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Adkins,
Lesley, and Roy A. Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece.
A comprehensive guide to life in Ancient Greece. This handy reference
provides comprehensive access to over three millennia of ancient Greek
history and archaeology, from the beginning of the Minoan civilization to
the fall of the Greek states to the Romans by 30 BC. Clear, authoritative,
and well-organized, the Handbook offers an engaging look at a
civilization that once stretched from what is now modern Greece to Spain,
India, and beyond. |
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Aeschylus,
tr. by Herbert Weir Smyth. Two volume set of Aeschylus' tragedies, published by the Loeb Classical Library. Aeschylus
(c. 525-456 BC), author of the first tragedies existing in European
literature, was an Athenian born at Eleusis, son of Euphorion of noble
landed ancestry. He served at Marathon (490) and probably at Salamis and
Plataea (480/79) in defense of Greece against Persian invaders. Of his
total of 80-90 plays, seven survive complete. His Oresteia (458) is
the only existent trilogy. He was tried on the Areopagos for his life
under the accusation of having revealed the epiphany of the Mysteries at
Eleusis. He died in Sicily at Gela, 456/5. He was acquitted. Volume I
contains four plays, Volume II the Oresteia and the fragments of
lost plays.
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Aeschylus,
The Complete Plays, tr. by Gilbert Murray and
with the illustrations of John Flaxman. This volume leather-bound volume
is from the Great Books of the Western World originally published by
Encyclopaedia Britannica in collaboration with The University of
Chicago. I have not found a source for these
books. I picked this one up at a used bookstore in Boulder, Colorado.
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Aeschylus,
The Oresteia, tr. by Robert Fagles. The Oresteia,
the only surviving trilogy from ancient Greek drama, is our rite of
passage from savagery to civilization, from the darkness to the light,
from bloody vengeance to communal justice, from tragedy to joyous
reconciliation. As it transforms primitive ritual into a celebration of
Athens and her perfected institutions, Aeschylus's masterpiece resounds
with the victory of mankind--"Cry, cry in triumph, carry on the
dancing on and on." Aeschylus was born in 525 BC at Eleusis, the
scene of the ancient Mysteries, and died in the new Greek world of
Sicily in 456, yet he was a complete fifth-century Athenian--an
aristocrat by birth, a democrat by commitment. He was the creator of her
proudest artistic achievement, tragedy. |
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Andronicos, Manolis,
Delphi. This book is part of a series presenting
the treasures housed in the museums of Greece, while introducing readers
to the history of Greek art from early antiquity to the present. According
to myth Zeus, wishing to find the center or navel of the earth, let loose
two eagles from the two ends of the world. The sacred birds met at Delphi.
The first diviner to occupy the Delphic oracle was the mother of the gods,
Gaia (Earth). She was succeeded by her daughter, Themis, the Titaness
Phoibe, and finally Apollo, who prophesied the word of his father, Zeus.
The oracle was famous throughout the ancient world. Even Alexander the
Great consulted it. |
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Apollodorus,
Gods
and Heroes of the Greeks, The Library of Apollodorus, tr. by Michael Simpson. Probably composed in the first
century AD, this is the only Greek handbook of mythology to survive
antiquity. It is a major source of our knowledge of Greek myths. Beginning
with the birth of the gods and ending with the death of Odysseus, the Library
traces an accurate record of what the Greeks in general believed about the
origin and early history of the world and their race. Simpson's notes to
the text are especially valuable since they provide the reader with
Apollodorus' sources, and cite current bibliographical references which
could serve as a neat point of departure for further research. |
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Apollonius
Rhodius, Argonautica. Apollonius 'of Rhodes' was a Greek grammarian
and epic poet of Alexandria around 300 BC. While still young he composed
his extant epic poem of four books on the story of the Argonauts. When
this work failed to win acceptance he went to Rhodes where he not only did
well as a rhetorician but also made a success of his epic, for which the
Rhodians gave him the 'freedom' of their city; hence his surname. On
returning to Alexandria he recited his poem again, with applause. In 196
Ptolemy Epiphanes made him the librarian of the University at Alexandria.
His Jason and Media are natural and interesting, and did much to inspire
Virgil in the fourth book of the Aeneid. |
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Aristophanes, The Complete
Plays of Aristophanes. Extravagant power of
invention and remarkable comic vitality make Aristophanes one of the most
brilliant of the ancient Greek playwrights. From the hilariously bawdy yet
fundamentally serious play Lysistrata, to the creative fantasy of
the Birds, to this comic masterpiece the Frogs, Aristophanes
displays the biting satire, exquisite lyricism, and licentious frankness
that continue to make audiences laugh at the immensity of their own
follies. A poet who hated an age of decadence, armed conflict, and
departure from tradition, Aristophanes comic genius influenced the
political and social order of his own fifth-century Athens. But his true
claim upon our attention is as the most brilliant and artistic and
thoughtful wit our world has known. |
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Aristophanes, Lysistrata/The
Archarnians, The Clouds, tr by Alan H. Sommerstein. Only
eleven of his play survive, and this volume contains Lysistrata, the
hilariously bawdy anti-war fantasy; The Acharnians, a plea for peace set
against the background of the long war with Sparta; and The Clouds, a
satire on contemporary philosophy. Writing at a time when Athens was
undergoing a crisis in its social attitudes, Aristophanes was an
eloquent opponent of the demagogue and the sophist, and his comedy
reveals a deep sympathy and longing for the return of a peaceful and
honest way of life. |
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Aristotle,
The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. by Jonathan Barnes.
Originally published in twelve volumes between 1912 and 1954, the Oxford
Translation of Aristotle is universally recognized as the standard English
version. It is a valuable contribution to studies of Aristotle and is
regularly referred to by scholars of al nationalities. Now Princeton
University Press makes available the complete works in two volumes. The
volumes contain the substance of the original Translation, revised by
Jonathan Barnes in the light of recent research. A new and enlarged
selection of Fragments has been added. A generous index provides
indispensable aid to the scholar. |
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Athenaeus,
The Deipnosophists. (7 vols.) Athenaeus (AD c. 170 - c. 230), a
Greek of Naucratis in Egypt, lived in Rome. In his "Sophists at
Dinner", he describes a banquet at a scholar's house whither the
learned guests brought extracts from poetry for recitation and discussion.
Much of the matter however concerns the food provided and accessories. One
learns about cooks, strange dishes, wines, menu cards, and countless other
matters. Athenaeus was an antiquarian. The whole work, which mentions
nearly eight hundred writers and two thousand five hundred writings, is a
large treasury of information not only about table matters but also music,
dancers, games, and all sorts of literary subjects. And it abounds in
quotations from authors whose writings have not survived. |
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