Many typical features of the Greek spirit are imprinted on the myth - a tendency towards competition, the affirmation of life, the worship of beauty, and the interest of the Greeks in man as man, leading to the creation of an idealised picture of him, which served to promote rules of life of general authority.A great many people from one end of the earth to the other have a mythology of gods and heroes. It is, however, only ancient Greek mythology which, thanks to its quality, has transcended every geographical and chronological frontier and has become a possession of the human spirit as a whole.The purpose of this volume is to provide a Mythology which is not addressed only to specialists - though without losing its scholarly character - but which will be accessible to a wide range of the public; a Mythology which will be read with pleasure by children and adults, by scholars and intellectuals, but also by ordinary people who, without any interest in the specialist questions of academic research, wish to be entertained by discovering what stories the ancient Greeks told about their gods and heroes and to enjoy in a straightforward manner the beauty of the ancient myths.

    Course Lecture Titles - (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture) 1. Theseus 2. Achilles and Agamemnon 3. Hector 4. Odysseus 5. Lycurgus 6. Solon 7. Croesus 8. Xerxes 9. Leonidas 10. Themistocles 11. Pausanias 12. Pericles 13. Anaxagoras, Phidias, and Aspasia 14. Sophocles 15. Thucydides 16. Alcibiades 17. Nicias 18. Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War 19. Lysander and Socrates 20. The Trial of Socrates 21. Xenophon, Plato and Philip 22. Alexander the Great 23. Pyrrhus 24. Cleopatra

    

    These two classic travel works by Charmian Clift describing the life she and her Australian family led in Greece in the 1950's are re-released here in one volume to coincide with the publication of Nadia Wheatley's landmark biography of Clift.

    John M. Camp begins with a comprehensive narrative history of the monuments from the earliest times to the sixth century A.D. Drawing on literary and epigraphic evidence, including Plutarch’s biographies, Pausanias’s guidebook, and thousands of inscriptions, he discusses who built a given structure, when, and why. Camp presents dozens of passages in translation, allowing the reader easy access to the variety and richness of the ancient sources. In effect, this main part of the book provides an engrossing history of ancient Athens as recorded in its archaeological remains. The second section of the book offers in-depth discussions of individual sites in their physical context, including accounts of excavations in the modern era. Written in a clear and engaging style and lavishly illustrated, Camp’s archaeological tour of Athens is certain to appeal not only to scholars and students but also to visitors to the area.

    In The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle, Jonathan Burgess challenges Homer's authority on the war's history and the legends surrounding it, placing the Iliad and Odyssey in the larger, often overlooked context of the entire body of Greek epic poetry of the Archaic Age. He traces the development and transmission of the Cyclic poems in ancient Greek culture, comparing them to later Homeric poems and finding that they were far more influential than has previously been thought.

    and the great rival of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries. Michael Whitby presents essays on key aspects of Spartan history and society, by some of the leading classicists in the world, such as Paul Cartledge, Anton Powell, and Stephen Hodkinson.

    This valuable new addition to the acclaimed Oxford Archaeological Guides series provides coverage of all the main archaeological sites in Greece, ranging from prehistory to the sixth century AD. The individual sites are arranged by region, and include Philip's Tomb at Vergina, the Palace complex at Mycenae, the Temples of the Acropolis, the Hellenistic city of the Messene, and the Roman colony of Corinth. Also included in the book are 'partner factor' ratings that rank the most worthwhile sites for travelers to visit during their stay. An up-to-date introduction surveys Greece's landscape, history, and archaeology from the Neolithic period to the end of antiquity, and places the sites in their cultural context. Finally, there is a chronology for reference and a glossary of essential terms.

    As an essential companion to Plato's Apology and Crito, Socrates Against Athens provides valuable historical and cultural context to our understanding of the trial.

    Matthew Dillon's wide-ranging study makes it clear that women engaged in numerous other rites and cults, and that their role in Greek religion was actually more important than that of men. Women invoked the gods' help in becoming pregnant, venerated the god of wine, worshipped new and exotic deities, used magic for both erotic and pain-relieving purposes, and far more besides. Clear and comprehensive, this volume challenges many stereotypes of Greek women and offers unexpected insights into their experience of religion. With more than fifty illustrations, and translated extracts from contemporary texts, this is an essential resource for the study of women and religion in classical Greece.

    Aiming to help children understand how people lived in Ancient Greece, what they believed, and why, this book examines: how the seasons worked; why natural disasters happened; what happened to people when they died; and how mythology sheds light on everyday life and social systems.

    This study by classical archaeologist and art historian Jenifer Neils breaks new ground by considering all aspects of this complex and controversial monument. Although the frieze has been studied for over two hundred years, most scholarship has sought an overall interpretation of the iconography rather than focusing on the sculpture's visual language, essential for a full understanding of the narrative. Neils' study not only decodes the language of the frieze, but also analyzes its conception and design, style and content, as well as its impact on later art. Unusual for its wide-ranging approach to the frieze, this book also brings ethical reasoning to bear on the issue of its possible repatriation as part of the on-going Elgin Marble debate. As one of the foremost examples of the high classical style and the finest expression of mid-fifth century Athenian ideology, the Parthenon frieze is without doubt one of the major monuments of western civilization, and as such deserves to be understood in all its dimensions. The accompanying CD-ROM contains a virtual reality Macromedia Director movie of the complete frieze, based on the plaster casts in the Skulpturhalle in Basel, Switzerland. Developed by Rachel Rosenzweig of the Department of Greek and Roman Art of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the casts are arranged in conformity with Neils' reconstruction and enable the user to view them in succession, as if walking around the Parthenon. The CD-ROM requires a computer running either MAC OS 8.01 or later, or Windows 95 or later.