Ancient Greek Civilization

by David Sansone (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA)

• ISBN13: 9780631232360
• ISBN10: 0631232362
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This book is a survey of the history, literature, art, and philosophy of the ancient Greeks from the Bronze Age to the transformation of Greek culture during the Roman Empire. The author provides a concise narrative of Greek history and an analysis of major works of Greek literature, from Homer to Plutarch, highlighting the burst of intellectual creativity in classical Athens. The book places special emphasis on the key themes of Greek civilization: the public nature of Greek society, the relationship between the individual and the community, and the tension between myth and reason. Throughout, the narrative traces how Greek civilization has been continually reinvented, both in antiquity and in our own world. This accessible book is a perfect introduction to the world of the ancient Greeks and is specifically designed with the student in mind. It includes plentiful maps and illustrations, as well as timelines, a glossary, and annotated bibliography, to assist the reader in discovering the story of ancient Greek civilization.

Author Biography

David Sansone is Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Aeschylean Metaphors for Intellectual Activity (1975), and Greek Athletics and the Genesis of Sport (1988), and the editor of Euripides: Iphigenia in Tauris (1981) and Plutarch – The Lives of Aristeides and Cato. He is on the Editorial Board of Illinois Classical Studies, of which he was the editor from 1993 to 2000, and on the Editorial Board of the journals Classical Philology and the Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vi
List of Maps	ix
List of Timelines	x
Foreword: Looking Backward	xi
Greece in the Bronze Age	1	(18)
Iron Age Greece	19	(15)
The Poems of Hesiod and Homer	34	(14)
Poetry and Sculpture of the Archaic Period	48	(15)
Symposia, Seals, and Ceramics in the Archaic Period	63	(16)
The Birth of Philosophy and the Persian Wars	79	(15)
Setting the Stage for Democracy	94	(18)
History and Tragedy in the Fifth Century BC	112	(14)
The Peloponnesian War: A Tale of Thucydides	126	(20)
Stage and Lawcourt in Late Fifth-Century BC Athens	146	(17)
The Transformation of the Greek World in the Fourth Century BC	163	(15)
Greek Culture in the Hellenistic Period	178	(20)
Afterword: Looking Forward	198	(13)
Glossary	211	(6)
Index	217