I'm finally starting to read Shakespeare. Iv'e read some of his plays before, but Iv'e never spent so much time, and tried so hard to understand, as now. Ive also been spending a lot of time with The Bible (Gideon, Oxford Annotated, and Geneva), and I am very happy when I understand characters and passages that Shakespeare is drawing from.
My problem is that of the Greek/Roman writings/tradition. I haven't received any school here, and, when I see a name, I don't know what that god/person/story was. Actually, this isn't just with Shakespeare. There are reference in Ben Jonson, Melville, Dickens, etc. that I have glossed over.
Where should I start? I dislike reading translations, but it seems I at last have to read at least some of these texts. Homer and Ovid is all I can think of. Are there any other very, very necessary books that I need to read to get a decent understanding of the Greek/Roman influence?