Resources for Reading (or Teaching) Plutarch

Whether you’re reading a few lives for historical interest, many lives for your own education, or all the lives as a completist, Plutarch is daunting because he’s so old. You shouldn’t read Plutarch alone and, thanks to the Internet, you’ll at least have me to help you!

Find a Plutarch Translation That Fits

The first place to start is to pick a translation that works for you. There are a lot of free ones, but you may have the best luck paying a bit to read in a more comfortable idiom.

I’m not a fan of the Thomas North translation, though it’s quite hard to find and antiquated sounding. It’s not really the difficulty of the language, though, that bothers me. We obviously still think Shakespeare is worth it though his language differs markedly from our own. I don’t like it because North translated from the French, and in some places it would be generous to call it a translation (at least when compared to the original Greek), since phrases and clauses are often cut down or simplified without any editorial note.

The other free options would be Dryden-Clough and Bernadotte Perrin. The paid for options are mostly Penguin editions and Oxford editions. Check out my video for a bit more information or my post on translations linked above.

Once you’ve selected a translation, you can start however you like, chronologically (as arranged in the Timeline below) or just by diving into your favorite period of Greek or Roman history.

Check out the Podcast

If you have a particular life in mind, start with the Podcast to see if I’ve already done an episode on that life (I’m 37 lives in, so I’m 77% of the way there). In each podcast, I try to give a general picture with enough contextual footholds that when you read (or re-read) a life, you remember more and make deeper connections with the person Plutarch is describing. If you’re confused about the historical context of a particular life, it’s best to check out the Timeline (below), or check out the show notes for the Important People, Important Places, or Key Virtues and Vices sections, which I always keep near the top.

Season by Season: Reflecting on the Lives

I’ll break down the seasons and individual episodes below with some pertinent information, linked to the show notes and recording for each episode.

Maps and Timelines for Plutarch’s Context

Speaking of important places, I’ll link helpful maps into the show-notes, but I also have a bigger post helping people find the physical and digital maps that run parallel to Plutarch’s biographies. If you like the timeline, sign up for my email list and you’ll get a printable bookmark form of the timeline putting the chronology for the Greeks and Romans in one place (preferably the book!).

Keeping Track of Characters – The Who’s Who of Each Life

At the heading of all my show notes, I highlight the most important places and the most important people. If they’re on the list, the name is worth remembering to connect the dots in a given biography. If not, they’re probably a source Plutarch used and are of secondary (i.e. forgettable) importance. Another CM mom has made printable character cards for readers to annotate their own observations and associate them with a visual as her students get to know the characters themselves. Check them out here if you think they’d help your student.

Plutarch in Art

And finally, you may want to get a sense for what these men looked like, or at least enjoy their artistic representations through the years. For that, I highly recommend a resource I did not create, Plutarch’s Lives in Paint, where you can see Plutarch’s influence on more than just literary art through the past two millennia. The timeline also includes some of the most famous artistic depictions of these famous men of Greece and Rome.

Ask Questions: Never Stop Learning

I hope these resources help you start, continue, or finish fruitfully reading Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. Plutarch always encouraged us to be students, feeding the fires of our souls with the good, the true, and the beautiful. As always, feel free to use the Contact page to send me any questions you may have about the Ancient World in general, or Plutarch in particular. Plutarch is the real teacher here, and I’m just learning along with you.

A Timeline of Plutarch’s Lives