January: Great Books in a Year
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| Date | Reading | Talk about it | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 Day 1 | The Iliad, Homer (part 1 of 2) Read: Book I to Book XIII · grades 9–12 Parent note: war violence | Is Achilles right to withdraw from battle? | ☐ |
| January 2 Day 2 | The Iliad, Homer (part 2 of 2) Read: Book XIV to Book XXIV · grades 9–12 Parent note: war violence | How does Achilles' grief manifest in his body and behaviour? | ☐ |
| January 3 Day 3 | The Odyssey, Homer (part 1 of 2) Read: Al Professore to Book XIII · grades 9–12 | Why must Odysseus return in disguise? | ☐ |
| January 4 Day 4 | The Odyssey, Homer (part 2 of 2) Read: Book XIV to Book XXIV · grades 9–12 | Where does Odysseus's intelligence fail him? | ☐ |
| January 5 Day 5 | Prometheus Bound and Other Plays, Aeschylus (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 2) · grades 10–12 | What does Pelasgus fear on each side of his decision? | ☐ |
| January 6 Day 6 | Prometheus Bound and Other Plays, Aeschylus (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 3) · grades 10–12 | Why would an Athenian audience that had fought at Salamis watch a Persian lament? | ☐ |
| January 7 Day 7 | The Oresteia, Aeschylus Read: The House Of Atreus to Chorus Of Furies · grades 9–12 Parent note: violence | What does the trial solve, and what does it leave unsettled? | ☐ |
| January 8 Day 8 | Ajax, Electra, The Women of Trachis and Philoctetes, Sophocles (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 3) · grades 10–12 Parent note: Ajax's on-stage suicide, Heracles' agony and Philoctetes' wound need preview. | Why does Odysseus pity Ajax when Athena invites him to laugh? | ☐ |
| January 9 Day 9 | Ajax, Electra, The Women of Trachis and Philoctetes, Sophocles (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 4) to Full Text (part 6) · grades 10–12 Parent note: Ajax's on-stage suicide, Heracles' agony and Philoctetes' wound need preview. | What images of change does Ajax use, and what do the chorus conclude from them? | ☐ |
| January 10 Day 10 | Medea and Other Plays, Euripides (part 1 of 2) Read: Oxford University Press American Branch Introduction to The Voice · grades 9–12 Parent note: violence: infanticide | Where does Medea deliberate most clearly? | ☐ |
| January 11 Day 11 | Medea and Other Plays, Euripides (part 2 of 2) Read: Introduction to I. Tantalus · grades 9–12 Parent note: violence: infanticide | Which social rules trap Medea? | ☐ |
| January 12 Day 12 | The Theban Plays, Sophocles Read: Oedipus The King Oedipus At Colonus Antigone Oedipus The King to A Watchman A Messenger A Second Messenger Antigone · grades 9–12 Parent note: incest and suicide themes | Is Oedipus punished for ignorance or for pride? | ☐ |
| January 13 Day 13 | The Trojan Women and Other Plays, Euripides (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 2) · grades 11–12 Parent note: war grief; human sacrifice; revenge Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Euripides open with the gods planning the Greeks' destruction before we meet a single Greek? | ☐ |
| January 14 Day 14 | The Trojan Women and Other Plays, Euripides (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 3) to Full Text (part 4) · grades 11–12 Parent note: war grief; human sacrifice; revenge Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Which speaker, Andromache or Hecuba, seems more persuasive in their exchange about death? | ☐ |
| January 15 Day 15 | Lysistrata and Other Plays, Aristophanes (part 1 of 2) Read: Lysistrata to Dramatis Personae · grades 11–12 Parent note: bawdy sexual humor Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Is Lysistrata a feminist play? | ☐ |
| January 16 Day 16 | Lysistrata and Other Plays, Aristophanes (part 2 of 2) Read: The Acharnians to Slave Of Lamachus · grades 11–12 Parent note: bawdy sexual humor Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Is the portrait of Socrates fair? | ☐ |
| January 17 Day 17 | The Eleven Comedies, Aristophanes (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 7) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Parent note: Old Comedy is frankly sexual and crude; for mature students in selection. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does the Sausage-seller defeat Paphlagon by being worse rather than better? | ☐ |
| January 18 Day 18 | The Eleven Comedies, Aristophanes (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 8) to Full Text (part 13) · grades 11–12 Parent note: Parent note: Old Comedy is frankly sexual and crude; for mature students in selection. Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What does each poet accuse the other of doing to Athens? | ☐ |
| January 19 Day 19 | The Bacchae and Other Plays, Euripides (part 1 of 2) Read: Introductory Note to Messenger · grades 11–12 Parent note: violence: dismemberment Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What exactly does Pentheus fear? | ☐ |
| January 20 Day 20 | The Bacchae and Other Plays, Euripides (part 2 of 2) Read: The Trojan Women The Athenian Drama For English Readers to By The Same Author History Of Ancient Greek Literature. · grades 11–12 Parent note: violence: dismemberment Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does voyeurism matter to the plot? | ☐ |
| January 21 Day 21 | Iphigenia in Aulis and Other Plays, Euripides (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 5) · grades 11–12 Parent note: sacrifice and war violence; best with guidance Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | Why does Iphigenia change her mind about dying? | ☐ |
| January 22 Day 22 | Iphigenia in Aulis and Other Plays, Euripides (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 6) to Full Text (part 9) · grades 11–12 Parent note: sacrifice and war violence; best with guidance Recommended for grades 11–12; read it first or together. | What arguments does Theseus use to keep Heracles from suicide? | ☐ |
| January 23 Day 23 | The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides (part 1 of 2) Read: Connop Thirlwall to Chapter XIV · grades 10–12 Parent note: long; best read in excerpts | How does the plague answer Pericles’ speech? | ☐ |
| January 24 Day 24 | The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides (part 2 of 2) Read: Book V to The End · grades 10–12 Parent note: long; best read in excerpts | Where do speakers redefine justice? | ☐ |
| January 25 Day 25 | The Histories, Herodotus (part 1 of 2) Read: In Two Volumes to Notes To Book I (part 3) · grades 9–12 Parent note: long; best read in excerpts | How does the Croesus story prefigure Xerxes'? | ☐ |
| January 26 Day 26 | The Histories, Herodotus (part 2 of 2) Read: Notes To Book II to Notes To Book III (part 3) · grades 9–12 Parent note: long; best read in excerpts | Where does Herodotus judge other peoples, and where does he suspend judgement? | ☐ |
| January 27 Day 27 | Charmides, Lysis and Laches, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: Full Text to Full Text (part 2) · grades 9–12 | Why does Socrates insist on giving the charm before the leaf, and what does that order say about soul and body? | ☐ |
| January 28 Day 28 | Charmides, Lysis and Laches, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Full Text (part 3) · grades 9–12 | Why can't a 'knowledge of knowledge' tell a true physician from a quack? | ☐ |
| January 29 Day 29 | Ion, Plato Read: Full Text · grades 9–12 | Is Socrates right that a person who can judge the best poet on a subject must also be able to judge the worst? | ☐ |
| January 30 Day 30 | The Last Days of Socrates, Plato (part 1 of 2) Read: The Dialogues Of Plato to Gorgias. Introduction. · grades 9–12 | Is Socrates genuinely ignorant, or ironic? | ☐ |
| January 31 Day 31 | The Last Days of Socrates, Plato (part 2 of 2) Read: Gorgias. to Socrates. Eryxias. Erasistratus. Critias. · grades 9–12 | Are the Laws' arguments in the Crito convincing? | ☐ |