COMMON READING LIST

Each semester, the department offers prepared translation exams based on the following lists:.

GREEK

  • Aeschylus, Agamemnon

  • Apollonios, Argonautica, Book 3

  • Aristophanes, Frogs

  • Aristotle, Poetics; Politics, Book 1

  • Callimachus, Hymns 2, 5, Aetia frr. 1-2 Pfeiffer, Epigrams

  • Demosthenes, Philippics 3

  • Euripides, Medea, Bacchae

  • Gorgias, Helen

  • Greek narrative epigraphy:

    • Osborne-Rhodes, Greek Historical Inscriptions 131 (Athenian regulations for Chalkis)

    • SEG 41.1003-4 (Teos and Antiochos III)

    • SEG 39.1243 (Late Hellenistic decree from Klaros)

  • Herodotus, Book 1, proem + chs. 1–5; Book 3 (in entirety)

  • Hesiod, Theogony 1-962; Works and Days 1-335 + 618-94

  • Homer, Iliad, Books 1, 3, 6, 9, 18 (368-617), 24; Odyssey, Books 1, 6, 9-12, 19, 22

  • Homeric Hymn 5 To Aphrodite

  • Isocrates, Areopagiticus

  • Longus, Daphnis and Chloe, Book 1

  • Lucian, True Histories, Book 1

  • Lyric Selections in Campbell ed. Greek Lyric Poetry: Archilochus, Callinus, Tyrtaeus,

    • Semonides, Alcman, Mimnermus, Solon, Stesichorus, Sappho, Alcaeus, Ibycus,

    • Anacreon, Xenophanes, Theognis, Hipponax, Simonides, Corinna, Bacchylides, Praxilla

  • Lysias, Against Eratosthenes (12)

  • Menander, Samia

  • Pindar, Olympian 1; Pythian 1, 2.

  • Plato, Protagoras; Symposium

  • Plutarch, How to Study Poetry

  • Sophocles, Antigone, Oedipus the King

  • Theocritus, Idylls 2, 7, 11

  • Thucydides, Histories, Book 1, chs 1-23 + 139-146; Book 2, chs. 1-79.

  • Xenophon, Memorabilia, Book 1

LATIN

  • Apuleius, Cupid and Psyche

  • Augustus, Res gestae

  • Catullus, entire

  • Cicero, Pro Caelio; Catilinarians 1; De oratore 1; Somnium Scipionis; Tusculan Disputations 5

  • Horace, Odes 1-4; Satires 1.1, 4-6, 9, 10; Epodes 1, 16; Ars Poetica

  • Juvenal, Satires 1, 3

  • Laudatio Turiae

  • Livy, Histories 1, 21

  • Lucan, Pharsalia 7

  • Lucretius, De rerum natura 1, 3

  • Martial, Epigrams 2.8, 2.20, 2.77, 2.91-2, 3.2, 4.30, 4.72, 6.64, 9.18, 10.4, 10.5, 12.15

    • (= nos. 1-12 incl. 9a and 9b [hence 13 epigrams in all] in L. and P. Watson, Martial: Select Epigrams (Cambridge)).

  • Ovid, Amores 1; Ars Amatoria 1; Metamorphoses 8; Tristia 2

  • Petronius, Cena Trimalchionis

  • Plautus, Pseudolus

  • Pliny, Letters (nos. 3, 5, 6, 14, 19, 22, 25, 26, 38, 47, and 48 in Sherwin-White, ed., Selected Letters)

  • Propertius, Elegies 1.1-3, 19-22, 3.1-5, 4.1, 6-8, 11

  • Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

  • Seneca, Epistles (nos. 1, 7, 12, 47, 86, 114 in C. Edwards, Seneca: Selected Letters (Cambridge);

  • Thyestes

  • Statius, Achilleid 1-378

  • Sulpicia

  • Tacitus, Histories 1; Annals 4; Dialogus de oratoribus

  • Terence, Adelphoe

  • Tibullus, Elegies 1.1, 1.3, 1.10, 2.5

  • Virgil, entire

For the reading list prior to Fall 2024, Please click here.