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Ancient Greece

When we think of Ancient Greece, what we usually have in mind are the Classical or Hellenistic eras—the Archaic Period is murky and uncertain, the lines between myth and reality unhelpfully blurred. Classical Greece (and the more universal Hellenistic Period that followed) are fortunately well-documented, and for those who've studied Western history, by now quite familiar.

The entity we call Western Civilization began, by most accounts, in Greece. Dates are fluid, but we do know a few: the Persian Wars began in 490 BC and lasted till 449; the Peloponnesian Wars dragged from 431-404 BC; the philosopher Plato was born around 428 BC and lived about 80 years; his brightest pupil, Aristotle, was born in 384 BC, living to approximately 61 years.

And, of course, in 336 BC Alexander the Great became king of Macedon and invaded Asia Minor two years later. This initiated the Hellenistic Age in which Greek thought, culture, language, and warfare was distributed throughout the known world at an extremely rapid pace and with almost evangelistic fervor. The era isn't greatly distinguishable from the Classical Period that preceded it, except that the Classical ideals were more aggressively distributed throughout the rest of Europe and Western Asia.

So what were these ideals? and how were they responsible for shaping the Western world? In many ways we could boil it down to a single word: philosophy (though not in the restrictive sense we tend to use that word nowadays). The ancient Eastern and Near Eastern cultures involved a spiritual element oddly lacking in the salient elements of Greek culture, a religiosity foreign to the temporally-minded Balkans.

During the Archaic Period (roughly 800-400 BC), Greek culture began to develop in earnest after a protracted Dark Ages from which not much emerged but extensive warfare and the early stages of the city-state polis. In the four hundred years prior to the Classical Era, the city-state evolved into the dominant governmental form (largely due to geographical concerns), tragic theater formed, and the first philosophers began contemplating the world.

Philosophy to those of us in the post-Enlightenment refers to a highly academic pursuit involving truth-constructions, advanced logic, and the perception and analysis of facts to create interpretations of reality. It's all very abstruse, and for most 20th and 21st century philosophers (by their own admission) no more than an intellectual game.

In ancient Greece, philosophy was a search for Truth. It encompassed science, mathematics, music and art, literature, and the activity Aristotle believed was man's highest end: contemplation. The word comes from two Greek words—philos meaning love, and sophia meaning wisdom; thus, love of wisdom—and is the summation of the Greek cultural project.

What set the Greeks apart from their Eastern neighbors was their starting point. The Jews had philosophy of a sort (expressed best in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes), the races Alexander conquered in India had philosophy, the Egyptians to the south certainly had religiously-informed philosophy. But they all began with some kind of religious contruct and authority system; the Greeks began with man's ability to reason.

It wasn't that they didn't have religion or gods, either. But their gods were strangely human, even by ancient polytheistic standards, and served rather to celebrate man's mannishness (to borrow a phrase from Schaeffer) than any distinctly divine attributes. Man was the measure of all things for the Greeks, and they set out trying to understand everything from his perspective.

Some of the greatest accomplishments in the arts and thought were the result. Socrates was the father of philosophy; his acolyte, Plato, one of its greatest champions; and his successor, Aristotle, arguably the greatest philosopher who ever lived. The architecture and statuary of the period, the scientific advances, the literature (The Iliad and The Odyssey, the works of Aristophanes, Euripides, and Herodotus), the political science, all laid the foundation for what would come later in the West.

Without a relatively comprehensive understanding of ancient Greece and its culture, we have no real basis for understanding the subsequent 3000 years of Western history, or even our own time. The ideas of Medieval Scholasticism, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, modernism, and postmodernism are all based in ideas developed in the Classical period in a relatively out-of-the-way region of the second smallest continent. Because it's such an important era, we offer a wide range of materials for every age and reading level.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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139 Items found Print
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Active Filters: 8th grade (Ages 13-14)
Adventures of Ulysses
World Landmark #40
by Gerald Gottlieb
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Aeneid for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Yesterday's Classics
Roman Mythology for 5th-8th grade
$11.95
Aeneid for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
Roman Mythology for 5th-8th grade
$6.99
Aeneid for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church, illustrated by Eugene Karlin
1st Printing from Macmillan
Roman Mythology for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop, Isaac Bashevis Singer
from International Collectors Library
for 6th-10th grade
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Alexander of Macedon
International Collectors Library
by Harold Lamb
from International Collectors Library
for 4th-8th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Alexander the Great
Sterling Point Books
by John Gunther
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Historical Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Alexander the Great
World Landmark #2
by John Gunther
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Alexander the Great
by Charles Mercer
from Harper & Row
for 4th-8th grade
in Horizon Caravel Books (Location: VIN-HOR)
Ancient City
by Hazel Dodge, Peter Connolly
First Thus from Oxford University
for 8th-Adult
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$14.00 (2 in stock)
Ancient Civilizations & the Bible - Student Manual
by Diana Waring
from Diana Waring Presents
History Curriculum for 4th-9th grade
in Diana Waring History Revealed (Location: OHIS-DWHR)
Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece
by Michelle Miller
from TruthQuest History
History Curriculum for 5th-12th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Old Edition History & Geography (Location: OHIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient Greece
by Michelle Miller
from TruthQuest History
for 5th-12th grade
in TruthQuest History (Location: HISCUR-TQ)
$24.95 $17.50 (1 in stock)
Ancient Greek Art
from Heinemann-Raintree
for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Ancient Greek War and Weapons
by Haydn Middleton
from Heinemann Educational Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Archimedes and the Door of Science
by Jeanne Bendick
from Bethlehem Books
Biography for 5th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$14.95 $9.50 (1 in stock)
Archimedes and the Door of Science
by Jeanne Bendick
from Purple House Press
Biography for 5th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$10.99
Authoress of the Odyssey
by Samuel Butler, introduction by David Grene
from University of Chicago
for 8th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Battles of the Ancient World: 1285 BC ~ AD 451
by Kelly Devries, et. al
from Metro Books
for 6th-8th grade
in Military & Weapon History (Location: HISV-MILIT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Black Ships Before Troy
by Rosemary Sutcliff & Alan Lee
from Frances Lincoln
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
$22.99
Black Ships Before Troy
by Rosemary Sutcliff
from Laurel-Leaf Books
Greek Mythology for 4th-8th grade
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Book of the Ancient Greeks
by Dorothy Mills
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 5th-8th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$19.50
Book of the Ancient Greeks - Student Guide
by Matthew Anderson
from Memoria Press
for 5th-8th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$19.90 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Book of the Ancient Greeks - Teacher Guide
by Matthew Anderson
from Memoria Press
for 5th-8th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$19.90 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
by John S. White
from American Home-School Publishing
Ancient History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
by John S. White
Facsimile Edition from Kessinger Publishing
Ancient History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology
by Thomas Bulfinch
from Dover Publications
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.00
Children's Homer
by Padraic Colum & Willy Pogany
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
$10.99 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Children's Homer
by Padraic Colum
from Simon and Schuster
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
$4.50 (2 in stock)
Children's Homer
by Padraic Colum
from Simon and Brown
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Children's Plutarch: Tales of the Greeks
by F. J. Gould
from Yesterday's Classics
Greek History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Classics Retold (Location: FIC-RET)
$11.95
Classical Companion
by Charles F. Baker III and Rosalie F. Baker
2nd edition from Cobblestone Publishing
for 5th-8th grade
in Ancient History (Location: HISW-ANC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Classical Kids
by Laurie Carlson
from Chicago Review Press
for 5th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Coloring Book of the Olympics
by E. Knill
Csm from Bellerophon Books
for 3rd-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$2.00 (2 in stock)
Cultural Atlas for Young People: Ancient Greece
by Anton Powell
3rd edition from Facts On File
Atlas/Greek History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$35.00
Cultural Atlas of Ancient Greece
by Anton Powell
Revised Edition from Facts On File
Atlas/Greek History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Curious Historian 2A - Student Edition
by Aaron Larsen
1st edition from Classical Academic Press
for 4th-8th grade
in CAP Curious Historian (Location: HISCUR-CUR)
$29.95
Curious Historian 2A - Teacher's Edition
by Aaron Larsen
1st edition from Classical Academic Press
for 4th-8th grade
in CAP Curious Historian (Location: HISCUR-CUR)
$34.95
Curious Historian 2B - Student Edition
by Aaron Larsen
1st edition from Classical Academic Press
for 4th-8th grade
in CAP Curious Historian (Location: HISCUR-CUR)
$29.95
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Yearling
Greek Mythology for 4th-8th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$19.99
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths - Audio CD
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Yearling
Greek Mythology for 4th-8th grade
in Audio Books & Dramas (Location: CD-AUDIO)
$25.00 $14.00 (1 in stock)
Dateline: Troy
by Paul Fleischman
from Candlewick Press
for 6th-9th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Dateline: Troy
by Paul Fleischman
New Updated Edition from Candlewick Press
for 6th-9th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
DK Eyewitness: Ancient Greece
DK Eyewitness Series
by Anne Pearson
from DK Publishing
Greek History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
DK Eyewitness: Ancient Greece
DK Eyewitness Series
by Anne Pearson
from DK Publishing
Greek History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$9.99
Early Times: Story of Ancient Greece
by Suzanne Strauss Art
3rd edition from Wayside Publishing
for 5th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$21.48
Early Times: Story of Ancient Greece
by Suzanne Strauss Art
3rd edition from Wayside Publishing
for 5th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
ECL: The Heroes
Educator Classic Library #10
by Charles Kingsley, illustrated by Ron King
Complete and Unabridged Edition from Classic Press
Action/Adventure for 7th-10th grade
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
Exploits of Xenophon
World Landmark #18
by Geoffrey Household
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Exploits of Xenophon
World Landmark #18
by Geoffrey Household, illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher
from Purple House Press
for 5th-9th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$14.99
Exploits of Xenophon
by Geoffrey Household
from Purple House Press
for 5th-9th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$24.99
Famous Men of Greece
by John Haaren & A. B. Poland
1998 printing from Greenleaf Press
Greek History for 4th-9th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$7.50 (4 in stock)
Famous Men of Greece
by John Haaren, A. B. Poland & Leigh Lowe
2nd edition from Memoria Press
Greek History for 4th-8th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$19.45
Famous Men of Greece - Memoria Press Package
from Memoria Press
for 4th-9th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
Famous Men of Greece - Student Guide
by Leigh Lowe & Tanya Charlton
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 3rd-8th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$19.90
Famous Men of Greece - Teacher Guide
by Leigh Lowe & Tanya Charlton
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 3rd-8th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$19.90
Famous Men of Greece Timeline
by Robert Shearer & Trina Dofflemeyer
from Greenleaf Press
for 3rd-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
First 3000 Years
by Charles B. Falls
from Viking Press
for 6th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Golden Days of Greece
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Enrico Arno
from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
Greek History for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Golden Fleece
by Padraic Colum & Willy Pogany
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
1922 Newbery Honor Book
$10.99 $6.00 (2 in stock)
Great Empires - CD-ROM
from Home School in the Woods
for 3rd-8th grade
in Hands-On History Activity-Paks (Location: HISRF-HOH)
$12.00
Greek Armies
by Peter Connolly
from Silver Burdett Press
for 5th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
Greek Myths: A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrated by Walter Crane
from Barnes & Noble
Myths for 5th-10th grade
Greek News
The History News
by Anton Powell & Philip Steele
from Candlewick Press
for 5th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$4.50 (3 in stock)
Greek Way
by Edith Hamilton
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Greek History for 7th-10th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$13.95 $9.00 (2 in stock)
Greek Way
by Edith Hamilton
1981 reprint from Time-Life Books
Greek History for 7th-10th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
Greek World
by Peter Levi
1st edition from Dutton Adult
for 8th-12th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of Greece
by Cynthia Shearer
from Greenleaf Press
for 3rd-8th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of Greece (old)
by Cynthia Shearer
from Greenleaf Press
for 3rd-8th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$9.95 $5.00 (3 in stock)
Heather, Oak, and Olive
by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by Victor Ambrus
from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Herodotus
Travel and Adventure Library for Young Folks
by Gordon King, editor, illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff
1930s edition from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Iliad (retold)
by Rosemary Sutcliff & Alan Lee
from Frances Lincoln
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
Iliad and the Odyssey (retold)
by Jane Werner Watson, illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen
from Golden Books
for 5th-9th grade
Iliad for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Yesterday's Classics
for 5th-8th grade
$11.95
Iliad for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
for 5th-8th grade
$7.99
Iliad for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Macmillan
for 5th-8th grade
Illustrated Bulfinch's Mythology: Age of Fable
by Thomas Bulfinch
from Macmillan
for 6th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Imitation in Writing: Greek Heroes
Imitation in Writing Series
by Matt Whitling
2nd edition from Logos School
Writing Curriculum for 4th-9th grade
in Imitation in Writing (Location: WRI-LSIW)
$15.00
Imitation in Writing: Greek Heroes
Imitation in Writing Series
by Matt Whitling
3rd edition from Logos School
Writing Curriculum for 4th-9th grade
in Imitation in Writing (Location: WRI-LSIW)
$20.00
Imitation in Writing: Greek Heroes (spiral cover)
Imitation in Writing Series
by Matt Whitling
from Logos School
Writing Curriculum for 4th-9th grade
in Imitation in Writing (Location: WRI-LSIW)
$10.00
Imitation in Writing: Greek Myths
Imitation in Writing Series
by Matt Whitling
2nd edition from Logos School
Writing Curriculum for 4th-9th grade
in Imitation in Writing (Location: WRI-LSIW)
$15.00
Imitation in Writing: Greek Myths
Imitation in Writing Series
by Matt Whitling
3rd edition from Logos School
Writing Curriculum for 4th-9th grade
in Imitation in Writing (Location: WRI-LSIW)
$20.00
Inspirational Women
for 8th-12th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Jason Voyage
by Tim Severin
for 8th-Adult
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
Joshua through Malachi & Ancient Greece
by Sonya Shafer
2nd edition from Simply Charlotte Mason
for 1st-12th grade
in Charlotte Mason Education (Location: HSR-METCM)
King of Men
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Ellen Raskin
from Houghton Mifflin
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Life in the Time of Pericles and the Ancient Greeks
by Michael Poulton
from Raintree
for 6th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Lion in the Gateway
by Mary Renault
from Hillside Education
for 5th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Lion in the Gateway
by Mary Renault
for 5th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Lysis Goes to the Play
by Caroline Dale Snedeker
from American Home-School Publishing
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Marathon Looks on the Sea
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Erwin Schachner
from Houghton Mifflin
Historical Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Marathon Looks on the Sea
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Erwin Schachner
from Hillside Education
Historical Fiction for 5th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
Mythology
by Edith Hamilton
from Little, Brown & Company
Mythology for 7th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$17.99
Mythology
by Edith Hamilton
from Black Dog & Leventhal
Mythology for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$29.99
Odyssey (retold)
by Robin Lister & Alan Baker
from Kingfisher
for 7th-9th grade
Odyssey for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Yesterday's Classics
for 5th-8th grade
$11.95
Odyssey for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
for 5th-8th grade
$7.99
Odyssey for Boys and Girls
by Alfred J. Church
from Macmillan
for 5th-8th grade
On the Shores of the Great Sea
Story of the World Series #1
by M. B. Synge
from Yesterday's Classics
History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in History Spines & Surveys (Location: HISRF-SPINE)
$13.95 $8.00 (1 in stock)
On the Shores of the Great Sea
Story of the World Series #1
by M. B. Synge
from Living Book Press
History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in History Spines & Surveys (Location: HISRF-SPINE)
$9.99
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