The Jewish War: Book 7

[cahn]

The last book!

Last week: Astrological phenomena and the star of Bethlehem. Messianic (?) prophecy about Vespasian. Brutality of the siege, and discussion of the law of war protecting prisoners from the enemy army (or lack thereof). Imperator.

This week: Book 7. Wrapping up of the war. The Masada fortress and group suicide (which I think is interesting to think about given the discussion we had a few books back). The temple of Onias. (Dedicated commment threads for both of these below, for anyone who wants to join in!)

Yay book club, thank you everyone!

Comments

[cahn]

Ooooh, I'm totally psyched you want to continue! Good question! So... I absolutely have to take a break from Classics book club until, well, for at least a month but possibly until August (probably not until August, at least I hope not) because I have done... not very much... Hugo reading and I need to do that!

I am cross now because I am fairly positive that I have Graves' translation of The Golden Ass somewhere and I cannot find it, or at least it's not in either of the two places on the bookshelf that it would be sensible for it to be. Anyway that would be my vote for the next one, partially because I'm now interested in Robert Graves again via WWI, and partially because that book was a gift which I either have not read but should have, or read but remember absolutely nothing about it including whether I had actually read it (most likely this one), and either way it would be nice if I had both read it and remembered something about it.

I'd also love to do one or more of the plays sometime -- I had a bunch recommended to me which I can't remember right now but which sound really fun, and we could get different translations and compare.

[cenozoicsynapsid]

The plays, as I understand it, basically sort into four piles:

* Greek tragedy: Aeschylus (or if you're serenak, Aischylos), Sophocles and Euripides (I don't remember the Greek transliterations, I'm sure someone will remind me). One of those annoying sets of books that feel cliched because everyone has ransacked them for parts for literal millenia, but you're disgusted to find out they're as good as everyone says.

* Aristophanes: Pretty much the sole survivor of the Old Comedy. Still really funny, unlike his successors, the...

* New Comedy: encompassing a bunch of Greek authors but also most of the surviving Latin comedies. Direct ancestor of those Shakespeare plays where people keep mistaking lookalikes for one another (notably Two Gentlemen of Verona but also bits of Twelfth Night and so on), and to the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Full of cornball jokes and stock characters; tends to come across as a bit tedious to modern readers.

* Roman tragedy: Ancestral to Titus Andronicus, Tis Pity She's a Whore, and stuff like that. I haven't read any of these, but from what I've heard: oceans of gore, heartfelt speeches on all sides, no piece of scenery unchewed.

[cahn]

Hee. I think it was mostly the Greek tragedy that people were reccing to me, and that I'm interested in reading. Maybe Aristophanes too.