"Ancient Greece is one of the wellsprings of Western civilization. It transformed and has continued to refresh our architecture, drama, literature, art, philosophy, and politics. Life, Myth, and Art in Ancient Greece is a richly illustrated guide to this heritage and to its roots in the beliefs, rituals, and artistic achievements of an extraordinary culture." "This book covers themes that have long inspired the imagination, including myths of the gods and goddesses who intervened in-human affairs ; the voyages and conflicts of the heroes, from Herakles to Odysseus ; the many columned temples that studded the Greek empire from Athens to Sicily and Asia Minor ; the Dionysian rites of revelry and inebriation ; the Eleusinian mysteries, so secret that even today we can only speculate about what they involved ; major sites such as the Acropolis and the complex formed around the oracle at Delphi ; and the original Olympic games."

Presents an introduction to ancient Greek civilization, discussing its history, politics, art, religion, literature, philosophy, military, gods, and heroes.

Presents an introduction to ancient Greek civilization, discussing its history, politics, art, religion, literature, philosophy, military, gods, and heroes.

Even today the economic powerhouse of modern China takes strength and nourishment from its legacy of antiquity. Ancient China illuminates this venerable heritage with unprecedented scholarship and vividness.

Inspired by the achievements of the ancient Greeks, the Romans made their city the center of an empire unsurpassed in size and influence for more than a thousand years. Its rich legacy shaped the medieval world and continues to amaze us today. Life, Myth, and Art in Ancient Rome celebrates the many achievements of Roman culture and delves into its fascinating dark side. Romans erected structures so well-built and engineered that they still stand millennia later, yet these same buildings also showcased blood sports as public entertainment. The Romans instituted just government, impartial legal and political institutions, and concepts of citizenship, yet its population included slaves as well as patricians and plebeians, and was often riven by intrigue, superstition, and savagery. This volume is a richly illustrated introduction to a fascinating, at times paradoxical, civilization and its art and architecture, ranging from magnificent temples and aqueducts, to exquisite mosaics and jewelry. Placing the art in its cultural context, the author covers themes that have long inspired the Western imagination, including the rise and fall of emperors, the life and death of the gladiator, the belief in omens and prophecy, and, ultimately, the establishment of Christianity.

The Greek myths are so much part of our culture that we tend to forget how they entered it in the first place. Visual sources vase paintings, engraved gems and sculpture in bronze and stone often pre-date references to the myths in literature, or offer alternative, unfamiliar tellings. In some cases visual art provides our only evidence, as there is no surviving account in ancient Greek literature of such important stories as the Fall of Troy, or Theseus and the Minotaur. T. H. Carpenters book is the first comprehensive, scholarly yet succinct survey of myth as it appears in Greek art. Copiously illustrated, it is an essential reference work for everybody interested in the art, drama, poetry or religion of ancient Greece. With this handbook as a guide, readers will be able to identify scenes from myth across the full breadth of archaic and classical Greek art.

This richly illustrated book examines the legacy of Greek mythology in Western art from the classical era to the present. Tracing the emergence, survival, and transformation of key mythological figures and motifs from ancient Greece through the modern era, it explores the enduring importance of such myths for artists and viewers in their own time and over the millennia that followed.