If you’re planning on tackling some of the ancient Greek plays or other ancient Greek or Roman literature, I’d like to recommend the Hermes Books series from Yale University Press. I think I found all but one of my books from the series in used bookstores. I’ll post a few comments from John Herington’s text in another post, but I wanted to introduce the series and add its intent from Herington’s Foreword.

After noting most studies on ancient literature are “largely concerned with points of detail and composed by and for academic specialists in the field [this is in the mid-1980s, mind you], the intention of this series is for “the literate but nonspecialist adult or to that equally important person, the intelligent but uninstructed beginning student.” Or, dearer to my heart and specified later, a Common Reader. (vii)

If you run across a copy from the series, I highly recommend picking it up. You never know who the author may have given that copy to.