In the very first book of his monumental history of the Peloponnesian War, whilst presenting a preliminary survey of the early Hellene culture up to the point of the war’s outbreak, Thucydides muses about the lack of critical thought given to stories and traditions, “even on matters of contemporary history which have not been obscured […]
John E. Riutta
About John E. Riutta
Posts by John E. Riutta, MA, MBA, FLS, MemRES:
Reviews in Bird Watcher’s Digest
The November / December 2013 issue of Bird Watcher’s Digest contains three of my original reviews – two of books and one of a binocular.
Beginning The Peloponnesian War
Thus far in my reading the St. John’s list, each book I have so far read – Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Oresteia and Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus, and the Theban plays, Philoctetes, and Ajax of Sophocles – has been one that I have already previously read at least once. The next book on the […]
Taking Up Sophocles
Having now completed my readings of the plays of Aeschylus included on the St. John’s Academic Program Reading List, I have now moved on to those of Sophocles. It is remarkable how, in comparison to those of Aeschylus, how “modern” the plays of Sophocles seem.