I worked my way through the Euthyphro in three months, working on it every day, from the middle of March until this morning. What I’m doing is not exactly reading. I must look up many words in every sentence, and now and then study a grammar problem. But after looking up the words, the sentences usually are clear enough. (For me, this is not the case with say Horace.)
On to the Crito. These are good books for an old man to read. I’m not sure yet about the Phaedo. I read it in English long ago as a college boy (BA, 1960), ill-equipped to spot blue-smoke-and-mirrors in Socrates’s proof of the immortality of the soul. The Phaedo is quite long, and by the time I work through the Crito I may long for something different.
The first book of the Republic might be a good choice too.
Also, Daitz has a recording of some of these, that I like to listen to while chopping wood.
For a change of topic after the Crito, you might try the Ion, for which there’s a Green and Yellow, a Bryn Mawr, and a recording by Ioannis Stratakis.
For myself, after finishing Euthyphro, Apology and Crito, I intended to move onto the Symposium, but decided to take a break. I accidentally started reading Aeschylus’s Seven Against Thebes (way out of my league, but still quite engaging – very slow reading, of course), then Hippocrates’ On Airs, Waters, and Places. After Aeschylus, Hippocrates’ natural explanations for diseases reminded me that the subject matter of tragedy is myth, where divine involvement in the lives of the characters is essential, and does not necessarily reflect the views of an educated 5th century Athenian. Hippocrates rejects the notion that Scythian transsexualism is divinely-caused, arguing that it occurs among the well-off, not the poor, and yet the wealthy certainly provide the better sacrifices which please the gods and invite reciprocity. Hippocrates, also, of course, provides a natural cause.
A visit to a bookstore in Chicago has led me further astray. I had not seen the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library editions before and was struck by the beauty of the books (a distinct step-up from the Loebs) at a bargain (regular) price. I bought Tzetzes’ Allegories of the Iliad, which is a dual-language edition like the Loebs. Mastronarde’s review of the book pointed out some errors, which according to the introduction were corrected in the second printing. The book is a long poem written in 15-syllable verses. This makes it easy for the translation to match pretty much line-by-line. I skipped the long prolegomena, and started on book 1 which is a summary of book 1 of the Iliad. The Greek is both easy and remarkably familiar despite the passage of 16 centuries since classical Greece. So far I’m really enjoying it. Comprehensible Greek, a familiar story, and a facing translation.
Mark
Seminary Coop? I saw those there.
Yup, Seminary Coop. Aside from the Loebs and Dumbarton Oaks, a nice classics section as well.