Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Philosophy
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Texts
A True Story — Lucian of Samosata (Harmon)Lucian's satirical proto-science-fiction voyage to the edges of the world, in A. M. Harmon's 1913 Loeb Classical Library translation, with his scholarly notes.Dialogues of Plato — JowettTwenty-three dialogues of Plato in Benjamin Jowett's Oxford translation — the Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, Gorgias, Meno, Ion, Republic extracts, Timaeus, Theaetetus, Parmenides, Sophist, Statesman, Philebus, and others.Golden Verses of Pythagoras — FirthThe Golden Verses of Pythagoras and other Pythagorean fragments — the foundational ethical text of the Pythagorean school, with Hierocles' commentary and other fragments. Translated by Florence M. Firth (1904).On the Mysteries — Iamblichus (Thomas Taylor)Thomas Taylor's English translation, first printed in 1821, of the treatise on the Mysteries ascribed to Iamblichus: a late-antique Neoplatonist defence of theurgy written as the priest Abammon's reply to Porphyry's Letter to Anebo, with Taylor's introduction, notes, and additional notes, from the 1895 second edition.The Discourses of EpictetusThe Discourses of Epictetus, Books III and IV — recorded by Arrian of Nicomedia; translated by W. A. Oldfather. Loeb Classical Library, 1928. Practical Stoic philosophy on freedom, desire, discipline of assent, and the examined life.The First Philosophers of Greece — Arthur FairbanksArthur Fairbanks collects, edits, and translates the surviving fragments and ancient testimony for the Presocratic philosophers from Thales through Anaxagoras.The History of Herodotus Vol. I (Books I–IV) — MacaulayThe complete text of Books I through IV of Herodotus's Histories — Croesus, Cyrus, and the rise of Persia, and the customs of Egypt and Scythia — in G. C. Macaulay's 1890 English translation.The History of Herodotus Vol. II (Books V–IX) — MacaulayThe complete text of Books V through IX of Herodotus's Histories — the Ionian revolt and the Persian invasions of Greece, through Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale — in G. C. Macaulay's 1890 English translation.The Meditations of Marcus AureliusThe private philosophical notebooks of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius — twelve books of Stoic reflection on duty, impermanence, reason, and the examined life, written in Greek during military campaigns on the northern frontier, circa AD 161–180.The Mimes of the Courtesans — Lucian of Samosata (A.L.H.)A 1928 English translation of Lucian's satirical Dialogues of the Courtesans, comic sketches of hetaerae, their lovers, and their trade in Roman-era Greek society.The Poetics of Aristotle — ButcherAristotle's founding work of literary criticism on epic and tragic poetry, in S. H. Butcher's 1902 translation.The Politics of Aristotle — JowettAristotle's complete eight-book treatise on the best forms and constitutions of the city-state, in Benjamin Jowett's 1885 Oxford translation.The Syrian Goddess — Lucian of Samosata (Strong and Garstang)Lucian's first-person account of the cult of Atargatis at Hierapolis, translated by Herbert A. Strong with introduction, life of Lucian, and notes by John Garstang (1913).The Timaeus and the Critias — Thomas TaylorThomas Taylor's Neoplatonic English translation of Plato's Timaeus and Critias, with Taylor's introductions and notes.