Mythology Archives - Classical Education Books

The Ramayana

sarah — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 20:11:56 +0000

A delightfully straightforward and lyrical retelling of the ancient Indian epic of loyalty, betrayal, redemption, and insight into the true nature of life — one of history’s most sacred ethical works, rendered with completeness and sterling accuracy for the modern reader.

Here is one of the world’s most hallowed works of sacred literature, the grand, sweeping epic of the divine bowman and warrior Rama and his struggles with evil, power, duplicity, and avarice. The Ramayana is one of the foundations of world literature and one of humanity’s most ancient and treasured ethical and spiritual works.

Includes an introduction by scholar Michael Sternfeld.

Companion Resources:

Beautiful Feet Books Ancient History: Senior High Pack

The post The Ramayana appeared first on Classical Education Books.

The Odyssey

shipping — Mon, 23 May 2022 17:19:27 +0000

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer’s best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.” So begins Robert Fagles’ magnificent translation of the Odyssey, which Jasper Griffin in the New York Times Book Review hails as “a distinguished achievement.”

If the Iliad is the world’s greatest war epic, the Odyssey is literature’s grandest evocation of an everyman’s journey through life. Odysseus’ reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer’s original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox’s superb introduction and textual commentary provide insightful background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles’s translation. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general reader, to captivate a new generation of Homer’s students. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition features French flaps and deckle-edged paper.

The post The Odyssey appeared first on Classical Education Books.

Sophocles I: Antigone/Oedipus the King/Oedipus at Colonus (Complete Greek Tragedies) Third Edition

shipping — Fri, 20 May 2022 00:07:20 +0000

Series edited by David Grene & Richmond Lattimore.

The post Sophocles I: Antigone/Oedipus the King/Oedipus at Colonus (Complete Greek Tragedies) Third Edition appeared first on Classical Education Books.

Classical Mythology A to Z

CEBAdmin — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 21:40:35 +0000

An encyclopedic A-to-Z guide, this beautifully illustrated volume offers hundreds of rich, fascinating definitions of 700 major and minor characters, creatures, and places of classical mythology. Classical Mythology A-to-Z is a comprehensive and engrossing guide to Greek and Roman mythology. Written by Annette Giesecke, PhD, Professor of Classics and Chair of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies [...]

The post Classical Mythology A to Z appeared first on Classical Education Books.

Ramayana

CEBAdmin — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 22:50:03 +0000

Although the Sanskrit original was composed by Valmiki around the fourth century BC, poets have produced countless versions in different languages. Here, drawing on the work of an eleventh-century poet called Kamban, Narayan employs the skills of a master novelist to re-create the excitement he found in the original.

A luminous saga made accessible to new generations of readers, The Ramayana can be enjoyed for its spiritual wisdom, or as a thrilling tale of ancient conflict.

Companion Resources:

Beautiful Feet Books Ancient History: Senior High Pack

The post Ramayana appeared first on Classical Education Books.

The Three Theban Plays

Hester VanBraeden — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 05:27:12 +0000

Antigone
Oedipus the King
Oedipus at Colonus

The heroic Greek dramas that have moved theater-goers and readers since the fifth century B.C.
Towering over the rest of Greek tragedy, the three plays that tell the story of the fated Theban royal family—Antigone, Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus—are among the most enduring and timeless dramas ever written.

Robert Fagles’s authoritative and acclaimed translation conveys all of Sophocles’s lucidity and power: the cut and thrust of his dialogue, his ironic edge, the surge and majesty of his choruses and, above all, the agonies and triumphs of his characters. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by the renowned classicist Bernard Knox.

Companion Resources:

Three Theban Plays by Sophocles Set

The Three Theban Plays
Three Theban Plays by Sophocles – Teacher Guide
Three Theban Plays by Sophocles – Student Guide
Three Theban Plays – Instructional Videos (DVDs or Online Streaming)

The post The Three Theban Plays appeared first on Classical Education Books.

The Oresteian Trilogy

Hester VanBraeden — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:38:58 +0000

Aeschylus (525-c.456 bc) set his great trilogy in the immediate aftermath of the Fall of Troy, when King Agamemnon returns to Argos, a victor in war.

Agamemnon depicts the hero’s discovery that his family has been destroyed by his wife’s infidelity and ends with his death at her callous hand.

Clytemnestra’s crime is repaid in The Choephori when her outraged son Orestes kills both her and her lover.

The Eumenides then follows Orestes as he is hounded to Athens by the Furies’ law of vengeance and depicts Athene replacing the bloody cycle of revenge with a system of civil justice.

Companion Products

The Oresteian Trilogy – Set

The Oresteian Trilogy – Student Guide
The Oresteian Trilogy – Teacher Guide
The Oresteian Trilogy – Instructional Videos (DVDs or Online Streaming)

The post The Oresteian Trilogy appeared first on Classical Education Books.

Medea and Other Plays

Hester VanBraeden — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:28:26 +0000

The four tragedies collected in this volume all focus on a central character, once powerful, brought down by betrayal, jealousy, guilt and hatred. The first playwright to depict suffering without reference to the gods, Euripides made his characters speak in human terms and face the consequences of their actions.

In Medea, a woman rejected by her lover takes hideous revenge by murdering the children they both love, and Hecabe depicts the former queen of Troy, driven mad by the prospect of her daughter’s sacrifice to Achilles. Electra portrays a young woman planning to avenge the brutal death of her father at the hands of her mother, while in Heracles the hero seeks vengeance against the evil king who has caused bloodshed in his family.

Philip Vellacott’s lucid translation is accompanied by an introduction, which discusses the literary background of Classical Athens and examines the distinction between instinctive and civilized behaviour.

Companion Products:

Medea and Other Plays by Euripides – Set

Medea and Other Plays
Medea and Other Plays by Euripides – Teacher Guide
Medea and Other Plays by Euripides – Student Guide

Medea & Other Plays – Instructional DVDs

The post Medea and Other Plays appeared first on Classical Education Books.