The book of the ancient Greeks / An introduction to the history and civilization of Greece from the coming of the Greeks to the conquest of Corinth by Rome in 146 B.C.

by Dorothy Mills

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING

This book has been intended for those who were reading about Greece for the first time. The following list is for those older readers of the book who would like to know more about this great civilization. It only contains suggestions as to how to begin, and is therefore not in any way a complete bibliography.

I. Books about Greece

GROTE. History of Greece. This book was written some time ago, but it is still the most famous history of Greece.

C. H. and H. B. HAWES. Crete the Forerunner of Greece.

BAIKIE. The Sea Kings of Crete.

R. W. LIVINGSTONE. The Greek Genius and its Meaning to Us.

R. W. LIVINGSTONE. (Edited by) The Pageant of Greece.

R. W. LIVINGSTONE. (Edited by) The Legacy of Greece.

GILBERT MURRAY. The Rise of the Greek Epic.

A. E. ZIMMERN. The Greek Commonwealth.

E. N. GARDINER. Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals.

ETHEL B. ABRAHAMS. Greek Dress.

EMILY JAMES PUTNAM. The Lady.

E. POTTIER. Douris and the Painters of Greek Vases.

G. M. A. RICHTER. The Craft of Athenian Pottery.

G. M. A. RICHTER. Handbook to the Classical Collection in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. An excellent introduction to the study of Greek Art.

KENNETH J. FREEMAN. The Schools of Hellas.

A. E. HAIGH. The Attic Theatre.

E. A. GARDNER. A Handbook of Greek Sculpture.

D. G. HOGARTH. Philip and Alexander.

PUTNAM. Authors and their Public in Ancient Times.

MAHAFFY. Social Life in Greece.

MAHAFFY. Alexander's Empire.

II. Greek Writers

No reading about Greece can take the place of reading what the Greeks themselves wrote. References to Greek writers will have been found all through this book and in the list of acknowledgments at the beginning. The following list of the more important writers and their works referred to in this book has been put together for the purpose of easier reference.

HOMER. The Iliad, translated by Lang, Leaf and Myers.

HOMER. The Odyssey, translated by Butcher and Lang.

HOMER. The Homeric Hymns, translated by Andrew Lang.

AESCHYLUS. Translated by A. S. Way and also by E. M. Cookson.

AESCHYLUS. The Agamemnon, translated by Gilbert Murray.

SOPHOCLES. Translated by R. C. Jebb.

SOPHOCLES. Oedipus, King of Thebes, translated by Gilbert Murray.

EURIPIDES. Translated by Gilbert Murray.

ARISTOPHANES. Translated by B. B. Rogers.

The Frogs, translated by Gilbert Murray.

PLATO. Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

PLATO. The Republic, translated by Davies and Vaughan.

PLATO. Trial and Death of Socrates, translated by F. J. Church.

ARISTOTLE. Politics, translated by Benjamin Jowett and also by J. E. C. Welldon.

HERODOTUS. Translated by G. C. Macaulay.

THUCYDIDES. Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

XENOPHON. Translated by H. G. Dakyns.

PLUTARCH. Translated by Dryden, revised by A. H. Clough.

DEMOSTHENES. Public Orations, translated by A. W. Pickard-Cambridge.

The Claim of Antiquity, an excellent pamphlet published by the Oxford University Press, gives a much fuller and more complete list of books and translations for those who would like further suggestions.

III. Greek Sculpture and Architecture

Not every one can go to Greece or even to Sicily, but most museums have good collections of casts and models. Greek sculpture is not all found in one place, but scattered through the museums of the world. Those who can go to London, Paris, Rome and Naples, if nowhere else, can get first-hand knowledge of some of the greatest things the Greeks produced. For the sculptures from the Parthenon are in the British Museum; most beautiful things are in the Museo delle Terme in Rome (to see the other half of the Throne of Aphrodite one must go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts), and Sophocles is in the Museum of the Lateran. From Naples one can go to Paestum, once the Greek colony of Poseidonia, famous in ancient times for its roses, and see the Temple of Poseidon. It has never been restored, and is one of the best preserved Greek temples to be seen anywhere out of Attica. There it stands, as it has stood for over two thousand years, looking out towards the sea, solitary, now, and desolate, yet in its loneliness most beautiful.

All these things are merely suggestions as to one way of beginning. Those who begin will find no difficulty in going on.