It's All Greek to Me

by Higgins, Charlotte

• ISBN13: 9780061804007
• ISBN10: 0061804002
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Why is ancient Greece important? Because, quite simply, if we want to understand the modern Western world, we need to look back to the Greeks. Consider the way we think about ethics, about the nature of beauty and truth, about our place in the universe, about our mortality. All this we have learned from the ancient Greeks. They molded the basic disciplines and genres in which we still organize thought, from poetry to drama, from medicine to philosophy, from history to ethnography.Packed with useful facts, including a timeline, a "mythology for dummies," a who's who, a guide to Homer's epics, and a handy map for those struggling to know their Lemnos from their Lesbos, It's All Greek to Me is an entertaining and insightful tour through the world of the ancient Greeks. Why are some laws Draconian? What is an Achilles' heel? Why were the Spartans spartan? Charlotte Higgins provides these answers and more, arming average readers with the knowledge they need to understand the Greeks and their tremendous contributions to our lives. This book aims to unlock the richness of a fascinating culture and place it where it should be-in the mainstream of life.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The alpha and the omega: Why a life without Homer is a life half-lived	p. 7
The living, the dead, and the deathless: Mortality in Hesiod, Homer, and Sophocles	p. 30
Man is a political animal: Democracy and the Polis	p. 46
Pandora's daughters: The silent majority	p. 68
Swords and sandals: War in Homer, Herodotus, and Thucydides	p. 87
Beyond the borders: Greeks and barbarians	p. 111
The twilight of the gods: The beginnings of science, from Thales to Aristotle	p. 125
The death of Socrates and the birth of philosophy: The challenge of Plato's Republic	p. 140
Love and loss: Desire in Homer, Sappho, and Plato	p. 156
Timeline	p. 173
Map	p. 176
Who's who	p. 178
Know your Greek gods	p. 192
Know the Greek in your English	p. 195
The ten essential Greek quotes	p. 210
The Greek alphabet	p. 213
Further reading	p. 214
Acknowledgments	p. 220
Permissions	p. 221
Index	p. 223
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.