Best of
Greece

2012

God of War


Christian Cameron - 2012
    The fictionalised story of how Alexander the Great conquered the world: first crushing Greek resistance to Macedonian rule, then destroying the Persian Empire in three monumental battles, before marching into the unknown and final victory in India.

The Eagle of Spinalonga


Nike Azoros - 2012
    He is sent into exile to Spinalonga, a rock island of Crete where there is no food, no electricity, no medical help, no supplies, nothing. He catches an eagle as a unique way to source food then, armed with his education and natural instincts he decides to create a life of dignity for the inhabitants of Spinalonga in the style of the city state system of Ancient Greece. Pavlos a thug criminal sent there by the state from prison does everything in his power to maintain chaos and terror so as to keep control of the island. World War 2 breaks out and the Nazis invade and inflict horrors upon the Greek people. Nikos and the people of Spinalonga outsmart the Nazis and play a major role in the resistance.

The Girl Under the Olive Tree


Leah Fleming - 2012
    60 years later, Lois West and her young son, Alex, invite feisty Great Aunt Pen to a special 85th birthday celebration on Crete, knowing she hasn't been back since the war. When word spreads of her visit, and old friends come to greet her, Lois and Alex are caught up in her pilgrimage and the journey which leads her to a reunion with the friend she thought she had lost - and the truth behind a secret buried in the past.

Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure


Artemis Cooper - 2012
    Her beautifully crafted biography portrays a man of extraordinary gifts - no one wore their learning so playfully, nor inspired such passionate friendship.

Rick Steves Pocket Athens


Rick Steves - 2012
    Everything a busy traveler needs is easy to access: a neighborhood overview, city walks and tours, sights, handy food and accommodations charts, an appendix packed with information on trip planning and practicalities, and a fold-out city map. Rick Steves Pocket Athens includes the following walks and tours: Athens City Walk Acropolis Tour Ancient Agora Tour Acropolis Museum Tour National Archaeological Museum Tour

All The Little Graces


Eleanore MacDonald - 2012
    Set on a verdant Greek island where people still live deeply connected to earth and sea, it weaves a tapestry reflecting the lives of a fisherman, locals and travelers and a lively young girl … all stitched together by a single thread, a homely little stray dog. A young American family traverses the Aegean into the archipelago in pursuit of four months of sun, sea and adventure––but just as they are settling into their seaside pensione, the cries of a loud dog shatter their peace. Life is not easy for a stray here––even for one who has survived far longer than most there is little mercy. Dodging unfriendly feet and thrown bottles, Margarita scrambles to find food and shelter and fights to keep her litter of pups safe from the many perils that linger in the shadows. Her howls, while unsettling to Eleni and Harry, just serve as a Siren’s call to 12 year old Lily, and what follows in the wake of their first encounter are profound friendships, beautiful adventures and the family’s lovely relationships with not only Margarita, but also with the colorful fisherman, Vassili. With their attention constantly pulled from the beauty of sun and sand, to anger and sadness over the desperate animals barely existing in the island’s shadows, it is Vassili’s wisdom, and lessons in humanity and humility offered by his enigmatic culture that help them come to terms with their frustrations. Hopeful changes begin to emerge as islanders and the family move together through a revealing and sometimes painful journey that leads not only to the rescue of human hearts, but also toward recognizing and rectifying the lives of the homeless animals of Greece’s streets.

Athena: Goddess of Wisdom, War, and Crafts


Teri Temple - 2012
    Introduces the Greek goddess Athena and explains her importance; features well-known Greek myths about this god; and includes map of ancient Greece and family tree of the Greek gods.

The Country Cooking of Greece


Diane Kochilas - 2012
    More than 250 recipes were drawn from every corner of Greece, from rustic tavernas, Kochilas' renowned cooking school, and the local artisans and village cooperatives that produce olive oil and handmade pasta. More than 150 color photographs and vivid sidebars bring to life Greece's unique and historical food culture. Seventeen chapters organized by ingredients such as lamb, herbs, artichokes, and cheese touch down all over Greece's dramatic geography of mountains, coastal lands, and fertile alluvial plains. A cookbook like no other, this ingredient-driven volume at once meets a growing interest in Greek cooking and serves as a homecoming for all those of Greek descent.

Expedition to Disaster: The Athenian Mission to Sicily 415 BC


Philip Matyszak - 2012
    At this time (415 BC), Athens was locked in a decades-long struggle with Sparta for mastery of the Greek world. The expedition to Sicily was intended to give Athens the extra money and resources to crush the Spartans. New archaeological discoveries allow the ensuing siege to be reconstructed in greater detail than ever before. The cast of characters includes Alcibiades, the flamboyant, charismatic young aristocrat; Nicias, the aging, reluctant commander of the ill-fated expedition and Gylippus, the grim Spartan general sent to mastermind the defense of Syracuse. It was he who stopped the Athenians dead in their tracks within weeks of his arrival, then turned the tables on the invaders. The Athenians were in their turn surrounded, besieged, and forced to ask for mercy from a man who had none to give. In short, we have an epic story packed with colorful characters and dramatic episodes. There are battles on land and sea, siege and counter-siege and tales of self-sacrifice, villainy and heroism. Yet there is also the overarching unifying theme which is the story of the expedition itself. Philip Matyszak's combination of thorough research and gripping narrative makes him the perfect man to do justice to this famous story.REVIEWS a riveting account of the conflict, telling of the key players their motivations, their heroism, their failure, providing an educating narrative that does much to bring much understanding to people of the times is a must for history collections focusing on the Greeks and their military endeavors. Midwest Book Review"

The Brazen Plagiarist: Selected Poems


Kiki Dimoula - 2012
    Her magic lens defamiliarizes all that is familiar, compressing distances between far-flung realms, conflating concrete and abstract, literal and metaphorical, physical and metaphysical. Exacting and oracular at once, Dimoula superimposes absurdity on rationality, caustic irony on dark melancholy.This first English translation of a wide selection of poems from across Dimoula’s oeuvre brings together some of her most beguiling, arresting, and moving work. The demands on her translators are considerable. Dimoula plays with the Greek language, melds its levels of diction, challenges its grammar and syntax, and bends its words, by twisting their very shape and meaning. Cecile Inglessis Margellos and Rika Lesser, Dimoula’s award-winning translators, have re-created her style’s uncanny effect of refraction: when plunged into the water of her poetry, all these bent words suddenly and astonishingly appear perfectly straight.

Demosthenes of Athens and the Fall of Classical Greece


Ian Worthington - 2012
    His political career spanned three decades, during which time Greece fell victim to Macedonian control, 1st under Philip II, then Alexander the Great. Demosthenes' defiance of Macedonian imperialism cost him his life but earned him a reputation as one of history's outstanding patriots. He also enjoyed a brilliant & lucrative career as a speechwriter. His rhetorical skills are still emulated today by politicians. Yet he was a sickly child with a challenging speech impediment, who was swindled out of much of his family's estate by unscrupulous guardians. His story is therefore one of triumph over adversity. In this biography--the 1st in English for almost a century--Ian Worthington brings the orator's career vividly to life. He provides a moving narrative of Demosthenes' difficult beginnings, his rivalries with other Athenian politicians, his victories & defeats in the public Assembly, & finally his posthumous influence as a politician & orator. In doing so, Worthington offers new insights into Demosthenes' motives & how he shaped his policy to achieve political power. Set against the rich backdrop of late classical Athens & Macedonia, this biography will appeal to all readers interested in the history of ancient Greece. All quotations from Demosthenes' speeches are translated & briefly discussed in order for readers to appreciate his rhetorical genius.Preamble: "Politicians & heroes"Demosthenes, son of DemosthenesGreece & the awakening of MacedoniaInto the public eye The aspiring politicianSwaying the Assembly An uneasy peace Resisting Philip"Speeches like soldiers"The end of Greek freedom"For the conqueror, death"Demosthenes & Alexander the GreatThe crown trial Decline & fallPoison from the penAppendix: Ancient coinage & months of the Attic yearNotes

A Companion to Women in the Ancient World


Sharon L. James - 2012
    Selected by Choice as a 2012 Outstanding Academic Title Awarded a 2012 PROSE Honorable Mention as a Single Volume Reference/Humanities & Social Sciences A Companion to Women in the Ancient World presents an interdisciplinary, methodologically-based collection of newly-commissioned essays from prominent scholars on the study of women in the ancient world.The first interdisciplinary, methodologically-based collection of readings to address the study of women in the ancient world Explores a broad range of topics relating to women in antiquity, including: Mother-Goddess Theory; Women in Homer, Pre-Roman Italy, the Near East; Women and the Family, the State, and Religion; Dress and Adornment; Female Patronage; Hellenistic Queens; Imperial Women; Women in Late Antiquity; Early Women Saints; and many more Thematically arranged to emphasize the importance of historical themes of continuity, development, and innovation Reconsiders much of the well-known evidence and preconceived notions relating to women in antiquity Includes contributions from many of the most prominent scholars associated with the study of women in antiquity

My Greek Island Home


Claire Lloyd - 2012
    The tang of salt in the air. Sunlight sparkling on clear blue water. Pomegranate seeds glistening like jewels in your palm. Australian artist, designer, and photographer Claire Lloyd had a successful career in London, a beautiful apartment, and a life filled with excitement and travel. However, she was beginning to feel exhausted by her life's hectic pace. One day a chance conversation with a friend led her to the Greek island of Lesvos, where she finally found what she was looking for—a sense of peace and the return of her creative drive. This book describes Claire's journey to a small village in Greece—the ancient land of gods and poets, where the seasons govern a way of life that has barely changed over thousands of years. Accompanied by Claire's stunning photographs filled with color and light, this inspirational story of reconnecting with nature and community, and finding beauty in the smallest details, will make you see the world anew.

In Secret: Versions of Yannis Ritsos


Yiannis Ritsos - 2012
    He wrote in the face of ill health, personal tragedy, and the systematic persecution by successive hard-line, right-wing regimes that led to many years in prison. In Secret gives versions of Ritsos's short lyric poems: brief, compressed narratives that are spare, though not scant. They possess an emotional resonance that is instinctively subversive. The poems are so pared-down, so distilled, that the story-fragments we are given - the scene- settings, the tiny psychodramas - have an irresistible potency.

Reading Herodotus: A Guided Tour through the Wild Boars, Dancing Suitors, and Crazy Tyrants of The History


Debra Hamel - 2012
    Following the structure of the original work, Hamel leads the reader through a colorful tour of the central stories that comprise "The History." She highlights the more interesting and important parts of the story while providing readers who are new to Herodotus with the background information necessary to appreciate the author's wide-ranging subject matter. At once academic and a bit cheeky, the experience of this book is like reading Herodotus while simultaneously consulting a history of Greece and a scholarly commentary on the text."Hamel presents Herodotus and his material in an original, illuminating, and entertaining way. By leading the reader through Herodotus’s text from beginning to end, the book provides an accessible introduction both to Herodotus and to an exciting period of Greek history, which culminates in the Persian Wars." (Timothy E. Duff, University of Reading )

Around a Greek Table: Recipes & Stories Arranged According to the Liturgical Seasons of the Eastern Church


Katerina Katsarka Whitley - 2012
    The book also delves deep into tales of Greek life with intimate and historical essays exploring the ancient stories that are told around Greek tables in the honored tradition of combining myths with food.

Women in Ancient Greece: A Sourcebook


Bonnie MacLachlan - 2012
    This volume is an essential resource supplying a compilation of source material in translation, with suggestions for further reading, a general bibliography, and an index of ancient authors and works. Texts come from literary, rhetorical, philosophical and legal sources, as well as papyri and inscriptions, and each text will be placed into the cultural mosaic to which it belongs. Ranging geographically from the Greek mainland and the communities along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, to Egypt and the Greek West (modern day southern Italy and Sicily), the volume follows a clear chronological structure. Beginning in the eighth century BCE the coverage continues through Archaic and Classical Athens concluding with the Hellenistic era.

On Spartan Wings: The Royal Hellenic Air Force in World War Two


John Carr - 2012
    Without warning, as Italian forces poured over the frontier from Albania, the RHAF s paltry effective lineup of 128 battle worthy aircraft, most of them obsolete, were pitted against the 463 fielded by the Regia Aeronautica, whose pilots had honed their skills in the Spanish Civil War. On the Greek side, though, aces such as Marinos Mitralexis, with his audacious ramming of an Italian bomber on the fifth day of the war ensured that morale in the RHAF remained high.Though the RAF pitched in with whatever help it could provide in machines and manpower, the aerial war was unequal from the beginning. By the end of 1940 the RHAF was seriously depleted, though individual pilots and crews continued to fight valiantly. The end came in April 1941 when Hitler sped to the rescue of the Duce. The Luftwaffe blasted out of the sky what remained of the RHAF and whatever RAF units remained to help out its last stand.A single mira (squadron), with just 5 Avro Ansons escaped intact to Egypt, where British forces were bracing for Rommel s onslaught. Out of this small squadron grew three full mirai, whose pilots, now equipped with modern aircraft, played a decisive part in the Allied victory at El Alamein. Until Greece was liberated in October 1944 the RHAF units in the Allied air forces ranged over targets in the Aegean Sea, Italy and Yugoslavia. The RHAF was little affected by a communist-inspired mutiny in the Greek forces in Egypt that briefly threatened to neutralize the Greek contribution. After the end of World War II the RHAF was called upon to confront the threat of an attempted communist takeover of Greece and played a major part in overcoming the rebellion and saving the country for the West. Meticulous research interwoven with firsthand accounts makes this a fitting tribute to the skill and heroism of the Greek airmen and a valuable account of a neglected aspect of WWII air warfare.REVIEWS Carr's vital volume remains the definitive English-language study of Hellenic air power in World War II. And I loved it.Cybermodeler.com"

Places of Encounter, Volume 1: Time, Place, and Connectivity in World History, Volume One: To 1600


Aran MacKinnon - 2012
    Original, contributed essays by leading academics in the field explore places from Hadar to Xi'an, Salvador to New York, and numerous other locations that have produced historical shockwaves and significant global impact throughout history. With a chronologically organized table of contents, each chapter dissects a particular moment in history, with personal commentary from each contributor, a narrative of the location's historical significance at the time, and a section on significant global connections. Primary sources and discussion questions at the end of each chapter allow students a view into the lives of individuals of the time. Students will experience the narrative of historic individuals as well as modern scholars looking back over documentation to offer their own views of the past, providing students with the perfect opportunity to see how scholars form their own views about history.This text can be purchased as two volumes, providing a breadth of information for survey courses in world history.

Promised Brides : experiences and testimonies of greek women in Australia (1950-1975)


Panayota Nazou - 2012
    The study attempts its interpretation from the perspective of oral history, gender studies and cultural-critical theory. Its primary material is drawn from personal testimonies given in the form of interviews to the writer by a number of the brides themselves. The texts of these oral testimonies constitute the central core through which the experience of migration is investigated from the perspective of women, with special emphasis on the institution of arranged marriages. This was an almost undisputed law and custom during the early post-war migration wave out of Greece. The book seeks to cover an immense gap in the existing bibliography by closely studying the individuality of the women themselves and the way they felt, reacted and experienced the reality of an arranged marriage with a man they had not ever seen before. Simultaneously, in its introduction it analyses the experience of migration itself which represents the social and psychological background of all the testimonies and lived experiences. By drawing from their stories, we are able to re-interpret the emotional realities of many 'promised brides' and ultimately see them as individual personalities, by following their personal adventure, exploring their existential ambivalence and finally understanding through them the social, cultural and political function of the institution of arranged marriage. The study constitutes a fresh radical approach to a practice that defined the first generation of migrants and determined the cultural cohesion of the Greek-Australian community. It also makes a significant contribution to the overall studies regarding the Greek-Australian experience beginning with a historiographical approach from below and giving voice to all those women, whose life-stories were always excluded from the official narratives of migration.

The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World (Oxford Handbooks)


Brian Campbell - 2012
    Battles were resolved by violent face-to-face encounters: war was a very personal experience. At the same time, warfare and its conduct often had significant and wide-reaching economic, social, or political consequences. The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World offers a critical examination of war and organized violence. The volume's introduction begins with the ancient sources for the writing of war, preceded by broad surveys of warfare in ancient Greece and Rome. Also included herein are chapters analyzing new finds in battlefield archaeology and how the environment affected the ancient practice of war. A second section is comprised of broad narratives of classical societies at war, covering the expanse from classical Greece through to the later Roman Empire. Part III contains thematic discussions that examine closely the nature of battle: what soldiers experienced as they fought; the challenges of conducting war at sea; how the wounded were treated. A final section offers six exemplary case studies, including analyses of the Peloponnesian War, the Second Punic War, and Rome's war with Sasanid Persia. The handbook closes with an epilogue that explores the legacy of classical warfare. Authored by experts in classics, ancient history, and archaeology, this handbook presents a vibrant map of the field of classical warfare studies.

The Secret of the Elements


Christos Tsotsos - 2012
    The 99-year-old woman managed to do the unthinkable and tricked the devil when she sold him her soul. In order for the transaction to be completed, the devil has to negotiate with the keeper of that soul, her grandson Bartholomew (Barto) Marshal. By doing so the young composer gains access to the secret of the elements. His mind ages one million years and through music and mathematics he envisions the evolution of humanity. During the revelation of the secret, our hero bends time and space, travels through parallel universes and discovers a new method of communication. He is, however, the catalyst in a rather comic-tragic war of religious corporations, fighting to maximize their resources and market share by attempting to put each other out of business. Will satan rule the cosmos? Will humanity achieve technological and biological immortality? Is god physically threatened?

Ares: God of War


Teri Temple - 2012
    Introduces the Greek god Ares and explains his importance; features well-known Greek myths about this god; and includes map of ancient Greece and family tree of the Greek gods.

The Invention of Greek Ethnography: From Homer to Herodotus


Joseph E. Skinner - 2012
    The dramatic nature of this "clash of cultures" is widely thought to have laid the foundations for prose descriptions of foreign lands and peoples by causing previously vague imaginings to crystallize into a diametric opposition between "Hellene" and "barbarian."The Invention of Greek Ethnography challenges the legitimacy of this narrative. Drawing on recent advances in ethnographic and cultural studies and material culture-based analyses of the ancient Mediterranean, Joseph Skinner argues that ethnographic discourse was already widespread throughout the archaic Greek world long before the invention of ethnographic prose, incorporating not only texts but also a wide range of iconographic and archaeological materials. The reconstruction of this "ethnography before ethnography" demonstrates that discourses of identity played a vital role in defining what it meant to be Greek in the first place. The development of ethnographic writing and historiography is shown to be rooted in a wider process of "positioning" that was continually unfurling across time, as groups and individuals scattered across the Mediterranean world sought to locate themselves in relation to both the narratives of the past and other people. The Invention of Greek Ethnography provides a shift in critical perspective that will have significant implications for our understanding of how Greek identity came into being, the manner in which early discourses of difference should be conceptualized, and the way in which narrative history should ultimately be interpreted.

The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities


Harris Mylonas - 2012
    Through a detailed study of the Balkans, Mylonas shows that the way a state treats a non-core group within its own borders is determined largely by whether the state's foreign policy is revisionist or cleaves to the international status quo, and whether it is allied or in rivalry with that group's external patrons. Mylonas explores the effects of external involvement on the salience of cultural differences and the planning of nation-building policies. The Politics of Nation-Building injects international politics into the study of nation-building, building a bridge between international relations and the comparative politics of ethnicity and nationalism. This is the first book to explain systematically how the politics of ethnicity in the international arena determine which groups are assimilated, accommodated, or annihilated by their host states.

The Greek Search for Wisdom


Michael K. Kellogg - 2012
    The Greeks invented tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, history, philosophy, and democracy. They also made remarkable advances in science, medicine, and mathematics. In the author’s view, what ties this wide-ranging intellectual ferment together is a restless search for wisdom.The author looks at ten outstanding examples of Greek wisdom, offering fresh and engaging portraits of the epic poets (Homer, Hesiod); dramatists (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes); historians (Herodotus, Thucydides); and philosophers (Plato, Aristotle) against the background of Greek history. In each case he asks what the author has to tell us— regardless of genre—about our place in the world and how we should live our lives. By surveying some of the highest peaks of ancient civilization, the author argues that we gain perspective on the historical terrain that lies below. This book presents an eloquent and convincing case that a study of the Greek classics, as Gustave Flaubert explained, makes us "greater, wiser, purer."

The Mysteries of Artemis of Ephesos: Cult, Polis, and Change in the Graeco-Roman World


Guy Maclean Rogers - 2012
    Her temple, the Artemision, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and for more than half a millennium people flocked to Ephesos to learn the great secret of the mysteries and sacrifices that were celebrated every year on her birthday.In this work Guy MacLean Rogers sets out the evidence for the celebration of Artemis's mysteries against the background of the remarkable urban development of the city during the Roman Empire and then proposes an entirely new theory about the great secret that was revealed to initiates into Artemis's mysteries. The revelation of that secret helps to explain not only the success of Artemis's cult and polytheism itself but, more surprisingly, the demise of both and the success of Christianity. Contrary to many anthropological and scientific theories, the history of polytheism, including the celebration of Artemis's mysteries, is best understood as a Darwinian tale of adaptation, competition, and change.

A History of Greek Cinema


Vrasidas Karalis - 2012
    Greek cinema started slowly and then collapsed; for several years it struggled to reinvent itself, produced its first mature works, then collapsed completely and almost vanished. Because of such a complex historical trajectory no comprehensive survey of the development of Greek cinema has been written in English. This book is the first to explore its development and the contexts that defined it by focusing on its main films, personalities and theoretical discussions. A History of Greek Cinema focuses on the early decades and the attempts to establish a "national" cinema useful to social cohesion and national identity. It also analyses the problems and the dilemmas that many Greek directors faced in order to establish a distinct Greek cinema language and presents the various stages of development throughout the background of the turbulent political history of the country. The book combines historical analysis and discussions about cinematic form in to construct a narrative history about Greek cinematic successes and failures.

Lost World of the Golden King: In Search of Ancient Afghanistan


Frank L. Holt - 2012
    Holt sets out to rediscover the ancient civilization of Bactria. In a gripping narrative informed by the author’s deep knowledge of his subject, this book covers two centuries of Bactria’s history, from its colonization by remnants of Alexander the Great’s army to the kingdom’s collapse at the time of a devastating series of nomadic invasions. Beginning with the few tantalizing traces left behind when the ‘empire of a thousand cities’ vanished, Holt takes up that trail and follows the remarkable and sometimes perilous journey of rediscovery.Lost World of the Ancient King describes how a single bit of evidence—a Greek coin—launched a search that drew explorers to the region occupied by the tumultuous warring tribes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Afghanistan. Coin by coin, king by king, the history of Bactria was reconstructed using the emerging methodologies of numismatics. In the twentieth century, extraordinary ancient texts added to the evidence. Finally, one of the ‘thousand cities’ was discovered and excavated, revealing an opulent palace, treasury, temple, and other buildings. Though these great discoveries soon fell victim to the Afghan political crisis that continues today, this book provides a thrilling chronicle of the search for one of the world’s most enigmatic empires.

Homer the Preclassic


Gregory Nagy - 2012
    Gregory Nagy traces the evolution of rival “Homers” and the different versions of Homeric poetry in this pretextual period, reconstructed over a time frame extending back from the sixth century BCE to the Bronze Age. Accurate in their linguistic detail and surprising in their implications, Nagy's insights conjure the Greeks' nostalgia for the imagined “epic space” of Troy and for the resonances and distortions this mythic past provided to the various Greek constituencies for whom the Homeric poems were so central and definitive.

Divine Law and Political Philosophy in Plato's Laws


Mark J. Lutz - 2012
    For those who believe that reason—not faith—should be the basis of politics and the law, proponents of divine law raise theoretical and practical concerns that must be addressed seriously and respectfully. As Mark J. Lutz makes plain in this illuminating book, they have an important ally in Plato, whose long neglected Laws provides an eye-opening analysis of the relation between political philosophy and religion and a powerful defense of political rationalism.Plato mounts his case, Lutz reveals, through a productive dialogue between his Athenian Stranger and various devout citizens that begins by exploring the common ground between them, but ultimately establishes the authority of rational political philosophy to guide the law. The result will fascinate not only political theorists but also scholars at all levels with an interest in the intersection of religion and politics or in the questions that surround ethics and civic education.