Author Description

This work looks at Greek thought by focusing on Greek poetry - Epic, Lyric and Tragic - its stories and myths, its images, its philosophical ideas, itsrhyming and many other aspects of that great culture. The work attempts to explain the longevity of ancient works by exploring a cluster of ideas. Briefly, these are the preoccupation of the ancient writers with eternal themes; the succinct and beautiful style used to express their ideas; the essential pliability of the latter, often presented through beautiful imagery and re-usable metaphors. The effort was thus made to demonstrate how these images proved adaptable in art and literature but also nourishedpsychologically-oriented analyses which show how ahead of their times these poets were in understanding human behaviour and suffering.This dovetailing of the 'old' with the 'new' allowed Greek thought to survive for millennia and helped shape what we now call Western Culture. To follow in greater details the many ideas advanced in this book - old and more daringly contemporary - further reading has been provided in the book's many notes while, at the end, an unusual Names Index/Glossary offers thumb-nail sketches of all the (many) names of mythical heroes, historical personalities, and events which figure in this work. Finally, the text is strewn with the author's personal reflections born from his wide reading and highly peripatetic life as a lecturer or geopolitical advisor in three continents. In short, this is a veritable illustrated encyclopedia of classical ideas and culture, of interest and great use to College Students taking Liberal Arts courses or reading Classics at University. The book has also been written with mature readers in mind who would like to learn more about the ancient Greek world.