PREFACE
What makes the Homeric poems a formative influence in western culture? What is
distinctive about Greek drama? What are the main features of the thought of Plato
and Aristotle and how do the two philosophers differ? What is it about Greek art that
has made it classical in the eyes of future time? It is to help those seeking to
understand the Greek legacy for the first time and those wanting to answer such
questions as these that this book was first conceived. Its central core, identification
of the Greek achievement in political organization, literature, philosophy and art,
remains unchanged.
The Second Edition had two main purposes: it sought to set this achievement
more solidly in the context of history and social development with an additional
chapter on Religion and Social life and extended the chronological range beyond the
classical era to include the Hellenistic period in an expansion of the final sections of
the various chapters on History, Literature, Philosophy and Art. These changes to the
Second Edition have been revised, extended and improved in this edition with the
result that not only are Greek achievements not limited to the Classical era but the
account is less Atheno-centric than hitherto.
Since the Homeric poems are the foundation texts that can be said to
encapsulate the Hellenic spirit and so had a shaping influence upon subsequent Greek
culture, they are introduced in the opening chapter, together with brief mention of
their near contemporary Hesiod. Consideration of these early texts comes after
discussion of the Bronze Age Mycenaean culture to which they can be related rather
than in the later literature chapter. Otherwise the structure and organization are self-
explanatory.
Reading lists are included chapter by chapter and organized by topic rather than
alphabetically. For example, in the History chapter, the opening items relate to
sources; then come large full-length studies of the whole period, followed by works
concentrating on individual periods from the earliest to the Hellenistic era. Brief and