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Richer Resources Publications

Classical Reference Library

Articles/Essays

Aeschylus

Prometheus Bound

Seven Against Thebes

Suppliant Women

The Oresteia

The Trojan War

Who Really Won the Trojan War?

The Greeks destroyed Troy—but victory proved far more complicated. Achilles was dead, Agamemnon returned home only to be murdered, Odysseus wandered for another ten years, and the defeated Trojans lived on in legend. The ancient stories leave us with a surprisingly modern question: if war devastates victors and vanquished alike, what does it really mean to win?

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The Persians

Aristophanes

Birds

Clouds

Frogs

Knights

Lysistrata

Peace

Euripides

Bacchae

Electra

Hippolytus

Medea

Orestes

Homer

The Iliad

The Trojan War

Who Really Won the Trojan War?

The Greeks destroyed Troy—but victory proved far more complicated. Achilles was dead, Agamemnon returned home only to be murdered, Odysseus wandered for another ten years, and the defeated Trojans lived on in legend. The ancient stories leave us with a surprisingly modern question: if war devastates victors and vanquished alike, what does it really mean to win?

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THE ODYSSEY

You Speak More Homer Than You Think

You may never have sailed past the Sirens or faced a Cyclops, but you probably speak Homer's language more often than you realize. From odyssey and mentor to siren song, lotus-eater, and between Scylla and Charybdis, discover how a 3,000-year-old poem still lives on in the words and expressions we use today.

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The Odyssey

The Trojan War

Who Really Won the Trojan War?

The Greeks destroyed Troy—but victory proved far more complicated. Achilles was dead, Agamemnon returned home only to be murdered, Odysseus wandered for another ten years, and the defeated Trojans lived on in legend. The ancient stories leave us with a surprisingly modern question: if war devastates victors and vanquished alike, what does it really mean to win?

Read resource →

THE ENDURING ODYSSEY

Why Odysseus Still Matters 3,000 Years Later

For nearly three thousand years, Odysseus has remained one of literature’s most compelling heroes. His intelligence, pride, failures, endurance, and longing for home still raise questions that feel remarkably familiar: what makes a hero, what does hardship do to us, and what does it really mean to find our way home?

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THE ODYSSEY

You Speak More Homer Than You Think

You may never have sailed past the Sirens or faced a Cyclops, but you probably speak Homer's language more often than you realize. From odyssey and mentor to siren song, lotus-eater, and between Scylla and Charybdis, discover how a 3,000-year-old poem still lives on in the words and expressions we use today.

Read resource →

Lucretius

On the Nature of Things

HISTORY OF SCIENCE

Ancient and Modern Science: Some Observations

Ian Johnston traces the changing understanding of science from ancient Greek natural philosophy through medieval cosmology to modern experimental science, exploring how the pursuit of knowledge shifted from contemplation of nature and its purposes toward prediction, control, and power.

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CRITICAL ESSAY

Some Observations on Lucretius

Ian Johnston examines Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, considering its scientific claims, its Epicurean vision of nature, and its enduring influence on Western thought. He argues that the poem’s greatest importance lies not in its science but in its powerful attempt to reshape how we understand nature and our place within it.

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Ovid

Metamorphoses

Sophocles

Ajax

Antigone

Oedipus at Colonus

Oedipus the King

CRITICAL ESSAY

Fate, Freedom, and the Tragic Hero in Oedipus the King

What makes Oedipus a tragic hero? Ian Johnston examines the tension between fate and free will in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, arguing that the very qualities that make Oedipus great—his intelligence, courage, confidence, and relentless pursuit of truth—also lead him toward catastrophe.

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Philoctetes

Women of Trachis