Alumni Travel Reading 2018-2019: Ancient Greece

"Greek debt" refers to an economic condition, but also something quite different: the symbolic debt of Western culture to Greece for principles of democracy, philosophy, literature, mathematics, and fine art.

A look at the hiatus for Greek Theater under religiiously imposed restriction and its rebirth over the period of time dating from the Renaissance to the time of independence in 1830.

Each chapter looks at period or phase of Greek Democracy--its development, waning, transformation, and adaptation: from the archaic period to present times.

The powerful and stylistically brilliant saga of a family by one of contemporary Greece's most acclaimed literary masters.

'Blow up the Acropolis' was the 1944 call to action by the surrealist circle the Harbingers of Chaos. Sixty years later, a young man obliges. The Parthenon has been destroyed, the city orphaned. Is it still Athens? What does it mean for Greece, now deprived of its greatest symbol? This provocative tale reveals the unique dilemma of a country still searching for an identity beyond its past.

This award-winning novel takes the form of short letters looking for advice to Mrs. Mina, short news stories, and advertisements.

This newly translated novel, by a contemporary Greek novelist, tells the story of a Greek journalist who is tried and convicted for the murder shortly after the war, in 1948. When he's released 12 years later, he claims his confession was the result of torture.

Since its rediscovery in the early 20th century, Minoan Crete has inspired interest among archaeologists and the wider public. Cretomania explores modern responses to (and uses of) the Minoan past.

Author, Hamilakis uses Bronze Age Crete to show how a sensorial archaeology can unearth the lost, suppressed, and forgotten sensory and affective modalities of humans.

This book examines the rich corpus of mosaics created in Crete during the Roman and Late Antique eras.

Author of among other books, The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell wrote this travelogue and traveler's companion in the 1970s. While in some respects Durrell's perspective will be out of date, his excellent writing, and the breadth of his travels make this book well worth dipping into. Durrell writes that he was inspired by Ernle Bradford's Companion Guide to the Greek Islands (1963) and J.C. Lawson's Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion (1920). Durrell seeks to answer two questions for the traveler to Greece, "What would you have been glad to know when you were on the spot? What would you feel sorry to have missed while you were there.” Many photographs and an introductory map.

Read this book before or after your travels. It is an oversized 651 pages providing a thematic approach to the history and culture of Ancient Greece. The layout, extensive indexing, and detailed table of contents make it amenable to selecting a section of interest.

Michael Scott covers the history and nature of Delphi, from the literary and archaeological evidence surrounding the site, to its rise as a center of worship, to the constant appeal of the oracle.

Most ancient Greeks did not live in what is now Greece but in settlements scattered across Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Libya, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Russia, and Ukraine. They never formed a single unified social or political entity. Acclaimed classics scholar Edith Hall's Introducing the Ancient Greeks is the first book to offer a synthesis of the entire ancient Greek experience, from the rise of the Mycenaean kingdoms of the sixteenth century BC to the final victory of Christianity over paganism in AD 391.

An illustrated guide to every aspect of ancient Greek culture from disability, chronic illness, and old age to architecture to the different aspects of work including agriculture and manufacturing, the arts, the public sphere, and language and literature.

Imagining Mount Athos uncovers a set of alternative and largely unexplored perspectives, all equally important in the mapping and dissemination of Athos in popular imagination.

One can't read Homer without realizing how the ancient epics have left their mark on all aspects of our present day culture and imagination. The authors of this book set out to make the connection between Greek culture and the culture of the 21st century.

Greek artists and architects were important social agents who played significant roles in the social, cultural, and economic life of the ancient Greek world. Art historians, archaeologists, and historians explore the roles and impacts of artists and craftsmen in ancient Greek society. The authors refer to historiography and modern theory, taking stock of the past while offering some new directions for future research. Artists and Artistic Production in Ancient Greece re-examines many long-held ideas and provides a deeper understanding of particular artists and architects, their works, and their social agency.