The classics
Many of the classics
make excellent companion
reading for a trip
around Greece -
especially the
historians Thucydides
and Herodotus. Reading
Homer's
Odyssey
when you're battling
with or resigning
yourself to the vagaries
of island ferries puts
your own plight into
perspective. One
slightly less well-known
source, especially
recommended for travels
around the Peloponnese,
is Pausanias's fourth-century
AD
Guide to Greece
, annotated by Peter
Levi in its Penguin
edition with notes on
modern identifications
of sites mentioned.
Most of the standard
undergraduate staples
are part of the Penguin
Classics paperback
series. Routledge and
Duckworth both also have
a huge, steadily
expanding backlist of
Classical Studies,
though many titles are
expensive and quite
specialized.
Herodotus
The Histories (Penguin),
or A.D. Godley, tr (Cambridge
UP). Revered as the
father of systematic
history and anthropology,
this fifth-century BC
Anatolian writer
chronicled both the
causes and campaigns of
the Persian Wars, as
well as the contemporary,
assorted tribes and
nations inhabiting Asia
Minor.
Homer The
Iliad; The Odyssey .
The first concerns
itself, semi-factually,
with the late Bronze Age
war of the Achaeans
against Troy in Asia
Minor; the second
recounts the hero
Odysseus's long journey
home, via seemingly
every corner of the
Mediterranean. For a
verse rendition, *Richmond
Lattimore's translation
(University of Chicago,
Iliad ;
HarperCollins,
Odyssey ) has yet to
be bettered. For a prose
rendition, *Martin
Hammond's Iliad (Penguin)
and Odyssey (Duckworth,
UK) currently edge out
second-best choices by
the father-and-son team
of E.V. Rieu ( Iliad
, Penguin) and D.C.H.
Rieu ( Odyssey ,
Penguin).
Ovid The
Metamorphoses , A.D.
Melville, tr (Oxford
UP). Though collected by
a first-century AD Roman
poet, this remains one
of the most accessible
renditions of the more
piquant Greek myths,
involving
transformations as
divine blessing or
curse.
Pausanias
The Guide to Greece
(Penguin, 2 vols, Vol. 2
currently o/p).
Essentially the first-ever
guidebook, intended for
Roman pilgrims to the
holy sites of the Greek
mainland; invaluable for
later archeologists in
assessing damage or
change to temples over
the intervening
centuries, or (in some
cases) locating them at
all.
Plutarch
The Age of Alexander; On
Sparta; The Rise and
Fall of Athens (Penguin).
Another ancient author,
writing perhaps with the
benefit of hindsight,
but with the
disadvantage of
unreliable sources and
much conjecture.
Thucydides
History of the
Peloponnesian War (Penguin).
Bleak month-by-month
account of the conflict,
by a cashiered Athenian
officer whose
affiliation and dim view
of human nature didn't
usually obscure his
objectivity; see George
Cawkwell's book for a
revisionist view.
Xenophon
The History of My Times
(Penguin). Thucydides'
account of the
Peloponnesian War stops
in 411 BC; this work
continues events until
362 BC.
Ancient history and
interpretation of the
classics
Mary Beard and John
Henderson The
Classics: a Very Short
Introduction (Oxford
UP). As it says; an
excellent overview.
A.R. Burn
History of Greece
(Penguin). Probably the
best general
introduction to ancient
Greece, though for
fuller analysis you'll
do better with one or
other of the following
more specialized titles.
Paul Cartlege
Cambridge
Illustrated History of
Ancient Greece
(Cambridge UP).
Large-format, pricey
volume packed with
information useful for
both novices and
experts.
George Cawkwell
Thucydides and the
Peloponnesian War
(Routledge). Recent,
revisionist overview of
Thucydides' work and
relations with main
personalities of the
war, challenging
previous assumptions of
his infallibility.
M.I. Finley
The World of Odysseus
(Pimlico, UK). The
latest reprint of a 1954
warhorse, pioneering in
its investigation of the
historicity (or
otherwise) of the events
and society related by
Homer. Breezily readable
and stimulating, with
prejudices apparent
rather than subtle.
Michael Grant and
John Hazel
Who's Who in Classical
Mythology
(Routledge). A gazetteer
of over 1200
mythological
personalities, together
with historical and
geographical background.
Pierre Grimal
, ed Dictionary of
Classical Mythology
(Penguin). Though
translated from the
French, still considered
to have the edge on the
more recent Grant/Hazel
title.
Simon Hornblower
The Greek World
479-323 BC
(Routledge). An erudite
survey of ancient Greece
at its zenith, from the
end of the Persian Wars
to the death of
Alexander; now a
standard university
paperback text.
John Kenyon Davies
Democracy and
Classical Greece
(Fontana; Harvard UP).
An established and
accessible account of
the Classical period and
its political
developments.
Robin Lane Fox
Alexander the Great
(Penguin). An absorbing
study, which mixes
historical scholarship
with imaginative
psychological detail.
Oswyn Murray
Early Greece
(Fontana; Harvard UP).
The Greek story from the
Mycenaeans and Minoans
through to the beginning
of the Classical period.
Robin Osborne
Greece in the
Making 1200-479 BC (Routledge).
A well-illustrated
paperback on the rise of
the city-state.
John Purkis
Teach Yourself
Classical Civilisation
(Teach Yourself Books).
A nice, succinct
introduction to the
subject.
Tony Spawforth
Greece, an Oxford
Archaeological Guide
(Oxford UP). An
interpretive guide, by
the co-author, with
Simon Hornblower, of the
also-recommended
Oxford Classical
Dictionary (Oxford
UP).
F.W. Walbank
The Hellenistic World
(Fontana; Harvard UP).
Greece under the sway of
the Macedonian and Roman
empires.
Ancient religion
Harry Brewster
River Gods of Greece
(I.B. Tauris; St
Martin's). Most ancient
rivers had a deity
associated with them;
here are the cults and
legends.
Walter Burkert
Greek Religion:
Archaic and Classical
(Blackwell). A superb
overview of deities and
their attributes and
antecedents, rites, the
protocol of sacrifice
and the symbolism of
major festivals;
especially good on
relating Greek worship
to its predecessors in
the Middle East.
Matthew Dillon
Pilgrims and
Pilgrimage in Ancient
Greece (Routledge).
A pricey hardback
exploring not only the
main sanctuaries such as
Delphi, but also minor
oracles, the role of
women and children and
the secular festivities
attending the rites.
Nano Marinatos and
Robin Hagg
Greek Sanctuaries: New
Approaches (Routledge).
The form and function of
the temples, in the
light of recent
scholarship.
R. Gordon Wasson,
Albert Hoffmann, Carl
Ruck The Road
to Eleusis: Unveiling
the Secret of the
Mysteries (Harcourt
Brace, US, o/p). A well-argued
monograph expounding the
theory that the
Eleusinian mysteries
were at least in part a
psychedelic trip,
courtesy of grain-ergot
fungus. Guaranteed to
outrage mainstream
classicists, though even
Burkert (see above)
admits they may have a
case.
Food and wine
Rosemary Barron
Flavours of Greece
(Grub Street, UK).
Probably the leading
cookbook among many
contenders, by an
internationally
recognized authority on
Greek cuisine. Contains
over 250 recipes.
Andrew Dalby
Siren Feasts (Routledge).
Subtitled A History
of Food and Gastronomy
in Greece , this
analysis of ancient
texts demonstrates just
how little Greek cuisine
has changed in three
millennia; also
excellent on the
introduction and
etymology of common
vegetables and herbs.
Alan Davidson
Mediterranean
Seafood (Penguin,
o/p). A 1972 classic,
periodically reprinted,
this amazingly erudite
and witty book
catalogues (almost) all
known edible species,
complete with legends,
anecdotes, habits, local
names and a suggested
recipe or two for each.
James Davidson
Courtesans and
Fishcakes (HarperCollins,
UK). The politics, class
characteristics and
etiquette of consumption
and consummation - with
wine, women, boys and
seafood - in ancient
Athens, with their
bearing on both
historical events and
modern attitudes.
Nico Manessis
The Illustrated
Greek Wine Book
(Olive Press
Publications, Corfu;
available at select
retailers in Greece or
through
www.greekwineguide.gr
). Covers almost all the
wineries, from mass-market
to micro, with very
reliable ratings; also
fascinating features on
grape varieties,
traditional retsina-making,
and even how Greeks were
instrumental in
introducing vines to the
New World. Pricey but
worth it.
Nikos Stavroulakis
Cookbook of the
Jews of Greece (Lycabettus
Press, Athens; Cadmus
Press, US). Tasty
recipes interspersed
with their relation to
the Jewish liturgical
year, plus potted
histories of the
communities which
produced them. There
have been murmurings,
however, that many of
the recipes emanate from
one subgroup - the ex-Jewish
Ma'min of Thessaloníki.
300 Traditional
Greek Recipes (Grecocard,
Greece). As it says; the
best of a huge pile of
glossy pictorial
cookbooks pitched at the
tourist market.
Archeology and art
John Beckwith Early
Christian and Byzantine
Art (Yale UP).
Illustrated study
placing Byzantine art
within a wider context.
William R. Biers
Archeology of Greece: An
Introduction (Cornell
UP, US). A...
read more >>
"Coffee-table" books
William Abramowicz The
Greek File: Images of a
Mythic Land (Rizzoli).
An obstinately nostalgic
black-and-white look at
the country in the
1980s, by this veteran
Condé Nast photographer;
the main complaint is it
fails to take on board
the...
read more >>
Byzantine, medieval
and Ottoman history
Averil Cameron The
Mediterranean World in
Late Antiquity, AD
395-600 (Routledge).
Essentially the early
Byzantine years.
Nicholas Cheetham
Medieval Greece (Yale
UP, o/p in US). A
general survey of the...
read more >>
Modern Greece
Timothy Boatswain and
Colin Nicolson A
Traveller's History of
Greece (Windrush Press;
Interlink). Dated
(coverage ceases in
early 1990s) but
well-written overview of
the important Greek
periods and
personalities. David...
read more >>
World War II and its
aftermath
David H. Close The
Origins of the Greek
Civil War (Longman,
o/p). An excellent,
readable study that
focuses on the social
conditions in 1920s and
1930s Greece that made
the country so ripe for
conflict. Draws on
primary sources, slays
a...
read more >>
Ethnography
Juliet du Boulay
Portrait of a Greek
Mountain Village (Oxford
UP, o/p; Denise Harvey,
Límni, Évvia). An
account of the village
of Ambéli, on Évvia,
during the 1960s. The
habits and customs of an
all-but-vanished way of
life are observed...
read more >>
Modern Greek fiction
Roderick Beaton An
Introduction to Modern
Greek Literature (Oxford
UP). A chronological
survey of fiction and
poetry from Independence
to the early 1990s, with
a useful discussion on
the "Language Question".
Maro...
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Greece in foreign
fiction
Louis de Berničres
Captain Corelli's
Mandolin (Minerva;
Random House). Set on
Kefalloniá during the
World War II occupation,
this accomplished 1994
tragicomedy quickly
acquired cult, then
word-of-mouth bestseller
status, but has
lately...
read more >>
Modern Greek poetry
With two Nobel laureates
in recent years - George
Seferis and Odysseus
Elytis - modern Greece
has an extraordinarily
intense and dynamic
poetic tradition.
Translations of all of
the following are
excellent. C.P. Cavafy
Collected Poems...
read more >>
Bookshops
Athens has a number of
excellent bookshops, at
which many of the
recommendations should
be available (at fifty
percent mark-up for
foreign-published titles).
In London, the Hellenic
Bookservice, 91 Fortess
Rd, Kentish Town, London
NW5 1AG (tel 020/7267
9499, fax 7267 9498,
www.hellenicbookservice.com
), is the UK's premier
walk-in Greek bookshop:
knowledgeable and well-stocked
specialist dealers in
new, secondhand and out-of-print
books. Rivals Zeno's
have premises at 57A
Nether St, North
Finchley, London N12 7NP
(tel 020/8446 1985,
www.thegreekbookstore.com
).
