Ancient Classics

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by award-winning voice actor Martin Jarvis OBE, as well as John Sackville, Maya Saroya and the translator of this edition, David Raeburn. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Denis Feeney. Ovid's sensuous and witty...

We live in an era rife with cultural conflict. The 21st century is by no means free of wars, terrorism, riots, famine, nor epidemics. We may attempt to solve the challenges of our times by uniting the humanistic disciplines of philosophy, science, and technology. Our modern reality requires a fundamental understanding of the problems beleaguering our existence. Science and literature are key tools for gaining this insight. The wisdom accumulated throughout the centuries by scientists, philosophers, and writers is a solid foundation on which modern man can build the future.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is what many believe to be the foundation of Western Philosophy. It addresses what is visible and invisible, seen and observed versus intuited and imagined, and what is public versus private and just versus unjust. It also concerns the meaning and importance of education, the state of the soul, the conflict between truth and beauty, animal urges versus higher aspirations, knowledge versus ignorance, and on and on.

McKinley introduces his readers to over thirty authors of the ancient classics, illuminating who they were, the times they lived in, and their works that have come down to us through the millennia. In the process, we are introduced to the world-changing historical events of antiquity from the Greco-Persian Wars to the centuries of conquests that built the Roman Empire. Rather than reading second-hand accounts, we share the experience through the words of the men who lived and wrote this history, from Thucydides to Julius Caesar. We read multiple original accounts of decisive events such as ...

The war at Troy did not end when the city fell. For the Greeks who sailed home, and the women they carried off as slaves, the worst was still to come — and it is the tragedians, not Homer, who tell that story. Twenty-five centuries ago, in the open-air theater on the slope of the Athenian Acropolis, three poets created an art form that has never been surpassed. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides took the old stories of gods and heroes — the house of Atreus, the fall of Troy, the curse of Oedipus, the fury of Medea — and turned them into something the world had never seen: tragedy. ...

Introducing a new translation of Laozi’s classic work that makes the intimidating approachable and the complex comprehensible. Translated by best-selling author Ken Liu and read by acclaimed actor B.D. Wong, this new take on the Dao De Jing speaks directly to the sensibilities of a modern audience. Liu dispenses with footnotes and the granular details of academic debate in favor of presenting Laozi’s invaluable writing as clearly and colorfully as possible.

Plutarchs's (46-120 A.D.) epic chronicle of the lives of great Grecians and Romans. Beginning with the founding of Rome and Athens, the lives of the men who created the ancient world are brought to life in this new, high quality recording. Greats such as Romulus, Pericles, Theseus, Lycurgus and many others come alive as their politics, economy, and their individual stories play out in the time of the Ancients. This translation by John Dryden, which is considered by scholars to be the quintessential translation.

Homer's epic poem, written near the end of eighth century BC in Greece, follows the hero Odysseus as he journeys home after the fall of Troy. Many scholars believe that The Odyssey was originally composed as an oral tradition and was more likely meant to be heard than read, making it a great listen.

This massive 128-hour collection builds a bridge between Western and Eastern philosophy, connecting many of the most important and influential works ever written. Here you’ll encounter thinkers who dared to question everything, challenged the norms of their day and reshaped how humanity sees itself and the world.

A clear, reader-friendly edition of The Odyssey for modern readers. Odysseus has won the war at Troy, but the long journey home to Ithaca will test him with storms, monsters, enchantments, shipwrecks, and the anger of the gods. While he struggles across the sea, his wife Penelope and son Telemachus hold their home against suitors who believe he will never return. This Lumos Books edition keeps the force and dignity of the classic story while gently clarifying difficult wording, preserving key names, scenes, and famous moments. It includes inline explanatory footnotes and a glossary to help ...

An army of Huns led by the ferocious Shan-Yu has invaded China. The Chinese Imperial Army must fight! Mulan, a young woman desperate to bring honor to her family, disguises herself as a male warrior in order to spare her father. Follow along as Mulan proves herself and defends China from the Huns!

Whether searching for the buried treasure of Captain Kidd in "The Gold Bug" or seeking revenge in "The Cask of Amontillado," the words of the master storyteller will thrill and envelop the listener.

Book I of this history covers two and a half centuries — Aeneas, the she-wolf, the Sabine women, the last Tarquin driven from the city — in about thirty thousand words. At the far end of the volume, after the continuous narrative breaks off, ninety-five surviving summaries cover the next hundred and fifty-seven years — the Gracchi, Marius, Sulla, Spartacus, Caesar crossing the Rubicon, the Ides of March, Actium — in about eighteen thousand. The legendary reign of Romulus gets more space in this book than the destruction of the entire Roman Republic. Livy noticed the same slope ...

The first ever comprehensive history in English of China's Warring States period, an era that saw epic battles, the birth of profound philosophies, groundbreaking innovations, and shaped much of East Asian culture as we know it today. The Warring States period saw the emergence of Confucianism...

Blood, gore, thrills, chills, and romance abound in these plays by three of the great Greek authors. Included are "Medea" by Euripides; "Antigone" by Sophocles; and "Agamemnon" by Aeschylus.

The Oresteia is a tragedy in three parts written by Aeschylus in the fifth century BCE. After a decade of warfare, Troy had fallen and Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, returned home. His wife, Queen Clytemnestra, had him killed to avenge the sacrifice of her daughter Iphigenia, to obtain the crown and to marry her lover Aegisthus. This murder leads to further bloodshed when their son Orestes in turn kills Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. The trilogy consists of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides.

One of the most profound studies of warfare ever written, The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China presents us with an Eastern tradition of strategic thought that emphasizes outwitting one's opponent through speed, stealth, flexibility, and a minimum of force - an approach very different from that stressed in the West, where the advantages of brute strength have overshadowed more subtle methods.

Among the ancient artifacts concealed in a London Victorian mansion lies an ornate human-sized sarcophagus which houses the body of an ancient Egyptian sorceress dead for centuries...or is she?

Discover one of humanity’s oldest surviving epics—a powerful story of friendship, grief, and the search for immortality, retold in vivid modern English prose. Gilgamesh is the mighty King of Uruk: two-thirds god, one-third man, gifted with extraordinary strength and accustomed to getting his way. His people suffer under his restless ambition—until the gods create Enkidu, a wild man strong enough to challenge him. Their confrontation becomes a friendship that changes them both. Together, they venture into the sacred Cedar Forest to face its terrifying guardian, Humbaba, and win a fame ...

The Illiad dates back to the 8th century BC and is Homer's epic precursor to The Odyssey. Set during the Trojan War, it tells of battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.