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The Greek poet, Hesiod, stands out as the first personality in European literature. The Theogony contains a genealogy of the gods from the beginning of time and an account of their violent struggles before the present order was established. The Works and Days, a compendium of advice for a life of honest husbandry, shines a unique and fascinating light on archaic Greek society, ethics, and superstition. Hesiod's poetry is the oldest source of the myths of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Golden Age.

Eutropius (died 399) was the first eunuch to be appointed a consul in Rome, but his enemies Gaïnas, and Eudoxia, the empress he had created, engineered his downfall. After his fall from power, John Chrysostom's pleas kept him alive for a while, but he was eventually executed in the year 399.

The deaconess Olympias, to whom 17 of Chrysostom's extant letters are addressed, was born about 368 to a pagan family of high rank. After the death of her father Seleucus, she was brought up under the guardianship of her uncle Procopius who was a devout Christian.

These homilies by Chrysostom are great examples of his discourses. St. Ignatius was the Bishop of Antioch who suffered martyrdom at Rome in the reign of Trajan about the year 110 CE. St. Babylas was Bishop of Antioch from about 237 to 250. He was martyred in the persecution under Decius.

In 387 AD, Emperor Theodosius I imposed new taxes. In Antioch, the protests against the tax degenerated into a riot in which the statues of the imperial family were thrown down. Roman emperors viewed the crime of lèse-majesté in a serious light, and the Antiochenes dreaded that Theodosius would destroy the city in retaliation. It was in the aftermath of the Riot of the Statues that Chrysostom delivered a series of lenten sermons which have come to be known as The Homilies on the Statues.

This letter of St. John Chrysostom to the Bishop of Rome, deals with Theophilus, the leader of the Church in Alexandria. Theophilus had been commanded to go to Constantinople, to answer to the Emperor for accusations against him. He arrived bringing with him a multitude of Egyptian Bishops, showing from the outset that he came for war and antagonism, argues Chrysostom.

This moving treatise was composed when St. Chrysostom was in exile, probably shortly before his death. It was sent with a letter to his friend the deaconess Olympias in Constantinople. A portion of this treatise reflects the thoughts of Plato in the 10th book of The Republic to prove the immortality of the soul.

St. John Chrysostom’s treatise on humility, hope, and prayer. “Nothing is more powerful than prayer when fervent and genuine,” claims Chrysostom, asserting that it both disperses present dangers and rescues from penalties.

The Book of Jasher is a translation of a Hebrew book printed in 1613. Sepir Ha Yasher, the Hebrew title, means the "Book of the Just Man", or "the Upright Record". This text covers much of the same terrain as the Mosaic books of the Bible, from the creation to the death of Moses, with some minor differences....

St. John Chrysostom’s sermon on spiritual riches that are superior to material wealth, and scorns robbers and housebreakers and slanderers and false accusers and death itself. For they are not parted from the possessor by death, and they accompany them on their journey to the other world, and are transplanted with them to the future life.

This sermon by St. John Chrysostom points out the error of scrutinizing the sins of others with great exactitude while we let our own pass. He argues that we ought to do the contrary, to keep our own faults unforgotten but never even to admit a thought of those of others. He argues that God would be more inclined to forgive their sins if people did that.

St. John Chrysostom’s sermon on the low attendance at church. He is distressed when he calls to mind that on festival days the multitudes assembled resemble the broad expanse of the sea, but not even the smallest part of that multitude is gathered for a church service. He likens the greater part of the body of the Church to a dead and motionless carcass.

John Chrysostom, the Archbishop of Constantinople, wrote a short treatise in dialogue form between his friend Basil and himself, about the dignity of the priesthood. The work includes sections on the importance of preaching, the call to the priesthood, the purity of the priest, and the exalted position of the priesthood.

A Christian woman was mourning the death of her husband. John Chrysostom knew of her grief and wrote her a letter to direct her gaze to the Lord. In the letter (c. 380 AD), Chrysostom echoes the biblical teaching that “dying is gain” and that the glories of heaven outweigh the glitter of earth.

John Chrysostom’s letters to his childhood friend Theodore who had fallen for a young woman after agreeing to live a life of asceticism. John explains to Theodore that he has covenanted with a Heavenly Bridegroom and that to marry Hermione would be adultery. John compares the destruction of the soul of Theodore to the destruction of the Temple of Israel.

John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, wrote this homily against prevalent heresies of his time. Marcionism was an early Christian dualist belief system that originated in the teachings of Marcion of Sinope around the year 144, while Manichaeism taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a spiritual world of light and a material world of darkness.

John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), Archbishop of Constantinople, was an early Church Father. This series of eight instructions concerning baptism were given by him, most likely at Antioch around the year 390. Their interest derives from Chrysostom's activities for the baptismal candidates and as their instructor in Christian doctrine and morality.

The ancient Greek poet Hesiod lived around the same time as Homer. He is considered to be an economist and also wrote works on mythology, ancient time-keeping, and farming techniques. The Hesiod Collection includes The Shield of Heracles, Theogony (the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods), and Works and Days (a farmer’s almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the art of agriculture).

The Shield of Heracles is an archaic Greek epic poem which was attributed to Hesiod in antiquity. The subject of the poem is the expedition of Hercules and his nephew Iolaus against Cycnus, who challenged Heracles to combat as they were passing through Thessaly on their way to the city of Trachis.

Donald Alexander Mackenzie (1873-1936) was a Scottish writer. Teutonic Myth and Legend (1912) is his retelling of the legends and myths of the Goths, Norsemen, Vandals, Burgundians, Franks, Angles, Saxons, and other Germanic tribes. Poems and prose passages from classic literature that are related to these myths are included.