Library
Guides
Reading and interpretive guides — orientations for a reader approaching a particular thinker, work or area of classical thought for the first time.
A guide is editorial scaffolding: where to start, what order to read in, what to expect from a particular thinker or work, what common misreadings to set aside. The guides are not summaries — they are written to send you back to the primary text in better shape than you started.
Where to begin
Orientation for a reader new to classical thought.
On a thinker
How to approach the dialogues, treatises and biographies of a particular philosopher.
On a book
How to read a specific primary text on its own terms.
Understanding the Iliad
A short orientation to Homer's older epic — what the poem is actually about, why the book divisions matter, and how to choose a translation.
3 min readRead guide →
Understanding the Republic
A short orientation to Plato's longest dialogue — what to read it for, what to set aside, and why it is the central text of the classical inheritance.
4 min readRead guide →