>>54901146greek myths are very interesting, and i'd at least recommend picking up bulfinch's mythology. the thing is western culture is so immersed in them they've become kind of passe and i fall into the trap sometimes of not recognizing my overexposure to them makes me undervalue them. that said, i have developed some distaste for just how amoral and borderline evil the greek gods are. that probably seems like an insane criticism, as if i'm looking for heckin' wholesome goddos, but the greek view of the world is honestly so misanthropic that it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth sometimes. that's a rather idiosyncratic opinion, i might be the only person who ever characterizes them like that, but i don't think i'm being uncharitable to them.
if you want a good ancient read, i might be a hipster faggot, but i would rec reading the epic of gilgamesh first, or the upanishads. i'm not some vedic new agey faggot, but they're rather uplifting and since they're an anthology it's easier to get through them than one long narrative, though obviously bulfinch's is an anthology of short stories as well.
as for other random shit worth reading, i also like reading sumerian-akkadian exorcism ritual chant prayer incantations lol. they're kind of like creepy pasta.
>They are 7 in number, just 7>in the terrible depths they are 7>bow down, in the sky they are 7>In the terrible depths, the dark houses>They swell, they grow tall>They are neither female nor male>They are a silence heavy with sea storms>They bear off no women their loins are empty of children>They are strangers to pity, compassion is far from them>They are horses that grow to great size that feed on mountains>They are the enemies of our friends>They feed on the gods>They are the faces of evil they are the faces of evil>They are 7 they are 7 they are 7 times 7>In the name of heaven let them be torn from our sight>In the name of the Earth let them be torn from our sight. — “The Seven,” Akkadian poetryhttps://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/apr/20/excerpt-anonymous/as far as a really easy read to sort of edify yourself i guess, i honestly completely fucking love eh gombrich's little history of the world. i believe the story is that he wrote it for a friend's child, and he tells a pretty nice cursory view of history that is honestly quite beautiful to me in how much it reaches out to the reader, and gave me a childlike fascination with history. it's poo pooh'd rather badly by woke educators because muh western bias, but as someone who wasn't even born in the west i can safely tell you that shit is major faggotry.
