Greece Books

I know my classical history backwards and forwards, yet although this book is an "overview" of classical antiquity, I was still captivated by it. It has illustrations I have seldom seen elsewhere, was concise when it came to well-trodden themes (3 pages summarizing the Iliad and the Odyssey), but expansive in less familiar territory (four pages about the grotto at Sperlonga, including four illustrations, and a sidebar). Sidebars included numerous quotes from original texts (for example next to the discussion about Helen, was a quote from the "view from the walls" scene in the Iliad, a quote from Aeschylus' Agamemnon where her name is connected to a form of the Greek verb meaning 'to destroy' - helein - and a scene from Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus with the protagonist waxing lyrical about Helen's beauty).

A great book to use before a trip to Europe and as a wonderful memory aid after a trip. Beautiful pictures, interesting info.

This is an admirable book. Unlike most general histories of this kind (often meant as an introduction for a not very discriminating kind of reader and loaded with illustrations that are barely connected to the text) this is a book that takes its reader seriously. And that is a pleasure not always experienced. In ten thematic chapters it treats antiquity in a general, but sometimes also very detailed and scholarly way, constantly debating the points it makes, and warning the reader against easy judgments. Illustrations are great and even when most of the classics are there, it is amazing how original the choice of photos now and then is, how well they are integrated in the text, and how detailed are the captions. It has obviously been an important principle in choosing the illustrations: explain everything. Although it is well written, it doesn' t always make for light reading. The authors are not afraid to debate questionable points, for instance the pairing of epic poetry with early figurative representations, something which The Panorama of the Classical world itself does all the time. The book serves very well as an introduction for anyone interested, but is at the same time a pleasure to read for people who know their history. The book has a timeline, a few maps, a glossary, and interestingly, a 10 pages lexicon of classical lives, an 8 pages guide to mythology, and a reference for further reading.

Pat Getz-Gentle draws upon thirty-five years of meticulous scholarship and research in Personal Styles In Early Cycladic Sculpture, the latest contribution to the outstanding University of Wisconsin Press series, "Wisconsin Studies in Classics" Here presented is a 185-page definitive work on Cycladic sculpture provides a wealth of new material and fresh insights into a artistic tradition which is rooted in the Neolithic period spanning the third millennium B.C. The reader is treated to a an informative and challenging review of this tradition of artistic express as Personal Styles In Early Cycladic Sculpture gives special emphasis on the stages leading to the reclining figure with folded arms that is the unique and quintessential icon of the early Bronze age culture at the center of the Aegean. Personal Styles In Early Cycladic Sculpture also focuses on the discernibly unique styles of fifteen specific carvers. By introducing little-known pieces attributable to these sculptors, Pat Getz-Gentle superbly illuminates various phases of their artistic development. Personal Styles In Early Cycladic Sculpture is enhanced with a special chapter by European art history and lecturer Jack de Vries, a profusion of photos and drawings illustrating 212 different works of Cycladic sculpture. Personal Styles In Early Cycladic Sculpture is an impressive, seminal, accessible, original body of work that will prove to be an invaluable addition to Art History Studies in general, and Hellenic Sculpture Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections in particular.

Parenthood In America: Undervalued, Underpaid, Under Siege is a compilation of contributions by professionals engaging in research and discussions about "parenthood" as it is being experienced in the American culture today. After succinct and compelling analysis of the current stresses and problems involved with parenthood, a body of recommendations emerge in behalf of having family-friendly workplaces and decent child care options; family health care for all members; programs aiding the development of children in addition to their physical health; recognition by professionals of parental expertise regarding their own children; alternatives to vapid or violent games and television programming; prioritization of family meals, talks, chores, and activities within the parenting schedule; valuing caring relationships above the accumulation of wealth or the acquisition of possessions; an appreciation of cultural and religious diversity; and family support in community settings. Highly recommended for both child development professionals and interested non-specialist readers alike, Parenthood In America is a welcome and much needed addition to academic and community parenting studies reference collections.

Parenthood In America: Undervalued, Underpaid, Under Siege is a compilation of contributions by professionals engaging in research and discussions about "parenthood" as it is being experienced in the American culture today. After succinct and compelling analysis of the current stresses and problems involved with parenthood, a body of recommendations emerge in behalf of having family-friendly workplaces and decent child care options; family health care for all members; programs aiding the development of children in addition to their physical health; recognition by professionals of parental expertise regarding their own children; alternatives to vapid or violent games and television programming; prioritization of family meals, talks, chores, and activities within the parenting schedule; valuing caring relationships above the accumulation of wealth or the acquisition of possessions; an appreciation of cultural and religious diversity; and family support in community settings. Highly recommended for both child development professionals and interested non-specialist readers alike, Parenthood In America is a welcome and much needed addition to academic and community parenting studies reference collections.

As a former student at Northwestern, I was fortunate to take a couple of courses with Professor Monoson. This book was just like being in her class: lively discussion, clear and and direct presentation of material, and a way of making you reflect on a subject in a completely new way. If you've read the Republic and think you understand the relationship between democracy and Plato's ideal state, think again. Sara will have you reading between the lines and bringing the full weight of Athenian culture to bear on Platonic philosophy.

Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys Plato's dialogues.

Yikes, Plato uncovered! May I suggest that you and your most educated friends buy the book for those meaningful latenight exchanges around residual b-b-q light. What else can you ask of a political text?

This book has won the 2001 Best First Book Prize from the Foundations of Political Theory division of the American Political Science Association. The citation reads as follows:

In Plato's Democratic Entanglements, Sara Monoson uncovers and explores the connection between "two things usually viewed as thoroughly opposed - Plato's thought and Athenian democratic ideals and practices." To inform her inquiry, she draws upon her extensive knowledge of two bodies of recent scholarship: the literature in classics and political theory that reaches beyond the level of specifically governmental institutions to examine the civic practices and norms of Athenian democracy: and the literature on Plato that examines his philosophic practices and his involvement with the political life of his city.

Although fully cognizant of the antidemocratic features of Plato's thought, Monoson provides us with a more complex and nuanced account of the interaction between Plato's ideals of philosophic practice and the civic practices and ideals of democratic Athens. In particular, she shows the parallels between Plato's conception of the philosopher and the Athenian conception of the good democratic citizen - as lovers of the polis, as frank speakers, and as adherents of norms of deliberativeness and reciprocity.

Monoson's erudite analysis adds significant new dimensions and insights to a venerable scholarly debate and problematicizes overly simple understandings of Plato's political ideals, of Athenian practices, and of the standards for democratic citizenship. This book, in the words of Arlene Saxonhouse, "fully succeeds in bringing Plato into our conversations about democracy." It will reward the attention of all those classicists, philosophers, and political theorists interested in the issues she addresses.

The main body of this book is organized similarly Pharr's justly famous "Purple Vergil": each two page spread has 12-25 lines of Greek in the upper left, with the rest of the spread full of line-by-line notes covering difficult constructions, slang, vocabulary and context. This makes Plato wonderfully accessible with a minimum of flipping pages back and forth.

The book's three appendices are (I) a series of sentence diagrams useful for understanding difficult sentences in the text and also as models for learning, (II) an alphabetical chart of verb principal parts and (III) a list of words appearing in the Apology by frequence of their appearance. Finally, a vocabulary of all words appearing at list twice fills in the back of the book (the vocabulary, incidentally, is keyed to the _Athenaze_ textbooks, which I suppose would be a useful feature if you used those books).

This book was wonderfully organized for those who would like to read ancient Greek texts. We can read Plato's Apology without looking up the Greek dictionary. In the appendices, some Sentence Diagrams,table of the tense of the verbs of the Principal Parts, Word Frequency List, and the Vocabulary List were provided.

I "learned" Greek on a text that used much of the same vocabulary that shows up in Plato's Apology of Socrates (the JACT text), and frankly, it was a nightmare.

However, if one learns Attic greek using 'fake' Greek (as it should be done) and then turns to Plato as the first "real" Greek--get THIS text. The commentary is fantastic, the lexicon great, the notes very helpful. Between this text and a translation, in fact, I would think most intermediate Greek students would be able to read it without any outside help.

Great commentary.

If your buying this book, its probably because you are enrolled in a philosophy or history class. And though it is used frequently in classrooms, the book doesn't fall into the same traps as other college level texts.

This book features all of Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Categories, Physics, Metaphysics, and Nicomachean Ethics. It also contains Apology (Written by Plato, in which Socrates speaks at his trial), along with writings and quotes from and about less well known Greek philosophers, such as Empedocles and Parmenides. The philosophers are presented by date, starting with the earliest, but they are also categorized by ideas.

One of the best things about this book is that, unlike other college texts, it is not a modern philosopher, or college historian, writing the bulk of the text. You actually hear from the horses mouth. The philosophers, such as Thales, who do not have many surviving words, have quotes from other famous Greek philosophers concerning them (often criticism, but informative criticism) . While at points the writing might seem dense, it is preferable to a third party writing; simply because any other person or group, though trying to, cannot capture the essence of what that person is trying to say. Anybody who has taking a philosophy coarse probably knows what I'm talking about; some philosophers have original message has been all but destroyed by professors "summery", either by misunderstanding, interjecting their own interpretations, or worse, allowing their own innate prejudices and beliefs to effect how they introduce them. The point is- Its preferable to have the actual philosopher talking for themselves, and this book has plenty of that.

I will say that, if you already own the dialogues and writings in this book, I wouldn't suggest buying it. While the short summaries and historical highpoints are good, they don't offer much that you couldn't find better somewhere else.

Quite simply, this is a comprehensive textbook that will enhance your understanding of Greek philosophy and provide a great starting place for further study.

I find this book to be invaluable to the philosophy student and any others who may be interested in Ancient philosophical thought in Miletus and Greece. The organization of the book is excellent, and the order in which he supplies the writings is fitting.

In my reading I frequently come across references to Greek philosophy. When I go to the bookstore, though, I see an entire shelf of books for Plato, and another for Aristotle. Presocratics are separate. How to choose? Fortunately, there is this volume. It is a large collection, filling 890 large pages, from the earliest Greek philosophers to Aristotle. The general breakdown is as follows: 89 pages devoted to the Presocratics and Sophists; 487 devoted to Plato; 277 devoted to Aristotle; 45 pages devoted to suggestions for further reading, concordance and sources for Presocratics, and glossary for Aristotle. The Presocratic selections represent 18 philosophers. Plato selections include the complete Republic and sections of 10 other dialogues. Aristotle selections contain readings from 13 treatises. Informative introductions precede each philosopher, and most individual selections from Plato and Aristotle have their own introductions. Each book of the Repulbic is introduced separately. In addition, footnotes are supplied on various obscure points of history, terminology, and ancient scientific theory. The notes on Timaeus are especially illustrative, giving the reader diagrams of theories. In short, this volume is very user friendly, geared toward the student or non-specialist who wants to know more about this fundamental area of Western culture, and very inclusive. The translations are modern and clear, not some dusted off antiques. A very good choice all around.

Very colorful narrative of a lesser known civilization predating the Roman Empire. You will enjoy the writing style and find the culture fascinating.

Richard Berthold, a gem of an teacher and research/writer, deserves congratuations for a superb book--not to mention promotion to Associate Professor if he does not already have it.

The hidden error which slipped by the publishers was reference to one "Testicles" in the index which is supposed to be pronounced as the Ancient Greeks would have done. Such an addition is typical of the Berthold's sense of humor and just one of the reasons he is the best prof at the University of New Mexico.

This is not a great book, but it is an elegantly written and very readable account of the history of the Rhodian republic from its formation at the end of the 4th century BC to its absorbtion into the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BC. Sure, it's scholarly crap, but regular humans can actually read and enjoy it, especially if they skip some of the scholarly argument. Can you find the gross joke that slipped by the editors? Hint: look in the index.

Novels about Ancient Greece are not exactly falling off the bookshelves into the laps of prospective reader's, so whenever I find one I usually snap it up as Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt are among my favourite reading material. The author Jon Martin is the advisory editor of the magazine Sparta. This is a journal of Ancient Spartan and Greek history. Such a position leaves little doubt of his love and knowledge of the subject he writes about. He has travelled to many areas of Greece with the sole intent of adding as much authenticity to his novels as possible.

The author's books are not what I would class as light reading, but they are well worth taking the time to read properly. By that I mean that they require the reader's full attention. Not the sort of book to be read while watching the television and almost impossible to speed read but they are none the worse for this fact.

This book relates the life of Artemis probably the most famous of Sparta's commanders. It takes us from his early life in military college, the equivalent of Sparta's Sandhurst to the time when he enlists into what was probably the hardest fighting unit in the ancient world, certainly at that time. Onwards through the ranks until he attains the rank of general.

War in the fifth century BC was a brutal and bloody event fought at close quarters where you could see the whites of your opponents eyes and smell the fear in his sweat and blood. The author captures all of this and more. Artemis was one of the men who would meet in battle on the plains of northern Greece and determine the course of Western Civilization's first world war and the author sets the scene beautifully.

I remember while reading Thucydides how I thought "Wow, this Brasidas fellow is one very competent General." Following a popular approach, Jon Edward Martin has breathed life into this historical figure, and in doing so he made the General into a living, breathing human who comes complete with a Spartan code-of-ethics.

Like most historical novels that detail ancient Sparta, we get a grand tour of the Agoge. Martin shows Spartan upbringing in all its brutal and arduous detail. While minute details of the Agoge are hard to come by, historically, Martin does a great job of expanding on the well known anecdotes that are known of the training.

The best part of the book for me was Brasidas' character development. To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, the sign of good fiction is that it seems more real than if it had actually happened. While much of Brasidas' makeup was obviously fabricated in this novel, I can't help but think that the historical Brasidas would have shared the core values of the Spartan represented in this novel.

If you're a fan of ancient Greece and the Spartans, this book is for you. Those who wish to learn more about the landmark Peloponnesian will doubtlessly find this historical novel insightful. In addition to this present novel I would also recommend TIDES OF WAR by Stephen Pressfield and ISLE OF STONE by Nicholas Nicastro. Both novels potray other phases of the war.

This novel makes a good companion to Steven Pressfield's "Tides of War" Both take place during the Peloponnesian War. However, the focus of each novel is different. While Pressfield's work revolves around Alcibiades and the ill-fated Athenian expedition to Syracuse, neither are mentioned at all by Martin. Instead, Martin has focused on the Spartan Brasidas and the rivalries in Sparta concerning how to fight the war. Thucydides also plays a large role in the book.The rivalries in Sparta in mirrored in Athens, where Pericles wants to stay behind the walls of Athens, while Kleon wants to attack. Be forwarned, however, that Martin's work is not for those without familiarity with Thucydides or the war. There are no maps and there is little, if any, explanation of background events. For example, if you don't know where the Chalcidice is or the importance of Amphipolis, you will be lost. For those with a good knowledge of Greek history, Martin has created a stunning work of historical fiction.

This entertaining and informative guide to understanding Classical Myth is as timeless and cultivated as the myths themselves. The book even follows the tradition of several books that are considered "classics" in the Classics field (its cover image has absolutely no relevance to the text within). Unlike most of those works, this book covers many topics and myths which the author supplements with his enlightened analysis. Rightfully bound, this book is indeed a joy to read for the curious novice and the Classicist alike.

Holy Zeus! This book is the Mount Olympus of mythology books! Blow torch your ancient copies of Edith Hamilton's "Mythology", and buy this ultra-hip, MTV friendly mythology masterpiece! After reading "Symbolic Mythology", you will suddenly realize that there are good books, bad books and books by Fiore! The books by Fiore transcend the words of mere mortals. A great man once said, "It takes a God to know a God," and Fiore certainly knows his Gods!

Holy Zeus! This book is the Mount Olympus of mythology books! Blow torch your ancient copies of Edith Hamilton's "Mythology", and buy this ultra-hip, MTV friendly mythology masterpiece! After reading "Symbolic Mythology", you will suddenly realize that there are good books, bad books and books by Fiore! The books by Fiore transcend the words of mere mortals. A great man once said, "It takes a God to know a God," and Fiore certainly knows his Gods!

When I bought this book, I presumed I was buying a remotely dry and dull book of late Neoplatonic praddle on numbers. However it turns out this book is a copy of a copy of a copy by Iambblichus all the way back to Pythagoras himself (although this isn't proven).

The content of this book is an ABSOLUTE MUST TOOL in the comprehension of Plato, and , my favorite, Plotinus, the logical and numerical philosophical Emanation model (of Plato and Neoplatonists) as expressed in this book is mind blowing. I myself find that 99.9% of the many 1000s of books I've bought get a quick glance and are ditched on the shelf SOON afterwards. I've read the "Theology of Arithmetic" now more than 8 times!

I forward, and rightly so, that this book is in fact an INDESPENSIBLE tool to grasping the logical and numerical ontological expression-model of Pythagoras and Plato/Plotinus in their philosophy of Emanation and necessity in their illuminating the werks (eklampsis/emanation) of the One, the Divine. What's better, is the pithiness of this book is astounding, with main content around 120 pages, its incredibly condensed and packed with revelations and connections leading to insights into Plato's ontology "by" numbers that I never could have made without THIS book.

As per Plotinus in 5.1.1 and his "mystery" world TOLMA as the primordial cause of the "souls descent", I found the answer of this 1500 year-old philosophical-contention mystery SOLVED by means of this very book, "Theology of Arithmetic"

Personally, I find the subtitle of this book should be: "THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE NUMBER ONTOLOGY OF ALL OF PYTHAGOREANISM, PLATONISM AND NEOPLATONISM".

My copy of this book is so underlined and highlighted, I'm buying another copy of it.

The most valuable book I ever found on Pythagorean number philosophy, highly recommended, good luck at ever finding it in print!!!!

I'm not sure if the books' material or the editor's notes are more useful. The book itself is attributed to Iamblichus but it is not really known whether he actually wrote this particular text. The author does note that the book seems to be more of a compilation of material by Anatonlius and Nicomachus. I actually wondered at many points if this text was written by a student (i.e. student notes from lectures at Plato's academy). None-the-less if you are looking for materials on Pythagorean philosophy, this book is for you. It covers the symbolism attributed to the first ten numbers (the monad through the decad) as well as touching on subjects like Plato's lambda and the Geometric, Arithmetic and Harmonic means. If you have the Pythagorean Sourcebook by Guthrie or Jesus Christ, Sun of God by Fidieler this book will complement those two works nicely (esp. Appendix II of the former). Also, Rene Schwaller's Study of Numbers seems to derive a lot of inspiration from either this text or one like it. Keith Critchlow, who wrote Islamic Patterns, introduces this book and extrapolates on Plato's Lambda in a very interesting way. Also the glossary in the back of this book, explaining Platonic/Pythagorean notions of numbers (perfect, over-perfect, even-odd, etc.) was enlightening. With so many gems of Pythagorean knowledge in such a small space (i.e. less than a hundred pages) - the book definately deserves 5 stars.

The first chapter begins quickly by tracing the history of the term 'theology' from early Christian writer-bishop Augustine's use of it in CITY OF GOD to point toward a transcendent reality (supernatural theology) back to Plato, who originally coined the term to mean the kind of thinking that looks at reality and sees in it, immanent, a divine principle (natural theology). From there, Jaeger recovers the spirit of that mode of seeing and thinking, starting with the Homeric mythology and Hesiod's account of the origin of the gods ('theogony'), all the way through to the Sophists, passing through Xenophanes, who presaged the Socratic abandonment of the Homeric mythography (as discourse that, in truth, masked genuine metaphysical concerns). It was Plato who took Socrates's critique of the superstitious, tongue-in-cheek respect for the Homeric gods and transformed it into a studied meditation on the reality and uncertainty of divinity (THEOS- god, discourse/study- LOGIA). For the ancient Greeks, at least, there was no other way to philosophize: they were always led to the consideration of ultimate things no matter where they started. Aristotle divided philosophizing into various types, but regarded thinking about THEOS as the meatiest part of philosophizing, hence calling it 'first philosophy'.

At one point in the second chapter on the Milesian naturalists, Jaeger recounts an old story about Heraclitus and uses it to make a point regarding the peculiar spiritual vision of reality of the ancient Greeks. "The story goes that as he was standing by the hearth-fire of his house and warming himself, he noticed that visitors stood at the threshold, hesitating to come in. Whereupon he called out to them: `Enter. Here, too, are gods.' This remark has been taken to refer to the fire, which Heraclitus held to be the original principle of all things. In any case his words presuppose Thales' dictum that everything is full of gods, here wittily applied to the situation of the moment. The story is symbolical of the intellectual advance that characterizes the very beginnings of Greek philosophy, and is particularly significant in its bearing on religion. Over the gates of the philosophy of Being, which begins with Thales, stands the inscription, visible from afar to the eye of the spirit: `Enter. Here, too, are gods.' These words shall light us on our way as we pass through Greek philosophy."

Two good books to go along with this reading are Karl Kerenyi's THE ANCIENT RELIGION, which provides even more of the cultural context in which expressions like THEOS were used by the ancient Greeks, as well as the way in which Greek temples were used and the connection between everyday life and religion; and G.S. Kirk and J.E. Raven's THE PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHERS, a selection of the most important thinking about reality and knowledge before Socrates, and the fount from which Plato and his academics (including Aristotle) drew from to flesh out and complicate the more exclusive Socratic concern with ethics. There are also the other great Jaeger writings, of course, having more to do with the ancient Greek notion of the transmission of culture (PAIDEIA), down to the Christian era.

While modern authors tend to focus on the Orphic cults of the Greeks in order to explain their attachment to theology, Jaeger (nearly 50 years dead) does an excellent job of tracing the lineage of Greek theology, the "approach of God through Logos," as the father of their later philosophical systems. He examines this early period of speculative philosophy and reductive reasoning with absolute ease, illuminating complex (and often historiographical) arguments with plain and concise language.

The book, a collection of lectures given a narrative form by the author, is just about the best study on the subject history has yet to offer. It makes a good companion to his seminal three volume series on Greek paideia as well as to his later work, "Early Christianity and Greek Paideia," which was also derived from his Gifford Lectures.

A quick note to casual students, however: the book was written in the 1940's, when classical scholars presupposed a knowledge of Greek amongst their readers. As a result, the work is peppered with ancient Greek. If you're not familiar with the Greek alphabet, you may want to have a Greek-English dictionary handy. Those with even a casual knowledge of Greek phonetics should do just fine.

This is the hardest book i've ever tackled and the finest introduction to Early Greek thought that i have ever seen! The Late Werner Jaeger also produced a great gift to students of the Ancients with his superb 3 volumes entitled Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture [Paideia is Greek for Culture, Education, Civilization] but this seemingly small volume even surpasses his Magnum Opus in brilliance!...