The Oxford History of Greece & the Hellenistic World 2nd Edition

This is a collection of highly readable and enjoyable essays about many aspects of Greek including Hellenistic Culture. The focus is not on the political history but on philosophy, art, architecture etc. The essays are all of very high quality. Given the difficult sources, it is very understandable that there is little about reconstructing daily life or economic development. This is maybe not for someone who wants a first introduction and obviously, it will have little new to the specialist, but for anyone in between, a very enjoyable read.

The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellinistic World gives a bird's eye view of the period. For the reader who is unfamiliar with Greek and Hellenistic history and its art and literature, this is a good introductrion. For the Reader who once took an interest in these matters and would like to get reacquainted with them, this book should offer a good reminder of things forgotten. The book is well-written and stimulating and well suited for the general reader. The specialist might want to look elsewhere.

What can I say. I thought they whittled the staues out marble witheir penknives; apparently it has something to do with casting in a mold. Read it and find out more !

Okay, let's start by making a disclaimer: this is an OLD book. It was first issued in 1986 as part of THE OXFORD HISTORY OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD, and it does show its age. It obviously hasn't been updated because it still contains references to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as being a current government founded on democratic principles!Putting its age aside, it's an okay read. The book is divided into articles detailing specific areas of interest: history, philosophy, epic poetry, culture, domestic life, etc. In other words, it's a survey of the Greek world. My problem is that the sections dealing specifically with history are so threadbare, and some very important topics are ignored completely.There is no chapter on Minoan civilization, or even references to it, and the Mycenaean period is also absent. Why it starts with the Archaic period is not made clear. Perhaps in 1986 not enough was known to reconstruct either civilization adequately. Furthermore, discussion of pederasty is almost nonexistent. One chapter on poetry falsely states that pederasty wasn't a subject treated in epic poetry, when "Iliad" clearly portrays a love relationship between Achilles and Patroclos (though not explicitly sexual). Also, Haphaestian, Alexander the Great's gran amour isn't even mentioned!The worst part of the book is Simon Price's reliance on Biblical literature to reconstruct areas of the Hellenistic period. There aren't many modern historians who treat the Bible as anything other than folklore, and rightly so. Equal skepticism is given to Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Arian, etc., because they didn't use scientific methods to examine history. However, this book relies heavily on their work as well.The essays on culture are much better than the essays on history. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on philosophy and "Life and Society."I imagine this book would be ideal for a semester length class on Greece, but there are better survey history books than this one. I think it would have been better if the contributors had opted for a narrative structure closer to that used in The Oxford History of Egypt, which was very well done.In conclusion, it's okay book, even if outdated; but it didn't live up to my expectations.

HOW GREAT CIVILIZATIONI enjoyed every letter and every line and every pageto be honest I read it many times and IT INSPIRES ME SOOOO MUCH

This book is great for anyone who enjoys myths and texts upon the ancient world.

I mean a book is a book so its not much to reviewAlways order used its much cheaper and choose "like new"My book looked like it was owned by a student who was highlighting a few things but I dont care.As far as my knowledge the book is accurate and I have 4 years of greco-roman studies

Very informative