As history they vary in quality and reliability, but provide some of the best source material on the history of Sparta, as well as several lives including Antonius, Pompey, and Caesar.Īs biography they bring to life some remarkable characters who might otherwise have vanished into the past, including Themistocles, Alcibiades, Cato, and Alexander. Plutarch attempted to combine history, biography, and moral philosophy by writing them in pairs, one Greek, the other Roman, and appending a comparison. The Lives are a unique resource compiled by one of the finest Greek writers of classical times.

Having just completed my account in paintings of the stories in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and his less well-known Heroides, I now turn to its successor, Plutarch’s Lives. And finally, on delivery, the artist could expound the virtues and fidelity of their work. The details of the narrative to be painted could be checked before the first studies were drawn. Patrons who wished to select a motif for their purchase from the painter could choose from the thousands of stories contained in those books. Most studios and workshops contained bookshelves with key reference works, including the Bible, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Plutarch’s Lives (or Parallel Lives). Until the late twentieth century, most had been thoroughly educated in the Classics and the Bible. We believe that this translation is not only MORE ACCURATE than North’s, it is also EASIER and more accessible for today’s students.Literary sources were (and still are) crucial to a great many artists. Together, they translated Plutarch’s Lives from the ORIGINAL GREEK into several English volumes in the 1800s. Stewart was a Fellow at Trinity College in Cambridge, England. He was a major contributor to Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, and also wrote for the companion Biography edition. Long was a professor of Greek and Latin at University College in London. The Plenary uses the translation by George Long and Aubrey Stewart for most of our Plutarch Study Guides. But he did not translate Plutarch’s writings from the original Greek – he took Amyot’s French translation and transposed it into English. Then, some 20 years later, Thomas North decided to publish an English version. He translated Plutarch’s Greek words into French. The first person to translate the Greek was Jacques Amyot in 1559. Plutarch wrote his books in his native language, Greek. Many people in the CM Community will say that the translation that Charlotte used, the one by Thomas North, is the best translation.

Plutarch's