Contents

Cover

About the Book

About the Author

Also by Edith Hall

Maps

Dedication

Title Page

Epigraph

Preface

Timeline

Introduction: Ten Characteristics of the Ancient Greeks

1. Seafaring Mycenaeans

2. The Creation of Greece

3. Frogs and Dolphins Round the Pond

4. Inquiring Ionians

5. The Open Society of Athens

6. Spartan Inscrutability

7. The Rivalrous Macedonians

8. God-Kings and Libraries

9. Greek Minds and Roman Power

10. Pagan Greeks and Christians

 

A Note on Sources

Suggestions for Further Reading

Acknowledgments

Index

Copyright

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Maria Guarnaschelli and Mitchell Kohles at Norton for their enthusiasm for the project and unending patience. Janet Byrne was a superlative copy-editor who improved the book enormously. I would also like to thank Katherine Ailes at Random House for her thoughtful and meticulous editorial work. Paul Cartledge’s incisive and humorous comments on the whole book proved indispensable, although I have stubbornly not heeded his advice on every single occasion. My father, Stuart Hall, read the last chapter in detail and provided me with invaluable suggestions for improving it. My mother, Brenda Hall, helped me with gathering the data for the maps and timeline. Valeria Vitale designed the maps. R. Ross Holloway and Laura Monros-Gaspar lent generous assistance with tracking down images. Yana Sistovari has been an unfailingly sympathetic and entertaining companion on visits to archaeological sites. My views on the ancient Greeks have developed in lively discussion with students over the last twenty-five years at the universities of Cambridge, Reading, Oxford, Durham, and Royal Holloway and at King’s College, London. I thank them all. But the book could not have been written without the day-to-day support and encouragement of my husband, Richard Poynder, and the humorous commentary of our children, Sarah and Georgia.

About the Author

Edith Hall is one of Britain’s foremost classicists, having held posts at the universities of Royal Holloway, Cambridge, Durham, Reading, and Oxford. In 2015 she was awarded the Erasmus Medal of the European Academy, given to a scholar whose works represent a significant contribution to European culture and scientific achievement. She is the first woman to win this award.

Hall regularly writes in the Times Literary Supplement, reviews theatre productions on radio, and has written and edited more than a dozen works on the ancient world. She teaches at King’s College London and lives in Gloucestershire.

About the Book

Who were the ancient Greeks?

They gave us democracy, philosophy, poetry, rational science, the joke. But what was it that enabled them to achieve so much?

The ancient Greeks were a geographically disparate people whose civilization lasted over twenty centuries – and that made us who we are today. And here Edith Hall gives us a revelatory way of viewing this scattered people, identifying ten unique personality traits that she shows to be unique and central to the widespread ancient Greeks.

Hall introduces a people who are inquisitive, articulate and open-minded but also rebellious, individualistic, competitive and hedonistic. They prize excellence above all things but love to laugh. And, central to their identity, they are seafarers whose relationship with the sea underpins every aspect of their society.

Expertly researched and elegantly told, this indispensable introduction unveils a civilization of incomparable richness and a people of astounding complexity.

ALSO BY EDITH HALL

Inventing the Barbarian

The Theatrical Cast of Athens

Cultural Responses to the Persian Wars

The Return of Ulysses

New Directions in Ancient Pantomime

(with Rosie Wyles)

Greek Tragedy

Ancient Slavery and Abolition

Adventures with Iphigenia in Tauris

 

TRANSLATOR/EDITOR

Medea and Other Plays
(with James Morwood)

Persians

A Note on Sources

I have drawn on the work of many scholars during my research into the ancient Greek world, and some of that work is included in the suggestions for further reading below. The translations from ancient Greek authors are almost all my own, but in a few cases I have used others’ translations.

On page 94, the description of the riotous symposium at Akragas is by an ancient writer, Athenaeus, and the translation of his Deipnosophistae 2.37 is that of Charles Burton Gulick in the Loeb Classical Library version of Athenaeus, vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927). The metaphors “half seas over” and “ship came in” are those of W. J. Slater, in “Symposium at Sea,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philolog y 80 (1976): 161–70.

On page 116, the definition of a philosophical paradox is that of Charles A. Kahn, in “The Thesis of Parmenides,” Review of Metaphysics 22 (1969): 720. The description of the ancient Mediterranean world as a “mosaic of highly individual and distinctive cultures” on page 122 is that of Amélie Kuhrt, in “‘Greeks’ and ‘Greece’ in Mesopotamian and Persian Perspectives,” The Twenty-First J. L. Myres Memorial Lecture (Oxford: Leopard’s Head Press, 2002), 9–10. The suggestion on page 138 that the Athenian Council “could thus have contained a fair cross-section of the citizen body” comes from P. J. Rhodes, The Athenian Boule (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), 4. Paul Cartledge defines the Sparta of the mid-fourth century BC as “reduced to the status of a mere Peloponnesian squabbler,” which I quote on page 163, in his Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta (London: Duckworth, 1986), 3. The description of the hoplite’s sense of purpose on page 174 is that of Victor Hanson, in The Western Way of War (New York: Knopf, 1989), 220. Larry Tritle considers the possibility that ancient Spartans sometimes suffered from PTSD in “Xenophon, Clearchus and PTSD,” in Christopher Tuplin, ed., Xenophon and His World (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004). Richard Owen’s praise of Aristotle’s zoology, quoted on page 195, is from Richard Owen, The Hunterian Lectures in Comparative Anatomy (May and June 1837), edited by Phillip Reid Sloan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 91. The translation of Galen on page 234 is a passage from his treatise On Examinations by Which the Best Physicians Are Recognized. The passage is preserved only in an Arabic version, here reproduced from the English translation of Albert Z. Iskandar, De optimo medico cognoscendo (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1988), 103–5. Tessa Rajak’s praise of Josephus’s readability and appeal, on page 248, is quoted from Josephus, 2nd edition (London: Bristol Classical Press, 2002), 9. G. W. Bowersock’s remark about Hellenism on page 250 is quoted from his Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), 7.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted inwriting by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

To My Family

—As some grave Tyrian trader, from the sea,

Descried at sunrise an emerging prow

Lifting the cool-hair’d creepers stealthily,

The fringes of a southward-facing brow

Among the Aegean isles;

And saw the merry Grecian coaster come,

Freighted with amber grapes, and Chian wine,

Green bursting figs, and tunnies steep’d in brine;

And knew the intruders on his ancient home,

The young light-hearted Masters of the waves . . .

MATTHEW ARNOLD, The Scholar Gypsy, 231–40

A boy musician riding a dolphin. Detail of a red-figure Etruscan vase of the mid-fourth century BC in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid. (Photograph: Alberto Rivas Rodríguez. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Spain N.I. 1999/127/3)
Drawing of the Tomb of the Diver at Paestum by Alice Walsh, reproduced from p. 366 of R. Ross Holloway, “The Tomb of the Diver,” in American Journal of Archaeology 100, no. 3 (2006): 365–88. (Courtesy of Archaeological Institute of America and American Journal of Archaeology)

Index

The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.

 

Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

 

 

Abdera, 100, 108, 118, 156

abstract concepts, Greeks and, 110, 111, 115, 116

Academy, xxvi, 20, 144, 153, 155, 194, 225

Achaean League, 197, 230, 231

Achaeans, 21, 55, 56, 78

Achaemenids, 117, 122, 188

Acharnae, 141, 147

Achilles, 21, 31, 36, 46, 47, 52, 53, 54–5, 57, 60–1, 62, 116, 219

Acropolis, 128, 131, 132, 138, 141, 142–3, 153

Actium, battle of (31 BC), xxviii, 246

Acts of Andrew (apocryphal), 266

Acts of the Apostles, 256, 257–8

Ada, 186

Adonis, 141, 218

Aegeus, King, 146

Aegina, 59, 95, 223

Aeolians, 47, 67

Aeschines, 191

Aeschylus, xxvi, 5, 119–20, 130–6, 142, 143–4, 146, 175, 256

Against Games and Theatrical Entertainment (John Chrysostom), 271

Against the Christians (Porphyry), 265

Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, 6, 31, 34, 43, 52, 53, 54, 78, 136, 163, 169, 172

Agamemnon (Aeschylus), 136, 143–4

Agatharchides, 224

Agathocleia, Bactrian Queen, 201

Agathocles, 199

Agesilaus (Xenophon), 165–6

Agesilaus II, King of Sparta, 165–6, 189

agoge (education), 162–3

agon (struggle), 21

Airs, Waters and Places (Hippocrates), 7–8

Aitia (Callimachus), 215, 216

Akkadians, xiv

Akragas, 86–7, 92, 114

Akrotiri, 28, 34–5

Albania, 185

Albinus, Aulus Postumius, 232

Alcaeus, 89–90, 91

Alcestis (Euripides), 92

Alcibiades, 147, 151

Alcmaeonids, 131, 134, 142

Alcman, 90, 167, 168, 172, 178

Alexander III, “the Great,” King of Macedonia, xiv, xxvii, 1, 57, 180, 181, 182, 184, 202, 207, 224, 261

Aristotle as tutor to, xxvi, 183, 193–4, 196

character of, 183, 186, 188

conquests of, xxvii, 183, 185–7

death of, xxvii, 183, 187–8, 196, 206

divinity claimed by, 187, 188, 189, 190, 209

military genius of, 183, 185

Persian customs adopted by, 188

tomb of, 207, 213

“Alexander mosaic,” Pompeii, 197

Alexander Romance, 189

Alexandreis (Gautier de Châtillon), 248

Alexandria, 187, 204, 209, 234, 246, 248

Alexander’s tomb at, 207, 213

Dionysiac festival at, 209–10

earthquake in, 227

as intellectual and cultural center, 206, 207, 211, 212–13, 222, 223, 227 Jews in, 206, 248, 255, 256

library of, xxvii, 21, 205–6, 208, 211, 212–14, 216, 221–3, 224, 227, 260

Pharos lighthouse at, 204, 211

Almagest (Ptolemy), 225

alphabets:

Greek/Phoenician, xiii, xxv, 14, 24, 25, 45, 53, 54, 103

Linear A, 33, 34

Linear B, xxv, 32, 34, 36–7, 39, 40, 43, 49, 64

Alpheus, 82

Alyattes, King of Lydia, 112

Amasia, 240

Amun-Re, 217

Amyclae, sanctuary of Apollo at, 168–9, 171, 178

Amyntas III, King of Macedonia, 182, 193, 194

Anabasis (Xenophon), 161

Anacreon, 91

analogy, Greek love of, 16

Anatolia, 104, 117, 122, 192, 199, 201, 267

Anaxagoras, 118, 129

Anaximander, 102, 103, 104, 110, 121, 122

Anaximenes, 102

Andria (Terence), 226

Andromache, 60

anoixis (opening), 18

Antaea, Queen of Tiryns, 42

Antigonus, King of Macedonia, xxvii, 198, 199, 205, 207

Antioch, xxvii, xxviii, 24, 95, 198, 246, 248, 259, 267, 270–3

Antiochus IV, Seleucid King, 255–6

Antipater, 188, 197, 198, 205

anti-Semitism, 248

Apelles, 193

Aphrodite, 25, 38, 69, 90, 104–5, 128, 190, 208, 219

Apis, 207

Apocrypha, 267

Apollo, 38, 48, 59, 83–4, 87, 94, 116, 164, 167, 170, 177, 237, 272, 275

Delian sanctuary of, 58–9

Delphic sanctuary of, 78–9, 86, 95, 210

dolphins associated with, 95–6, 97, 98

Homeric hymn to, 57–8

as patron god of medicine, 105–6

Apollo Delphinios, 95–8, 105, 141

Apollonius, 217, 219, 221, 222

Apuleius, 249

Aratus of Soloi, 224

Arcadia, 166, 230, 233

Arcesilas IV, King of Cyrene, 83–4

Archelaus I, 184

Archidamus II, King of Sparta, 147

Archilochus, 8, 88–9, 92

Archimedes, 224

Ares, 82, 137, 141

arete, see excellence

Arethusa, 82

Arginusae, battle of (406 BC), 152, 154

Argives, 55, 151

Argo, 217, 219

Argonautica (Apollonius), 217, 222

Argonauts, 76, 83–4, 217, 268

Argos, 42, 55, 136, 164, 181–2, 185, 270

Ariadne, 268

Arion, 94

Aristarcha, 97

Aristarchus, 224

Aristides, Aelius, 22, 236–9

Aristoboulos, 189, 255

Aristogeiton, 131

Aristophanes, xxvi, 110–11, 129, 130, 136, 138, 152, 153, 154, 170, 178, 219, 226

Aristotle, xvi, xxvi, xxvii, 1, 17, 20, 61, 84, 108, 156, 162, 171

as Alexander’s tutor, xxvi, 183, 193–4, 196

Lyceum of, xxvii, 194, 213, 225

philosophy of, 193–6

Armenia, xxviii, 201, 254, 266

Arrian, xxviii, 189, 241

Artaxerxes IV, King of Persia, 185

Artemidorus of Daldis, 257

Artemis, 21, 37, 57, 82, 90, 96–7, 141, 166, 167, 168, 215, 219, 249, 257–9, 267, 274

Artemisia, 167, 186

Artemis Orthia, temple of, 167, 178

articulacy, Greek, 1, 22–3, 44

Athenians as masters of, 127

flowering of, under Roman rule, 231–2, 233, 236–7, 244, 247–8, 250

Odysseus as exemplar of, 22–3, 61

of Spartans, 178

Asclepius, 106, 234, 236, 237–8

Asia Minor, xiv, 37, 47, 56, 64, 82, 83, 86, 89, 105, 117, 122, 194, 198, 199, 201, 221, 236, 238, 241, 243, 257, 261, 266, 267

Dorian colonies in, 105

Ionian settlements in, see Ionia

Aspasia, 138

Ass (Lucian of Samosata), 249

Assemblywomen (Aristophanes), 153

astronomy, 224–5

Athena, 30, 31, 37, 59, 62, 64, 87, 136, 137, 144, 184, 212, 215, 238, 266

Athena of the Bronze House, 167

Athena Parthenos, 143

Athena Polias, 132, 141, 142

Athens, Athenians, xvi, xxv, xxvi, xxvii, 2, 4, 47, 55, 77, 86, 102–3, 116, 117, 120, 122, 127–57, 183, 193, 198, 206, 213, 245

Assembly of, 130, 137, 138, 144

as center of intellectual innovation, 117–18, 127–30

clans phylai of, 132–3, 139

cosmopolitanism of, 128, 130, 141–2

Council of, 130, 131, 133, 137, 138–9, 154

democratic revolution in, 130

empire of, 135, 143, 148, 151

as exemplars of Greek character, 127

festivals of, 130, 140–1

in Hellenistic era, 225–7

Ionian revolt aided by, 133

law courts in, 136, 137

navy of, 128, 151, 152

oligarchic coups in, xxvi, 152, 154–5

openness to new ideas of, 127–30, 137, 152, 153–4

ostracism by, 133

Paul in, 256–7

in Peloponnesian War, 130, 147–52

Periclean building program in, 142–4, 152

in Persian Wars, 130, 133, 142–3

plague in, 148–9

restoration of democracy in, xxvi, 152

rights of citizens in, 129, 137–8

as seafarers, 127, 128, 129, 134–5

slaves in, 129

Thirty Tyrants regime in, xxvi, 129, 140, 152, 154, 162

see also Attica

athletic competitions, 21–2, 53, 57, 59, 60, 62, 72, 83, 91, 112, 178, 182, 205, 208, 210, 247

atoms, 118, 243

Attalid dynasty, xxvii, 199, 206, 212, 223, 246

Attalos I, King of Pergamum, 223

Attalos II, King of Pergamum, 212

Attica, 128, 144, 162, 166, 238

clans (phylai) of, 132–3

demes of, 132–3, 138, 141

Spartan invasions of, 147, 148

trittyes (thirds) of, 132–3

Attic Mysteries, 129

Augustine, Saint, 12, 265

Augustus, Emperor of Rome, xxviii, 240, 246

authority, Greek suspicion of, 2, 6–7, 8, 44, 51–72, 127

Ba’al, 10, 12, 189

Babylon, 2, 187, 197

Babylonia, Babylonians, xiv, xv, 22, 106–7, 114, 117, 187

Bacchae (Euripides), 38, 44, 209

Bactria, 187, 188, 200–1, 209

Balkans, 117, 121

Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, 270

Bathycles, 168

Battus I, King of Cyrene, 80–1, 83–4, 213

beauty, physical, 22, 45, 89, 91, 142, 168, 178, 179, 275

Bellerophon, 42–3

Bennett, Emmett L., Jr., 36

Berenice I, Queen of Egypt, 207–8, 211

Berenice III, Queen of Egypt, 208–9

Berlin, Isaiah, 123

Berytus, 10

biography, Plutarch and, 244–5

Birds (Aristophanes), 153

Black Sea, xv, xvi, 3, 7, 24, 31, 47, 72, 75, 76, 77, 79, 82, 85, 93, 96, 121, 122, 128, 143, 201, 202, 217, 233, 240, 241, 267

Greek colonies on, 97–8, 104, 105

mixed-Greek tribes of, 82

Boedromia, 141

Boeotia, 55, 63, 64, 133, 144, 244

Bolos of Mendes, 223

Brasidas, 176

Brauron, festival of Artemis at, 141

Bronze Age, 9, 32, 34, 43, 56, 78 see also Mycenaeans

Buddhism, 200, 201

Bulgaria, 185

Bulis, 6

Byblos, 10, 40

Byzantine Empire, 95, 212, 241, 268, 270, 275

Byzantium, 29, 64, 143, 223

Cadiz, 83

Caesar, Julius, 57, 223, 227, 243, 244, 270

Callimachus of Cyrene, 209, 213–7, 218, 221, 222, 274

Calypso, 22–3, 62, 266

Cambyses II, King of Persia, 117

Canaanites, see Phoenicans

Candaules, King of Lydia, 86

Cappadocia, 201, 269–70

Caria, Carians, 48, 56, 86, 185–6

Carneia, 177

Carthage, Carthaginians, xxvii, 10, 12–13, 87, 231

Cassander, King of Macedonia, 197

Catasterisms (Eratosthenes), 224

Catullus, 216, 223

Celsus, 262–4, 275

Chadwick, John, 36

Chaeronea, 244, 245

Chaeronea, battle of (338 BC), xxvii, 182, 184

Chalcis, 47, 79

Characters (Theophrastus), 20

Charon, 110

Charybdis, 62

Chersonesos (Sevastopol), 202

children, in Hellenistic culture, 219

Chimaera, 42

Chios, 37, 47, 58, 166

choregoi, 144–5

Christians, Christianity, 2, 17, 18

Constantine and, xxviii, 254

Greek paganism vs., 2, 253–75

persecution of, 254, 265

spread of, 254, 257, 259

Christians, Christianity, Greek responses to, 253–75

Celsus and, 262–4

and Christian reinterpretation of Greek myths, 267–9

Epictetus and, 260

Galen and, 260

Julian and, 269–70

Lucian and, 261–2

Neoplatonists and, 264–6

Palladas and, 274

and Paul’s preaching, 254–9, 261

and Theodosius’s banning of paganism, 254, 259, 273–4

Chryses, 48

Cilicia, 117, 186

Cimon, 135

Circe, 6, 62, 246, 266

city-states, Greek, 3, 85, 91, 104

independence of, 51, 60, 71

city-states, Phoenician, 10

Clazomenae, 47, 108, 118

Clearchus, 176

Cleis, 8, 89

Cleisthenes, xxvi, 131–2, 134, 137, 140

Cleitarchos, 189

Cleocritus, 140, 141

Cleomenes I, King of Sparta, 131, 132

Cleomenes III, King of Sparta, 178

Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, xxviii, 206, 208, 223, 244, 246

Clouds (Aristophanes), 153

Clytemnestra, 136

Codex Sinaiticus, 259

coinage, 116

of Alexander, 187, 189, 202

in Hellenistic era, 211

Lydian invention of, xiii, 110–12

colonialism, xv

colonies, colonization, Greek, xv, 2, 7, 23–4, 47, 74, 75–99, 104

Delphic oracle’s role in, 79–80

and development of political theory, 120

dolphins associated with, 93–6

foundation myths of, 82–3

identity and customs of mother city maintained by, 77–8

political and economic disruptions caused by, 85

symposia and, 92, 94

Colophon, 47, 103, 112, 123

Columbus, Christopher, 241

comedy, xvi, xxvi, 7, 18–20, 110, 127, 129, 136, 138, 152, 153, 216, 219, 226–7

Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare), 226

Commodus, Emperor of Rome, 234

competitiveness, Greek, 1, 12, 25, 52, 53, 59

of Athenians, 127

dual aspect of, 21

Macedonians as exemplars of, 181–3, 196, 203

Mycenaeans and, 44

and pursuit of excellence, 20–1

Constantine, Emperor of Rome, 254, 265, 269, 271–2

Constantinople, xxviii, 269, 271

Constantius II, Emperor of Rome, 269, 271

Constitution of the Spartans (Xenophon), 161–2, 172

Copernicus, 224–5

Corax, 22–3

Corinth, Corinthians, xxvii, 12, 17, 37, 42, 46, 70, 77, 85–7, 94–5, 127, 146–7, 184, 211, 221

fall of (146 BC), 230, 231, 232

Corinthian League, 184, 185, 188

Corsica, 87

Corupedium, battle of (281 BC), 199

Cos, 106, 219

Council of Nicaea (325 AD), xxviii, 254

Council of the Areopagus, xxvi, 137, 256

Cratesipolis, 191

Crates the Stoic, 223

Cratylus, 155

Creation story, in Hesiod, 67–71

Crete, xxv, 5, 30, 32, 33–4, 45, 49, 55, 79, 94, 154, 193, 227, 270

Critias, 152, 154–5, 162

Critias (Plato), 157

Croesus, xxv, 16, 23, 104

Cronos, 68–70, 141

Croton, 78, 114

Curtius, Quintus, 189

Cybele, 48

Cyclades, 28, 33, 57, 79

Cyclopes, 15, 51, 63, 68, 69, 75

Cylon, 86

Cynics, 5, 20, 225, 249, 261, 265

Cynisca, 170

Cyprus, 10, 46, 69, 128, 167, 198, 207, 210, 225, 268, 270

Cypselus, tyrant of Corinth, 85–6

Cyrene, xxv, 80–4, 129, 207, 208, 209, 213, 216, 217, 222, 224, 227

Cyrus II “the Great,” King of Persia, xxv, 104, 117, 176, 189

Cyzicus, 105

Damascus, 186, 189

Danaans, 55

Daphne, oracle of Apollo at, 272

Daphnis and Chloe (Longus), 218

Dardanians, 56

Darius I, King of Persia, 117, 133, 134, 202

Darius III, King of Persia, 185, 186, 187, 197

“Dark Age,” Greek, 45–9, 77, 84

Das Kapital (Marx), 111

Day Will Come, The (Feuchtwanger), 248

Death of Peregrinus (Lucian), 250, 261–2

Decelea, 132

Deliades, 58

Delian League, 193

Delos, 57–8, 142, 208, 215

Delphi, xv, xxviii, 59, 31, 60, 69–70, 202, 245, 254

dolphins’ association with, 78–9

sanctuary of Apollo at, 78, 86, 95, 96, 210

Delphic oracle, xxviii, 79–80, 95, 163, 171, 177, 275

Demaratus, 163

Demeas, 258–9

demes, 132–3, 134, 139, 141, 142

Demeter, 19–20, 63, 64, 69, 81, 130, 141, 215, 239

Demetrius (Ephesian silversmith), 257–8

Demetrius I Poliorcetes, King of Macedonia, xxvii, 198–200, 207, 210

Demetrius of Phalerum, xxvii, 212–13

democracy, 2, 51, 118, 127, 130, 135, 137–8, 148, 152, 157

Cleisthenes’ introduction of, xxvi, 131–2

openness to new ideas and, 129, 152, 153–4

Democritus, 23–4, 100, 118, 156, 214

Demosthenes, 184, 185, 216, 244

Derveni Papyrus, 190

Deucalion, 36, 67

Dieneces, 159

dikasteria (law courts), 136, 137, 139

Diocletian, 254, 265

Diodorus of Sicily, 187, 229–33, 248

Diogenes, 5, 20, 225

Dionysia, 143–6

Dionysiaca (Nonnus), 268

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 19, 203

Dionysus, 37–8, 65, 89, 93, 94, 97, 98, 110, 144, 145, 184–5, 202, 209–10, 212, 224, 230, 268

Dipylon jug, 25

Dodona, 59

dolphins:

Apollo’s association with, 95–6, 97, 98

colonization associated with, 93–4, 95–6

Delphi’s association with, 78

Dionysus’s association with, 93, 94–5, 98

Poseidon associated with, 94, 98

Domitian, Emperor of Rome, xxviii, 241, 245

Dorian Greeks, 67

Dorians, 47, 78, 88, 95, 105, 106, 122, 132, 151

dyarchy, 163

Dyskolos (Menander), 226–7

Earth (goddess), 37, 67–9

Echelaos, 36–7

Eclogues (Virgil), 218

education, 4, 172

Egypt, Egyptians, xiii–xv, xxvii, xxviii, 3, 10, 52, 66, 117, 121, 123, 187, 197, 241

medicine in, 107

Persian conquest of, 117

Egypt, Ptolemaic, 22, 197, 198, 205–27, 247

cult of Amun-Re in, 217

festivals in, 209–10

humor in, 216–17

Jews in, 255

passion for excellence in, 205–6, 227

poetry and literature of, 214–20, 221–2

Eileithyia, 38

Elea, 115

Electra (Euripides), 94

Elements (Euclid), 213

Eleusinion, 141

Eleusis, xx, 19, 129, 130, 132–3, 141

Eleutherae, 144

eleutheria (freedom), 7

embateria, 172

emotional honesty, 18–19, 90, 178

Empedocles of Akragas, 17, 114–15, 120

Encheiridion (Epictetus), 241–3

Enneads (Plotinus), 264–5

enoplia, 172

Epaphroditus, 247

Ephesus, 47, 96–7, 102, 109, 112, 164–5, 208, 213, 253, 267

cult of Artemis in, 257–9

Paul in, 257, 259

Ephialtes, xxvi, 137

ephors, 162, 164, 173–4, 177

Epic of Gilgamesh, xiv

Epictetus, xxviii, 231, 241–3, 247, 260

Epicureans, xxvii, 118, 156, 225, 243, 244, 245, 256, 262

Epicurus, xxvii, 225, 244

Epidaurus, 106

Epigrams (Callimachus), 215–16

Epinician Odes (Pindar), 83

Epirus, 197, 199, 241

Epistles (Saint Paul), 8

Eratosthenes, 222–3, 224

Eretria, 2–3, 45, 47, 117

Eris, 21

ethics, 195–6, 241

Ethiopian Story (Heliodorus of Emesa), 248–9

Etna, Mount, 114–15

Etruscans, iv, 13, 87, 93, 129

Euboea, xxv, 26, 45–7, 77, 79, 147, 196

Euclid, 213, 260

eudaimonia (happiness), 23, 196

Eudemian Ethics (Aristotle), 196

Eumenes I, King of Pergamum, 199

Eumenes II, King of Pergamum, 212

Eumenides (Aeschylus), 137, 144, 256

Euphemus, 83–4

Euphorion, 146

Euripides, xxvi, 38, 44, 92, 94, 109, 129, 146, 179, 193, 196, 209

Eurotas valley, 42, 166, 167, 169

Eurydice (Philip II’s concubine), 207

Eurydice (Philip II’s mother), 182, 191

Euryleon, tyrant of Selinus, 87

Eurylochus, 6

Euthydemus, Bactrian King, 200

Evans, Arthur, 33–4

excellence (arete), Greek pursuit of, 1, 21–2, 44, 45, 91, 196, 205, 227

Exekias, 93

festivals, 53, 58, 167

Athenian, 130, 139, 140–5

in Ptolemaic Egypt, 209–10

of Sparta, 168, 171, 177

Feuchtwanger, Lion, 248

freedom (eleutheria), 7–8

Epictetus’s concept of, 242–3

free speech (parrhesia), 18

Frege, Gottlob, 194

Frogs (Aristophanes), xxvi, 110–11, 154

Gaia, 141

Galen, 228, 233–6, 238, 260

scientific method applied by, 235–6, 260

Gaugamela, battle of (331 BC), xxvii, 187

Gautier de Châtillon, 248

Gaza, xxvii, 187, 268

Genesis, 260

geography, 103

Strabo and, 240–1

Geography (Strabo), 240–1

Gethosune, 24

Glaucus, 3, 48, 155

Glaukias, 257

Gnostics, 265

gods:

Greeks’ relationship with, 70–1

offerings to, 38

Xenophanes on, 113–14

see also Olympians; specific gods

Golden Ass, The (Apuleius), 249

Gorgias the Sophist, 23, 129, 156

Gospel of Saint John, 268

Gospel of Saint Mark, 259

Gournia, 34

grains, Greek cultivation of, 63–4

Granicus River, battle of (334 BC), 69, 185

grape vines, Greek cultivation of, 64, 65–6

Greece:

Hellenistic, see Hellenistic era

population growth in, 81

Roman conquest of, 229–30

Greek identity, 51–72

emergence of, 2

genealogy and, 52

in Hesiod’s view of history, 67

Iliad as charter myth of, 55

language and, 52

laws and customs (nomoi) and, 52

as mind-set, 233

self-sufficiency and, 51–2

wine and, 66, 98

Greek language, 32, 33–4

flexibility of, xvi–xvii, 16

koine (standardized), 232–3, 259

see also articulacy, Greek

Greeks:

in archaic era, 51–72

Asia Minor settlements of, see Ionia

in Bronze Age, see Mycenaeans

characteristics of, 253

Christianity and, see Christianity, Greek responses to

as conduit for achievements of others, xiv, xvi, 3

cultural elasticism of, xvi

“Dark Age” of, 45–9, 77, 84

exceptionalist view of, xiii, xvi

geopolitical knowledge of, 76–7

and invention of rational philosophy, xiv

modern relationship with, 29–30

Phoenician alphabet adopted by, 14, 25, 45, 53–4, 103

revisionist view of, xiv–xv

Greek War of Independence, xvi

Gregory of Nazianzus, Archbishop of Constantinople, 269–70

Gryllus (Plutarch), 246

Gyges, tyrant of Lydia, 86, 88, 112, 123

Gylippus, 18, 176

Gymnopaidiai, 168

Hades, 19, 69, 110–11, 190, 207

Hadrian, Emperor of Rome, xxviii, 239, 261

Halicarnassus, 19, 106, 122, 124, 185, 203

Hall, Edith H., 34

Hannibal, 201, 231

happiness (eudaimonia), 196, 242

Harmodius, 131

Hasmonean dynasty, 256

Hattians, xiii

Hawes, Harriet Boyd, 34

Hecale (Callimachus), 216

Hecataeus, of Miletus, 121, 122, 123

Hecatoncheires, 68

Hector, 36, 53, 54–5, 60

Hecuba, 179

Helen of Troy, 41, 42, 54, 88, 123, 168, 169–70, 179

Helicon, Mount, 8, 63, 216

Heliodorus of Emesa, 248–9

Helios, statue of, 198

Hellenes, Hellenic, 52, 55, 202, 222, 245, 255, 262, 274

meaning of term, 59, 206, 268

Hellenica (Xenophon), 155

Hellenion, 59

“Hellenistic,” meaning of term, 206

Hellenistic era, 2, 21, 23, 197, 205–27

Athens in, 225–7

children in, 219–20

coinage in, 211

core institutions of, 247

literature of, 213–23

politics of scale in, 210–11

science in, 223–5

seafaring in, 206, 210–11, 227

trade in, 210–11

women in, 219–20

helots, xxvi, 162, 163, 173–4, 177, 178

Hephaestion, 187, 193

Hera, 37, 69, 220

Heracles, 10, 11, 31, 69, 76, 78, 92, 141, 160, 163, 168, 177, 187, 189, 190, 202, 212, 230, 240

Heraclitus, 17, 102, 109–10, 112, 115, 155

Herculaneum, 243–4

Hermes, 22, 107, 151, 190, 257

Herodas, 216–17

Herodotus, 10, 48, 52, 66–7, 80, 81, 82, 84, 94, 103, 116–17, 120–4, 129, 130, 132, 149–50, 159, 160, 162, 163, 164, 169, 174, 221

Hesiod, xvii, 8, 21, 22, 25, 29, 47, 49, 52–4, 63–4, 72, 92, 105, 113, 116, 178, 185

creation story in, 67–71

human history as seen by, 66–7

self-portrait of, 63

Hestia, 69

Himera, 86, 88

Hindu Kush, 200

Hipparchus, tyrant of Athens, xxvi, 131

Hippias, tyrant of Athens, xxvi, 131, 134

Hippocrates, Hippocratics, 7–8, 103, 106, 107–8, 122, 195, 233

Hippodamus of Miletus, 198

Hippolytus, 268

Hipponax, 92

Hiram of Tyre, 11

Hissarlik, Turkey, 57

Histories (Herodotus), 116–17, 122, 123, 130

Histories (Polybius), 220

Histories (Timaeus of Sicily), 220

history, writing of, 1–2, 103, 105

Herodotus and, 120–4, 221

History of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides), 149–50

Hittites, xiii, xiv, xv, 56, 57

Homer, xvii, 4, 9, 13, 19, 29, 31, 36, 41, 42, 47, 49, 52–4, 56, 57, 58, 82, 87, 113, 116, 123, 178, 196, 208, 213, 221, 222, 265–6

homoeroticism, 90–1, 92, 167

homosexuality, 171

hoplites, hoplite warfare, 83, 84, 147, 151, 159, 161, 169, 174–6

Horace, 223, 232

humor, Greek, 1, 25, 44, 273, 274

of Athenians, 127

joke collections in, 19

in myth, 20

in Ptolemaic Egypt, 216–17

ridicule and, 20

of Spartans, 19, 159–60, 161, 167–8, 176, 179

Hyacinthia, 168, 171

Hyacinthus, 168, 169, 171

Hydne, 4

hymns, xiii–xiv, 19, 21, 57, 88, 89–90, 94, 96

Hymns (Callimachus), 215, 222

Hymn to Dionysus, 93

Hymn to Hermes, 107–8

Hypanis River, 97

hypaspists, 192

Hypatia, 260

Hypsicles, 224

Ibn Rushd (Averroes), 194

Iconion, 267

Idylls (Theocrites), 218

Iklaina, 32

Iliad (Homer), 4, 5, 6, 25, 31, 32, 37, 42, 43, 46, 47, 48, 52–3, 54, 55, 56–7, 60–1, 62, 72, 76, 105, 107, 123, 160, 169

Illyria, 184

In Defense of the Temples (Libanius), 273

India, xxvii, 199, 200, 201

individualism, Greek, 1, 3, 7–9, 16, 75–99

Indus Valley, 197

infinity, concept of, 111

Ino, 95

inquisitiveness, Greek, 1, 9, 16, 101–24

analogy and, 16

of Athenians, 127

linguistic flexibility and, 16

Mycenaeans and, 44

Odysseus as exemplar of, 15–16

polarity and, 16–17

in Ptolemaic Egypt, 227

Spartans as lacking in, 178

unity of opposites and, 17

Interpretation of Dreams (Artemidorus), 257

Ion (Plato), 156

Ionia, Ionians, xvi, 2, 47–8, 56, 58, 67, 84, 95, 96, 120

Athenians as settlers of, 77

cult of Apollo Delphinios in, 105

cultural cross-fertilization in, 104, 105, 108, 116

in failed revolt against Persia, 117, 133

intellectual revolution in, 101–24

Ionian League (Panionic League), 47, 104, 106, 108, 112, 118

Iphigenia, 96, 267

Ipsus, battle of (301 BC), 198, 199

Isagoras, 131

Isis, 214, 219

Islam, 254, 264

Isocrates, 165, 233

Issus, battle of (333 BC), xxvii, 186

Isthmia, xxv, 46–7

Istria, 105

Italy, Greek colonies in, xxv, xxvi, 2, 4, 87, 88, 96, 102, 103, 151

as primarily Doric, 77, 78

Ithaca, 30, 35, 52, 55, 57, 62, 63, 266

Janus, 111

Jerusalem, xxvii, 10, 233, 248, 255, 256, 259

Jesus Christ, xxviii, 255, 256, 259, 262, 263

Jewish Antiquities (Josephus), 247

Jewish diaspora, 247–8

Jewish revolt, xxviii, 231, 247

Jewish War, The (Josephus), 247

Jews:

in Alexandria, 206, 247, 255, 256

in Jerusalem, 255–6

Jews of Rome, The (Feuchtwanger), 248

John Chrysostom, 271

John of Patmos, Saint, 253

John the Baptist, Saint, 260, 263

Josephus (Feuchtwanger), 248

Josephus, Titus Flavius, 233, 247–8

Journey Round the Earth (Hercataeus), 121

Judaea, 247

Julian, Emperor of Rome, xxviii, 254, 269–70, 272–3, 275

Justin, 189

Justinian, Emperor of Rome, 275

Kabul, 200

Kalanos, 261

Kallinikos, 259

Kashmir, 200

Kerameikos, 128, 148

Keramopoullos, Antonios, 43–4

Kerkyra, 7

Keteioi, 57

Knidos, 37, 106, 224

Knights (Aristophanes), 138

Knossos, 33–4, 37, 38, 40, 44, 45, 95, 96

Kober, Alice, 36

koine (standardized) Greek, 232–3, 259

Kolaios, 82–3

krupteia, 174

Laconia (Lacedaemon), 55, 154, 160, 164, 166, 168, 170, 173–4, 179

“laconic,” origin of word, 160

Laconic Sayings (Plutarch), 160

Lampito, 170

“Late Helladic” era, 32

League of Islanders, 208

Lefkadia, Macedonian tomb at, 190

Leonidas, King of Sparta (480 BC), 2, 159, 160–1, 167, 172, 175, 176, 177

Lesbos, 36, 89–90, 94, 194

Leto, 57, 58

Libanius, xxviii, 270–3

Libation-Bearers (Aeschylus), 144

Library of World History (Diodorus of Sicily), 229–30

Libya, xv, 77, 79, 80, 81, 83, 121, 207, 208, 213, 216

Life (Josephus), 247

Linear A, 33, 34

Linear B, xxv, 32, 34, 36–7, 39, 40, 43, 49, 64

Lion Gate, Mycenae, 43

Lithika (Poseidippos), 218

Lives (Plutarch), 161, 244–5

Locri Epizephyri, 219–20

locus amoenus, 22–3

logic, 194

Longinus, 259–60

Longus, 218

Lucian of Samosata, 233, 249–50

on Christians, 261–2

Lucullus, 201

Luwians, xiv, 48–9

Lyceum, xxvii, 194, 213, 225

Lycia, Lycians, 42, 48, 56, 86, 117

Lycurgus, 161, 163, 170, 171, 177

Lydia, Lydians, xiii, xxv, 16, 52, 56, 86, 89, 104, 110, 111, 112, 116, 117, 128, 165, 209, 239, 257

lyric poetry, 8, 87–8, 98

authorial individuality in, 88, 89

dolphins associated with, 93, 94

homoeroticism in, 90–1

pursuit of pleasure in, 88

symposia and, 90–2

Lysias, 129–30

Lysimachus, King of Thrace, 199

Lysippos, 193

Lysistrata (Aristophanes), 153, 170

Maccabees, 255–6

Maccabees, First Book of, 255–6

Macedonia, Macedonians, xvi, xxvii, 1, 2, 19, 20, 147, 162, 163, 181–203, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 211, 216, 244

army of, 192–3

as exemplars of competitiveness, 181–3, 196, 205

as Greeks, 184

navy of, 193

political factions in, 182, 188

polygamy practiced by, 182

religious beliefs of, 184, 189–90, 218

Roman conquest of, 229–30

Maeander estuary, 101, 102, 103, 105, 200

Magna Graecia, see Italy, Greek colonies in

Manetho, 214

Mantinea, battle of (418 BC), 151

Marathon, battle of (490 BC), xxvi, 117, 133, 135, 177

Marcellinus, Ammianus, 227

Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, 8, 234, 236, 241, 261

Mardonius, 174

Marinatos, Spyridon, 34–5

Marx, Karl, 111

Masada, 231

Massalia, xxv, 74, 82, 83, 97

Matar, 48

Matham, Theodor, 180

mathematics, 103, 114, 116, 118, 213

Mathura, 200

Mauryan Empire, 200

Mausolus, Satrap of Caria, 185–6

Mecone, 70, 71

Medea, 17, 146

Medea (Euripides), xxvi, 145–6

medicine, Greek, 103, 116, 122, 233–8

Apollo as patron god of, 106

concept of likelihood in, 107–8

Egyptian influence on, 107

Galen and, 233–6, 238

rational basis of, 106–9, 235

religious approach to, 235–8

Meditations (Marcus Aurelius), 8, 241

Megara, 76, 86, 94

Melquart, 10, 11, 95, 189

Memphis, 207

Menaechmi (Plautus), 226

Menander (playwright), 226–7

Menander I, Bactrian King, 200–1

Menelaus, King of Sparta, 31, 41, 42, 160, 163, 168, 169, 179

Menippus, 249–50

Merneptah, King of Egypt, 3–4

Mesopotamia, xiii, xiv

Mesopotamians, 66

Messenia, Messenians, 164, 172, 173

Metaphysics (Aristotle), 156–7, 194

Metapontum, 78

Methone, siege of (354 BC), 183–4

Midas, King of Phrygia, 110–11

Miletus, Milesians, xxv, 14, 47, 48, 77, 101–2, 118, 138, 185

Black Sea colonies of, 97, 104–5

cult of Aphrodite at, 104–5

Persian destruction of, 117, 133

Milinda Pañha, 201

militias, tyrants and, 85–6

Mimiambs (Herodas), 216–17

Mimnermus of Colophon, 122–3

Minoans, xxv, 33–6

Misopogon (Julian), 272–3

Mithras, 202

Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, 201–3, 240

Mithridatic wars, xxvii, xxviii, 201, 202

Molpoi, 97

Momigliano, Arnaldo, 123

monotheism, 2, 269, 271

Monty Python, 261

mosaics, 270–1

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 201

Murena, 201

musical contests, 22, 59, 71, 83, 94, 142, 246–7

Mycale, 48

Mycenae, 32, 33, 43, 45, 55, 240

Mycenaeans, xxv, 2, 29–49

competitiveness of, 44

inquisitiveness of, 44

as joy-loving, 44

later Greeks relationship with, 29–30, 48–9, 55

Minoans and, 34

monarchical system of, 38–39

and pursuit of excellence, 44

religion of, 37–8

as seafarers, 34, 44

Myletidae, 86

Mysia, 56, 89

Myth of Er, 265

myths, Greek, Christian reinterpretations of, 267–9

Mytilene, 89–90

Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 241

Naucratis, 59

Nausicaa, 62

navigation, 103–4

Naxos, 76, 135

Nearchos, 189, 192, 193

Near East, civilizations of, xiv, xv, 13, 52, 104, 117, 122, 268

Nemea, xxv, 59, 60

Neo-Assyrians, 117

Neoplatonists, 264–6, 269

Nero, 247

Nestor, King of Pylos, 5, 30–1, 32, 36, 37, 38, 41, 45, 46, 131

cup of, 25–6

as embodiment of historical memory, 31

New Testament, 257, 259, 266–7

Nicaea, Council of (325 AD), xxviii, 254

Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle), xvi, 196

Nicopolis, 241

Nietzsche, Friedrich, 150

Nile River, xvi, 59, 69, 88, 122, 124, 223, 240, 254

nomoi (laws and customs), 52

Nonnus of Panopolis, 268–9

Nossis of Locri Epizephyri, 219–20

Nous (divine reason, mind), 118, 190

Plotinus’s concept of, 264–5

novels, Hellenistic, 248–9

Nubians, xiv, 233

odeon, 144

Odysseus, 5, 6, 14–15, 21, 30, 50, 246, 265–6, 270

as archetypal seafarer, 14, 61, 72

curiosity of, 15–16

as epitome of self-sufficiency, 61–3, 72

as exemplar of Greek articulacy, 22, 61

human failings of, 61

Odyssey (Homer), xv, 6, 14, 15, 16, 22, 30–2, 37, 41, 46, 47, 52–3, 61, 62, 72, 75, 78, 95, 107, 246, 265–6, 267

Oedipus, 17, 43, 44, 66

Oedipus the Tyrant (Sophocles), 146

Oeta, Mount, 160

Olbia, 97–8, 105

Old Oligarch, 128, 140

Old Testament, 255, 263, 268

olives, Greek cultivation of, 64, 65

Olympia, 51, 59, 170, 182, 197

statue of Zeus at, 239

Olympians, xvii, 69–70, 78, 105, 113, 116, 141, 211

Olympias, 182, 183, 188, 190–1, 197

Olympic Games, 20, 53, 59, 60, 83, 181, 261

On Behalf of the Dancers (Libanius), 271

On Containing Anger (Plutarch), 245–6

On Head Wounds, 108

On Nature (Epicurus), 244

On Pneumatics (Philo of Byzantium), 64

On Praising Oneself Inofensively (Plutarch), 246

On Talkativeness (Plutarch), 245

On the Cave of the Nymphs (Porphyry), 266

On the Diseases of Women, 106

On Therapeutic Method (Galen), 235

On the Sublime (Longinus, attributed), 260

openness to new ideas, Greek, 1, 17–18, 26, 127–57

of Athenians, 127–30, 137, 152, 153–4

and birth of natural science, 103

democracy and, 137–8, 152, 153–4

free speech and, 18–19

limits to, 129

about sex, 18, 25

Socrates and, 152–5

oratory, 22 see also articulacy, Greek

Oresteia (Aeschylus), 136–7, 143–4

Orestes, 36, 96, 136, 256, 267

Organon (Aristotle), 194

Origen, 262, 264, 275

Orontes River, xxvii, 77, 187, 270

Orphic mysteries, 190

Orthagoras, tyrant of Sicyon, 85

Ortygia, 86–7

Osiris, 214

Ouranos, 67–9

Ovid, 216, 223

Owen, Richard, 195

Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, 88, 225

Paestum (Posidonia), xxx, 4, 87, 90–1

paidonomos, 172

Painted Stoa, 225

Palestine 255, 261

Palladas, 274

Palmyra, xxviii, 259

Panathenaea, 91, 141–2, 143

Pandora, 66, 71

Panhellenic festivals, 141

Panhellenic games, xxv, 22, 46, 60

Panhellenic League, 198

Panhellenic shrines, 58–60

Panhellenion, 239

Panionion, 48

Panticapaion (Kerch), 105, 203

Paphos, 268

paradoxes, 115–16

Paris, 54

Parmenides, 115

Parmenion, 185, 186

Paros, 88

parrhesia (free speech), 18

Partheneia (Alcman), 167

Parthenon, 126, 143, 212

Pasargadae, xvi, 187, 189

Pasolini, Pier Paolo, 217

Patmos, 253, 257

Patna, 200

Patroclus, 54, 60

Paul, Saint, 252, 267

in Athens, 256–7, 261

in Ephesus, 257, 258, 259

letters of, xxviii, 8, 254–5, 259

Paullus, Aemilius, 229–30

Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch, 259

Pausanias, xxviii, 42, 168–9, 238–40

Pausanias, King of Sparta, 179

Peisistratus, tyrant of Athens, xxv, xxvi, 130–1, 134

Peithagoras, tyrant of Selinus, 87

Pella, 184, 190, 191, 203, 211, 218, 219

Peloponnese, Peloponnesians, 30, 46, 47, 49, 55, 59, 77, 78, 85, 94, 96, 101, 105, 106, 160, 161, 163, 164, 166, 171, 181, 185, 188, 197

Roman conquest of, 230, 231

Peloponnesian League, 147

Peloponnesian War, xxvi, xxvii, 130, 140, 146, 147–52, 155, 162, 163, 165, 176

Penelope, 5, 21, 62–3, 266

pepaideumenoi (educated ones), 233, 244

Perdiccas, 185, 188, 197

Peregrinus Proteus, 261

Pergamum, xxvii, 199, 206, 212, 223, 233, 234, 246–7

Pericles, xxvi, 2, 120, 127–8, 129, 134, 137–8, 143, 150, 152, 244

building program of, 142–3, 144, 166

funeral oration of, xxvi, 147–8, 149

in Peloponnesian War, 147–8

Periegesis (Guide) (Pausanias), 239

Persephone, 19, 141, 219

Persepolis, xvi, 117, 187

Perseus, King of Macedonia, 199, 202, 229–30, 248

Persia, Persians, xiv, xvi, xxvi, 2, 4, 6, 7, 42, 48, 57, 102, 104, 105, 107, 109, 116, 118, 120, 121–2, 123, 124, 128, 164, 183, 185

army of, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163

Ionian revolt aided by, 133

Macedonian conquest of, xxvii, 185–7

rise of, 116–17

Persians (Aeschylus), xxvi, 130, 133–6, 142

Persian Wars, 5, 42, 117, 118, 120, 123, 130, 134, 135, 142–3, 164, 167, 189

Persepolis, xvi, 117, 187

Phaeacians, 14, 57, 62, 63

Phaedo (Plato), 76–7, 156

Phaedra, 268

Phaedrus (Plato), 106, 157

Phainomena (Aratus of Soloi), 224

Phaistos, 34

phalanxes, 164, 174, 175, 176

Phalaris, tyrant of Akragas, 86–7

Phanagoria, 105

Pharnabazus, 165

Pharos lighthouse, 204, 211

Phasis River, 69, 77

Pheidias, 129, 143, 238, 239

Philanthos, 93

Philetaerus, King of Pergamum, 199

Philetas of Cos, 207–8, 218, 219

Philip II, King of Macedonia, xxvii, 19, 181, 182–3, 207, 244

Aristotle and, 193–4

character of, 185

military genius of, 183, 192

murder of, xxvii, 185

Persia invaded by, 185, 188–9

wealth of, 191–2

Philippeion, 182

Philodemos of Gadara, 243

Philogelos, 19

Philo of Byzantium, 64, 223–4

Philopoemen, 230

philosophy, Greek, xiv, xvi, 2, 101, 103, 105, 109–10

abstract concepts introduced in, 111, 115, 116

Aristotle and, 193–6

Epictetus and, 241–3

Epicureanism, xxvii, 118, 156, 225, 243–6, 262

in Hellenistic era, 225, 227

ideal state debated in, 23

as inquiry into nature of existence, 109

Neoplatonists and, 264–6

Plato and, 155–7

polarity in, 16

self in, 8

Socrates and, 152–3, 155, 157

unity of opposites in, 16–17

Philoxenos, 197

Phocaea, 47, 83, 96, 97

Phocis, 47

Phoenicians, xiii, xv, xxv, 2, 13, 46, 66, 77, 83, 95, 104, 116, 117, 128, 135, 167, 187, 189, 225, 243, 265

alphabet of, xiii, xxv, 14, 24, 25, 45, 53, 54, 103

as seafarers, 10, 11–12, 14–15

Phrygians, 48, 56, 110, 165, 185, 186, 209, 241

phthonos, 19

phylai (clans), 132–3, 139

Pillars of Heracles, 11, 83, 157, 240

Pinakes (Callimachus), 214

Pindar, 21–2, 76, 83, 84, 94, 130, 274

Piraeus, 133, 134, 147, 226

Piso, L. Calpurnius, 243

Pithekoussai (Ischia), 25

Plataea, 147

Plataea, battle of (479 BC), xxvi, 117, 133, 134, 158, 164

Plato, 2–3, 8–9, 13, 18–19, 20, 21, 76–7, 93, 106, 119, 129, 130, 133, 146, 152, 153, 155–7, 162, 178, 194, 201, 245, 246, 255, 260, 264–6

Academy of, xxvi, 20, 153, 155, 194, 225

dialogues of, 155–7

Platonists (Neoplatonists), 264–6

Plautus, 13, 226

pleasure, Greek pursuit of, 1, 24, 25–6, 45, 88

Christian condemnation of, 253, 266, 270

Mycenaeans and, 44

Pleuron, 37

Pliny the Elder, 203

Plotinus, 264–6

Plutarch, 2, 160, 161, 164, 170, 171, 172, 174, 178, 189, 200, 226, 231, 244–6

poetry, Greek, 4, 23

Alexander as lover of, 196

in Hellenistic era, 214–23

lyric, see lyric poetry

oral tradition of, 53, 54

pastoral, 218

Spartan, 166, 172

polarity, in Greek thought, 16

Political Precepts (Plutarch), 200

political theory 103

of Aristotle, 196

colonization as impetus for development of, 120

Protagoras and, 116–20

of Socrates, 154

Xenophanes as founder of, 112

Politics (Aristotle), 162, 196

Polybius, 169, 220–1, 230–1, 232, 233, 244, 248

Polyeidus of Thessaly, 192

Polygnotus, 31

Polyperchon, 191

Polyphemus, 15, 50

Pompe, 144

Pompeii, 34, 197, 243

Pompey, 201, 203, 246

Pontus, xxvii, 201, 203

Porphyry, 264–5, 266

Poseidippos of Pella, 211, 217–18, 219

Poseidon, xxv, 5, 10, 13, 15, 30, 37, 46–8, 63, 69, 87, 93, 94, 95, 98, 133, 157, 211, 217

post-traumatic stress disorder, 175–6

Potidaea, 147, 148

Priam, 19, 54, 60, 185

Priene, 47, 48

Procopius of Gaza, 268

Proitos, 42–3

Prometheus, 70–1, 119–20

Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus), 119–20

Propertius, 216, 223

Protagoras, 7, 100, 129, 156, 157

political theory of, 117, 118–20

relativism of, 119

Protagoras (Plato), 119

Proteus (Aeschylus), 144

Ptolemaic dynasty, 22, 197, 205–6, 209, 246

deification of, 208

intellectual excellence prized by, 212–13

politics of scale employed by, 210–11

Ptolemeiaia, 208, 226

Ptolemy I Soter, King of Egypt, xxvii, 189, 197, 198, 205, 206–8, 210, 211, 226, 255

deification of, 207, 208

grand procession celebrating divinity of, 209–10

as public relations genius, 207

Ptolemy II, King of Egypt, xxvii, 207–8, 209, 213, 215, 218

Ptolemy III Euergetes, King of Egypt, 208, 219

Ptolemy IV, King of Egypt, 210

Ptolemy, Claudius (astronomer), 224–5

Ptolemy Caesar (Caesarion), 223

Punic Wars, 230

Punjab, India, 187, 200

Pydna, battle of (168 BC), xxvii, 229

Pylos, 30, 31–2, 36, 37–8, 39, 44, 45, 46, 55, 96, 131

palace of, 40–2

Pyrgi, 13

Pyrgoteles, 193

Pyrrha, 67

Pyrrhus of Epirus, 197

Pythagoras, Pythagoreans, xv, 5, 16, 103, 114–15, 178, 255, 265

Pythagorean theorem, 114–15

Pythian games, xv, 60, 78, 84

Pythian Odes (Pindar), 22

Pythioi, 177

Quintilian, 226

racism, xv

Rameses II, Pharaoh of Egypt, 211

Raphael, 252

Realpolitik, 150, 178

reincarnation, 114–15

Renaissance, xiii, xvi, 29, 161, 195, 217, 226, 232, 241, 244, 250, 264

rediscovery of classical Greece in, xiii, xvi

Report of the Voyage of Hanno, A, 13

Republic (Plato), 9, 18–19, 155, 156, 157, 260, 265

Republic (Zeno), 225

Revelations, Book of, 212, 253

Rhadamanthys, 190, 218

Rhea, 69, 141

Rhegium, 79

rhetoric, 22, 23, 195–6

Rhodes, xxvii, 55, 106, 198, 207, 213, 219

Rioni, 69, 77

Roman Empire, 2, 22, 193, 201

Christianity and, 254

comedy in, 226

fall of, 247

Greece conquered by, 229–30

Jewish diaspora in, 247–8

Jewish revolt against, 231, 247

Menander’s popularity in, 226–7

Roman Empire, Greek intellectuals in, 229–50

articulacy of, 232–3, 236–7, 244, 247–8, 250

common language (koine) of, 232–3

distinguishing mind-set of, 233

geography and, 240–1

medicine and, 233–8

novels by, 248–9

as well-traveled, 233, 236, 239–40

see also Christians, Christianity, Greek responses to

Romans, xiii, xvi, xvii, xxvii, 183, 199, 201

Roxana, 188, 197

rule of law:

in Athens, 136, 137, 139

in Sparta, 171, 173

Russell, Bertrand, 194

Sabazios, 186

Sacred Tales (Aristides), 236–8

sacrifice, 70, 144

Salamis, battle of (480 BC), xxvi, 117, 133, 134, 135

Samaria, 187

Samos, 47, 48, 82, 91, 114, 143, 224

Samosata, 249, 259

sanctuaries, 58–9, 166–8, 171 see also Panhellenic shrines

Santorini, see Thera

Sappho, 8, 89–90, 220

Sarapis, 207, 214

Sardinia, 10, 87

Sardis, 185, 248

Sarpedon, 48

satyr dramas, 143–4

Sayings of Laconian Women (Plutarch), 160, 170

Scarlatti, Alessandro, 201

Schliemann, Heinrich, 43, 240

science, Greek, 2, 102, 104, 105

Aristotle and, 194–5

geography and, 240–1

in Hellenistic era, 223–5

maritime imagery in, 103, 104

openness to new ideas in, 103

seafaring and, 103–4

see also medicine, Greek

scientific method, Galen’s insistence on, 235–6, 260

Scipio Aemilianus, 230–1

Scylla, 62, 95

Scythia, Scythians, 77, 98, 104, 121, 123, 138, 202

seafarers, Greeks as, 1, 2–3, 29–49, 61, 253

Athenians as, 127–9, 134–5

and birth of natural science, 103–4

dolphins and, see dolphins

in Hellenistic era, 206, 210–11, 227

metaphors connected to, 5–6, 9

Odysseus as archetype of, 14, 62, 71

Phoenicians and, 11–12

proper names related to, 37

swimming and diving skills of, 4–5

trade by, 75, 77

see also Mycenaeans

seafarers, Phoenicans as, 10, 11–12, 14

Second Sophists, 233, 249

Seleucia Pieria, 197–8

Seleucid dynasty, xxvii, 197–8, 200, 206, 246, 255, 256

Seleucus I Nicator, xxvii, 197, 199, 205, 270

self, sense of, 4

self-sufficiency, 51–2

Odysseus as epitome of, 61–3

Selinus, Sicily, 87

Semonides, 92

Seneca, 103

Septimius Severus, Emperor of Rome, 234

Septuagint (Old Testament), 255

Serbia, 185

Seven Wonders of the World, 186, 198, 211, 214, 239

sex, Greek openness about, 18, 24, 25, 89–90

Shakespeare, William, 226

ships, 12–13

catalogue of, 4

as metaphors, 9–10

Sicily, Greek colonies in:

Athenian invasion of, 151

as primarily Doric, 77–8

tyrants as rulers of, 86–7

Siculus, Diodorus, 189

Sicyon, 85, 131, 191

Sidon, 10, 12

silver, 145

Simonides of Ceos, 222

Sinope, 97, 203

Sirens, 15, 62

skepticism, 225

Skyllias, 4

slaves, slavery, 7–8, 39

Athenian citizenship given to, 152, 154

in Athens, 129

helots, 162, 173–4, 177, 178

Mycenaean, 37, 44

women as, 37, 44, 64

Smyrna, 21, 236, 237, 238, 239

Socrates, xxvi, 8–9, 11, 18–19, 20, 21, 76–7, 109, 115, 119, 129, 130, 147, 151, 152–7, 161, 179, 201, 261

execution of, 129, 151, 154–5

Sogdiana, 187

Solomon, 10

Solon, xxv, 23, 127

Sophists, 233, 236, 249, 262, 271–2, 273

Sophocles, 129, 146

Soul, Plotinus’s concept of, 265

Sparta, Spartans, xxvi, 2, 6, 19, 21, 31, 32, 41–2, 64, 78, 79, 87, 90, 95, 105, 124, 131–2, 134, 143, 147, 150, 155, 158, 159–79, 184, 193, 197

army of, 173, 174

articulacy of, 178

Assembly of, 173, 177

competitiveness of, 178

dearth of firsthand accounts of, 161

as decendants of Heracles, 160–1

as dyarchy, 163

educational system (agoge) of, 172

egalitarianism of, 161, 176

festivals of, 168, 171, 177

as gerontocracy, 164

helots (slaves) of, xxvi, 162, 165, 173–4, 177, 178

homosexuality in, 171

humor of, 19, 159–60, 167–8, 176, 179

as lacking inquisitiveness, 178

laws of, 171, 173

marriage in, 170–1

militarism of, 159–60, 164, 165, 171, 172, 176–7, 179

other Greeks’ image of, 161–2

in Peloponnesian War, 130, 147–52, 163

in Persian Wars, 164, 165

poetry of, 166, 167, 168, 172

religiousness of, 176–7

rise of, 163

secret service (krupteia) of, 174

social and political organization of, 172–3

topographical isolation of, 166

women in, 167–71, 178

Spartiates, 163, 168, 170–1, 172–4, 178

Sperthias, 6

Sphacteria, battle of (425 BC), xxvi,

Staira, 193–4

Stesichorus, 88

Stoics, Stoicism, 8, 162, 223, 225, 231, 241–3, 247, 256, 260, 265

Strabo, 14, 240–1

Strato I Soter, Bactrian King, 201