Myths, Muses and Mortals: The Way of Life in Ancient Greece

by William Furley

Overview

A window into the human lives of classical Greece through the words they left behind.
 
Myths, Muses and Mortals gives new insight into a multitude of life experiences in ancient Greece. The book introduces the lives of the ancient Greeks through extracts taken from a range of sources, including poems, plays, novels, histories, lawsuits, inscriptions, and private note tablets. The voices speak for themselves in fresh translation, but in addition, William Furley gives the narratives historical context and illuminates the literary genre in which they appear. The texts are grouped around important areas of life—love relations, travel and trade, social status, divine signs, daily events, warfare, philosophies, dress code, and private and public celebration—giving voice to the variety of lives experienced by the citizens of ancient Greece and an insight into the Greek mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789149807
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	08/26/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

William Furley is emeritus professor of Greek at Heidelberg University and research fellow at the Institute of Classical Studies, London. His publications include Greek Hymns and three editions of plays by Menander: Epitrepontes, Perikeiromene, and Misoumenos.

Table of Contents

Introduction
 
1 LOVE
Epic love
Comic love
Passionate Love
Wives and Kept women
Higher Spheres
Down to Earth
 
2 STATUS
Gods
Homer
The Great and the Good
New Men
Salt of the Earth
Status Symbols
 
3 SAIL AND OAR
For Those in Peril
Gateway to Elysium
 
4 SIGNS
Birds and Beasts
Oracles
Dreams
A Little Theory
Pseudosciences
 
5 THE DAILY ROUND
At Home
The Agora
Messaging
Business
Dinnertime
Bedtime
Street Crime
 
6 A BETTER WORLD
Elysian Fields
Celibacy
Out of the Dark
Orphic Initiation
 
7 WARFARE
Epic
Lyric: Love and War
The Heroic and the Not-So Heroic
War is the Father
Lady Luck
 
8 DRESS CODE
Women
Men
 
9 CELEBRATION
Myth
History
Private Celebration
 
Notes on Ancient Authors and Sources
Glossary of Ancient Terms
Note on Metre
References
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Photo Acknowledgements
Index

Editorial Reviews

"In his new thematic overview of ancient Greek culture, the classicist Furley notes that his subjects never 'thought of writing just for themselves, as a meditation or perhaps a kind of self-expression or therapy.' Since so many scholars today write only for themselves, Myths, Muses and Mortals comes as a double delight: free of academic jargon, to be sure, but also underpinned by frequent and ample citations from major poems, plays, philosophical tracts, and other writings of the ancient Greek world. Divided into chapters on love, social status, sailing, warfare, and more, the volume is an ideal primer for the fledgling Hellenophile."

New Criterion

An engaging book which approaches the ancient Greek world from an interesting and fresh point of view.

Jan Haywood

"Say the words 'Ancient Greece' and you might think of the poet Homer but not, perhaps, its everyday people. Now their inner lives are uncovered in a new book. . . . Here [Furley] tells . . . what made the Ancient Greeks tick."

Scotland Sunday Post

"Myths, Muses and Mortals is a unique book. It explores all aspects of life in ancient Greece through a wide range of Greek texts from Homer and Herodotus to curse tablets and political inscriptions. Furley writes masterfully and brings the past to life again."

Jonas Grethlein

"Furley writes with the authority of the distinguished scholar that he is but also with the irresistible enthusiasm of a writer completely in love with his subject. I challenge anyone to read this book without being totally won over to Furley’s view that the ancient Greeks are curious, unique and utterly fascinating."

Anthony A. Barrett