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Greece In The Age Of Pericles
A. J. Grant
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1432529897 |
Book Description
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.
Book Description
1 MP3-CD, With Music and Sound Effects, 7 Hours 33 Minutes THE MARCH OF THE TEN THOUSAND, (The March Upcountry, The Anabasis, The Persian Expedition, March to the Sea) is one of the most admired and widely read pieces of all ancient literature. Xenophon employs a very simple, straightforward style to describe what is probably the most fabulous military adventure ever undertaken. When Cyrus, brother to the Great King of Persia, attempts to overthrow his feckless sibling, he employs a Greek mercenary army of 10,000 hoplites. Xenophon is among the common soldiers. When this army becomes stranded as a result of the death of Cyrus, and then witnesses the treacherous murder of its entire officer corps, despair overtakes them. Xenophon rallies the Greeks, has them elect new officers, then leads them to freedom across 1,500 miles of hostile territory seething with adversaries. It is an epic of courage, faith and democratic principle.
Customer Reviews:
Gripping eyewitness to history.......2007-04-30
This is a gripping tale of an army of men trapped deep in enemy territory 1,500 miles from home - alone, leaderless and outnumbered - and their ability to regroup and safely retreat against all odds. Google around the web for a few good maps to help you follow the march.
I especially enjoyed the several magnificent speeches Xenophon gives to rally the troops or to defend himself against accusers. One of his best quotes: "a prince's finest possessions are justice and generosity."
This very human study shows human behavior does not change. It's easier (or clearer) to deal with enemies than friends, as friends come in many guises. Interesting for insight into political machinations of the ancient world. But one could substitute more familiar terms such as "senate" or "mayor" and recognize the same types of people and patterns of behavior.
Good reader, good pacing.
Average customer rating:
- Powerful
- One of the best books I've ever read
- A different view.
- Spartan Ethos Alive Again
- 300 Awesome
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Gates of Fire
Steven Pressfield
Manufacturer: Doubleday
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Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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300
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Tides of War
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The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great
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The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece
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Thermopylae: The Battle for the West
ASIN: 0385492510
Release Date: 1998-10-20 |
Amazon.com
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.
Thus reads an ancient stone at Thermopylae in northern Greece, the site of one of the world's greatest battles for freedom. Here, in 480 B.C., on a narrow mountain pass above the crystalline Aegean, 300 Spartan knights and their allies faced the massive forces of Xerxes, King of Persia. From the start, there was no question but that the Spartans would perish. In Gates of Fire, however, Steven Pressfield makes their courageous defense--and eventual extinction--unbearably suspenseful.
In the tradition of Mary Renault, this historical novel unfolds in flashback. Xeo, the sole Spartan survivor of Thermopylae, has been captured by the Persians, and Xerxes himself presses his young captive to reveal how his tiny cohort kept more than 100,000 Persians at bay for a week. Xeo, however, begins at the beginning, when his childhood home in northern Greece was overrun and he escaped to Sparta. There he is drafted into the elite Spartan guard and rigorously schooled in the art of war--an education brutal enough to destroy half the students, but (oddly enough) not without humor: "The more miserable the conditions, the more convulsing the jokes became, or at least that's how it seems," Xeo recalls. His companions in arms are Alexandros, a gentle boy who turns out to be the most courageous of all, and Rooster, an angry, half-Messenian youth.
Pressfield's descriptions of war are breathtaking in their immediacy. They are also meticulously assembled out of physical detail and crisp, uncluttered metaphor:
The forerank of the enemy collapsed immediately as the first shock hit it; the body-length shields seemed to implode rearward, their anchoring spikes rooted slinging from the earth like tent pins in a gale. The forerank archers were literally bowled off their feet, their wall-like shields caving in upon them like fortress redoubts under the assault of the ram.... The valor of the individual Medes was beyond question, but their light hacking blades were harmless as toys; against the massed wall of Spartan armor, they might as well have been defending themselves with reeds or fennel stalks.
Alas, even this human barrier was bound to collapse, as we knew all along it would. "War is work, not mystery," Xeo laments. But Pressfield's epic seems to make the opposite argument: courage on this scale is not merely inspiring but ultimately mysterious. --Marianne Painter
Book Description
Thousands of years ago, Herodotus and Plutarch immortalized Spartan society in their histories; but today, little is left of the ancient city or the social structure of this momentous culture. One of the few antiquarian marks of the civilization that has survived lies scores of miles away from Sparta, at a narrow Greek mountain pass called Thermopylae.
It was there that three hundred of Sparta's finest warriors held back the invading millions of the Persian empire and valiantly gave their lives in the selfless service of democracy and freedom. A simple engraved stone marks their burial ground.
Inspired by this stone and intrigued by the lore of Sparta, author Steven Pressfield has brilliantly combined scholarship with storytelling. Narrated by the sole survivor of the epic battle--a squire in the Spartan heavy infantry--Gates of Fire is a mesmerizing depiction of one man's indoctrination into the Spartan way of life and death, and of the legendary men and women who gave the culture an immortal gravity.
Culminating in the electrifying and horrifying epic battle, Gates of Fire weaves history, mystery, and heartbreaking romance into a literary page-turner that brings the Homeric tradition into the twenty-first century.
Customer Reviews:
Powerful.......2007-10-01
I don't read much fiction, but a friend of mine bought this book for me. I read it and was impressed by how well written this historical fiction is. Anyone interested in warfare, modern or ancient, should look into this book. Pressfield gives such an authentic account of how Spartans would have acted on a day-to-day basis.
One of the best books I've ever read.......2007-09-25
This book is absolutely amazing. One of the best reads ever. Not only does it describe the battle but it also details the life of a Spartan. I wish 300 was based on the story presented here
A different view........2007-09-21
The story of the 300 is generally limited in scope. "The Spartans had 300 guys who fought to the death to keep the Persians out."
Pressfield gives us the background. He tells us about the politics, the geopolitics, the war, the characters such as Leonidas and his wife. He has vignettes in the words of Spartan warriors.
With Pressfield, we can see the stand of the 300 in its place. I was reminded of something the aviator/writer Wolfgang Langweische said half a century ago. Boulder Dam, he said, is enormous. But when you fly over it, it's in its proper place, like a child jamming a pebble in the narrowest part of a trickle of water. Which, when you think about it, is what is supposed to happen.
Circumstances conspired to put 300 Spartans and several hundred of their tough allies in a tiny mountain pass. They were the pebble, but instead of blocking a trickle, they were trying to hold back a torrent.
Pressfield has Leonidas say that the performance of the Spartans in killing Persians should be such that, although victorious, the Persians will quail at seeing a battle line containing not 300 Spartan shields, but six thousand.
Pressfield gives us glimpses of training new soldiers and the field work of the experienced soldiers. His characters refer to the more or less normal fights between the city states, with enough detail and immediacy to put the reader into the fight.
We learn a lot about classical Greek combat.
It's a fabulous story. The stand of the 300 was very likely one of the few battles which could be said to have preserved the West, matched with Tours and Lepanto.
And yet. And yet. Pressfield has the Spartans nearly as philosopher kings. See, instead, Hanson's "Soul of Battle". The Spartan society was a vicious, fascist slave empire. It was as if a couple of Waffen SS divisions had found themselves a big, fertile valley in the Ukraine someplace and missed the end of WW II, being left untouched and unknown by the outside world.
The demands of war and the bonding of the combat units, in addition to the classical Greek view of man-love, required the distortion of the family and the degradation of women. The necessity of keeping the helots in thrall required routine terror and, indeed, the young Spartan was used to execute those serfs whose deaths might be a salutary lesson, just in case, as a way of blooding the youth for combat.
Vlad the Impaler fought the Turks in Southeast Europe and to him, unfortunately, we owe a bit of our existence. The same is true for the Spartans. It's too bad we couldn't get this lesson of courage and honor from, say, the democracy of Athens. It appears that some of the doomed allies of the Spartans who stood with them, and died alike, came from somewhat more acceptable polities. But they didn't get the ink.
Nevertheless, it's a fascinating book which actually is one of those examples of the cliche about not being able to put it down.
Spartan Ethos Alive Again.......2007-09-17
This is one of the best historical fictions I have ever encountered--certainly one of the best evocations of ancient warfare. Without the benefit of personal experience of either subject, ancient warfare or warfare of any kind, I would also guess that this novel is one of the most insightful anaylses of the psychology of combat. This book is an impressive achievement of the imagination. Steven Pressfield has re-discovered or re-created the Spartan ethos in terms of what it surely was in its time--a spiritual force. And he does it without disguising it origins in a slave revolt and a deliberate policy to crush the resistance of its Helot population. From those ugly and life-denying origins, a way of life--an ethic of sorts and a vision of essentials--emerged and took on a life of its own. Appropriately, this novel is about personal transformations under the aegis of that way of life.
300 Awesome.......2007-09-10
I saw the movie first. I didn't know what it was, but the movie rocked in a non plot having, CGI heavy metal, yelling and fighting sort of way. I longed for more and after searching Amazon and reading the reviews of the movie and the comic book it was based on I discovered the Gates of Fire. I could hardly put the book down. It is very detailed and it takes its sweet time setting the stage. The actual battle itself is probably by far the shortest portion of the entire book, but once you get to the battle you understand so much about the Spartan Culture, Warrior Ethos, History and more. I highly reccomend this book and after reading it almost wish it were made into a movie, but the movie would have to be about three hours long and I don't think the world needs anymore three hour long movies!
Book Description
Greek tourism is still benefiting from the development of facilities and infrastructure that resulted from the 2004 Olympic Games.
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Greek tourism is still benefiting from the development of facilities and infrastructure that resulted from the 2004 Olympic Games.
Customer Reviews:
Am I there yet?.......2007-09-08
True to Frommer's style, you feel as though you are almost there. Also included are excellent safety tips, the roads (islands) less traveled, best ways to carry (or rather not carry) money, weblinks, passport information, political concerns and so much more. Great maps, an invaluable aid.
Detailed.......2007-02-16
I am going to Skiathos this summer and I find this book very helpful in making my plans.
Excellent.......2007-02-14
This book gives a regular person the ability to plan a wonderful trip to Greece. Frommer's shows you how to design a vacation that is exactly how you want it to be!
Helpful but a tad boring.......2006-07-26
Don't get me wrong, I read all about the places I wanted to go and noted all the things I wanted to see. I was disappointed to see that there was no information about Evvia, the second largest island.
The prices in the book were right on or a tad higher. I didn't try the restaurants mentioned in Santorini because they were very over priced.
Also, the book could have used more pictures and maps. There was not a map of the Athens metro unfortunately.
Frommers Greece Guide Book.......2006-07-20
This book was very helpful. It discusses topics regarding cruises which I thought was very helpful.
Amazon.com
Edith Hamilton loved the ancient Western myths with a passion--and this classic compendium is her tribute. "The tales of Greek mythology do not throw any clear light upon what early mankind was like," Hamilton explains in her introduction. "They do throw an abundance of light upon what early Greeks were like--a matter, it would seem, of more importance to us, who are their descendents intellectually, artistically, and politically. Nothing we learn about them is alien to ourselves." Fans of Greek mythology will find all the great stories and characters here--Perseus, Hercules, and Odysseus--each discussed in generous detail by the voice of an impressively knowledgeable and engaging (with occasional lapses) narrator. This is also an excellent primer for middle- and high-school students who are studying ancient Greek and Roman culture and literature. --Gail Hudson
Book Description
Edith Hamilton loved the ancient Western myths with a passion--and this classic compendium is her tribute. "The tales of Greek mythology do not throw any clear light upon what early mankind was like," Hamilton explains in her introduction. "They do throw an abundance of light upon what early Greeks were like--a matter, it would seem, of more importance to us, who are their descendents intellectually, artistically, and politically. Nothing we learn about them is alien to ourselves." Fans of Greek mythology will find all the great stories and characters here--Perseus, Hercules, and Odysseus--each discussed in generous detail by the voice of an impressively knowledgeable and engaging (with occasional lapses) narrator. This is also an excellent primer for middle- and high-school students who are studying ancient Greek and Roman culture and literature. --Gail Hudson
Customer Reviews:
Mythology.......2007-08-20
I purchased this item for my son. He said it was good reading and had a lot of information.
interesting book.......2007-01-06
I've always been interested in greek mythology so this book was a good source of information I really like greek mythology storys about GOds and Goddesses and heros so I have to say I really liked this book.
one of the better written retellings of the Greek Myths.......2006-09-06
Edith Hamilton (now passed) has a living work of art in her stead by the name of Mythology. This congolmerate work of the world's oldest known tales is likely the most concise and accredited version worthy of the haughtiest bookshelf.
I breezed through most of the short stories and really ate up the ones of tragic love and happily ever afters, but through this version, readers can easily distinguish the story being told and enjoy the characters. Hamilton's writing it prosaic and timeless, perfect for Greek Myths. This collection is something that can even be of use to students of all ages and I can easily see myself coming back to this book a great many times for not only learning but enjoyment.
Highly recommended read, especially for the Greek in all of us!
Mythology.......2006-05-19
This book, mythology by Edith Hamilton is a pretty good book for pleasure and it has pretty good information too. The only downside of this book is that it doesnt keep your intrest that well. After the introduction, most parts are exciting, but there are still a few dull parts.
This book goes through many sections of greek mythology and a bit of norse mythology at the end. At first, the book starts out with talking about the gods and goddesses and then it moves onto stories of the gods and demi gods. This is a easy to understand book that is also a lot of fun if you are looking at it from a certain point of view.
Your Beginning And Ending Reference Book For Greek/Roman Myths.......2005-10-24
This Is One I First Read In High School And Have Returned To Often.Dame Edith's Reference Book Is The Definative Encyclopedia Of Mythology.
This Is A Book That Can Be Read By Lovers Of Adventure At Any Age.Arranged In Interesting And Fun Chapters Starting With The Beginning Of The World Where Mother Earth And Father Heaven Give Birth To The Titans,To The Birth Of THEIR Children And How They Took Over The World When The Twelve Major Gods And Goddesses Overpowered Them,To The Forming Of Man And The Gift Of Woman To Him.From There It Branches To The Everyday Heros And The Children Of The Gods-Jason And The Argonauts,Hercules,Perseus And His Battle With Medusa,And Many More.
All Of These Wonderous Stories Are Here To Enjoy Over And Over And Over Again.And You Can Find And Love Them In This Volume.It Even Includes Their Roman Counterparts And An Introduction To Egyptian Mythology As Well.You Won't Be Bored,And You Will Never Be Tired Of Them.
What The Magic Of Reading Is Made Of.
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Prehistoric Greece (The World of Archaeology)
Frank H Stubbings
Manufacturer: John Day Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Greece
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ASIN: B0006C3VUS |
Customer Reviews:
$2.59 for an affordable dabble into Ancient Greek history.......2007-06-15
Not even Mary Renault could get me interested in digging into Greek history. What finally did it for me was the PS2 game God of War. Now I want to know everything I can about Spartans but I don't want to pay too much money in the process.
THE GREEK WAY.......2007-04-11
WE GAVE THIS BOOK TO OUR BROTHER-IN-LAW WHO WAS BORN IN GREECE. HE LOVES IT AND WANTS TO READ OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR,EDITH HAMILTON. WE ARE ALSO INTERESTED IN ALL OF HER BOOKS.
A very learned view of the classical greeks.......2007-02-02
The first thing one encounters when reading Edith Hamilton's 'The Greek Way' is her love and even exuberance for her subject. Her opening remarks describe the classical greek worldview; an ability to grasp the world as it is, and still find it to be beautiful. This grasp this people had on reality would allow them to create the pictorial art, the art of the stage, here not including the dialogue and the dinner/drinking party, all still enjoyed much in the same manner today as the greeks enjoyed them in 500 b.c.e.
Plato and Socrates, and the way they experienced gentlemanly society, are highlighted as the crowning achievements of greek philosophy. It is the Ideal, Hamilton seems to say implicitly, that the greeks envisioned and carried forward philosophically, that would later influence western civilization in the way it did.
Later, comparisons are drawn between Aeschylus and Shakespeare, where the influence of the former on the latter is striking by the examples Hamilton presents. Hamilton here defines trajedy, elucidates pathos, and the differences between the two. She goes on to draw similarities between Virgil and Sophocles in their poetry and subjects, a valid comparison, she makes it seem.
Between this first and last, Herodotus is presented as a wide-eyed surprisingly objective first reporter who documents the cogitations and remarks of subjects as diverse as the delphic priestess and Cyrus the Great of Persia.
Freedom is won in the face of the Persian threat, and is the singular hallmark of the classical greeks in Hamilton's view. It affects everything the personalities Hamilton brings to light accomplish. Every work of art, every stage play, every dialectical argument can be viewed either as being in the presence of, or having the lack of freedom and democracy.
There is no question, Hamilton rightly defines the greatness of these greeks as a free, democratic people. But at the close of her book, Greece has become imperialistic and desires empire. Sophocles, the old conservative guardsman, documents poetically the zeitgeist of the former and current states of things, and a new era is dawning.
But Hamilton wisely leaves off here, having presented a wonderful picture of a wonderful people during a wonderful time.
Thoughtfully written and full of insight.......2006-02-12
The Greek Way, scholar Edith Hamilton's first book, is about the unification of body and soul-or, in Hamilton's terms, mind and spirit. Hamilton argues that this unification was achieved in a variety of areas in ancient Greek culture. Furthermore, this achievement is almost unique in world history.
Various individuals, including Socrates, Xenophon, Aeschylus, and Pindar, are discussed. Hamilton finds unexpected parallels between people, such as Aristophanes and William S. Gilbert. These parallels provide fascinating contexts. They help the reader appreciate why and how notable historical Greeks represent and transcend their time and place.
In "The Greek Way of Writing," one of the book's best chapters, Hamilton writes, "The Greek poet lifts one corner of the curtain only. A glimpse is given, no more, but by it the mind is fired to see for itself what lies behind. The writer will do no more than suggest the way to go, but he does it in such a fashion that the imagination is quickened to create for itself."
Much as it this is perhaps true of ancient Greek writers, I find it an especially accurate description of Hamilton's own method. Behind every one of the book's carefully chosen words is the assumption that our lives can be beautiful, if we will make them that way.
Hamilton is a classicist in the word's deepest sense: she believes in the continual validity and vitality of certain ideas. Whether achieved in the realms of art, politics, or philosophy, insights into the nature and meaning of human existence never loose their power. These ideas do what they have always done: they invite access, reflection, and application.
An Inspiration We All Need.......2005-10-20
" Little is left of all this wealth of great art: the sculptures, defaced and broken into bits, have crumbled away; the buildings are fallen; the paintings gone forever; of the writings, all lost but a very few. We have only the ruin of what was; the world has had no more than that for well on for two thousand years; yet these few remains of the mighty structure have been a challenge and an incitement to men ever since and they are among our possessions today which we value as most precious." A passage taken at random (page 18 of my Norton edition) which illustrates the strength of this remarkable book. Edith Hamilton writes beautiful prose which has been a joy to many since her book was first published in 1930.
She writes for an audience unfamiliar with ancient Greek culture. Her attempt to indicate the effect that Pindar achieved is perhaps bound to fail, but it is a noble attempt. She fares a little better with the dramatists, though hindered in that we are little equipped to appreciate verse drama in translation. The best sections are those dealing with prose writers: Plato, Herodotus, Thucydides. An important proviso though is that Hamilton is not primarily an analyst. She strives to pass on her own love and appreciation, not a critique. As such her work has always been welcomed by lay readers new to the subject.
This beautifully written book, both lofty and inspiring, yet inculcates a number of falsities about ancient Greece, once commonly held. It downplays Greek religion and magical and mystical beliefs, apparantly under the impression that the philosophical outlook (which survives in written form more so than religious texts) was the norm. On the contrary, one of the universal influences on all ancient Greeks (and it is suspected, on emerging Christianity, was the Eleusian mysteries. Greek oracular shrines, too, were enormously popular throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. The book also overlooks the fact that the 'rationalist' school of philosophy initiated by Thales was an outcrop of Persian philosophical thinking.
Hamilton's book contrasts Persian (tyrannical and slave based) with Greek (freedom loving) society, oblivious that Greece was a slave based society (as most ancient cultures were) and that many Persians were fanatically loyal to their 'King of Kings'. Little is said of the oligarchic governments of poleis such as Thebes, Sparta or Corinth, nor of the excesses of Athenian democracy; the list of great names who succumbed to democratic reigns of terror is a sad one: Themistokles, Aristedes, Alkibiades, Socrates...
The subjective feeling is that the Greeks were fighting something similar to Nazism in their Persian Wars. Scholarship is yet another expression of the time in which it was written.
Yet of course all this is little in comparison to the book's great virtues. Don't read it as an example of penetrating scholarship: there is plenty of more up-to-date material freely available. Read it if you need to know why the ancient Greeks are important, have been in the past, and hopefully will always be.
Book Description
Eyewitness Travel Guides are the original illustrated travel guidebooks-and they're still the best. Since 1993, the Eyewitness brand has established itself as one of the industry leaders, with sales of more than 6.5 million copies in the U.S. alone. Featuring more than 70 worldwide destinations, new titles are being added to the best-selling Eyewitness Travel Guides series each year. In 2003, to mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of Eyewitness Travel Guides, DK is re-launching the entire series, fully updated, and with a brand-new look.
Customer Reviews:
The Greek Islands.......2007-09-27
As with most DK publications this book provides excellent information and fantastic illustrations and maps.
Beautiful but limited.......2007-09-26
The book is absolutely beautiful, but its content for many islands is woefully brief. Since it leaves out the mainland, I would have hoped for more space on the Saronic Islands, for example. Thank heavens they included a brief section on Athens, since everyone has to pass through there sooner or later. But there is almost nothing on the rest of mainland Greece, which is another book. I wish the publisher would put them into one volume. Apparently this is the long awaited new edition.
Excellent maps.......2007-08-08
I thought this book was very helpful for travel in Greece. It has so many colorful pages and it really highlights important information for each island. I especially found some of the maps for historic sites helpful. Overall this book is a great resource and very user friendly. However, I would supplement it with a book that has a little more historical background and written words.
DK Eyewitness Travel Guides Top My List.......2007-04-04
I like their layout: just enough background information, great pictures, maps, and dissected drawings of major buildings. Their Traveller's Needs and Survival Guide handle the basics. Everytime we plan a vacation it begins with a DK Eyewitness Travel Guide purchase.
Greek Island reviewed.......2006-11-10
The historical portion of the book is the same as the Greece Book which is Athens oriented. It is useful and gives a good background -- also brings into the picture the mythological setting of many of the ruins one would see in your travels. Although we only visited three (3) of the islands, the descriptions of what to see and do there was accurate and adequate.
Book Description
The Spartans were a society of warrior-heroes who were the living exemplars of such core values as duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, and extreme toughness. This book, written by one of the world’s leading experts on Sparta, traces the rise and fall of Spartan society and explores the tremendous influence the Spartans had on their world and even on ours. Paul Cartledge brings to life figures like legendary founding father Lycurgus and King Leonidas, who embodied the heroism so closely identified with this unique culture, and he shows how Spartan women enjoyed an unusually dominant and powerful role in this hyper-masculine society. Based firmly on original sources,
The Spartans is the definitive book about one of the most fascinating cultures of ancient Greece.
Customer Reviews:
Not bad for an extremely short introduction........2007-08-21
It's good for what it is, but I was hoping for a bit more depth. If you want a short introduction to the subject that is well written and a really fast read, this would be perfect for you.
The world of the ancient Spartans made clearer........2007-05-26
These Spartans of ancient Greece are a very interesting lot. Most writings and opinions of this society seem to come from Athens, usually they prove to be rivals of Sparta or from Athenian expatriates like Xenophon. A lifetime of practice in hunting, combat training and preparation for war certainly defined who and what the Spartans were, fueled by the legends of Heracles and other god-men of fame, this society saw itself as heroic in their own time. Victorious in battle and in the Olympic games, usually called upon by other Greek city-states to take the lead in war yet profoundly distrustful of the world outside of Laconia. The rights of women, children and even slaves could be considered progressive in Sparta by the standards of the ancient world. This is impressive considering the hyper-masculine standards the Spartans imposed on themselves and the fact that these warrior-heroes seem to be profoundly religious at the same time. Cartledge does a fine job of bringing these people, now long dead to life. I do not personally buy the authors belief these Spartan men were homosexual, considering their brutal and fanatical upbringing, their view and treatment of their mothers, wives and daughters and the strict obedience to Lycurgus laws proclaiming such activity as Foul and abhorent.
Most of what Cartledge comments on seems to have the ring of truth. Is it worth your money and time to have it on the shelf? Yes! It is extremely interesting and it helps to explain how these men once lived and died.
Herodotus is better.......2007-05-14
If you have not read Herodotus or Thucydides this book might be helpful to understand some parts of Ancient Greek history. Otherwise, Paul Cartledge has a talent of turning bright and interesting history into difficult and dull.
Best Intro to Sparta for the Layman.......2007-04-23
This was the first book on the Spartans I ever read, and it is still the best. I used it as a springboard to delve further, but the fact is that little is known about the Spartans, and I still keep coming back to this book to put everything in perspective. It is easy to read (nowhere near as dry as the same author's history of Lakonia) and pretty much has everything known about the Spartans as a people if you don't want to muddle around in timelines, sources, pottery, etc. One reviewer here thought it was confusing for some reason. My condolences. For everyone else, there is no better place to start. The text is never dry, gets into specifics only when the need arises, yet gives a complete and detailed picture without insulting the reader's intelligence and Cartledge's prose here (unlike his other book) rolls right along with a wry wit. You will learn of Spartan attitudes, structure of their government, customs, etc. Don't worry about it being a companion book to a TV documentary. I never saw it and the book stands firmly on its own.
I also highly recommend a collection of essays about different aspects of Spartan life written by a variety of eminent archeologists called (appropriately enough) "Sparta", edited by Michael Whitby and available on amazon.com It is quite readable, and is the MUST HAVE companion book to the above.
interesting and informative.......2007-04-10
I thought this book would be boring but it was very good and informative. Im glad Paul Cartledge also paid attention to the Spartan Women as well, it was a good guide to all things Spartan. I can see why he is considered the "Authority" on everything Spartan.
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Recommended Books
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles: The Comprehensive Guide to over 900 Armored
- Market-Valuation Methods in Life and Pension Insurance
- McGraw-Hill Personal Computer Programming Encyclopedia: Languages and Operating Systems
- Real Estate Market Analysis: A Case Study Approach
- The Hiding Place
- Relationship Banking: Cross-Selling the Bank's Products & Services to Meet Your Customer's Every
- The Purchase of Intimacy
- Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences
- Play It Again, Spam
