Start with the Greeks?

Good choices, user. Once you get through those, if you do want a taste of the Greeks, the Odyssey is a fun, accessible adventure story that can serve as a good entry point to the Greeks.

Read the Greeks in Greek, of course you need to learn Greek first then follow all the Canon learning the languages you need to read all of it in the original language . If you don't do that you are dumb and need to stick to 50 shades of gay

When i went a really long time without reading, i started back up with DADoES. Its a good read and pretty quick. Id recommend starting with that

Based

>Commence with the Hellenes is a meme for getting into philosophy.
Not really. If you want to follow the literary tradition of the western canon, the Greeks are a great place to start.

Look at the link from , the majority of the works from the "theocratic age" are Greek. The influence of the ancient Greeks on western literature (and culture in general) is difficult to overstate.

No, it's not "necessary" to read the Greeks, and there's nothing stopping you from connecting deeply with more modern works without being familiar with foundational texts, but people who post on Yea Forums (or at least the people who take "start with the greeks" seriously) tend to value the ability to view works of literature in a wider context. It has nothing to do with "gatekeeping".

Starting with the Greeks is a retarded idea for someone who is getting into reading. Read what interests you.

>the majority of the works from the "theocratic age" are Greek
Be realistic. A casual isn't going to read thousands of pages of ancient Greek epics and philosophical works simply to read a 20th century novel. "Start with the Greeks" is absolutely retarded for this reason. I don't need to understand Plato's every philosophical idea just to read Huxley or Orwell, Hesse or Kafka, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, Freud or Jung.

Did you read my post in its entirety? I agree with you.

>thousands of pages
most of those works listed are rather short.

I was brash. I apologize, sir! I'm a non-Greek reading plebian. What Greek do you recommend for me to read? I own The Iliad but haven't read it yet. I read like 2/3rds of Mythology by Edith Hamilton.

Pretty solid list for a beginner. Maybe give some more experimental stuff a shot once you're done with that.

Finish Mythology if you like it. I got that a few months ago for 50 cents but haven't read it yet.

Homer is a great place to start. Bloom's list is pretty good, I admittedly haven't read many of the plays. Herodotus is max comfy. The Greeks are pretty interesting themselves, you might find yourself wanting to read more of them for the sake of it and not simply as a "foundation" for later works.

>Not really. If you want to follow the literary tradition of the western canon, the Greeks are a great place to start.

Literally no one born after 1940 started with the Greeks as their introduction to the western canon.

Maybe if you are trying to mold a ten year old into a well rounded person, you can make him start with the greeks. But for a fully grown adult in the current year who just wants to enjoy fun stories, he can get to Homer a little later.

Iphigenia in Aulis is a play that’s I like in particular, and I find it the most ‘tragic’ of the tragedies. In essence, a father must choose between the needs of his people and his own daughter.

>But for a fully grown adult in the current year who just wants to enjoy fun stories, he can get to Homer a little later.
Yeah like I said earlier, I agree with this sentiment.

>Literally no one born after 1940 started with the Greeks as their introduction to the western canon.
What I meant is, if you want to start looking at the western canon "seriously," and seeing how the tradition grew, the Greeks are a good starting point. I didn't mean "if you want to read 'canonical' literature you need to read the Greeks first!".

I usually rec people look into some highchool cirriculums for early reading ideas, they arent the most difficult books and often cover some good classics, when you start out you should totally try an older classic or two, Paradise Lost really opened my eyes to the value of lit, but dont be afraid to leave the Yea Forums recs behind in favor of going down a path you find more interesting

Experimental? What kind of stuff would you recommend?

Start with Homer, afterwards you can either read plays, history(if you're into that) or philosophy(I would recommend reading plato first).