Sailing
the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill
Book Description: In the fourth volume of the acclaimed Hinges of History
series, Thomas Cahill brings his characteristic wit and style to a fascinating
tour of ancient Greece.
The Greeks invented everything from Western warfare to mystical prayer,
from logic to statecraft. Many of their achievements, particularly in art
and philosophy, are widely celebrated; other important innovations and
accomplishments, however, are unknown or underappreciated. In Sailing the
Wine-Dark Sea, Thomas Cahill explores the legacy, good and bad, of the
ancient Greeks. From the origins of Greek culture in the migrations of
armed Indo-European tribes into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula,
to the formation of the city-states, to the birth of Western literature,
poetry, drama, philosophy, art, and architecture, Cahill makes the distant
past relevant to the present.
Greek society is one of the two primeval influences on the Western
world: While Jews gave us our value system, the Greeks set the foundation
and framework for our intellectual lives. They are responsible for our
vocabulary, our logic, and our entire system of categorization. They provided
the intellectual tools we bring to bear on problems in philosophy, mathematics,
medicine,
physics, and the other sciences. Their modes of thinking, considered in
classical times to be the pinnacle of human achievement, are largely responsible
for the shape that the Christian religion took. But, as Cahill points out,
the Greeks left a less appealing bequest as well. They created Western
militarism and, in making the warrior the ultimate ideal, perpetrated the
assumption that only males could be entrusted with the duties of citizenship.
The consequences of their exclusion of women from the political sphere
and the social segregation of the sexes continue to reverberate today.
Full of surprising, often controversial, insights, Sailing the Wine-Dark
Sea is a remarkable intellectual adventure—conducted by the most companionable
guide imaginable. Cahill’s knowledge of his sources is so intimate that
he has made his own fresh translations of the Greek lyric poets for this
volume.
Hardcover from Doubleday
Book Published: 28 October, 2003
Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces: New Interpretations of an Old Idea by Michael L. Galaty and William A. Parkinson.
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Lysimachus:
A Study in Early Hellenistic Kingship by Helen S. Lund
Although short-lived, Lysimachus' Hellespontine empire foreshadowed
those of Pergamum and Byzantium. Helen Lund sets Lysimachus' actions against
the background of the early Hellenistic world. Lund compares and contrasts
Lysimachus' practice in warfare, kingship and government with that of his
contemporaries, predecessors and successors in order to view his achievements
in the context of a continuum of imperial rule in Asia Minor. Lund also
places evidence for Lysimachus' rule in its literary, political and social
context.
Library Binding: 304 pages ; Dimensions (in inches):
1.25 x 8.75 x 5.50
Publisher: Routledge; ; (October 1992)
ISBN: 0415070619
The
Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian, Flavius Arrianus, Aubrey De Selincourt
Paperback from Viking Press
Book Published: October, 1976
Handbook of Ancient Greek and Roman Coins by Zander H. Klawans, Ken Bressett
Listed under Ancient Coins
The Ancient Olympic Games Judith Swaddling
Listed under Ancient Olympics
Cities
of Alexander the Great by P. M. Fraser
Book Description Alexandria in Egypt is just one of many "Alexandrias"--ancient
cities traditionally thought of as having been founded by Alexander the
Great. In this book, one of the world's leading experts on the period unravels
this fascinating tradition, explaining how it originated in a tendentious
political pamphlet of the third century BC, which in turn originated in
Ptolemaic Alexandria in the context of the development of the earliest
version of the Alexander Romance. His work will force historians to alter
radically their overall assessment of Alexander's achievement, arguing
that he founded far fewer cities than usually supposed.
Hardcover: ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.85 x 8.74 x 5.66
Publisher: Clarendon Pr; (March 1996)
ISBN: 0198150067
Handbook
To Life In Ancient Greece by Lesley Adkins
Book Description This handy reference provides comprehensive
access to over three millennia of ancient Greek history and archaeology,
from the beginning of the Minoan civilization to the fall of the Greek
states to the Romans by 30 BC. Clear, authoritative, and highly organized,
the Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece provides an engaging look at a civilization
that once stretched from what is now modern Greece, to Spain, India, and
beyond; a civilization that has had an enormous and lasting influence on
the...
Herodotus:
The Histories (Penguin Classics) by Herodotus, et al
Since the release of the film version of Michael Ondaatje's The English
Patient, there has been renewed interest in the Histories of Herodotus--the
book the dying patient treasures so much.
The writings of Herodotus are the ground zero of Western history. He
lived during the fifth century B.C.E, and his Histories chronicle the events
of the Persian Wars, which were within living memory when he wrote. He
was the first writer to examine real, rather than mythical history, and
although his work lacks the rigor of later histories, it has a breathtaking
scope. Herodotus is a wonderful storyteller, and in recalling the wars
with Persian invaders, he ranges across the ancient world, mixing politics
with natural history and anthropology. These are traveler's tales, and
a great deal of their appeal to a modern audience lies in the way Herodotus
describes the cultures that influence his story. The societies of Scythians,
Arabs, and Egyptians are depicted in detail, from their political structures
to their dining habits. Herodotus created a sense of history for his people,
and he gives us a picture of a distant past that reminds us of the vast
continuum of civilization. Amazon.com Paperback: 622 pages
Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140446389; Reprint edition
(September 1996)
The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece by Robert Morkot
This well-illustrated volume is just the thing to have on hand while
working your way through the pages of Xenophon, Herodotus, and Thucydides.
Robert Morkot traces the growth of Greece from a series of often conflicting
city-states, each with its own colonial outposts as far from home as Spain
and Tunisia, to loosely knit alliances that waged huge conflicts against
the Persian empire--and, as in the case of the Peloponnesian War, against
each other. The pages devoted to Alexander the Great, which show how the
Greek empire came to extend from southern Egypt to the gates of China are
particularly interesting. Amazon.com Paperback: 144 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.46 x
9.66 x 7.20
Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140513353; (January 1997)
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