Whose works survived better?

Here you can discuss all things Ancient Greek. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Greek, and more.
Post Reply
Paco
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:11 am

Whose works survived better?

Post by Paco »

Among the writers who wrote in Homeric Greek or Attic/Atticised Greek before the Middle Ages, whose works survived better? Is Lucian the man? Should the topic be further narrowed down and specified, I am concerned especially with non-technical (e.g. non-scientific) writers, and concerned with number of words rather than number of "works".

I would be grateful if someone would give or point me to information on the topic, for I do not know how I can make Library-Catalogues or Google answer. I am considering choosing a single author with whose works I can do extensive reading, and quantities matter. You're welcome to advice otherwise too if I am making unwise assumptions here. Thank you.

mwh
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 4790
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:34 am

Re: Whose works survived better?

Post by mwh »

If you’re really set on this course of action, I think you’d do better to choose an author or a genre you want to read more of. For sheer quantity, Galen can’t be beat, but there are many other more literary authors who wrote a lot. Plato would keep you busy for quite a while. So would Herodotus, and Euripides, and Thucydides, and Aristotle, to go no further forward in time. Nonnus' epic is very long, but you wouldn't want to read that before reading Homer (and maybe not even then).

But my advice would be to sample a wide variety of kinds of Greek before settling on a single one. You could for instance start with one work of Xenophon’s (relatively easy) or the first book of Herodotus (very readable) and branch out from there. You may find that even that is too ambitious.

User avatar
ἑκηβόλος
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 969
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:19 am
Contact:

Re: Whose works survived better?

Post by ἑκηβόλος »

Paco wrote:before the Middle Ages
Depending on whether you define "Middle Ages" by time or religion, Saint John Chrysostom (f. late 4th century) is definitely prolific.
τί δὲ ἀγαθὸν τῇ πομφόλυγι συνεστώσῃ ἢ κακὸν διαλυθείσῃ;

Post Reply