This is a comprehensive overview of the great works that have come down to us from antiquity. I have gathered the best sources and provided clear descriptions to allow readers to comfortably navigate these cultural riches.

This guide provides rich introductions to the works to Homer, the Ancient Poets, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Longinus, Plutarch, Arrian and Pausanias.

Each chapter includes three components:
- Biography of the author – when they lived, with a brief description of the times and society they lived in, and the works they created.
- Recommended books to read – details on the authors who created the translation, and contributors who provided introductions, notes, maps, images, and similar educational aides, with publisher info to simplify accessing the books from publishers such as Penguin Classics, Oxford World’s Classics and Landmark Editions. See Print Resources at the end of the book. Links to online sources of the original works are included, such as those hosted by the Online Books at Penn Library, the Perseus Project at Tufts, and the Penelope site at U. Chicago. See Web Resources after Print Resources.
- Narrative on the content and generous excerpts for your consideration – these are not synopses or abridged versions of the works, these are simply guides to the originals. The samples are intended as aid to understanding the original author’s style, point of view, and intellectual approach. The sample quotes give you a sense of the final work created by the translator.
The works discussed in Greek Classics Reader Guide were written over a period of more than a millennia, from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in the 8th century BC through to Pausanias who wrote in the 2nd century AD. While you certainly can jump in at any point and read any author you choose, you will find that the later authors build their work upon the books of the earlier authors. So there is an advantage in reading the works in their historic order. For example, virtually all authors quote the first author, Homer, as a moral authority, from the earliest Herodotus, the “Father of History,” to the great Greek geographer Pausanias. Many later authors model their work on the disciplined approach of Thucydides, the “historian’s historian.” A recurring theme throughout history is the nature of government, how it changes and how it affects society. On this topic, the early writing of Plato and then Aristotle is definitive on this topic. Many other concepts appear very early in the Ancient Classics and are woven throughout all the later works, so there is a comforting logic in reading works in the order they were written.