It paints a vivid picture of his childhood in Crete, still occupied by the Turks, and then steadily grows into a spiritual quest that takes him to Italy, Jerusalem, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Russia and the Caucasus, and finally back to Crete again. At different times Nietzsche, Bergson, Buddha, Homer and Christ dominate as his spiritual masters.

    120-190 CE), the satirist from Samosata on the Euphrates, started as an apprentice sculptor, turned to rhetoric and visited Italy and Gaul as a successful travelling lecturer, before settling in Athens and developing his original brand of satire. Late in life he fell on hard times and accepted an official post in Egypt.Although notable for the Attic purity and elegance of his Greek and his literary versatility, Lucian is chiefly famed for the lively, cynical wit of the humorous dialogues in which he satirises human folly, superstition and hypocrisy. His aim was to amuse rather than to instruct. Among his best works are "A True Story" (the tallest of tall stories about a voyage to the moon), "Dialogues of the Gods" (a 'reductio ad absurdum' of traditional mythology), "Dialogues of the Dead" (on the vanity of human wishes), "Philosophies for Sale" (great philosophers of the past are auctioned off as slaves), "The Fisherman" (the degeneracy of modern philosophers), "The Carousal" or "Symposium" (philosophers misbehave at a party), "Timon" (the problems of being rich), "Twice Accused" (Lucian's defence of his literary career) and (if by Lucian) "The Ass" (the amusing adventures of a man who is turned into an ass).The Loeb Classical Library edition of Lucian is in eight volumes.

    Covers the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Italy, China, Japan, India, and more.

    Modern archaeology has brought these truths to heightened appreciation. very choice of a title, Stringfellow Barr has supplied a clue to his approach, and followed it up with the record of how this unique interrelationship not only came into but survived. His story goes back to pre-history -- and forward to the death of . The highpoints of chronological history are here; the great figures not only in this history, but in philosophy, drama, the arts and architecture -- they too are here. One "" oneself absorbed in the progress -- disturbed by the retrogressions -- as Greece, the Athens, through Sparta, through Corinth, through successive leagues embracing groups and goals, developed those priceless gifts of civilization which have kept a live force in modern history. Wherever possible, he has chosen to let the Greeks for themselves: Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Lycurgus, Solon, Herodotus, Thucydides, the great dramatists, the great political figures -- all have made their words tell the story. This is no ""quickie"" but a book which, carefully studied, will give depth to understanding, and a sense of having shared --with his students -- the experience of reliving the story of Greece." - Kirkus Review October 1961