers (and I think Deuteronomy?) also mention Anak, the Anakim, and the Rephaim.

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Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some parts of this are very good and reminded me of guided meditations about mindfulness. However, there are a lot of parts about politics and about not traveling that I just can't get behind.

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Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everyone knows the general story of Oedipus, but wow, this play is intense and amazing. It's not a just a tragedy, it's a horror of sights and emotion. Sophocles really railed against the injustices of fate.

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Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus

Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The god who gave us science and education is unjustly punished by those who wish to maintain and hoard power. What a modern story.

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Eumenides by Aeschylus

Eumenides by Aeschylus
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Orestes's trial is a total scam. Orestes was either equally or *more* wrong in killing his mother Clytaemnestra than she was in killing her husband Agamemnon, Orestes's father.

Also, total sexist nonsense that the child doesn't share the mother's blood, and ridiculous set up having Athena- who didn't have a mother- judge the trial. The jury is obviously all male. And Agamemnon was such a bad father that he killed his own daughter.

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The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus

The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This one is really intense, even compared to the first one, "Agamemnon."

[2500-Year Old] Spoiler Alert:
Orestes kills his mother after she begs him not to. His motives are a bit dubious. Does he not know his father killed his sister Iphigenia? Is he actually just mad his mother sent him to live outside of the castle? Is he just a super religious opportunist who has to follow the Oracle or risk life-failure? Maybe all of these things.

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Agamemnon by Aeschylus

Agamemnon by Aeschylus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have a lot of sympathy for Clytaemnestra. Reading a more generalized Greek mythology in high school I loved the character of Cassandra, but Aeschylus doesn't really have a lot of patience for her, and that's fine.

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