The Ancient category has 62 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 263 ratings. The most-rated is Arabian Nights: Volume 1.
Arabian Nights: Volume 1
Summary
Please note this drama contains some explicit content. This multicast dramatisation of Arabian Nights: Volume 1 is an Audible Original reenvisioning of three iconic tales - with a twist. Adapted by the great Marty Ross, whose previous audio dramas include Romeo and Jude, Dark Shadows, Doctor Who and Treasure Island, listeners can expect to hear Scheherazade, Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves and Julnar of the Sea as they've never done before. Step out of your comfort zone and indulge in the dark and fantastical world we've created. Travel with Mermen across the White City, go in search of treasures in hidden caves with Ali and Kasim and let yourself be guided by Scheherazade’s vision as she gives in to a deadly romance with Sultan Shahriya. About the stories In Scheherezade, a woman finds herself the object of desire of a powerful Sultan with murderous desires. Her only chance at saving her life is by using the one power she herself possesses: her gift for telling enchanting stories, the very stories that follow in this drama.... Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves tells the tale of an impoverished husband and wife whose lives change drastically when husband Ali discovers the cave where a local gang of bandits are hiding their treasure. A happy ending? Not quite, as the money brings dangerous complications in the form of the greed of Ali's brother and sister-in-law and the determination of the bandits not to be stolen from. Can Ali save himself - or will his wife, Marjana, have to do all the work - in this taut romantic thriller? In Julnar of the Sea, a merwoman finds the love of a mortal King and they produce a son, Prince Badr Basim. Julnar will have to look out for her son, Badr, as, true to his undersea birthright, he seeks out the love of Princess Jawhera of the Merfolk. She is haughty and her father King Es Semendel positively hostile, casting Badr into a dramatic odyssey which will take him to the island of a beautiful sorceress who makes literal pets of her lovers. Can Julnar and her brother, Salim, find and save Badr in time? The cast: This drama features Omid Djalili (The Mummy, Gladiator, The Omid Djalili Show), Abraham Popoola, Adam Sina, Alyssa Kyria, Anoushka Rava, Atilla Akinci, Bamshad Abedi-Amin, Betsabeh Emran, Daniel Naddafy, David Ahmad, Gisele Payvandi, Ian Abeysekera, Jonathan Morrison, Mandana Jones, Michael Franklin, Mitra Djalili, Nezar Alderazi, Philip Arditti, Raghad Chaar, Richard Reed, Pezh Maan, Tara Ja?ar, Walles Hamonde, Zahra Ahmadi and Hemi Yeroham.
Public Domain (P)2018 Audible, Ltd.
The Poetic Edda
Summary
"The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a Modern English translation that would do them justice. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!) and well worth the wait. These amazing texts from a thirteenth-century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological, and literary importance, containing the lion's share of information that survives today about the gods and heroes of pre-Christian Scandinavians, their unique vision of the beginning and end of the world, etc. "Jackson Crawford's modern versions of these poems are authoritative and fluent and often very gripping. With their individual headnotes and complementary general introduction, they supply today's readers with most of what they need to know in order to understand and appreciate the beliefs, motivations, and values of the Vikings." (Dick Ringler, professor emeritus of English and Scandinavian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison)
©2015 Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Iliad of Homer
Summary
For thousands of years, Homer's ancient epic poem the Iliad has enchanted readers from around the world. When you join Professor Vandiver for this lecture series on the Iliad, you'll come to understand what has enthralled and gripped so many people. Her compelling 12-lecture look at this literary masterpiece - whether it's the work of many authors or the "vision" of a single blind poet - makes it vividly clear why, after almost 3,000 years, the Iliad remains not only among the greatest adventure stories ever told but also one of the most compelling meditations on the human condition ever written. As you'll learn, the grandeur and immediacy of Homer's world would seem to defy time and space. Throughout these lectures, you'll explore this legendary era in brilliant, unforgettable hues. You'll meet its towering heroes who thirst for honor and the gods who inspired and instigated them. You'll go deep inside the shattering battles at Troy that act out mankind's awesome passions for glory, love, and vengeance. But more than that, you'll focus on the timeless human issues this masterpiece raises, all of them evoked by the power of a single dramatic question: Why does Achilles rage? The limits of freedom, the common humanity we share, the line between justice and revenge, the nature of destiny, the meaning of life - Professor Vandiver uses the Iliad as a potent lens through which to study them all. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1999 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1999 The Great Courses
Classical Mythology
Summary
These 24 lectures are a vibrant introduction to the primary characters and most important stories of classical Greek and Roman mythology. Among those you'll investigate are the accounts of the creation of the world in Hesiod's Theogony and Ovid's Metamorphoses; the gods Zeus, Apollo, Demeter, Persephone, Hermes, Dionysos, and Aphrodite; the Greek heroes, Theseus and Heracles (Hercules in the Roman version); and the most famous of all classical myths, the Trojan War. Professor Vandiver anchors her presentation in some basics. What is a myth? Which societies use myths? What are some of the problems inherent in studying classical mythology? She also discusses the most influential 19th- and 20th-century thinking about myth's nature and function, including the psychological theories of Freud and Jung and the metaphysical approach of Joseph Campbell. You'll also consider the relationship between mythology and culture (such as the implications of the myth of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades for the Greek view of life, death, and marriage), the origins of classical mythology (including the similarities between the Theogony and Mesopotamian creation myths), and the dangers of probing for distant origins (for example, there's little evidence that a prehistoric "mother goddess" lies at the heart of mythology). Taking you from the surprising "truths" about the Minotaur to Ovid's impact on the works of William Shakespeare, these lectures make classical mythology fresh, absorbing, and often surprising. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2000 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2000 The Great Courses
The Odyssey of Homer
Summary
What is it in Homer's Odyssey that has so enthralled readers from around the world for thousands of years? By joining Professor Vandiver for these 12 lectures on the Odyssey, you'll find out why. This literary exploration centers on a single provocative question about the epic poem's protagonist, Odysseus: Why does he long so powerfully to go home? To probe the depths of this question, you'll embark on meticulous, insightful examinations of the most important episodes in the Odyssey. In doing so, you'll understand the cultural assumptions that lie behind Homer's lines and the critical and interpretive issues involved in truly unpacking this ancient masterpiece. Among the range of episodes, themes, and topics you'll explore are: Odysseus's superb skills as a rhetorician; the abrupt break in the text at the end of the "Great Wanderings" episode, when the poem briefly returns to the third-person narrative; Penelope's knowledge and motives as they relate to the inevitability of her suitors' doom; the effectiveness (or possible lack thereof) in the poem's ending; the historical basis for the Trojan War from which Odysseus returns; and more. For anyone who's loved the stories of Odysseus's encounters with witches, monsters, and vengeful gods; for anyone who's longed to truly grasp the intricate nature of Homer's epic; or for anyone who has been looking for ways to approach a work that can often be intimidating to first-time readers, these lectures are an invaluable resource and a helpful introduction to the grandest adventure story in Western literature. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1999 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1999 The Great Courses
Greek Tragedy
Summary
Greek tragedy was a dramatic form that flourished for less than a full century. And yet it remains vibrant, alive, and productive today. And the form's masterpieces help us - as perhaps they helped their original audiences - grasp a fuller sense of the terror and wonder of life. Professor Vandiver has designed these 24 rich and rewarding lectures to give you a full overview of Greek tragedy, both in its original setting and as a lasting contribution to the artistic exploration of the human condition. You'll learn to see Greek tragedy as a genre in its cultural context. What is tragedy's deeper historical background? Did it grow out of rituals honoring the god Dionysus, as is so often said? How did Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides each make unique contributions to tragedy's expressive power? You'll also uncover what scholarship can reveal about the actual performance of Greek tragedy, including its physical and ritual settings, actors and acting methods, conventions of staging and stagecraft, and even how productions were financed. And with this solid background in place, you'll explore a broad group of tragedies in close detail. In particular, you'll see how individual tragedies used traditional myths (often tales from the Trojan War), and what Aeschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides intended to accomplish by changing or adding to the basic story. You'll examine what certain tragedies imply about the world of 5th-century Athens and the importance, in turn, of the cultural background for explaining those tragedies.
©2000 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2000 The Great Courses
Life Lessons from the Great Myths
Summary
Change the way you think about some of the greatest stories ever told with this examination of the most important myths from more than 3,000 years of history. The ways in which the human imagination can transform historical events, people, and themes into powerful myths that endure through the ages is nothing short of awe-inspiring. To examine the core of the world's greatest myths and tales is to confront some of history's most basic human truths. These 36 captivating lectures comprise a powerful work of storytelling prowess and historical insight, exploring events and individuals that so gripped civilizations, they transcended to the level of myth and played an important role in shaping culture, politics, religion, and more. Looking at myths from ancient Greece and Rome, from the Near East and the Middle East, from early and modern Europe, and from the United States, Professor Fears shows how myths convey higher truths too profound to be described in ordinary language. Decoding them, Professor Fears reveals how they serve as enduring sources of wisdom. For example, the rich tapestry of supernatural events in the Epic of Gilgamesh provided support for Mesopotamian politics, including the need for a divinely appointed kingship. The furious battles in Beowulf played an important role in cementing Germanic ideas of courage, heroism, glory, and honor. And the dramatic last stand at the Battle of the Alamo emphasized for Americans that liberty is worth any price. The search for wisdom is one of life's great purposes, and there is much wisdom to be gleaned from the world's great myths. By the final powerful and stirring lecture of this course, you're sure to find yourself wiser than you were before you started. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2011 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2011 The Great Courses
Herodotus: The Father of History
Summary
Witness the "works and wonders" of the ancient world through the eyes of its first great historian in this sparkling series of 24 lectures from a much-honored teacher and classical scholar. Herodotus (c. 484-420 B.C.E.) was a Greek who was born in what is now the modern Turkish resort town of Bodrum and who died, so tradition says, in the south of Italy. In between, his tirelessly inquiring mind took him from one corner of the known world to another. And he reported on or visited all of its continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa) to write about the vast array of subjects that captured his interest. These included the "great works" of the ancient land of Egypt; the remarkable kings who built the vast Persian Empire; and the strange customs and unlikely origins of the Scythians, a warlike, mounted people who lived beyond the Danube and whose repulse of Darius and the Persians in 513 B.C.E. made them the first Europeans to throw back an eastern invasion. The book that emerged from these "inquiries" - The Histories - is Herodotus's only known work, yet it still made Herodotus one of the rare, landmark figures in the story of thought. In these lectures, Professor Vandiver introduces you to Herodotus and The Histories, tracing the influences he assimilated and the new methods he used in crafting this monumental work. You learn how that work looked at the past in new and fresh ways, seeing it not as a distant recess shrouded in legend and rumor, but as something that lies close at hand; as something that immediately affects the here and now, and as a subject whose great personalities and patterns of events can be studied in order to make the reasons behind them as clear as possible. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2002 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2002 The Great Courses
The Socratic Dialogues: Early Period, Volume 1
Summary
Here are the Socratic Dialogues presented as Plato designed them to be - living discussions between friends and protagonists, with the personality of Socrates himself coming alive as he deals with a host of subjects, from justice and inspiration to courage, poetry and the gods. Plato's Socratic Dialogues provide a bedrock for classical Western philosophy. For centuries they have been read, studied and discussed via the flat pages of books, but the ideal medium for them is the spoken word. Some are genuine dialogues while some are dialogues reported by a narrator supposedly at a later date. Ukemi Audiobooks presents all of the Socratic Dialogues in a series of recordings divided into Early Period (Volumes 1 & 2), Middle Period (Volumes 1 & 2) and Late Period (Volume 1) - based on their likely composition by Plato. This opening volume starts with perhaps the most famous speech, The Apology, Socrates' doomed defence against the charge of heresy and corrupting the young. It is followed by Crito, in which Socrates' friend offers to spirit him out of Athens to avoid execution. Among the others are discussions on Courage (Laches), and Friendship (Lysis). The role of Socrates is taken by David Rintoul, a widely admired and experienced audiobook reader who studied philosophy at university before taking a different path to RADA, TV, theatre and film. He is joined by a broad range of readers, most known to Audible listeners. Each Dialogue is prefaced with a short introduction to set the scene for newcomers to Plato. Translation: Benjamin Jowett.
Public Domain (P)2017 Ukemi Audiobooks
The History of Rome, Volume 1, Books 1 - 5
Summary
When Livy began his epic The History of Rome, he had no idea of the fame and fortune he would eventually attain. He would go on to become the most widely read writer in the Roman Empire and was eagerly sought out and feted like a modern celebrity. And his fame continued to grow after his death. His bombastic style, his intricate and complex sentence structure, and his flair for powerfully recreating the searing drama of historical incidents made him a favorite of teachers and pupils alike. Along with Virgil and Cicero, Livy formed the Latin triumvirate of essential studies for 2,000 years. Hardly anyone who was educated was unaware of at least some of the more famous stories of Roman myth and history as told by Titus Livius. When completed, Livy's magnificent work consisted of 142 "books" (i.e. long chapters) and covered the period from the mythical founding of Rome through the time of Augustus. Books 1 - 10 and 21 - 45 are all that have come down to us in reasonably complete form. Volume 1 consists of books 1 - 5, which takes us from the founding of Rome in the eighth century BC to its sack by the Gauls in 390 BC. The Audio Connoisseur series will eventually come to six volumes. This version was translated by Roberts.
Public Domain (P)2010 Audio Connoisseur
The Oresteia
Summary
In The Oresteia, Aeschylus dramatizes the myth of the curse on the royal house of Argos. The action begins when King Agamemnon returns victorious from the Trojan War, only to be treacherously slain by his own wife. It ends with the trial of their son, Orestes, who slew his mother to avenge her treachery - a trial with the goddess Athena as judge, the god Apollo as defense attorney, and, as prosecutors, relentless avenging demons called The Furies. The results of the trial change the nature of divine and human justice forever. An adaptation by Yuri Rasovsky, based on a translation by Ian Johnston. Also included is an excerpt from Blackstone's dramatization of The Odyssey, in which Agamemnon's brother Menelaus learns of the events of The Oresteia from Proteus, the sea god.
(P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Paradise Lost
Summary
"Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe...." So begins the greatest epic poem in the English language. In words remarkable for their richness of rhythm and imagery, Milton tells the story of man's creation, fall, and redemption, "to justify the ways of God to men". Here, unabridged, and told with exceptional sensitivity and power by Anton Lesser, is the plight of Adam and Eve, the ambition and vengefulness of Satan and his cohorts. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2005 Naxos Audiobooks Ltd.
The Theogony of Hesiod
Summary
"The Theogony" (“Birth of the Gods”) is a poem by Hesiod which describes the origin, position and relationships of the gods of the Greek pantheon. Hesiod created a synthesis of the diverse Greek traditions concerning the gods, in the form of a hymn invoking Zeus and the Muses. The Theogony is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony. However, it should not be considered as the authoritative source of Greek mythology, but rather as a portrait of a dynamic tradition that was recorded around 700 BCE. Hesiod’s narrative recounts the universe’s primordial state as a dark void, the emergence of the gods and how they established control over the cosmos. Life began with the spontaneous generation of four beings: Chaos (Chasm), Gaia (Earth), Tartarus (the underworld), and Eros (Desire).
Public Domain (P)2019 Woodkeep Audio
Poems of the Elder Edda
Summary
The great poetic tradition of pre-Christian Scandinavia is known to us almost exclusively though the Prose Edda, a collection of narrative literature, and its companion, the Poetic Edda. The poems originated in Iceland, Norway, and Greenland between the ninth and 13th centuries, when they were compiled in a unique manuscript known as the Codex Regius. The poems are primarily lyrical rather than narrative. Terry's fine translation includes the magnificent cosmological poem, "The Völuspá", didactic poems concerned with mythology and the everyday conduct of life, and heroic poems, of which an important group is concerned with the story of Sigurd and Brynhild. Poems of the Elder Edda will appeal to students of Old Norse, Icelandic, and Medieval literature, as well as to general readers and listeners of poetry. This audio version presents each poem followed by the translator's notes.
©1990 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2015 Mondello Publishing
The Rivals
Summary
A comedy of manners in five acts, The Rivals was Sheridan's second commercially produced play. The play is set in Bath in the 18th century, a town legendary for conspicuous consumption and fashion at the time. Wealthy, fashionable people went there to "take the waters", which were believed to have healing properties. Bath was much less exclusive than London, and provides an ideal setting for the characters. The plot centres around the two young lovers, Lydia and Jack. Lydia, who reads a lot of popular novels of the time, wants a purely romantic love affair. To court her, Jack pretends to be "Ensign Beverley", a poor officer. Lydia is enthralled with the idea of eloping with a poor soldier in spite of her guardian, Mrs. Malaprop, a moralistic widow.
©2009 Saland Publishing (P)2009 Saland Publishing
Pygmalion
Summary
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw Presented by The Online Stage In the Greek legend, a sculptor, Pygmalion, created a statue of a woman so beautiful that he fell in love with it. Later the goddess Aphrodite responded to his earnest prayers and brought the statue, named Galatea, to life. Shaw's Pygmalion is a fussy unmarried professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins, who claims that he could train an uneducated person off the street to speak so that he or she could pass as a member of the aristocracy. His Galatea is Eliza Doolittle, who sells flowers at Covent Garden and whose father is a dissipated but cunning vagrant. Higgins finds Eliza a surprisingly apt pupil, but with her new found skill in elocution comes a streak of independence, which threatens to upset the complacent harmony of his domestic life. Like many of Shaw's plays, Pygmalion includes a preface, as well as an afterword in which Shaw relates the further history of Eliza as she learns how to incorporate her training by Higgins into her new lifestyle. Cast: Narrator: Grace Garrett Eliza Dolittle: Arielle Lipshaw Henry Higgins: Jeff Moon Colonel Pickering: Denis Daly Clara Eynsford-Hill: Amanda Friday Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and Mrs Pearce: Sara Morsey Bystander and Mrs. Higgins: Sarah Mitchell Sarcastic Bystander and Alfred Dolittle: Alan Weyman Parlour-Maid: Sarah Bacaller Freddy Eynsford-Hill: Mark Crowle-Groves Audio edited by Denis Daly
Public Domain (P)2018 The Online Stage
The Rubaiyat
Summary
I first read Edward Fitzgerald’s celebrated, if controversial, version of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat when I happened upon it in my father’s extensive library when I was a sophomore at Notre Dame High School. I have since read it countless times, even purchasing over 10 different editions of the widely-read poem, which is arguably the most famous Persian literary work in the world. While there is much debate about Omar Khayyam’s philosophical outlook (is his message Sufi-oriented or existentially hedonistic?), there is no doubting its beauty and its profundity of thought.
Public Domain (P)2019 David Christopher Lane
The Jugurthine War & The Conspiracy of Cataline
Summary
A bloody revolt by a North African prince and a plot to seize control of Rome are the subjects of two short masterpieces of ancient history by the illustrious Roman chronicler, Sallust. The Jugurthine War tells the story of the crafty Numidian, Jugurtha, his brutal lunge for power beginning in 118 B.C. and his capture and execution in 106 B.C. It is a tale of pitched battles and savage guerilla warfare, failed peace conferences and corrupt officials, treachery and heroism. The Conspiracy of Cataline is a gothic tale of revenge, violence, and naked aggression in the pursuit of power. Its most famous participants are Cicero, the young Julius Caesar, and Lucius Sergius Cataline. Cataline is described by Sallust as "a guilt-stained soul at odds with gods and men, who found no rest either waking or sleeping, so cruelly did conscience ravage his overwrought mind". Hear the peculiar power in the dramatic prose which Sallust employs in these two great works. They are not only a magnificent example of the gravitas of the Latin language in the hands of a master, but also a valuable source for the speeches of some of history's most famous leaders. Translated by Handford, Lord, and Blackistone. Also included on this volume:With Cataline himself present in the Roman senate chamber near the end of 63 B.C., Cicero hurled at him one of the most superb examples of oratory ever known, the famous First Oration Against Cataline which was memorized by schoolboys for a thousand years. As the speech continued, the senators who were seated in the vicinity of Cataline quietly got up one by one and moved away from him, leaving him alone on one side of the senate chamber staring at the floor. Upon its completion, with applause for Cicero still ringing in his ears, Cataline walked out of the senate building and left Rome. Listen as this spine tingling example of oratorical bravura engulfs Cataline!
(P)2004 Audio Connoisseur
Masterpieces of Ancient Greek Literature
Summary
The ancient Greeks left the world that came after them - particularly our own and our ways of seeing it - an incalculable legacy. Mention politics, philosophy, law, medicine, history, even the visual arts, and we barely scratch the surface of what we owe this extraordinary culture. How can we best learn about these people who have given us so much, who have deepened and enriched our understanding of ourselves, and whose world remains far closer than we might imagine? The 36 lectures of this sparkling series from a frequently honored teacher is an outstanding place to begin, as Professor Schenker opens up to us the epics of Homer; the dramatic genius of the playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes; and the poems of Archilochus, Sappho, and many others. He includes some of the world's greatest works of history and philosophy, and he gives rhetoric and oratory their proper due, as well. Beginning with Homer and the two great epics credited to him, the Iliad and the Odyssey - including a provocative discussion of whether Homer even existed - Professor Schenker offers a wide-ranging overview of the subject that is both instructive and entertaining. His lectures are rich in anecdote, so that the works are set against a vivid backdrop of their times, as exemplified by his description of the debut of Aeschylus's the Eumenides, first staged in Athens in 458 B.C.E. You'll learn that the presentation was said to have elicited full-blown terror in its audience. When the Furies - the hideous, avenging spirits roused from sleep by the ghost of the murdered Clytemnestra - appeared in the audience, men are said to have shrieked and fainted, with pregnant women miscarrying on the spot.
©2007 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2007 The Great Courses
The Importance of Being Earnest (dramatized)
Summary
This is one of the great recordings of a great play. John Gielgud stars as Earnest and Edith Evans gives her indomitable performance as Lady Bracknell in this classic radio recording from 1951. Performance styles may have changed, but this is an unmatched production bearing all the hallmarks of outstanding audio drama featuring some of the finest actors of the 20th century.Also included are two collections of poetry readings by John Gielgud and Edith Evans.PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.