The Portable Greek Reader (Portable Library)

The Portable Greek Reader (Portable Library)

It is commonplace to say that our civilization is built on the ruins of Greece. W. H. Auden€s splendid anthology locates the truth behind the truism, while filling in the gaps in our knowledge of a people who gave us so much of our cultural legacy.<p>Every page in <b>The Portable Greek Reader</b> contains some fundamental precursor of the ways in which we think about heroism, destiny, love, politics, tragedy, science, virtue, and thought itself, Included are excerpts from the mythologies of Hesiod; the martial epics of Homer; the dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, and Heraclitus; Aesop€s fables; poems by Pindar and Sappho; the scientific writings of Euclid, Galen, and Hippocrates; and the history of Thucydides. Presented in their most elegant and authoritative translations, and accompanied by Auden€s brilliant introduction, these selections recreate the Greek world in all its splendor, strangeness, and sophistication.<p>€œEngaging and full and intelligent … a command performance, brought off with considerable aplomb.€<br> €"<b>The New York Times</b></p></p>