Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind

Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind
Title Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind PDF eBook
Author Edith Hall
Publisher W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages 336
Release 2014-06-16
Genre History
ISBN 0393244121

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"Wonderful…a thoughtful discussion of what made [the Greeks] so important, in their own time and in ours." —Natalie Haynes, Independent The ancient Greeks invented democracy, theater, rational science, and philosophy. They built the Parthenon and the Library of Alexandria. Yet this accomplished people never formed a single unified social or political identity. In Introducing the Ancient Greeks, acclaimed classics scholar Edith Hall offers a bold synthesis of the full 2,000 years of Hellenic history to show how the ancient Greeks were the right people, at the right time, to take up the baton of human progress. Hall portrays a uniquely rebellious, inquisitive, individualistic people whose ideas and creations continue to enthrall thinkers centuries after the Greek world was conquered by Rome. These are the Greeks as you’ve never seen them before.

Introducing the Ancient Greeks

Introducing the Ancient Greeks
Title Introducing the Ancient Greeks PDF eBook
Author Edith Hall
Publisher Random House
Total Pages 338
Release 2015-04-02
Genre Greece
ISBN 1847922589

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Who were the ancient Greeks? They gave us democracy, philosophy, poetry, rational science, the joke. But what was it that enabled them to achieve so much? The ancient Greeks were a geographically disparate people whose civilization lasted over twenty centuries - and that made us who we are today. And here Edith Hall gives us a revelatory way of viewing this scattered people, identifying ten unique personality traits that she shows to be unique and central to the widespread ancient Greeks. Hall introduces a people who are inquisitive, articulate and open-minded but also rebellious, individualistic, competitive and hedonistic. They prize excellence above all things but love to laugh. And, central to their identity, they are seafarers whose relationship with the sea underpins every aspect of their society. Expertly researched and elegantly told, this indispensable introduction unveils a civilization of incomparable richness and a people of astounding complexity.

Introducing the Ancient Greeks

Introducing the Ancient Greeks
Title Introducing the Ancient Greeks PDF eBook
Author Edith Hall
Publisher Random House
Total Pages 338
Release 2015-04-02
Genre History
ISBN 1448161622

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They gave us democracy, philosophy, poetry, rational science, the joke. They built the Parthenon and the Library of Alexandria. They wrote the timeless myths of Odysseus and Oedipus, and the histories of Leonidas’s three hundred Spartans and Alexander the Great. But who were the ancient Greeks? And what was it that enabled them to achieve so much? Here, Edith Hall gives us a revelatory way of viewing this geographically scattered people, visiting different communities at various key moments during twenty centuries of ancient history. Identifying ten unique traits central to the widespread ancient Greeks, Hall unveils a civilization of incomparable richness and a people of astounding complexity – and explains how they made us who we are today. ‘A thoroughly readable and illuminating account of this fascinating people... This excellent book makes us admire and like the ancient Greeks equally’ Independent ‘A worthy and lively introduction to one of the two groups of ancient peoples who really formed the western world’ Sunday Times ‘Throughout, Hall exemplifies her subjects’ spirit of inquiry, their originality and their open-mindedness’ Daily Telegraph ‘A book that is both erudite and splendidly entertaining’ Financial Times

Why Should I Care about the Ancient Greeks?

Why Should I Care about the Ancient Greeks?
Title Why Should I Care about the Ancient Greeks? PDF eBook
Author Don Nardo
Publisher Compass Point Books
Total Pages 65
Release 2020
Genre Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN 0756565650

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Every four years, the world celebrates one of the most exciting contributions of the Ancient Greeks: the Olympic Games. That, of course, is not all this great civilization left behind. From theater to democracy, discover how the Greeks' ancient inventions and philosophies evolved into objects and ideas we know and treasure today.

Contemporary Athletics & Ancient Greek Ideals

Contemporary Athletics & Ancient Greek Ideals
Title Contemporary Athletics & Ancient Greek Ideals PDF eBook
Author Daniel A. Dombrowski
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Total Pages 175
Release 2009-08-01
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 0226155498

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Despite their influence in our culture, sports inspire dramatically less philosophical consideration than such ostensibly weightier topics as religion, politics, or science. Arguing that athletic playfulness coexists with serious underpinnings, and that both demand more substantive attention, Daniel Dombrowski harnesses the insights of ancient Greek thinkers to illuminate contemporary athletics. Dombrowski contends that the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus shed important light on issues—such as the pursuit of excellence, the concept of play, and the power of accepting physical limitations while also improving one’s body—that remain just as relevant in our sports-obsessed age as they were in ancient Greece. Bringing these concepts to bear on contemporary concerns, Dombrowski considers such questions as whether athletic competition can be a moral substitute for war, whether it necessarily constitutes war by other means, and whether it encourages fascist tendencies or ethical virtue. The first volume to philosophically explore twenty-first-century sport in the context of its ancient predecessor, Contemporary Athletics and Ancient Greek Ideals reveals that their relationship has great and previously untapped potential to inform our understanding of human nature.

Aristotle's Way

Aristotle's Way
Title Aristotle's Way PDF eBook
Author Edith Hall
Publisher Penguin
Total Pages 274
Release 2019-01-15
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 0735220816

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From renowned classicist Edith Hall, ARISTOTLE'S WAY is an examination of one of history's greatest philosophers, showing us how to lead happy, fulfilled, and meaningful lives Aristotle was the first philosopher to inquire into subjective happiness, and he understood its essence better and more clearly than anyone since. According to Aristotle, happiness is not about well-being, but instead a lasting state of contentment, which should be the ultimate goal of human life. We become happy through finding a purpose, realizing our potential, and modifying our behavior to become the best version of ourselves. With these objectives in mind, Aristotle developed a humane program for becoming a happy person, which has stood the test of time, comprising much of what today we associate with the good life: meaning, creativity, and positivity. Most importantly, Aristotle understood happiness as available to the vast majority us, but only, crucially, if we decide to apply ourselves to its creation--and he led by example. As Hall writes, "If you believe that the goal of human life is to maximize happiness, then you are a budding Aristotelian." In expert yet vibrant modern language, Hall lays out the crux of Aristotle's thinking, mixing affecting autobiographical anecdotes with a deep wealth of classical learning. For Hall, whose own life has been greatly improved by her understanding of Aristotle, this is an intensely personal subject. She distills his ancient wisdom into ten practical and universal lessons to help us confront life's difficult and crucial moments, summarizing a lifetime of the most rarefied and brilliant scholarship.

Plutarch and the Historical Tradition

Plutarch and the Historical Tradition
Title Plutarch and the Historical Tradition PDF eBook
Author Philip A. Stadter
Publisher Routledge
Total Pages 196
Release 2002-09-11
Genre History
ISBN 1134913184

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These essays, by experts in the field from five countries, examine Plutarch's interpretative and artistic reshaping of his historical sources in representative lives. Diverse essays treat literary elements such as the parallelism which renders a pair of lives a unit or the themes which unify the lives. Others consider the selecting, combining, simplifying, and enlarging employed in composition. The construction of a Plutarchian life, the essays demonstrate, required careful selection and creative reworking of the historical material available.