Ancient Greece History

A görög mitológia történeteinek folytatása sem kevésbé szórakoztató, mint az első rész. Megtudhatjuk többek között, hogy miért kellett Sziszüphosznak bűnhődnie, vagy hogy milyen átok sújtotta Midász királyt. A szerző a maga humoros módján rávilágít, a görög istenek olyanok, mint mi. Erősebbek és bölcsebbek ugyan, de közben ugyanolyan esendőek, és ballépéseikkel, felfokozott szerelmi életükkel, veszekedéseikkel bármikor képesek felforgatni az isteni és az emberi világot.

Es difícil encontrar una isla en el mapa más central que Sicilia. Situada en la encrucijada entre Europa y África, y entre el Mediterráneo oriental y occidental, Sicilia rara vez ha sido gobernada como un Estado independiente y unificado. Sin embargo, la isla siempre ha ocupado un asiento de primera fila en algunos de los acontecimientos más importantes de la historia, y en ningún otro lugar es más evidente que en la antigüedad.

In the early days of ancient Greece, queer love was celebrated. The most famous warrior in antiquity loved another man, the poet whose lyrics were memorised by philosophers and kings sang of her desire for women. Men could swear oaths of undying love and live out the rest of their lives together in peace. What fragments survive of this ancient world all tell us one thing: it was not a sin to be queer.

When the Spartans' famous stand at the Battle of Thermopylae ended during the Second Persian War, the Athenian fleet was forced to fall back, and Xerxes' massive Persian army marched into Greece before advancing on Athens. The Greek armies were scattered and unable to face the might of Persia, so Athens was forced to evacuate the entire population of the city to Salamis, from where the Athenians watched in horror as Xerxes' troops plundered the defenseless city, set it aflame, and razed the Acropolis.

Perhaps the most famous epic poems ever written, the Iliad and the Odyssey have been read for nearly 3,000 years, making them the oldest written works in the Western world. The poems made characters like Paris, Helen, Odysseus, Achilles, Hector, and Ajax instantly recognizable, and they also influenced other ancient poets like Virgil, whose Aeneid is clearly modeled after them.

Eine fesselnde Einführung in die griechische Geschichte, von der mykenischen Zivilisation und dem Trojanischen Krieg über das Goldene Zeitalter des Perikles bis hin zur Hellenistischen Ära und der Eroberung durch die Römer

The Peloponnesian War, as the great historian Thucydides wrote in the introduction to his eponymous book, which has become one of the greatest historical treatises of antiquity, was an event of such calamitous magnitude that Greece had never witnessed its like in all of recorded history. Not the Trojan War, not the Dorian Invasion, not even the recent Persian invasions could compare to the scale of the devastation that engulfed all of Greece for almost three decades, causing the deaths of tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands.

Attempting to cover all the forms the "Goddess of Love" encapsulates is no small affair. The roles she played in romance, marriage, procreation, and all of the other desires of humanity were myriad, but the aim of this book is to paint a slightly different, perhaps more esoteric version of Aphrodite from the usual image of her in mythology books.

We might think we are through with the past, but the past isn't through with us. Tragedy permits us to come face to face with the things we don't want to know about ourselves, but which still make us who we are. It articulates the conflicts and contradictions that we need to address in order to better understand the world we live in. A work honed from a decade's teaching at the New School, where Critchley on Tragedy is one of the most popular courses, Tragedy, the Greeks and Us is a compelling examination of the history of tragedy.

Stephen Fry angol író, színész, rendező és humorista, Britannia "nemzeti kincse", ahogy egyszer Károly, walesi herceg nevezte. Ezúttal sem fukarkodik a humorral, ebben a hangoskönyvben, az olümposzi rend létrejöttén, az emberi teremtésen keresztül Ámor és Pszükhé történetéig meséli újra a görög mitológiát.

In ancient Athens, thousands would attend theatre festivals that turned writing into a fierce battle for fame, money, and laughably large trophies. While the tragedies earned artistic respect, it was the comedies - the raunchy jokes, vulgar innuendo, outrageous invention, and barbed political commentary - that captured the imagination of the city.

En una época en la que aún no existía la filosofía en la antigua Grecia, sus habitantes necesitaban una interpretación consistente a su realidad inmediata y, aunque sus respuestas no podían comprobarse, sirvieron para darle sentido a sus vidas, por momentos sumergidas en la ignorancia y el misterio. ¿Quieres conocer los orígenes de esta civilización siempre explicados a través de mitos y leyendas protagonizadas por dioses profundamente humanizados?

Lying in the middle of a plain in modern day Iran is a forgotten ancient city: Persepolis. Built 2,500 years ago, it was known in its day as the richest city under the sun. Persepolis was the capital of Achaemenid Persian Empire, the largest empire the world had ever seen, but after its destruction, it was largely forgotten for nearly 2,000 years, and the lives and achievements of those who built it were almost entirely erased from history.

Modern perceptions of ancient Greece are almost always based on Athens and Sparta, which is why other city-states and other military units besides the hoplites have been overlooked for thousands of years. For this reason, Greek cavalry forces - including their composition, purpose, techniques, equipment, and developments - are still not very well understood when compared with their naval or infantry counterparts.

Pergamon reached the height of its power during the Hellenistic period, becoming the capital of the Attalid kings, which ruled during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. During the Roman period, the city was the first capital of the Asian province, but it ultimately lost this status to its local rival, Ephesus. Thanks to its royalty-decreed monopoly on parchment fabrication (“pergamon” in the Ancient Greek language) and tissues and its transnational commercial activity, the city became an important multicultural center for the entire empire.

Over the last 2,000 years, ambitious men have dreamed of forging vast empires and attaining eternal glory in battle, but of all the conquerors who took steps toward such dreams, none were ever as successful as antiquity’s first great conqueror. Leaders of the 20th century hoped to rival Napoleon’s accomplishments, while Napoleon aimed to emulate the accomplishments of Julius Caesar. But Caesar himself found inspiration in Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BCE), the Macedonian king who managed to stretch an empire from Greece to the Himalayas in Asia by the age of 30.

There have been no shortage of great warrior societies in history, including the Romans, Mongols, Macedonians, and Vikings, and the list goes on. Yet one humble city in particular, nestled in a valley near the Eurotas River in the Greek region of the Peloponnese and once ridiculed as little more than a cluster of villages inhabited by uncouth shepherds, produced the most famous warrior elite the world has ever known.

There are few mythological characters that require less of an introduction than Hercules. His "labours" are known and have been reimagined by cultures far beyond their Greek beginnings, and he continues to influence modern culture in more ways than any other ancient Greek hero.

What’s the big idea? Former slave Epictetus argues that since we cannot control the external world, true freedom comes from the reasoned control of one’s own desires and passions. This is the core of Stoic thought that Epictetus taught in Western Greece about AD 100. Stoicism became the dominant moral philosophy of the Hellenistic and Roman world, and Epictetus became its dominant and most respected teacher. Though Epictetus wrote nothing that has survived, writer Arrian attended his lectures and took those notes that preserved Epictetus’ teachings.

His victories won him many supporters, but they also earned him enemies. This easy-to-listen-to biography offers a fascinating look at the life of Alexander and the world in which he lived.