We've ranked the best athens books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.
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1
Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
Steven Pressfield
5.0
In 480 B.C., two million Persian invaders come to the mountain pass of Thermopylae in eastern Greece, where they are met by 300 of Sparta's finest warriors. The Greek loyalists battle for six days in a prelude to their ultimate victory.
Recommended by Ron Conway, Chris Fussell, Xi-Wei Yeo, and 1 others.
Ron Conway
The story of the battle of 300 Spartan soldiers against the Persian army. [source]
Chris Fussell
A classic in the special operations community. [source]
Xi-Wei Yeo
I wasn’t the most confident of youths, I think. I was never bold enough to be a trend-setter, but always too concerned about what others thought of me to be comfortable in my own skin. Because of this I was lost, drifting from path to path. Then I read Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield, which was a historical fiction about the Battle of Thermopylae. I know it sounds a little silly now, but reading about the Spartan code changed me. It wasn’t about how brave you looked or seemed, but truly about knowing yourself and being proud of who you are. I learned to believe in myself more since then, and seize opportunities that I believed in, and not just what others wanted for me. [source]
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The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
5.0
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
@johngreen You should not be. It is a great book. Was recently in Amsterdam and walked some of the scenes with your huge fan, my youngest daughter. Loved hearing from you and meeting you at Kenyon. [source]
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3
History of the Peloponnesian War
R. Warner Thucydides,M. I. Finley
4.9
Written four hundred years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling its author's ambitious claim. Thucydides himself (c.460-400 BC) was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war. He applied thereafter a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling this factual record of a disastrous conflict.
This book – of a long forgotten war – really functions as a biography and strategic analysis of some of the greatest minds in the history of war. We have Pericles, Brasidas, Alcibiades and many others. The anecdotes and the stories in this book are timeless. If you make your way all the way through it, I promise you will not forget it. Because the war was so long, involved so many different countries and was so varied (sea, land, siege, politics), it basically covers every type of situation you can think of. Think of this book as a textbook. Read it. [source]
It is loaded with hardcore, timeless truths and the story it tells ought to be required reading for every citizen in a democracy. [source]
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The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott
4.8
The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers.
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.
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Recommended by Antonio Villaraigosa, Elizabeth Tsurkov, John Kerry, and 2 others.
Antonio Villaraigosa
It has been over 70 years since The Grapes of Wrath was published, yet the suffering that Steinbeck describes still hits close to home with families across our country still struggling to find work and put food on the table. It reminds us progressives that the day-to-day struggles of Americans should always remain close to our hearts. [source]
While there is a story that takes place between characters, the hardship and unfairness is a central element of the book. It shows how fiction can create progressive change as well. [source]
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The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
4.6
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.
By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.
But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.
In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.
A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.
Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan..
But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
A powerful and moving story about identical twins trying to find their individual identities outside of their own powerful relationship. [source]
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare, John Gilbert, Ned Halley
4.6
A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakespeare's plays. It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a wood outside Athens, and from there the magic begins. A young woman flees Athens with her lover, only to be pursued by her would-be husband and by her best friend. Unwittingly, all four find themselves in an enchanted forest where fairies and sprites soon take an interest in human affairs, dispensing magical love potions and casting mischievous spells. In this dazzling comedy, confusion ends in harmony, as love is transformed, misplaced, and - ultimately - restored.
Illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert (1817-1897), famous for his depictions of historical scenes. As well as Shakespeare, he illustrated works of Sir Walter Scott, Cervantes, Wilkie Collins and Wordsworth.
With an Introduction by Ned Halley.
Designed to appeal to the book lover, Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound hardback gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
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The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides, Robert B. Strassler, Richard Crawley, Victor Davis Hanson
4.6
Recommended by Gideon Rose, Joseph Nye, and Robert Service.
Gideon Rose
Thucydides is the single best treatment of international relations, foreign policy and military affairs that exists. It is the best description of what life in a multipolar world is like, what politics and war are like for the units involved, of the basic realities of international relations. It has no single line. [source]
Joseph Nye
when Thucydides is trying to account for the Peloponnesian War, an extraordinary war in the fifth century BC in which the Greek city-state system tore itself apart, he says the basic cause of the war was the rise in power of Athens and the fear that created in Sparta. He points out that when there is this kind of fear, and there is a belief that war is inevitable, it can itself become a cause of war. Some of the greatest wisdom on international politics and the rise and fall of power goes back to Thucydides in the fifth century BC. [source]
Robert Service
It was the trauma of Thucydides’ lifetime and in the book he sought to explain why the war had gone on so long and why Athens lost it. [source]
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Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides
4.6
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license...records my first name simply as Cal."
So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.
Middlesex is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Eugenides does a really nice job of illustrating the complexity of emotional life, the emotional life that doesn’t necessarily fall into neat categories. [source]
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Purple Hibiscus
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4.5
Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating.
As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father’s authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins’ laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together.
Purple Hibiscus is an exquisite novel about the emotional turmoil of adolescence, the powerful bonds of family, and the bright promise of freedom.
@JB_VisualArtist Great book - I’m a huge Chimamanda fan. Enjoy. [source]
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The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3)
Rick Riordan
4.5
Annabeth is terrified. Just when she's about to be reunited with Percy—after six months of being apart, thanks to Hera—it looks like Camp Jupiter is preparing for war. As Annabeth and her friends Jason, Piper, and Leo fly in on the Argo II, she can't blame the Roman demigods for thinking the ship is a Greek weapon. With its steaming bronze dragon figurehead, Leo's fantastical creation doesn't appear friendly. Annabeth hopes that the sight of their praetor Jason on deck will reassure the Romans that the visitors from Camp Half-Blood are coming in peace.
And that's only one of her worries. In her pocket, Annabeth carries a gift from her mother that came with an unnerving command: Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me. Annabeth already feels weighed down by the prophecy that will send seven demigods on a quest to find—and close—the Doors of Death. What more does Athena want from her?
Annabeth's biggest fear, though, is that Percy might have changed. What if he's now attached to Roman ways? Does he still need his old friends? As the daughter of the goddess of war and wisdom, Annabeth knows she was born to be a leader—but never again does she want to be without Seaweed Brain by her side
Narrated by four different demigods, The Mark of Athena is an unforgettable journey across land and sea to Rome, where important discoveries, surprising sacrifices, and unspeakable horrors await. Climb aboard the Argo II, if you dare. . . .
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Rick Steves Greece: Athens & the Peloponnese
Rick Steves
4.5
Walk in the steps of Socrates, test the acoustics of the amphitheater of Epidavros, and set sail for Santorini: with Rick Steves on your side, Greece can be yours!
Inside Rick Steves Greece: Athens & The Peloponnese you'll find:
Comprehensive coverage for spending a week or more exploring Greece
Rick's strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites
Top sights and hidden gems, from the Parthenon and the Agora to the small towns and beaches of the Peloponnesian Peninsula
How to connect with culture: Go back in time at the National Archaeological Museum, sample olives and feta in the Mediterranean sunshine, or sip ouzo at a local taverna
Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick's candid, humorous insight The best places to eat, sleep, and relax
Self-guided walking tours of lively neighborhoods and incredible museums
Detailed maps for exploring on the go
Useful resources including a packing list, a Greek phrase book, a historical overview, and recommended reading
Over 500 bible-thin pages include everything worth seeing without weighing you down
Complete, up-to-date information on Athens, Nafplio, Epidavros, Mycenae, Olympia, Patra, Kardamyli, the Mani Peninsula, Sparta, Mystras, Delphi, Hydra, Mykonos, Delos, Santorini, and more Make the most of every day and every dollar with Rick Steves Greece: Athens & the Peloponnese.
Spending a week or less in the city? Check out Rick Steves Pocket Athens!
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Rick Steves Pocket Athens
Rick Steves
4.5
Rick Steves Pocket guidebooks truly are a "tour guide in your pocket." This colorful, compact 220-page book includes Rick's advice for prioritizing your time, whether you're spending 1 or 7 days in a city. 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
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The Peloponnesian War
Donald Kagan
4.5
For three decades in the fifth century B.C. the ancient world was torn apart by a conflict that was as dramatic, divisive, and destructive as the world wars of the twentieth century: the Peloponnesian War. Donald Kagan, one of the world’s most respected classical, political, and military historians, here presents a new account of this vicious war of Greek against Greek, Athenian against Spartan. The Peloponnesian War is a magisterial work of history written for general readers, offering a fresh examination of a pivotal moment in Western civilization. With a lively, readable narrative that conveys a richly detailed portrait of a vanished world while honoring its timeless relevance, The Peloponnesian War is a chronicle of the rise and fall of a great empire and of a dark time whose lessons still resonate today.
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15
The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life
Bettany Hughes
4.4
From the celebrated British author and historian: a brilliant new book combining historical inquiry and storytelling élan to paint an unprecedentedly vivid portrait of Socrates and the Golden Age of classical Athens. We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did; in his unwavering commitment to truth and in the example of his own life, he set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. And yet, for twenty-five centuries, he has remained an enigma: a man who left no written legacy and about whom everything we know is hearsay. His life spanned “seventy of the busiest, most wonderful and tragic years in Athenian history.” Athens in the fifth century B.C. was a city devastated by war, but, at the same time, transformed by the burgeoning process of democracy. Drawing on the latest sources—archaeological, topographical, and textual—Hughes re-creates the streets where Socrates walked, to place him there, and to illuminate for us the world as he experienced it.
She takes us through the great, teeming Agora—the massive marketplace, the heart of ancient Athens—where Socrates engaged in philosophical dialogue and where he would be condemned to death. We visit the battlefields where he fought, the red-light district and gymnasia he frequented and the religious festivals he attended. We meet the men and the few women—including his wife, Xanthippe, and his “inspiration” and confidante, Aspasia—who were central to his life. We travel to where he was born and where he died. And we come to understand the profound influences of time and place in the evolution of his eternally provocative philosophy.
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The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization
Anthony Everitt, Michael Page, et al
4.4
A magisterial account of how a tiny city-state in ancient Greece became history's most influential civilization, from the bestselling author of acclaimed biographies of Cicero, Augustus, and Hadrian
Filled with tales of adventure and astounding reversals of fortune, The Rise of Athens celebrates the city-state that transformed the world--from the democratic revolution that marked its beginning, through the city's political and cultural golden age, to its decline into the ancient equivalent of a modern-day university town.
Anthony Everitt constructs his history with unforgettable portraits of the talented, tricky, ambitious, and unscrupulous Athenians who fueled the city's rise: Themistocles, the brilliant naval strategist who led the Greeks to a decisive victory over their Persian enemies; Pericles, arguably the greatest Athenian statesman of them all; and the wily Alcibiades, who changed his political allegiance several times during the course of the Peloponnesian War--and died in a hail of assassins' arrows. Here also are riveting you-are-there accounts of the milestone battles that defined the Hellenic world: Thermopylae, Marathon, and Salamis among them. An unparalleled storyteller, Everitt combines erudite, thoughtful historical analysis with stirring narrative set pieces that capture the colorful, dramatic, and exciting world of ancient Greece.
Although the history of Athens is less well known than that of other world empires, the city-state's allure would inspire Alexander the Great, the Romans, and even America's own Founding Fathers. It's fair to say that the Athenians made possible the world in which we live today. In this peerless new work, Anthony Everitt breathes vivid life into this most ancient story.
Praise for The Rise of Athens
"[An] invaluable history of a foundational civilization . . . combining impressive scholarship with involving narration."--Booklist
"Compelling . . . a comprehensive and entertaining account of one of the most transformative societies in Western history . . . Everitt recounts the high points of Greek history with flair and aplomb."--Shelf Awareness
"Rome's history abounds with remarkable figures. . . . Everitt writes for the informed and the uninformed general reader alike, in a brisk, conversational style, with a modern attitude of skepticism and realism."--The Dallas Morning News
"[A] lively and readable account . . . Roman history has an uncanny ability to resonate with contemporary events."--Maclean's
"Elegant, swift and faultless as an introduction to his subject."--The Spectator
"An engrossing history of a relentlessly pugnacious city's 500-year rise to empire."--Kirkus Reviews
"Fascinating history and a great read."--Chicago Sun-Times
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Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy & the Birth of Democracy
J. R. Hale
4.4
The epic true story of Themistocles and the Battle of Salamis, and a rousing history of the world's first dominant navy and the towering empire it built.
The Athenian Navy was one of the finest fighting forces in the history of the world. It engineered a civilization, empowered the world's first democracy, and led a band of ordinary citizens on a voyage of discovery that altered the course of history. With Lords of the Sea, renowned archaeologist John R. Hale presents, for the first time, the definitive history of the epic battles, the fearsome ships, and the men – from extraordinary leaders to seductive rogues – that established Athens's supremacy. With a scholar's insight and a storyteller's flair, Hale takes us on an unforgettable voyage with these heroes, their turbulent careers, and far-flung expeditions, bringing back to light a forgotten maritime empire and its majestic legacy.
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Corelli's Mandolin
Louis de Bernieres
4.4
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is set in the early days of the second world war, before Benito Mussolini invaded Greece. Dr Iannis practices medicine on the island of Cephalonia, accompanied by his daughter, Pelagia, to whom he imparts much of his healing art. Even when the Italians do invade, life isn’t so bad—at first anyway. The officer in command of the Italian garrison is the cultured Captain Antonio Corelli, who responds to a Nazi greeting of “Heil Hitler” with his own “Heil Puccini”, and whose most precious possession is his mandolin. It isn't long before Corelli and Pelagia are involved in a heated affair--despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side. And for Corelli and Pelagia, it becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, both personal and political, as all around them atrocities mount, former friends become enemies and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches.
British author Louis de Bernières is well known for his forays into magical realism in such novels as The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. Here he keeps it to a minimum, though certainly the secondary characters with whom he populates his island—the drunken priest, the strongman, the fisherman who swims with dolphins—would be at home in any of his wildly imaginative Latin American fictions. Instead, de Bernières seems interested in dissecting the nature of history as he tells his ever-darkening tale from many different perspectives. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin works on many levels, as a love story, a war story and a deconstruction of just what determines the facts that make it into the history books.
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Recommended by Lisa Ling.
Lisa Ling
One of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. [source]
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19
Creation
Gore Vidal
4.4
Once again the incomparable Gore Vidal interprets and animates history -- this time in a panoramic tour of the 5th century B.C. -- and embellishes it with his own ironic humor, brilliant insights, and piercing observations. We meet a vast array of historical figures in a staggering novel of love, war, philosophy, and adventure . . . "There isn't a page of CREATION that doesn't inform and very few pages that do not delight." -- John Leonard, The New York Times
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Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos Papadimitriou
4.4
An innovative, dramatic graphic novel about the treacherous pursuit of the foundations of mathematics. This graphic novel recounts the spiritual odyssey of philosopher Bertrand Russell. In his agonized search for absolute truth, he crosses paths with thinkers like Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert & Kurt Gödel, & finds a passionate student in Ludwig Wittgenstein. But his most ambitious goal—to establish unshakable logical foundations of mathematics—continues to loom before him. Thru love & hate, peace & war, he persists in the mission threatening to claim both his career & happiness, finally driving him to the brink of insanity. This story is at the same time a historical novel & an accessible explication of some of the biggest ideas of mathematics & modern philosophy. With rich characterizations & atmospheric artwork, it spins the pursuit of such ideas into a satisfying tale. Probing, layered, the book throws light on Russell’s inner struggles while setting them in the context of the timeless questions he tried to answer. At its heart, Logicomix is a story about the conflict between ideal rationality & the flawed fabric of reality.
This is quite a recent publication and I saw the first inklings of this graphic novel when I went to a meeting in Mykonos on maths and narrative and it really looked an incredibly exciting project. I enjoy the graphic novel as an art form and I’ve always enjoyed Tintin and this has a very Tintinesque line to it, the illustration. But it brings alive one of the great stories of 20th-century mathematics, which is the crisis that happened when Gödel proved that there are statements about numbers which are true but which will never be proved. And this went against the whole ethos of mathematics since the ancient Greeks. If something is true, we should be able to prove why it’s true. If there are infinitely many primes, we can prove that there are infinitely many primes. But we don’t know that there are infinitely many twin primes: Primes that are two apart, like 17 and 19. Maybe that’s a true statement that doesn’t have a proof and we’re trying to chase something that doesn’t exist. Gödel’s theorem, proved in the 1930s, was a real bombshell for the philosophy of mathematics. [source]
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The Trial and Death of Socrates (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (death scene only))
Plato
4.3
Chronicling the life and death of the father of western philosophy, and charting his influence on the most influential ancient Greek philosophers, Plato's The Last Days of Socrates is translated from the Greek by Hugh Tredennick, revised with an introduction and notes by Harold Tarrant in Penguin Classics.
The trial and condemnation of Socrates on charges of heresy and corrupting young minds is a defining moment in the history of Classical Athens. In tracing these events through four dialogues, Plato also developed his own philosophy, based on Socrates' manifesto for a life guided by self-responsibility. Euthyphro finds Socrates outside the court-house, debating the nature of piety, while the Apology is his robust rebuttal of the charges of impiety and a defence of the philosopher's life. In the Crito, while awaiting execution in prison, Socrates counters the arguments of friends urging him to escape. Finally, in the Phaedo, he is shown calmly confident in the face of death, skilfully arguing the case for the immortality of the soul.
Hugh Tredennick's landmark 1954 translation has been revised by Harold Tarrant, reflecting changes in Platonic studies, with an introduction and expanded introductions to each of the four dialogues.
Plato (c.427-347 BC) stands with Socrates and Aristotle as one of the shapers of the whole intellectual tradition of the West. He founded the Academy in Athens, the first permanent institution devoted to philosophical research and teaching, and the prototype of all Western universities.
If you enjoyed The Last Days of Socrates, you might like Plato's The Symposium, also available in Penguin Classics.
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The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives
Plutarch, Ian Scott-Kilvert
4.3
Plutarch's Greek Lives can be seen as a summing up of the classical Greek age and its great writers.
The nine Lives translated here and arranged in chronological order follow the history of Athens from the legendary times of Theseus, the city's founder, to its defeat at the hands of Lysander, its Spartan conqueror. Included in this selection are the biographies of Themistocles, a brilliant but heavy-handed naval commander, Aristides 'the Just' and Pericles, who was responsible for the buildings on the Acropolis. Plutarch's real interest in these men is not in the greatness of their victories or achievements but in their moral strengths, and for him responsibility for the eventual fall of Athens lay with the weakness and ambition of its great men.
Varying in historical accuracy, these accounts are nevertheless rich in anecdote, and Plutarch's skill as a social historian and his fascination with personal idiosyncracies make them of timeless interest.
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Recommended by Jeffrey Beneker.
Jeffrey Beneker
Plutarch would argue that what you’re doing in your private life will predict what’s going to happen if we put you in charge of public life. If you can’t run the small economy of your household in a competent way, why would we put you in charge of the city’s economy? It’s that way of thinking. [source]
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Marathon: Freedom or Death (Long War, #2)
Christian Cameron
4.3
The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC was one of history's great turning points - the first time the Greeks managed to defeat the Persians in a pitched battle, it enabled the rise of classical Greek civilization. Christian Cameron's retelling of the battle will bring it alive, with all of its human drama and tragedy, as never before.
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Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens
David Stuttard
4.3
Alcibiades was one of the most dazzling figures of the Golden Age of Athens. A ward of Pericles and a friend of Socrates, he was spectacularly rich, bewitchingly handsome and charismatic, a skilled general, and a ruthless politician. He was also a serial traitor, infamous for his dizzying changes of loyalty in the Peloponnesian War. Nemesis tells the story of this extraordinary life and the turbulent world that Alcibiades set out to conquer.
David Stuttard recreates ancient Athens at the height of its glory as he follows Alcibiades from childhood to political power. Outraged by Alcibiades’s celebrity lifestyle, his enemies sought every chance to undermine him. Eventually, facing a capital charge of impiety, Alcibiades escaped to the enemy, Sparta. There he traded military intelligence for safety until, suspected of seducing a Spartan queen, he was forced to flee again—this time to Greece’s long-term foes, the Persians. Miraculously, though, he engineered a recall to Athens as Supreme Commander, but—suffering a reversal—he took flight to Thrace, where he lived as a warlord. At last in Anatolia, tracked by his enemies, he died naked and alone in a hail of arrows.
As he follows Alcibiades’s journeys crisscrossing the Mediterranean from mainland Greece to Syracuse, Sardis, and Byzantium, Stuttard weaves together the threads of Alcibiades’s adventures against a backdrop of cultural splendor and international chaos. Navigating often contradictory evidence, Nemesis provides a coherent and spellbinding account of a life that has gripped historians, storytellers, and artists for more than 2,000 years.
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Recommended by Johanna Hanink.
Johanna Hanink
He knows everyone and shows up everywhere, so if you follow his story, as Stuttard does, you wind up running into every major figure and place in the Greek world in this period. So actually, just because he got around so much, Alcibiades is a very effective way of tracing the bigger story of this historical period. [source]
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The Politics of Greek Tragedy
D.M. Carter
4.3
This book addresses the political aspects of fifth-century Athenian tragedies, setting them in their immediate historical context. It is an important topic and one that only rarely and sporadically finds its way into accessible accounts of Greek tragedy.
Carter sets out to elucidate to a student and general audience how and why Athenian tragedy should be read as a political art form. The political content of ancient drama has been the subject of much scholarly debate in the last thirty years, but much of that debate is highly technical and inaccessible. Carter demonstrates that like the contemporary satirical comedy of Aristophanes, or indeed the sculptures of the Parthenon, tragedy involved a highly political dimension.
He provides stimulating and provocative analyses, from varied points of view, of the political aspect in several individual tragedies (always referred to in modern translations). To this he adds a chapter on the ‘reception’ of political tragedy, alluding to theatre and film productions of the Greek plays that have taken an overtly political stance within a modern context.
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Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology
Professor Alan L. Boegehold, Professor Adele C. Scafuro
4.3
In Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology Alan Boegehold and Adele Scafuro bring together a group of leading scholars who explore the nature and meaning of Athenian citizenship. Departing from the narrow perspective of constitutional historians and embracing sociological concerns as well, the range of topics attests to a broad vision of the concepts of citizenship and civic ideology in a society in which the boundary between public and private, secular and sacred, is not always clear. Among the contributors, Philip Brook Manville and W. Robert Connor offer fresh critiques of the study of citizenship, while Frank J. Frost examines pre-Cleisthenic notions of citizenship. Alan Boegehold examines social and economic motivations for the passage of Perikles's citizenship law of 451/0 B.C. Three essays treat various aspects of civic ideology: Ian Morris and Josiah Ober consider evidence for changes in that ideology in the fifth and fourth centuries, Morris by examining its visual manifestation in funeral monuments, and Ober by offering an interpretation of Thucydides's history as a discourse that actively resists hegemonic public discourse. Robert W. Wallace examines what might be perceived as contradictions within civic ideology, namely, alleged infringements of intellectual freedom. The last three essays turn to the fourth and early third centuries. Adele Scafuro discusses the process of citizen identification in Athenian society; Cynthia Patterson examines the position of women in the maintenance of civic ideology; and David Konstan considers the relationship between sexual attitudes and civic status. Offering a broad spectrum of the methods and issues currently of interest to classicalscholars, Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology is a book likely to stir discussion and debate.
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27
Top Sights Travel Guide: Athens (Top Sights Travel Guides)
Mark Jone
4.3
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28
Solon the Thinker: Political Thought in Archaic Athens
John David Lewis
4.3
In "Solon the Thinker" John Lewis presents the hypothesis that Solon saw Athens as a self-governing, self-supporting system akin to the early Greek conceptions of the cosmos. Solon's polis functions not through divine intervention but by its own internal energy, which is founded on the intellectual health of its people, depends upon their acceptance of justice and moderation as orderly norms of life, and leads to the rejection of tyranny and slavery in favour of freedom. But Solon's naturalistic views are limited; in his own life each person is subject to the arbitrary foibles of moira, the inscrutable fate that governs human life, and that brings us to an unknowable but inevitable death. Solon represents both the new rational, scientific spirit that was sweeping the Aegean - and a return to the fatalism that permeated Greek intellectual life. This first paperback edition contains a new appendix of translations of the fragments of Solon by the author.
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29
Dubliners
James Joyce, Terence Brown, Roman Muradov, Colum McCann
4.3
For the centennial of its original publication, an irresistible Graphic Deluxe Edition of one of the most beloved books of the 20th century
Perhaps the greatest short story collection in the English language, James Joyce’s Dubliners is a vivid and unflinching portrait of “dear dirty Dublin” at the turn of the twentieth century. These fifteen stories, including such unforgettable ones as “Araby,” “Grace,” and “The Dead,” delve into the heart of the city of Joyce’s birth, capturing the cadences of Dubliners’ speech and portraying with an almost brute realism their outer and inner lives. Dubliners is Joyce at his most accessible and most profound, and this edition is the definitive text, authorized by the Joyce estate and collated from all known proofs, manuscripts, and impressions to reflect the author’s original wishes.
It is the perfect story—you can almost touch the characters, and yet it is told from a remote point of view, from a distance but not without affection [source]
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The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City
Nicole Loraux, Alan Sheridan
4.3
How does the funeral oration relate to democracy in ancient Greece? How did the death of an individual citizen-soldier become the occasion to praise the city of Athens? In The Invention of Athens, Nicole Loraux traces the different rhetoric, politics, and ideology of funeral orations--epitaphioi--from Thucidydes, Gorgias, Lysias, and Demosthenes to Plato. Arguing that the ceremony of public burial began circa 508-460 BCE, Loraux demonstrates that the institution of the funeral oration developed under Athenian democracy. A secular, not a religious phenomenon, a literary genre with fixed rhetoric effects, the funeral oration was inextricably linked to the epainos--praise of the city--rather than to a ritualized lament for the dead as is commonly assumed. Above all, the funeral oration celebrated the city of Athens and the Athenian citizen.Loraux interprets the speeches from literary, anthropological, and political perspectives. She explains how these acts of secular speech invented an image of Athens often at odds with the presumed ideals of democracy. To die in battle for the city was presented as an act of civic choice--the -fine- death that defined the citizen-soldier's noble, aristocratic ethos. At the same time, the funeral oration cultivated an image of democracy at a time when there was, for example, no formal theory of a respect for law and liberty, the supremacy of the collective and public over the individual and the private, or freedom of speech.This new edition of The Invention of Athens includes significant revisions made by Nicole Loraux in 1993. Her aim in editing the original text was to render this groundbreaking work accessible to nonspecialists. Loraux's introduction to this revised volume, as well as important revisions to the 1986 English translation, make this publication an important addition to scholarship in the humanities and the social sciences.
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Recommended by Johanna Hanink.
Johanna Hanink
This remains my favourite book in the field. The Invention of Athens is the book that really got me interested in this time period and in the question, ‘How were the Athenians just so capable of convincing not only other people who lived in their own time, but even people in later generations, that their city was so profoundly special?’ [source]
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31
Foreign Agent (Scot Harvath #15)
Brad Thor
4.3
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor comes Foreign Agent—a thriller as current as tomorrow’s headlines.
In a safe house near the Syrian border, a clandestine American operations team readies to launch a dramatic mission months in the making. Their target: the director of Social Media for ISIS, Abu Muslim al-Naser.
Multiple analysts, as well as a senior Congresswoman, are in the country to monitor the raid, but before the team can launch, the safe house is attacked.
What unfolds in the bloody aftermath is a political and public relations nightmare. As horrific videos of the Americans are published on the Internet, the blame-storming back in Washington goes into full swing, focusing on how the intel for the raid was developed and how it might have leaked.
As the search for answers mounts, half spy, half covert counterterrorism operative, Scot Harvath quickly finds himself at the center of the storm. Working for a private intelligence agency contracted by both the CIA and the DoD, it was Harvath who pinpointed al-Naser. But how could ISIS have known the Americans were coming, much less where they would be staying? There has to be more to it; something everyone—especially the politicians—is missing.
With the weight of the attack on his shoulders and several powerful members of Congress calling for his head, Harvath is forced to launch his own operation to unravel what went wrong and exact revenge.
But as he nears the truth and the deadly puzzle pieces begin to fall into place, Harvath will uncover another actor—a rogue player hell-bent on forcing America’s hand and drawing it into a plot more dangerous than anyone in Washington could have imagined.
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32
A War Like No Other: How the Athenians & Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
Victor Davis Hanson
4.3
Provocative military historian Victor Davis Hanson has given painstakingly researched & pathbreaking accounts of wars ranging from classical antiquity to the 21st century. Now he juxtaposes an ancient conflict with modern concerns to create his most engrossing work to date, A War Like No Other. Over the course of a generation, the Hellenic poleis of Athens & Sparta fought a bloody conflict that resulted in the collapse of Athens & the end of its golden age. Thucydides wrote the standard history of the Peloponnesian War, which has given readers throughout the ages a vivid & authoritative narrative. But Hanson offers something new: a complete chronological account that reflects the political background of the time, the strategic thinking of the combatants, the misery of battle in multifaceted theaters & insight into how these events echo in the present. He compellingly portrays the ways Athens & Sparta fought on land & sea, in city & countryside, & details their employment of the full scope of conventional & nonconventional tactics, from sieges to targeted assassinations, torture & terrorism. He also assesses the crucial roles played by warriors such as Pericles & Lysander, artists, among them Aristophanes, & thinkers including Sophocles & Plato. Hanson’s perceptive analysis of events & personalities raises many thought-provoking questions: Were Athens & Sparta like America & Russia, two superpowers battling to the death? Is the Peloponnesian War echoed in the endless, frustrating conflicts of Vietnam, Northern Ireland & the current Middle East? Or was it more like America’s own Civil War, a brutal rift that rent the fabric of a glorious society, or even this century’s “red state—blue state” schism between liberals & conservatives, a cultural war that manifestly controls military policies? Hanson daringly brings the facts to life & unearths the often surprising ways in which the past informs the present. Brilliantly researched, dynamically written, A War Like No Other is like no other history of this important war.
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The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika
Xenophon, Robert B. Strassler, John Marincola, David Thomas
4.3
From the editor of the widely praised The Landmark Thucydides and The Landmark Herodotus, here is a new edition of Xenophon’s Hellenika, the primary source for the events of the final seven years and aftermath of the Peloponnesian War.
Hellenika covers the years between 411 and 362 B.C.E., a particularly dramatic period during which the alliances among Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Persia were in constant flux. Together with the volumes of Herodotus and Thucydides, it completes an ancient narrative of the military and political history of classical Greece.
Xenophon was an Athenian who participated in the expedition of Cyrus the Younger against Cyrus’ brother, the Perisan King Artaxerces II. Later Xenophon joined the Spartan army and hence was exiled from Athens. In addition to the Hellenika, a number of his essays have survived, including one on his memories of his teacher, Socrates.
Beautifully illustrated, heavily annotated, and filled with detailed, clear maps, this edition gives us a new, authoritative, and completely accessible translation by John Marincola, an comprehensive introduction by David Thomas, sixteen appendices written by leading classics scholars, and an extensive timeline/chronology to clarify this otherwise confusing period. Unlike any other edition of the Hellenika, it also includes the relevant texts of Diodorus Siculus and the Oxyrhynchus Historian, with explanatory footnotes and a table that correlates passages of the three works, which is perhaps crucial to an assessment of Xenophon’s reliability and quality as a historian.
Like the two Landmark editions that precede it, The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenika is the most readable and comprehensive edition available of an essential history.
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Recommended by Johanna Hanink.
Johanna Hanink
He goes through to the end of the Peloponnesian War and becomes the major source that we have for what happened in Athens during the rise and the rule of the Thirty Tyrants. He then goes on into this very interesting period, in the first part of the 4th century, when Athens has some aspirations to regain the Aegean empire that it had. [source]
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The Complete Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen, Lily Owens
4.3
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35
The King Must Die (Theseus, #1)
Mary Renault
4.3
“Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us.” —Hilary Mantel
In myth, Theseus was the slayer of the child-devouring Minotaur in Crete. What the founder-hero might have been in real life is another question, brilliantly explored in The King Must Die. Drawing on modern scholarship and archaeological findings at Knossos, Mary Renault’s Theseus is an utterly lifelike figure—a king of immense charisma, whose boundless strivings flow from strength and weakness—but also one steered by implacable prophecy.
The story follows Theseus’s adventures from Troizen to Eleusis, where the death in the book’s title is to take place, and from Athens to Crete, where he learns to jump bulls and is named king of the victims. Richly imbued with the spirit of its time, this is a page-turner as well as a daring act of imagination.
Renault’s story of Theseus continues with the sequel The Bull from the Sea.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author.
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Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens
Sofka Zinovieff
4.3
Sofka Zinovieff had fallen in love with Greece as a student, but little suspected that years later she would, return for good with an expatriate Greek husband and two young daughters. This book is a wonderfully fresh, funny, and inquiring account of her first year as an Athenian. The whole family have to come to grips with their new life and identities—the children start school and tackle a new language, and Sofka's husband, Vassilis, comes home after half a lifetime away. Meanwhile, Sofka resolves to get to know her new city and become a Greek citizen, which turns out to be a process of Byzantine complexity. As the months go by, Sofka's discovers how memories of Athens' past haunt its present in its music, poetry, and history. She also learns about the difficult art of catching a taxi, the importance of smoking, the unimportance of time-keeping, and how to get your Christmas piglet cooked at the baker's.
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Frommer's Athens and the Greek Islands (Complete Guide)
Stephen Brewer
4.2
The recent economic crisis in Greece has, paradoxically enough, created better conditions for tourism. The Greeks are painfully aware that tourism is their best-functioning remaining industry. They value the visitor as never before, treat them with a warmth and courtesy that exceeds what you’ll find in other parts of Europe. And more people are therefore coming here in unprecedented numbers.
To bring the current message of Greek tourism to a reading public, we've called upon the research and writing talents of one of America's foremost travel journalists. Stephen Brewer has been writing travel guides for almost three decades. As an editor and writer, he has focused not just on the Frommer guides but on European coverage for such magazines as Esquire, Connoisseur and Geo.
In Frommer's Athens and the Greek Islands, he brings tremendous insight into how to best approach and understand both the famed and lesser-known (but still fascinating) historic sights of Athens and the adjoining Peloponnese, as well as the recreational resorts and life of the enchanting Greek islands.
The book contains: -Helpful maps, including a handy pull-out map -A 16-page photo guide -Exact pricing so there’s never any ugly surprises -Opinionated reviews of historic sights and other attractions, hotels, restaurants,
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The Solitaire Mystery
Jostein Gaarder, Hilde Kramer, Sarah Jane Hails
4.2
Hans Thomas and his father set out on a car trip through Europe, from Norway to Greece—the birthplace of philosophy—in search of Hans Thomas's mother, who left them many years earlier. On the way, Hans Thomas receives a mysterious miniature book—the fantastic memoir of a sailor shipwrecked in 1842 on a strange island where a deck of cards come to life.
Structured as a deck of cards—each chapter is one in the deck—"The Solitaire Mystery" weaves together fantasy and reality, fairy tales and family history. Full of questions about the meaning of life, it will spur its listeners to reexamine their own.
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39
DK Eyewitness Greece, Athens and the Mainland
DK Publishing
4.2
The ideal travel companion, full of insider advice on what to see and do, plus detailed itineraries and comprehensive maps for exploring this ancient country.
Explore ancient Athens and its mighty Acropolis, discover priceless treasures at Thessaloniki's Archaeological Museum, relax in the unspoiled wilderness of Olympos National Parks or spy spectacular scenery at Vikos Gorge: everything you need to know is clearly laid out within color-coded chapters. Discover the best of Greece, Athens and the Mainland with this indispensable travel guide.
Inside DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Greece, Athens and the Mainland: - Over 20 color maps, plus a large-scale pull-out map of Athens, help you navigate with ease - Simple layout makes it easy to find the information you need - Comprehensive tours and itineraries of Athens and the Mainland, designed for every interest and budget - Illustrations and floorplans detail icons such as the world-famous Pantheon, Ancient Corinth, the fortified palace complex of Mycenae and more - Color photographs of Greece's ancient sights, historic cities, picturesque towns and villages, incredible architecture, beautiful beaches and more - Historical and cultural context gives you a richer travel experience: learn about the country's fascinating history, welcoming culture, beautiful landscape, ancient wonders, traditional and religious festivals, delicious cuisine and more - Experience the culture with features on Byzantine architecture; gods, goddesses and heroes; the Trojan War; Greek writers and philosophers; temple architecture; vases and vase painting; and more - Detailed chapters, with area maps, cover Athens, the Peloponnese, central and western Greece, and northern Greece - Essential travel tips: our expert choices of where to stay, eat, shop and sightsee, plus useful phrases, and visa and health information
DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Greece, Athens and the Mainland is a detailed, easy-to-use guide designed to help you get the most from your visit to this iconic country.
DK Eyewitness: winner of the Top Guidebook Series in the Wanderlust Reader Travel Awards 2017.
"No other guide whets your appetite quite like this one" - The Independent
On a shorter break? Try our DK Eyewitness Top 10 Athens guide. About DK Eyewitness Travel: DK's highly visual Eyewitness guides show you what others only tell you, with easy-to-read maps, tips, and tours to inform and enrich your holiday. DK is the world's leading illustrated reference publisher, producing beautifully designed books for adults and children in over 120 countries.
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40
The Fall of the Athenian Empire
Donald Kagan
4.2
In the fourth and final volume of his magisterial history of the Peloponnesian War, Donald Kagan examines the period from the destruction of Athens' Sicilian expedition in September of 413 B.C. to the Athenian surrender to Sparta in the spring of 404 B.C. Through his study of this last decade of the war, Kagan evaluates the performance of the Athenian democracy as it faced its most serious challenge. At the same time, Kagan assesses Thucydides' interpretation of the reasons for Athens' defeat and the destruction of the Athenian Empire.
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41
Assassins of Athens (Andreas Kaldis, #2)
Jeffrey Siger
4.2
When the body of a boy from one of Greece’s most prominent families turns up in a dumpster in one of Athens’ worst neighborhoods, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis of the Greek Police’s Special Crimes Division is certain there’s a message in the murder. But who sent it and why? Andreas’ politically incorrect search for answers takes him deep into the sordid, criminal side of Athens nightlife and on to the glittering world of Athens society where age-old frictions between old money and new breed jealousy, murder, revenge, revolutionaries, and some very dangerous truths.
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42
Gorgias
Plato, Robin Waterfield
4.2
One of Plato's most widely read dialogues, Gorgias treats the temptations of worldly success and the rewards of the genuinely moral life. Appealing to philosophers as a classic text of moral philosophy--and to everyone for its vividness, clarity, and occassional bitter humor--this new translation is accompanied by explanatory notes and an illuminating and accessible introduction.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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Recommended by David Greenberg.
David Greenberg
Plato and Socrates heavily disapproved of spin (or rhetoric, as it was referred to back then). Aristotle and the Sophists had a different point of view. [source]
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The Trial of Socrates
i.f.stone
4.2
In a feat of investigative journalism and classical scholarship, a veteran Washington correspondent has gone back almost twenty-five hundred years to throw fresh light on the most famous free speech case of all time - the trial of Socrates.
The book tries to unravel some of the mysteries behind the trial. It helps us to understand why Athens waited until Socrates was seventy before bringing him to trial, why he did his best to antagonize his judges, how narrow was the vote for his conviction, and how easily he might have won acquittal.
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44
The Colossus of Maroussi
Henry Miller
4.2
The Colossus of Maroussi is an impressionist travelogue by Henry Miller, written in 1939 and first published in 1941 by Colt Press of San Francisco. As an impoverished writer in need of rejuvenation, Miller travelled to Greece at the invitation of his friend, the writer Lawrence Durrell. The text is inspired by the events that occurred. The text is ostensibly a portrait of the Greek writer George Katsimbalis, although some critics have opined that is more of a self-portrait of Miller himself.[1] Miller considered it to be his greatest work.
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Huis clos, suivi de Les mouches
Jean-Paul Sartre
4.2
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46
Waiting for Nick / Considering Kate (The Stanislaskis #5 -6)
Nora Roberts
4.2
Waiting for Nick
Frederica Kimball had been waiting all her life…waiting to grow up…waiting forever for the day when Nicholas LeBeck would fall as desperately in love with her as she had always been with him.
Nick didn't know what had hit him. Sweet, adorable Freddie, whom he'd always loved like a kid sister, was suddenly all woman. And his feelings for her were anything but brotherly!
Considering Kate
Kate Stanislaski Kimball had turned her back on glamour and fame, and she'd come home to begin a new life. The only thing more perfect than the beautiful—dilapidated—building she'd bought for her new dance school was Brody O'Connell, the frustrating and surprisingly fascinating contractor she'd hired for the renovation.
But Brody was determined to resist Kate's effortless allure. She was Natasha Stanislaski's pampered, perfect daughter, after all. Still, every fiber of his being longed to make her his.…
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47
The Parthenon
Mary Beard
4.2
Read the Bldg Blog interview with Mary Beard about the Wonders of the World series (Part I and Part II)
Oscar Wilde compared it to a white goddess, Evelyn Waugh to Stilton cheese. In observers from Lord Byron to Sigmund Freud to Virginia Woolf it met with astonishment, rapture, poetry, even tears--and, always, recognition. Twenty-five hundred years after it first rose above Athens, the Parthenon remains one of the wonders of the world, its beginnings and strange turns of fortune over millennia a perpetual source of curiosity, controversy, and intrigue.
At once an entrancing cultural history and a congenial guide for tourists, armchair travelers, and amateur archaeologists alike, this book conducts readers through the storied past and towering presence of the most famous building in the world. Who built the Parthenon, and for what purpose? How are we to understand its sculpture? Why is it such a compelling monument? The classicist and historian Mary Beard takes us back to the fifth century B.C. to consider the Parthenon in its original guise--as the flagship temple of imperial Athens, housing an enormous gold and ivory statue of the city's patron goddess attended by an enigmatic assembly of sculptures. Just as fascinating is the monument's far longer life as cathedral church of Our Lady of Athens, as "the finest mosque in the world," and, finally, as an inspirational ruin and icon. Beard also takes a cool look at the bitter arguments that continue to surround the "Elgin Marbles," the sculptures from the Parthenon now in the British Museum. Her book constitutes the ultimate tour of the marvelous history and present state of this glory of the Acropolis, and of the world.
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48
Ralph Eugene Meatyard (Phaidon 55's)
Judith Keller
4.2
This volume - investigating the work of a particular photographer, in this case, Ralph Eugene Meatyard - comprises a 4000-word essay by an expert in the field, 55 photographs presented chronologically, each with a commentary, and a biography of the featured photographer.
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49
The Histories
Herodotus, John M. Marincola, et al.
4.2
One of the masterpieces of classical literature, the "Histories" describes how a small and quarrelsome band of Greek city states united to repel the might of the Persian empire. But while this epic struggle forms the core of his work, Herodotus' natural curiosity frequently gives rise to colorful digressions - a description of the natural wonders of Egypt; an account of European lake-dwellers; and far-fetched accounts of dog-headed men and gold-digging ants. With its kaleidoscopic blend of fact and legend, the "Histories" offers a compelling Greek view of the world of the fifth century BC.
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Athens 415: The City in Crisis
Clara Shaw Hardy and Robert Hardy
4.2
On a summer night in 415 BCE, unknown persons systematically mutilated most of the domestic “herms”—guardian statues of the god Hermes—in Athens. The reaction was immediate and extreme: the Athenians feared a terrifying conspiracy was underway against the city and its large fleet—and possibly against democracy itself. The city established a board of investigators, which led to informants, accusations, and flight by many of the accused. Ultimately, dozens were exiled or executed, their property confiscated.
This dramatic period offers the opportunity to observe the city in crisis. Sequential events allow us to see the workings of the major institutions of the city (assembly, council, law courts, and theater, as well as public and private religion). Remarkably, the primary sources for these tumultuous months name conspirators from a very wide range of status-groups: citizens, women, slaves, and free residents. Thus the incident provides a particularly effective entry-point into a full multifaceted view of the way Athens worked in the late fifth century.
Designed for classroom use, Athens 415 is no potted history, but rather a source-based presentation of ancient urban life ideal for the study of a people and their institutions and beliefs. Original texts—all translated by poet Robert B. Hardy—are presented along with thoughtful discussion and analyses by Clara Shaw Hardy in an engaging narrative that draws students into Athens’ crisis.
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51
Legal Speeches of Democratic Athens: Sources for Athenian History
Andrew Wolpert and Konstantinos Kapparis
4.2
"[Wolpert and Kapparis's] anthology . . . stands apart in a number of key ways. Virtually all of the translations, which are of very high quality, are new for this volume. . . . "Each of the introductions to the individual speeches is accompanied by a convenient outline, entitled ‘Key Information', of the important details about the dispute; this feature will be particularly welcome to undergraduates and other beginners, for whom Athenian forensic speeches often present at first glance a welter of soap opera-like complexity. In the summary that precedes Against Neaera, for example, the subheadings include 'Speaker', Supporting Speaker', 'Defendant', ‘Other Individuals' (particularly helpful), ‘Action', 'Penalty' and ‘Date'. Having this information collected in one handy location is very useful indeed. "One minor yet remarkably useful feature is that [Wolpert and Kapparis] have placed all cross-references to speeches included in the collection in bold typeface. This allows the reader to know immediately whether he need only flip the pages to see the passage in question or must reach for another volume. It is hoped that this will encourage busy undergraduates to take the trouble to follow up a cross-reference. "The introduction truly shines. Without getting bogged down in debatable minutiae, it provides a remarkably detailed and clear account of the law and oratory of ancient Athens. Divided into five sections, it begins with an account of Athenian legal development from the Draconian and Solonian periods to the fourth century. It then tackles Athenian politics and society, the court system (a particularly helpful section), the Attic orators (with a substantial biographical sketch of each orator whose speeches appear in the volume), and rhetorical technique and style. The introduction could even be used in a course where no speeches are read but students need to be given a quick, solid initiation into the legal culture of the classical period." --Classical Review
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The Echo of Greece
Edith Hamilton
4.2
'Fourth-century Athens has a special claim on our attention,' writes the author, 'apart from the great men it produced, for it is the prelude to the end of Greece...The kind of events that took place in the great free government of the ancient world may, by reason of unchanging human nature, be repeated in the modern world. The course that Athens followed can be to us not only a record of old unhappy far-off things but a blueprint of what may happen again.'
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53
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View
Richard Tarnas
4.2
"[This] magnificent critical survey, with its inherent respect for both the 'Westt's mainstream high culture' & the 'radically changing world' of the 1990s, offers a new breakthrough for lay & scholarly readers alike...Allows readers to grasp the big picture of Western culture for the first time".-- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Here are the great minds of Western civilization & their pivotal ideas, from Plato to Hegel, from Augustine to Nietzsche, from Copernicus to Freud. Richard Tarnas performs the near-miracle of describing profound philosophical concepts simply but without simplifying them. Ten years in the making & already hailed as a classic, THE PASSION OF THE WESERN MIND is truly a complete liberal education in a single volume.
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Trials from Classical Athens
Christopher Carey
4.2
The ancient Athenian legal system is both excitingly familiar and disturbingly alien to the modern reader. It functions within a democracy which shares many of our core values but operates in a disconcertingly different way. Trials from Classical Athens assembles a number of surviving speeches written for trials in Athenian courts, dealing with themes which range from murder and assault, through slander and sexual misconduct to property and trade disputes and minor actions for damage. The texts illuminate key aspects both of Athenian social and political life and the functioning of the Athenian legal system.
This new and revised volume adds to the existing selection of key forensic speeches with three new translations accompanied by lucid explanatory notes. The introduction is augmented with a section on Athenian democracy to make the book more accessible to those unfamiliar with the Athenian political system. To aid accessibility further a new glossary is included as well as illustrations for the first time.
Providing a unique and guided introduction to the Athenian legal system and explaining how the system reveals the values and social life of Classical Athens, Trials from Classical Athens remains a fundamental resource for students of Ancient Greek history and anyone interested in the law, social history and oratory of the Ancient Greek world.
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Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-44
Mark Mazower
4.2
This gripping and richly illustrated account of wartime Greece explores the impact of the Nazi Occupation upon the lives and values of ordinary people. The first full account of the experience of occupation, it offers a vividly human picture of resistance fighters and black marketeers, teenage German conscripts and Gestapo officers, Jews and starving villagers.
"Fascinating. . . . [Mazower] succeeds in getting under the skin of the occupation. . . . [This book] conjures up, in vivid detail, life under an occupation that had shattered old certainties and replaced them with painful choices, cynical compromises, and hopes undercut by the daily death toll."—Mark Almond, New York Times
"A vivid picture of the German occupier’s mind and actions. . . . Mazower’s arguments are always fair."—Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"A superb book on the horrors afflicting wartime Greece. . . . [Mazower] has done vast archival research and emerged with a gripping, readable and human account, setting every moment of a tragic period in appropriate context."—Fritz Stern, Foreign Affairs
"[A] sensitive, illuminating and richly textured account of painful, complex experience."—Richard Overy, Observer
Mark Mazower is professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, and author of Dark Continent.
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56
The Walled Orchard (The Walled Orchard #1-2)
Tom Holt
4.2
'Witty, ironic ... and achieves a deeply felt authenticity' NEW YORK TIMES
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57
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (Peloponnesian War)
Donald Kagan
4.2
Why did the Peace of Nicias fail to reconcile Athens and Sparta? Donald Kagan examines the years between the signing of the peace treaty and the destruction of the Athenian expedition to Sicily in 413 B.C. The principal figure in the narrative is the Athenian politician and general Nicias, whose policies shaped the treaty and whose military strategies played a major role in the attack against Sicily.
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58
Deadline in Athens
Petros Markaris, David Connolly
4.2
The open-and-shut case of a murdered Albanian couple does not at first preoccupy Inspector Costas Haritos, a veteran junta-trained homicide detective on the Athens police force. Βut when the country's young and ambitious celebrity news reporter, Janna Karayoryi, insists that the case was closed too early, Haritos becomes unnerved. Before Karayoryi's claims can be substantiated, however, she is murdered suddenly and chillingly, moments before she is to go on the air with a startling newsbreak. Did her mysterious report have something to do with the murdered Albanians? Who wanted her silenced? Caught between a bumbling junior officer and higher-ups corrupted by powerful news executives, Costas Haritos sets out to get to the bottom of the matter - and ends up neck deep in the dark form of captitalism that has emerged after the dictatorship.
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Recommended by Christos Chomenidis.
Christos Chomenidis
Really the main character of Markaris’s novel is Athens, the city itself. It’s the city liberated from its myths [source]
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59
The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome
Peter Connolly, Hazel Dodge
4.2
In this superbly illustrated volume, Athens and Rome, the two greatest cities of antiquity, spring to life under the masterful pen of Peter Connolly. All the historical and archaelogical evidence has been seamlessly pieced together to reconstruct the architectural wonders of these mighty civilizations. Re creating public buildings, religious temples, shops, and houses, Connolly reveals every aspect of life in glorious detail, from religion and food to drama, games, and the baths. In addition to the great monuments and moments of classical Greece and Rome, readers learn about a typical day in the life of an Athenian and a Roman. They read about and see the houses people inhabited; attend 5 day festivals and go to the theater; fight great battles and witness the birth of Rome's navy; visit temples and spend a day at the chariot races. The spectacular artwork and vivid descriptions provide a window into the fascinating history of these two extraordinary cities and civilizations. The Ancient City is the crowning achievement of Peter Connolly's distinguished career.
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60
The Greco-Persian Wars
Peter Green
4.2
This is a reissue, with a new introduction and an update to the bibliography, of the original edition, published in 1970 as The Year of Salamis in England and as Xerxes at Salamis in the U.S.
The long and bitter struggle between the great Persian Empire and the fledgling Greek states reached its high point with the extraordinary Greek victory at Salamis in 480 B.C. The astonishing sea battle banished forever the specter of Persian invasion and occupation. Peter Green brilliantly retells this historic moment, evoking the whole dramatic sweep of events that the Persian offensive set in motion. The massive Greek victory, despite the Greeks' inferior numbers, opened the way for the historic evolution of the Greek states in a climate of creativity, independence, and democracy, one that provided a model and an inspiration for centuries to come.
Green's accounts of both Persian and Greek strategies are clear and persuasive; equally convincing are his everyday details regarding the lives of soldiers, statesmen, and ordinary citizens. He has first-hand knowledge of the land and sea he describes, as well as full command of original sources and modern scholarship. With a new foreword, The Greco-Persian Wars is a book that lovers of fine historical writing will greet with pleasure.
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61
Outline
Rachel Cusk
4.2
A woman writer goes to Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Though her own circumstances remain indistinct, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives, as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives.
Beginning with the neighbouring passenger on the flight out and his tales of fast boats and failed marriages, the storytellers talk of their loves and ambitions and pains, their anxieties, their perceptions and daily lives. In the stifling heat and noise of the city the sequence of voice begins to weave a complex human tapestry. The more they talk the more elliptical their listener becomes, as she shapes and directs their accounts until certain themes begin to emerge: the experience of loss, the nature of family life, the difficulty of intimacy and the mystery of creativity itself.
Outline is a novel about writing and talking, about self-effacement and self-expression, about the desire to create and the human art of self-portraiture in which that desire finds its universal form.
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62
The Waste Land
T. S. Eliot and Michael North
4.2
The text of Eliot's 1922 masterpiece is accompanied by thorough explanatory annotations as well as by Eliot's own knotty notes, some of which require annotation themselves.
For ease of reading, this Norton Critical Edition presents The Waste Land as it first appeared in the American edition (Boni & Liveright), with Eliot's notes at the end. "Contexts" provides readers with invaluable materials on The Waste Land's sources, composition, and publication history. "Criticism" traces the poem's reception with twenty-five reviews and essays, from first reactions through the end of the twentieth century. Included are reviews published in the Times Literary Supplement, along with selections by Virginia Woolf, Gilbert Seldes, Edmund Wilson, Elinor Wylie, Conrad Aiken, Charles Powell, Gorham Munson, Malcolm Cowley, Ralph Ellison, John Crowe Ransom, I. A. Richards, F. R. Leavis, Cleanth Brooks, Delmore Schwartz, Denis Donoghue, Robert Langbaum, Marianne Thormählen, A. D. Moody, Ronald Bush, Maud Ellman, and Tim Armstrong. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.
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63
Apartment in Athens
Glenway Wescott and David Leavitt
4.2
Apartment in Athens concerns an unusual triangular relationship. In this story about a Greek couple in Nazi-occupied Athens who are forced to share their quarters with a German officer, Wescott stages a drama of accommodation and rejection, resistance and compulsion. Apartment in Athens depicts a great and terrible war through the lens of everyday existence. It is a tale of spiritual struggle in which triumph and defeat are next to impossible to tell apart.
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64
The Battle of Arginusae: Victory at Sea and Its Tragic Aftermath in the Final Years of the Peloponnesian War
Debra Hamel
4.2
A pivotal skirmish involving nearly three hundred Athenian and Spartan ships toward the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Battle of Arginusae was at the time the largest naval battle ever fought between warring Greeks. It was a crucial win for the Athenians, since losing the battle would have led to their total defeat by Sparta and, perhaps, the slaughter and enslavement of their entire population. Paradoxically, the win at Arginusae resulted in one of the worst disasters to befall the Athenians during the brutal twenty-seven-year war.
Due to a combination of factors—incompetent leadership, the weariness of the sailors, a sudden storm—the commanders on the scene failed to rescue the crews of twenty-five Athenian ships that had been disabled during the battle. Thousands of men, many of them injured, were left clinging to the wreckage of their ships awaiting help that never came. When the Athenians back home heard what had happened, they deposed the eight generals who had been in command during the battle. Two of these leaders went into exile; the six who returned to Athens were tried and eventually executed.
The Battle of Arginusae describes the violent battle and its horrible aftermath. Debra Hamel introduces readers to Athens and Sparta, the two thriving superpowers of the fifth century B.C. She provides a summary of the events that caused the long war and discusses the tactical intricacies of Greek naval warfare. Recreating the claustrophobic, unhygienic conditions in which the ships’ crews operated, Hamel unfolds the process that turned this naval victory into one of the most infamous chapters in the city-state’s history. Aimed at classics students and general readers, the book also provides an in-depth examination of the fraught relationship between Athens’ military commanders and its vaunted sovereign democracy.
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65
Vampire Ascension (The Vampires of Athens, #3)
Eva Pohler
4.1
When seventeen-year-old Gertie leaves New York to study abroad in Athens, she learns that vampires and demigods are real and unwittingly becomes a catalyst to an uprising led by Dionysus, lord of the vampires.
In this final installment, Gertie, Jeno, and Hector struggle to bring a peaceful resolution to the war in Athens, but any success they make comes at great cost. How many more people must die for freedom and justice? The teens quickly learn that nothing is fair in love and war. Sometimes even love requires a terrible price.
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66
The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries
R. Gordon Wasson
4.1
The secretive Mysteries conducted at Eleusis in Greece for nearly two millennia have long puzzled scholars with strange accounts of initiates experiencing otherworldly journeys. In this groundbreaking work, three experts—a mycologist, a chemist and a historian—argue persuasively that the sacred potion given to participants in the course of the ritual contained a psychoactive entheogen. The authors then expand the discussion to show that natural psychedelic agents have been used in spiritual rituals across history and cultures. Although controversial when first published in 1978, the book’s hypothesis has become more widely accepted in recent years, as knowledge of ethnobotany has deepened. The authors have played critical roles in the modern rediscovery of entheogens, and The Road to Eleusis presents an authoritative exposition of their views. The book’s themes of the universality of experiential religion, the suppression of that knowledge by exploitative forces, and the use of psychedelics to reconcile the human and natural worlds make it a fascinating and timely read. This 30th anniversary edition includes an appreciative preface by religious scholar Huston Smith and an updated exploration of the chemical evidence by Peter Webster.
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67
Death Ex Machina (The Athenian Mysteries, #5)
Gary Corby
4.1
A theatrical murder sends classical Athens into uproar.
It's the time of the Great Dionysia, the largest arts festival of the ancient world, held each year in honor of Dionysos, the god of wine. But there's a problem: A ghost is haunting Athens's grand theater.
Nicolaos and his clever partner in sleuthing (and now in matrimony), the priestess Diotima, are hired to rid the theater of the ghost so that the festival can begin. With the help of Theokritos, the High Priest of Dionysos, they exorcise the ghost publicly, while secretly suspecting that a human saboteur is the actual culprit.
Their efforts to protect the theater fall short when one of the actors is found hanged from the machine used to carry actors through the air when they play the part of gods. It's quite a theatrical murder.
As Nico and Diotima dig into the actor’s past, they discover all was not as it seemed. There are enough suspects to fill a theater. As the festival approaches and pressure mounts on all sides, can they hunt down the killer in time? Or will they simply have to hope for a deus ex machina?
From the Hardcover edition.
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68
The Persian Expedition
Xenophon, Rex Warner, George Cawkwell
4.1
In The Persian Expedition, Xenophon, a young Athenian noble who sought his destiny abroad, provides an enthralling eyewitness account of the attempt by a Greek mercenary army - the Ten Thousand - to help Prince Cyrus overthrow his brother and take the Persian throne. When the Greeks were then betrayed by their Persian employers, they were forced to march home through hundreds of miles of difficult terrain - adrift in a hostile country and under constant attack from the unforgiving Persians and warlike tribes. In this outstanding description of endurance and individual bravery, Xenophon, one of those chosen to lead the retreating army, provides a vivid narrative of the campaign and its aftermath, and his account remains one of the best pictures we have of Greeks confronting a 'barbarian' world.
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69
Essays on a Science of Mythology: The Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis
Carl G. Jung, Carl Kerenyi
4.1
Essays on a Science of Mythology is a cooperative work between C. Kerenyi, who has been called "the most psychological of mythologists," and C. G. Jung, who has been called "the most mythological of psychologists." Kerenyi contributes an essay on the Divine Child and one on the Kore (the Maiden), together with a substantial introduction and conclusion. Jung contributes a psychological commentary on each essay. Both men hoped, through their collaboration, to elevate the study of mythology to the status of a science.
In "The Primordial Child in Primordial Times" Kerenyi treats the child-God as an enduring and significant figure in Greek, Norse, Finnish, Etruscan, and Judeo-Christian mythology. He discusses the Kore as Athena, Artemis, Hecate, and Demeter-Persephone, the mother-daughter of the Eleusinian mysteries. Jung speaks of the Divine Child and the Maiden as living psychological realities that provide continuing meaning in people's lives.
The investigations of C. Kerenyi are continued in a later study, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter (Princeton).
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70
The Sophistic Movement
G. B. Kerferd
4.1
This book offers an introduction to the Sophists of fifth-century Athens and a new overall interpretation of their thought. Since Plato first animadverted on their activities, the Sophists have commonly been presented as little better than intellectual mountebanks - a picture which Professor Kerferd forcefully challenges here. Interpreting the evidence with care, he shows them to have been part of an exciting and historically crucial intellectual movement. At the centre of their teaching was a form of relativism, most famously expressed by Protagoras as 'Man is the measure of all things', and which they developed in a wide range of views - on knowledge and argument, virtue, government, society, and the gods. On all these subjects the Sophists did far more than simply provoke Plato to thought. Their contributions were substantial and serious; they inaugurated the debate on many central philosophical questions and decisively shifted the focus of philosophical attention from the cosmos to man.
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Recommended by Angela Hobbs.
Angela Hobbs
This book really put the sophists on the map as serious and interesting thinkers, and not just as specious fraudsters. [source]
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71
The Road to Sparta: Retracing the Ancient Battle and Epic Run That Inspired the World's Greatest Foot Race
Dean Karnazes
4.1
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72
The Flight of Ikaros: Travels in Greece During a Civil War
Kevin Andrews
4.1
"One of the great and lasting books about Greece." —Patrick Leigh Fermor
In 1947, at the age of twenty-three, Kevin Andrews received a fellowship to study medieval fortresses in the Peloponnese. This opportunity to travel through areas little-frequented by foreigners—during and just after Greece's civil war, and before the advent of tourism, industrialization, or easy communications—brought him into immediate contact with village populations, shepherd clans, and the paramilitary vigilantes who kept their own kind of order in the provinces, as well as with the displaced peasants of the Athenian slums. His intense experience of Greek life and his embracing of the Greek people take shape in The Flight of Ikaros.
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73
The Lost Art of Scripture
Karen Armstrong
4.1
In our increasingly secular world, holy texts are at best seen as irrelevant, and at worst as an excuse to incite violence, hatred and division. So what value, if any, can scripture hold for us today? And if our world no longer seems compatible with scripture, is it perhaps because its original purpose has become lost?
Today we see the Quran being used by some to justify war and terrorism, the Torah to deny Palestinians the right to live in the Land of Israel, and the Bible to condemn homosexuality and contraception. The holy texts at the centre of all religious traditions are often employed selectively to underwrite arbitrary and subjective views. They are believed to be divinely ordained; they are claimed to contain eternal truths.
But as Karen Armstrong, a world authority on religious affairs, shows in this fascinating journey through millennia of history, this narrow reading of scripture is a relatively recent phenomenon. For hundreds of years these texts were instead viewed as spiritual tools: scripture was a means for the individual to connect with the divine, to transcend their physical existence, and to experience a higher level of consciousness. Holy texts were seen as fluid and adaptable, rather than a set of binding archaic rules or a ‘truth’ that has to be ‘believed’.
Armstrong argues that only by rediscovering an open engagement with their holy texts will the world’s religions be able to curtail arrogance, intolerance and violence. And if scripture is used to engage with the world in more meaningful and compassionate ways, we will find that it still has a great deal to teach us.
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74
Shakespeare for Squirrels: A Novel
Christopher Moore
4.1
Shakespeare meets Dashiell Hammett in this wildly entertaining murder mystery from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore—an uproarious, hardboiled take on the Bard’s most performed play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring Pocket, the hero of Fool and The Serpent of Venice, along with his sidekick, Drool, and pet monkey, Jeff.
Set adrift by his pirate crew, Pocket of Dog Snogging—last seen in The Serpent of Venice—washes up on the sun-bleached shores of Greece, where he hopes to dazzle the Duke with his comedic brilliance and become his trusted fool.
But the island is in turmoil. Egeus, the Duke’s minister, is furious that his daughter Hermia is determined to marry Demetrius, instead of Lysander, the man he has chosen for her. The Duke decrees that if, by the time of the wedding, Hermia still refuses to marry Lysander, she shall be executed . . . or consigned to a nunnery. Pocket, being Pocket, cannot help but point out that this decree is complete bollocks, and that the Duke is an egregious weasel for having even suggested it. Irritated by the fool’s impudence, the Duke orders his death. With the Duke’s guards in pursuit, Pocket makes a daring escape.
He soon stumbles into the wooded realm of the fairy king Oberon, who, as luck would have it, IS short a fool. His jester Robin Goodfellow—the mischievous sprite better known as Puck—was found dead. Murdered. Oberon makes Pocket an offer he can’t refuse: he will make Pocket his fool and have his death sentence lifted if Pocket finds out who killed Robin Goodfellow. But as anyone who is even vaguely aware of the Bard’s most performed play ever will know, nearly every character has a motive for wanting the mischievous sprite dead.
With too many suspects and too little time, Pocket must work his own kind of magic to find the truth, save his neck, and ensure that all ends well.
A rollicking tale of love, magic, madness, and murder, Shakespeare for Squirrels is a Midsummer Night’s noir—a wicked and brilliantly funny good time conjured by the singular imagination of Christopher Moore.
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75
The Magus
John Fowles
4.1
A man trapped in a millionare's deadly game of political and sexual betrayal.
Filled with shocks and chilling surprises, The Magus is a masterwork of contemporary literature. In it, a young Englishman, Nicholas Urfe, accepts a teaching position on a Greek island where his friendship with the owner of the islands most magnificent estate leads him into a nightmare. As reality and fantasy are deliberately confused by staged deaths, erotic encounters, and terrifying violence, Urfe becomes a desperate man fighting for his sanity and his life. A work rich with symbols, conundrums and labrinthine twists of event, The Magus is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining, a work that ranks with the best novels of modern times.
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Recommended by Cristina Riesen.
Cristina Riesen
First, a word on career paths. In time, I realised that career paths are like one-way streets. Magic happens in unexplored territories. Plus life is how you choose to live every moment, every day. So today, rather than building a career, I prefer to make lateral moves in life, working with great people and being part of ambitious projects impacting the world. There are a few books that got me here: … John Fowles "The Magus". [source]
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76
Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil
Tom Mueller
4.1
The sacred history and profane present of a substance long seen as the essence of health and civilization.
For millennia, fresh olive oil has been one of life's necessities-not just as food but also as medicine, a beauty aid, and a vital element of religious ritual. Today's researchers are continuing to confirm the remarkable, life-giving properties of true extra-virgin, and "extra-virgin Italian" has become the highest standard of quality.
But what if this symbol of purity has become deeply corrupt? Starting with an explosive article in The New Yorker, Tom Mueller has become the world's expert on olive oil and olive oil fraud-a story of globalization, deception, and crime in the food industry from ancient times to the present, and a powerful indictment of today's lax protections against fake and even toxic food products in the United States. A rich and deliciously readable narrative, Extra Virginity is also an inspiring account of the artisanal producers, chemical analysts, chefs, and food activists who are defending the extraordinary oils that truly deserve the name "extra-virgin."
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77
Song of Wrath: The Peloponnesian War Begins
J. E. Lendon
4.1
Song of Wrath tells the story of Classical Athens’ victorious 10 Years’ War (431–421) against grim Sparta—the 1st decade of the terrible Peloponnesian War that turned the Golden Age of Greece to lead. Historian J.E. Lendon presents a sweeping tale of pitched battles by land & sea, sieges, sacks, raids, & deeds of cruelty & guile—along with courageous acts of mercy, surprising charity, austere restraint & arrogant resistance. Recounting the rise of democratic Athens to great-power status, & the resulting fury of authoritarian Sparta, Greece’s traditional leader, Lendon portrays the causes & strategy of the war as a duel over national honor, a series of acts of revenge. A story of new pride challenging old, Song of Wrath is the 1st work of Ancient Greek history for the post-cold-war generation.
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78
Lysistrata and Other Plays
Aristophanes
4.1
Writing at the time of political and social crisis in Athens Aristophanes was an eloquent yet bawdy challenger to the demagogue and the sophist. The Achanians is a plea for peace set against the background of the long war with Sparta. In Lysistrata a band of women tap into the awesome power of sex in order to end a war. The darker comedy of The Clouds satirizes Athenian philosophers, Socrates in particular, and reflects the uncertainties of a generation in which all traditional religious and ethical beliefs were being challenged.
For this edition Alan Sommerstein has completely revised his translation of these three plays, bringing out the full nuances of Aristophanes’ ribald humour and intricate word play, with a new introduction explaining the historical and cultural background to the plays.
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79
Selected Fables
Jean de La Fontaine, Christopher Betts
4.1
La Fontaine (1621-95) is best known for his comic and delightful fables. This lively new translation of the most famous among them captures the wit and nuances of the original. The selection - of 110 of the 240 Fables - spans La Fontaine's long writing life and shows his progression from short, charming children's tales to longer, more philosophical fables. The parallel French text, scholarly introduction, and detailed notes and appendices make it ideal both for students and for all lovers of poetry.
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80
The Pericles Commission (The Athenian Mysteries, #1)
Gary Corby
4.1
Nicolaos walks the mean streets of Classical Athens as an agent for the promising young politician Pericles. His mission is to find the assassin of the statesman Ephialtes, the man who brought democracy to Athens and whose murder has thrown the city into uproar. It's a job not made any easier by the depressingly increasing number of dead witnesses.
But murder and mayhem don't bother Nico; what's really on his mind is how to get closer (much closer) to Diotima, the intelligent and annoyingly virgin priestess of Artemis, and how to shake off his irritating twelve year-old brother Socrates.
The Pericles Commission is the first in an exciting new series by first-time novelist Gary Corby, who takes us to Ancient Greece at one of the most exciting times in history. In this wonderfully approachable, historically rich novel, Athens is brought vividly to life in a mystery engaging from the first page to last.
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81
The Mask of Apollo
Mary Renault
4.1
Set in fourth-century B.C. Greece, The Mask of Apollo is narrated by Nikeratos, a tragic actor who takes with him on all his travels a gold mask of Apollo, a relic of the theater's golden age, which is now past. At first his mascot, the mask gradually becomes his conscience, and he refers to it his gravest decisions, when he finds himself at the center of a political crisis in which the philosopher Plato is also involved. Much of the action is set in Syracuse, where Plato's friend Dion is trying to persuade the young tyrant Dionysios the Younger to accept the rule of law. Through Nikeratos' eyes, the reader watches as the clash between the two looses all the pent-up violence in the city.
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82
Rebetiko
David Prudhomme
4.1
Athens, 1936. General Metaxas is cracking down on rebetis and their way of life. A small group of friends - Rebetiko musicians - wind their way through the Athenian backstreets, ouzeris and market squares dodging the police while settling disputes over hashish and women. With music at its heart, the narrative builds to a joyous party at its climax in this multi-award-winning graphic novel.
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83
Aristophanic Comedy
Kenneth J. Dover
4.1
Contents
Preface List of plates Transliteration A Note on Translation
1. The Evidence 2. Theatrical conditions 3. Fantasy 4. Illusio, instruction and entertainment 5. Structure and style 6. Acharnians 7. Knights 8. Clouds 9. Wasps 10. Peace 11. Birds 12. Lysistrata 13. Women at the Thesmophoria 14. Frogs 15. Women in Assembly 16. Wealth 17. Contemporaries and predecessors 18. Posterity
Select bibliography Index to passages of Aristophanes General index
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84
Expedition to Disaster: The Athenian Mission to Sicily 415 BC
Philip Matyszak
4.1
The Athenian expedition to conquer Sicily was one of the pivotal events of the classical period. 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"
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85
Athens: A History, From Ancient Ideal to Modern City
Robin Waterfield
4.1
In this engaging and readable narrative, noted classicist and author Robin Waterfield traces the life and history of the city of Athens, with an emphasis on the classical period when, in the space of a century, Athens reached the pinnacle of its power and fell due to arrogance and shortsighted self-interest. Focusing on Athens' social and cultural history, as well as on the powerful and fascinating individuals who left their mark on the city, Waterfield explains Athens' rise and fall, and shows us how-through centuries of war, occupation, and destruction-Athens emerged as a burgeoning modern European city. For over two millennia, the memory of the city's glorious past has ensured that Athens remains synonymous with democracy, civilization, and culture.
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86
Lonely Planet Pocket Athens
Lonely Planet and Zora O'Neill
4.1
Lonely Planet: The world's number one travel guide publisher*
Lonely Planet's Pocket Athensis your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Marvel at the Acropolis raised spectacularly over Athens, follow in the footsteps of Socrates at the Agora and step into the Temple of Olympian Zeus - all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Athens and begin your journey now!
Inside Lonely Planet's Pocket Athens:
Full-colour maps and images throughout Highlightsand itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential infoat your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sightseeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Free, convenient pull-out map (included in print version), plus over 21 colour neighbourhood maps User-friendly layout with helpful icons, and organised by neighbourhood to help you pick the best spots to spend your time Covers Acropolis, Ancient Agora, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Greek Parliament, Syntagma, Plaka, Keramikos, Gazi, Filopappou Hill, Thisio, Monastiraki, Psyrri, Exarhia, Kolonaki, Benaki Museum, and more The Perfect Choice:Lonely Planet's Pocket Athens is our colourful, easy to use, handy guide that literally fits in your pocket, providing on-the-go assistance for those seeking the best sights and experiences on a short visit or weekend away.
Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's Greeceguide for a comprehensive look at all the country has to offer.
About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more.
'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times
'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)
*Source: Nielsen BookScan: Australia, UK, USA, 5/2016-4/2017
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87
Conversations of Socrates
Xenophon
4.1
After the execution of Socrates in 399 BC, a number of his followers wrote dialogues featuring him as the protagonist and, in so doing, transformed the great philosopher into a legendary figure. Xenophon's portrait is the only one other than Plato's to survive, and while it offers a very personal interpretation of Socratic thought, it also reveals much about the man and his philosophical views. In 'Socrates' Defence' Xenophon defends his mentor against charges of arrogance made at his trial, while the 'Memoirs of Socrates' also starts with an impassioned plea for the rehabilitation of a wronged reputation. Along with 'The Estate-Manager', a practical economic treatise, and 'The Dinner-Party', a sparkling exploration of love, Xenophon's dialogues offer fascinating insights into the Socratic world and into the intellectual atmosphere and daily life of ancient Greece.
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88
Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World
Tim Whitmars
4.1
How new is atheism? Although adherents and opponents alike today present it as an invention of the European Enlightenment, when the forces of science and secularism broadly challenged those of faith, disbelief in the gods, in fact, originated in a far more remote past. In Battling the Gods, Tim Whitmarsh journeys into the ancient Mediterranean, a world almost unimaginably different from our own, to recover the stories and voices of those who first refused the divinities.
Homer’s epic poems of human striving, journeying, and passion were ancient Greece’s only “sacred texts,” but no ancient Greek thought twice about questioning or mocking his stories of the gods. Priests were functionaries rather than sources of moral or cosmological wisdom. The absence of centralized religious authority made for an extraordinary variety of perspectives on sacred matters, from the devotional to the atheos, or “godless.” Whitmarsh explores this kaleidoscopic range of ideas about the gods, focusing on the colorful individuals who challenged their existence. Among these were some of the greatest ancient poets and philosophers and writers, as well as the less well known: Diagoras of Melos, perhaps the first self-professed atheist; Democritus, the first materialist; Socrates, executed for rejecting the gods of the Athenian state; Epicurus and his followers, who thought gods could not intervene in human affairs; the brilliantly mischievous satirist Lucian of Samosata.
Before the revolutions of late antiquity, which saw the scriptural religions of Christianity and Islam enforced by imperial might, there were few constraints on belief. Everything changed, however, in the millennium between the appearance of the Homeric poems and Christianity’s establishment as Rome’s state religion in the fourth century AD. As successive Greco-Roman empires grew in size and complexity, and power was increasingly concentrated in central capitals, states sought to impose collective religious adherence, first to cults devoted to individual rulers, and ultimately to monotheism. In this new world, there was no room for outright disbelief: the label “atheist” was used now to demonize anyone who merely disagreed with the orthodoxy—and so it would remain for centuries.
As the twenty-first century shapes up into a time of mass information, but also, paradoxically, of collective amnesia concerning the tangled histories of religions, Whitmarsh provides a bracing antidote to our assumptions about the roots of freethinking. By shining a light on atheism’s first thousand years, Battling the Gods offers a timely reminder that nonbelief has a wealth of tradition of its own, and, indeed, its own heroes.
From the Hardcover edition.
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89
Fodor's Essential Greece: with the Best Islands (Full-color Travel Guide)
Fodor's Travel Guides
4.1
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90
The Parthenon Sculptures
Ian Jenkins
4.0
The Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum are unrivaled examples of classical Greek art, an inspiration to artists and writers since their creation in the fifth century bce. A superb visual introduction to these wonders of antiquity, this book offers a photographic tour of the most famous of the surviving sculptures from ancient Greece, viewed within their cultural and art-historical context. Ian Jenkins offers an account of the history of the Parthenon and its architectural refinements. He introduces the sculptures as architecture--pediments, metopes, Ionic frieze--and provides an overview of their subject matter and possible meaning for the people of ancient Athens. Accompanying photographs focus on the pediment sculptures that filled the triangular gables at each end of the temple; the metopes that crowned the architrave surmounting the outer columns; and the frieze that ran around the four sides of the building, inside the colonnade. Comparative images, showing the sculptures in full and fine detail, bring out particular features of design and help to contrast Greek ideas with those of other cultures. The book further reflects on how, over 2,500 years, the cultural identity of the Parthenon sculptures has changed. In particular, Jenkins expands on the irony of our intimate knowledge and appreciation of the sculptures--a relationship far more intense than that experienced by their ancient, intended spectators--as they have been transformed from architectural ornaments into objects of art.
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91
Spend the Day in Ancient Greece: Projects and Activities That Bring the Past to Life
Linda Honan
4.0
Chariot racing, peplos weaving, cooking, and helmet making!
Anything can happen when you spend the day in ancient Greece!
It is over two thousand years ago in Athens, Greece, and you areinvited to join a typical family as they celebrate the birthday ofthe goddess Athena. Take a trip with twelve-year-old Alexander tosee the athletes competing in the pentathlon. Work along withten-year-old Helen as she weaves a gift for Athena. Meet theirfather, Philip, as he tends to sick patients, and their mother, Penelope, as she prepares for the special evening feast.
Celebrate the history of ancient Greece with more than a dozenexciting activities! Write a letter using the Greek alphabet. Makea snake bracelet as a gift for a friend. Create masks to wear inyour own play. Build a chariot that you can race on the sidewalksof your town! And at the end of your day, bring your own familytogether with Alexander, Helen, Philip, and Penelope to enjoy afeast under the stars!
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92
Orthokostá
Thanassis Valtinos, Jane Assimakopoulos, Stavros Deligiorgis, Stathis Kalyvas
4.0
A preeminent work of modern Greek literature, this provocative novel poses difficult questions about the nation’s Nazi occupation and early Civil War years
First published in 1994 to a storm of controversy, Thanassis Valtinos’s probing novel Orthokostá defied standard interpretations of the Greek Civil War. Through the documentary-style testimonies of multiple narrators, among them the previously unheard voices of right-wing collaborationists, Valtinos provides a powerful, nuanced interpretation of events during the later years of Nazi occupation and the early stages of the nation’s Civil War. His fictionalized chronicle gives participants, victims, and innocent bystanders equal opportunity to bear witness to such events as the burning of Valtinos’s home village, the detention and execution of combatants and civilians in the monastery of Orthokostá, and the revenge killings that ensued.
As a transforming work of literature, this book redefined established methods of fiction; as a work of revisionist history, it changed the way Greece understands its own past. Now, through this masterful translation of Orthokostá, English-language readers have full access to the tremendous vitality of Valtinos’s work and to the divisive Civil War experiences that continue to echo in Greek politics and events today.
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93
Everything Beautiful Began After
Simon Van Booy
4.0
Rebecca is young, lost, and beautiful. A gifted artist, she seeks solace and inspiration in the Mediterranean heat of Athens—trying to understand who she is and how she can love without fear.
George has come to Athens to learn ancient languages after growing up in New England boarding schools and Ivy League colleges. He has no close relationships with anyone and spends his days hunched over books or wandering the city in a drunken stupor.
Henry is in Athens to dig. An accomplished young archaeologist, he devotedly uncovers the city’s past as a way to escape his own, which holds a secret that not even his doting parents can talk about.
...and then, with a series of chance meetings, Rebecca, George, and Henry are suddenly in flight, their lives brighter and clearer than ever, as they fall headlong into a summer that will forever define them in the decades to come.
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94
Brandon's Bride (Family Secrets, #3)
Lisa Gardner
4.0
Three siblings searching for the truth about their family are about to find more than they bargained for…
For years Brandon Ferringer has sought to untangle the mystery surrounding his father's disappearance. Now training as a hotshot—a seasonal wildland fire fighter—Brandon feels he’s on the verge of finally discovering the truth. In need of temporary lodging, Brandon rents a room at a local farm, and is surprised when his attraction to the ranch’s alluring owner threatens to distract him from his mission.
Single mother Victoria Meese struggles to find time for herself in between raising her son, Randy, and running the Lady Luck Ranch. When she meets Brandon, she suddenly finds something to believe in again. But Brandon’s search for answers is about to turn dangerous, threatening their growing connection—and their very lives.
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95
Where Is the Parthenon?
Roberta Edwards, Who HQ, et al.
4.0
Discover the ruins of the Parthenon, one of the most famous and beautiful places in the world!
Athens, Greece, is best known for the Parthenon, the ruins of an ancient temple completed in 438 BC to honor the goddess Athena. But what many people don't know is that it only served as a temple for a couple hundred years. It then became a church, then a mosque, and by the end of the 1600s served as a storehouse for munitions. When an enemy army fired hundreds of cannon balls at the Acropolis, one directly hit the Parthenon. Much of the sculpture was destroyed, three hundred people died, and the site fell into ruin. Today, visitors continue to flock to this world famous landmark, which has become a symbol for Ancient Greece, democracy, and modern civilization. Includes black-and-white illustrations and a foldout color map!
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96
The House on Paradise Street
Sofka Zinovieff
4.0
In 2008 Antigone Perifanis returns to her old family home in Athens after 60 years in exile. She has come to attend the funeral of her only son, Nikitas, who was born in prison, and whom she has not seen since she left him as a baby. Nikitas had been distressed in the days before his death and, curious to find out why, his English widow Maud starts to investigate his complicated past.
In so doing, she finds herself reigniting a bitter family feud, discovering a heartbreaking story of a young mother caught up in the political tides of the Greek Civil War and forced to make a terrible decision that would blight not only her life but that of future generations.
The House on Paradise Street is an epic tale of love and loss, which takes readers from the war-torn streets of Nazi-occupied Athens through the military junta years and on into the troubled city of recent times - and shows what happens when ideology threatens to subsume our sense of humanity.
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97
The First Clash: The Miraculous Greek Victory at Marathon and Its Impact on Western Civilization
James Lacey
4.0
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“A compelling and provocative read . . . With a soldier’s eye, Jim Lacey re-creates the battle of Marathon in all its brutal simplicity.”—Barry Strauss, author of Masters of Command
Marathon—one of history’s most pivotal battles. Its name evokes images of almost superhuman courage, endurance, and fighting spirit. In this eye-opening book, military analyst James Lacey takes a fresh look at Marathon and reveals why the battle happened, how it was fought, and whether, in fact, it saved Western civilization. Lacey brilliantly reconstructs the world of the fifth century B.C. leading up to the astonishing military defeat of the Persian Empire by the vastly undermanned Greek defenders. With the kind of vivid detail that characterizes the best modern war reportage, he shows how the heavily armed Persian army was shocked and demoralized by the relentless assault of the Athenian phalanx. He reveals the fascinating aftermath of Marathon, how its fighters became the equivalent of our “Greatest Generation,” and challenges the legacy and lessons that have often been misunderstood—perhaps, now more than ever, at our own peril.
Immediate, visceral, and full of new analyses that defy decades of conventional wisdom, The First Clash is a superb interpretation of a conflict that indeed made the world safe for Aristotle, Plato, and our own modern democracy.
“With a fresh eye to tactics, strategy, and military organization, and with his text grounded in direct experience of the troops on the battlefield, James Lacey gives us not only new understanding of how the Athenians managed to win but also a greater appreciation of the beginning of a long tradition of Western military dynamism that we take for granted today.”—Victor Davis Hanson, author of Carnage and Culture “Lacey’s swords-and-shields approach will absorb readers ever fascinated by the famous battles of antiquity.”—Booklist “A lively and rewarding read.”—Charleston Post and Courier “Exemplary . . . Lacey, a veteran of the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions and a professor at the Marine War College, brings to the tale of Marathon the practical experiences of the combat soldier and an intellectual sensibility.”—The New Criterion
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Recommended by Andrew N. Liveris.
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98
The Archidamian War
Donald Kagan
4.0
This book, the second volume in Donald Kagan's tetralogy about the Peloponnesian War, is a provocative and tightly argued history of the first ten years of the war. Taking a chronological approach that allows him to present at each stage the choices that were open to both sides in the conflict, Kagan focuses on political, economic, diplomatic, and military developments. He evaluates the strategies used by both sides and reconsiders the roles played by several key individuals.
--George Steiner "The New Yorker"
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99
Party Out of Bounds: The B-52's, R.E.M., and the Kids Who Rocked Athens, Georgia
Rodger Lyle Brown, David Barbe, et al.
4.0
Originally published in 1991, Rodger Lyle Brown's Party Out of Bounds is a cult classic that offers an insider's look at the underground rock music culture that sprang from a lazy Georgia college town. Brown uses half-remembered stories, local anecdotes, and legendary lore to chronicle the 1970s and 1980s and the spawning of Athens bands such as the B-52's, Pylon, and R.E.M. Their creative momentum helped to usher in a new wave of music on a national and international level, putting Athens, Georgia, on the map.
Brown takes the reader on a heady, keg-beer-fueled romp from the South's dirty back roads and all-night porch parties to the precipice of rock superstardom. This twenty-fifth-anniversary edition includes new and rarely seen photographs by locals on the scene; a foreword by Charles Aaron, former longtime editor and writer at SPIN magazine; and an afterword by producer/engineer and musician David Barbe, drawn from an essay originally published in the Oxford American's 2015 music issue.
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100
Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora
John J. Collins
4.0
One of the most creative and consequential collisions in Western culture involved the encounter of Judaism with Hellenism. In this widely acclaimed study of the Jews who lived in Hellenistic Egypt, “between Athens and Jerusalem,” John J. Collins examines the literature of Hellenistic Judaism, treating not only the introductory questions of date, authorship, and provenance but also the larger question of Jewish identity in the Greco-Roman world.
First published in 1984, this landmark study by one of the world's leading experts in Hellinistic Judaism is now fully revised and updated to take into account the best of recent scholarship.
Recommended by Ron Conway, Chris Fussell, Xi-Wei Yeo, and 1 others.
