The most common question I get on this blog is “can you help me find a translation of [Classical text]?” So in honor of reaching 900 followers, I’ve compiled a list of favourite translations for your reference. Thank you for making this possible!

Below, you will find links to complete, well-written English translations of 100+ ancient Greek and Roman texts, organized by genre and author. Some of these translations are free on the internet; others are books available on Amazon. In almost all cases, the translations for sale will be better than the free translations, but I’ve tried to select the best free translations available on the internet. I have also included a few audiobooks, which are available for free on youtube.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the texts the Greeks and Romans ever wrote, but it’s a start.

Greek Epic and Early Lyric Poetry:

• Hesiod: The Shield of Herakles, Theogony, and Works and Days. [Free Translation: Hugh G. Evelyn-White’s Theogony, Works and Days, and Shield of Herakles* (prose translations; better than nothing)] [Amazon: Theogony/Works and Days (poetic translation)] [Amazon: Works and Days and Theogony (colloquial translation)] [Amazon: The Works and Days, Theogony, the Shield of Herakles (formal translation)]
• Homer: Iliad and Odyssey. [Free Translation: Ian Johnston’s Iliad and Odyssey] [Free Translation: Samuel Butler’s Iliad and Odyssey (prose translations)] [Free Audiobooks: Samuel Butler’s Iliad, part I and II, and Odyssey] [Amazon: Iliad (colloquial translation)] [Amazon: Odyssey (colloquial translation] [Amazon: The Essential Homer (abridged version of both epics)]
• Unknown author(s): Homeric Hymns. [Free Translation by Andrew Lang (with extensive introduction)] [Amazon: Homeric Hymns]

Greek Tragedy and Comedy:

• Aeschylus: Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eumenides) and Prometheus Bound. [Free Translation: Ian Johnston’s Oresteia] [Free Translation: Henry David Thoreau’s Prometheus Bound (formal translation)] [Free Translation: H.W. Smyth’s Prometheus Bound (prose translation)] [Amazon: Oresteia (the Lattimore translation is hard to find these days, but it’s easily the best)] [Amazon: Prometheus Bound]
• Aristophanes: Acharnians, The Birds, The Clouds, The Frogs, and Lysistrata. [Free Translation: Ian Johnston’s The Birds, The Clouds, The Frogs, and Lysistrata] [Amazon: Acharnians, Lysistrata, Clouds] [Amazon: The Birds] [Amazon: The Frogs]
• Euripides: Alcestis, Andromache, Bacchae, Cyclops, Electra, Hecuba, Helen, Heracleidae, Herakles, Hippolytus, Ion, Iphigenia in Aulis, Iphigenia in Tauris, Medea, Orestes, Phoenecian Women, Rhesus, Suppliant Women, and Trojan Women. [Free Translation: Ian Johnston’s Bacchae, Electra, Medea, and Orestes] [Free Translation: Laura Gray-Street and Jay Kardan’s Hecuba] [Amazon: Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus] [Amazon: Bacchai] [Amazon: Euripides I, II, III, IV, V (an excellent series if you want all of Euripides)]
  
• Sophocles: the Theban plays (Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonnus, and Antigone), and Electra. [Free Translation: Ian Johnston’s Oedipus the King and Antigone] [Free Translation: Robert Fitzgerald’s Antigone] [Amazon: The Three Theban Plays] [Amazon: Electra]

Greek History, Oratory, and Philosophy:

• Aristotle: De Anima and Poetics. [Free Translation: S.H. Butcher’s Poetics] [Free Translation: J.A. Smith’s De Anima] [Amazon: De Anima (better than nothing)] [Amazon: Poetics (pretty easily understandable)]
• Demosthenes: Funeral Oration. [Free Translation by Norman J. DeWitt and Norman W. DeWitt*]
• Herodotus: Histories. [Free Translation by George Rawlinson] [Amazon: The Landmark Herodotus]
• Plato: various dialogues, including The Republic and The Symposium. [Free Translation: Benjamin Jowett’s Apology, Critias, Euthyphro, Phaedo, and The Republic] [Free Audiobooks: Benjamin Jowett’s Critias, The Republic part I and II, and Symposium] [Amazon: Five Dialogues] [Amazon: The Republic] [Amazon: The Symposium]
• Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War. [Free Translation by Richard Crawley] [Amazon: The Landmark Thucydides]

Hellenistic Lyric and Epic, Various Greek Lyric Poetry:

• Anyte of Tegea, various epigrams. [Free Translation by Richard Adlington]
  
• Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica. [Free Translation by R.C. Seaton] [Free Audiobook: R.C. Seaton’s Argonautica] [Amazon: Jason and the Golden Fleece (The Argonautica)]
• Aratus: Phaenomena. [Free Translation by A.W. and G.R. Mair]
• Callimachus: Aetia, Epigrams, and Hymns. [Free Translation: H.W. Tytler’s Hymns and Epigrams] [Amazon: Hymns, Epigrams, Select Fragments]
• Sappho: poems and fragments. [Free Translation by Edwin Marion Cox] [Amazon: Poems and Fragments]
• Theocritus: Idylls. [Free Translation by J.M. Edwards (prose translation)] [Amazon: The Idylls]
• Unknown Author(s): Orphic Hymns. [Free Translation by Thomas Taylor: Online or Download (click to download .zip containing .pdf)]

"Golden Age" Roman Epic and Lyric Poetry:

• Catullus: Carmina. [Free Translation by Sir Richard Francis Burton* (formal translation)] [Free Translation by Robinson Ellis (metered translation)]
• Horace: Odes and Epodes. [Free Translation: John Connington’s Odes] [Amazon: Odes and Epodes (good translation with Latin facing)]
• Lucretius: De Rerum Natura. [Free Translation by William Ellery Leonard] [Free Translation: John Selby Watson’s De Rerum Natura] [Amazon: On the Nature of the Universe]
• Ovid: Amores, Ars Amatoria and Cures for Love, Facial Treatments for Ladies, Fasti, Heroides, and Metamorphoses. [Free Translation: J. Lewis May’s Amores, Ars Amatoria, Cures for Love, Facial Treatments for Ladies (prose translation)] [Free Translation: James George Frazer’s Fasti (prose translation; better than nothing)] [Free Translation: Nunn, Priestly, Lea, and Rodwell’s Heroides* (prose translation)] [Free Translation: Ian Johnston’s Metamorphoses] [Amazon: The Erotic Poems (contains Amores, Ars Amatoria, Cures for Love, Facial Treatments for Ladies)] [Amazon: Metamorphoses (poetic translation)] [Amazon: Metamorphoses (colloquial translation)]
• Propertius: Elegies. [Amazon: The Complete Elegies of Sextus Propertius (poetic translation)] [Amazon: Propertius, Elegies (good translation with Latin facing)]
• Statius: Achilleid, Silvae, and Thebaid. [Free Translation: J.H. Mozley’s Achilleid and Thebaid ([prose translation)] [Amazon: The Silvae of Statius (translated for clarity)] [Amazon: Silvae (good translation with Latin facing]
  
• Vergil: Aeneid, Eclogues, and Georgics. [Free Translation: John Dryden’s Aeneid (formal translation)] [Free Translation: J.W. MacKail’s Eclogues and Georgics (formal translation)] [Free Audiobook: J.W. MacKail’s Aeneid] [Amazon: Aeneid (formal translation)] [Amazon: Aeneid

Roman History, Oratory, and Philosophy:

• Appian: The Foreign Wars and The Civil Wars. [Free Translation by Horace White] [Amazon: The Civil Wars]
• Cicero: various orations, De Divinatione, and De Natura Deorum. [Free Translation: C.D. Yonge’s In Catilinam* and In Verrem*] [Free Translation: W.A. Falconer’s De Divinatione Book I and II] [Free Audiobook: C.D. Yonge’s De Natura Deorum]
• Julius Caesar: Civil War. [Free Translation by W.A. McDevitte and W.S. Bohn*]
• Seneca the Younger: Epistles. [Free Translation: Richard Gummere’s Epistles Book I, II, and III] [Amazon: Letters from a Stoic]
• Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars. [Free Translation by Maximilian Ihm] [Amazon: The Twelve Caesars]

Roman Tragedy and Comedy:

• Plautus: Amphitryo, Aulularia, Captivi, The Ghost, Menaechmi, Miles Gloriosus, Pseudolus, The Rope, and A Three-Dollar Day. [Amazon: The Rope and Other Plays (contains The Ghost, The Rope, A Three-Dollar Day, and Amphitryo)] [Amazon: The Pot of Gold and Other Plays (contains Aulularia, Captivi, Menaechmi, Miles Gloriosus, and Pseudolus)]
• Seneca the Younger: Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Thyestes, and Trojan Women. [Free Translation: Frank Justus Miller’s Agamemnon, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Thyestes, and Trojan Women (prose translation)] [Amazon: Six Tragedies]
• Terence: Adelphi, The Eunuch, and The Mother in Law. [Free Translation: Henry Thomas Riley’s Adelphi*, The Eunuch*, and The Mother in Law* (prose translation)]

Roman Novels:

• Apuleius: The Golden Ass. [Free Translation by William Adlington, updated by Pomona College Faculty] [Amazon: The Golden Ass: or, a Book of Changes]
• Petronius: The Satyricon. [Free Translation by W.C. Firebaugh] [Free Translation by Alfred R. Allinson (more simplistic translation)] [Amazon: Satyricon]

Miscellaneous Classical Works:

• Aesop, Fables. [Free Translation by George Fyler Townsend]
• Apollodorus: The Library. [Free Translation by James George Frazer] [Amazon: The Library of Greek Mythology]
• Arrian, The Anabasis of Alexander. [Amazon: The Landmark Arrian]
• Diodorus Siculus, Library of History. [Free Translation on Lacus Curtius, Various Translators]
• Longinus: On the Sublime. [Free Translation by H.L. Havell]
• Lucian of Samosata: Dialogues. [Free Translation by H.W. and F.G. Fowler (use the sidebar for navigation)]
• Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: Meditations. [Free Translation by George Long] [Free Audiobook: George Long’s Meditations]
• Marcus Manilius: Astronomica. [Amazon: Manilius, Astronomica (good translation with Latin facing)]
• Pausanias: Description of Greece. [Free Translation by W.H.S. Jones and H.A. Ormerod*]
• Plutarch: Lives. [Free Translation by John Dryden (out of sequence, but excellent nonetheless)] [Free Translation by Bernadotte Perrin]
• Proclus: Summary of the Epic Cycle. [Free Translation by Gregory Nagy]
  

*Translations marked with asterisks are hosted by The Perseus Project and require you to click through by paragraph, by scene, or by poem.

If you’re looking for something that’s not on this list, I might not know a translation off the top of my head, but I’d be happy to try to find you one. If you’re looking for the original Greek or Latin, try searching The Perseus Project or The Latin Library.