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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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86 Items found Print
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Active Filters: Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Children
Adventures of Ulysses
by Bernard Evslin
from Scholastic Inc.
Greek Mythology for 4th-6th grade
$3.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Aesop's Fables
Puffin Classics
by Aesop
Reprint from Puffin Books
Myths, Fairy Tales & Folklore for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$7.99
Atarax the Wolf Tells: Greek Myths
by Adam De Gree
from Classical Historian
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$7.50
Beautiful Stories of Life
by Cynthia Rylant
1st edition from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 4th-7th grade
$17.99
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 Myths
by Helen Sewell
from Macmillan
for 4th-7th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
Brave Cloelia
by Jane Curry
1st edition from J. Paul Getty Museum
for 4th-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$17.95 $12.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Classic Myths to Read Aloud
by William F. Russell
from Three Rivers Press
in Reading Aloud & Story-telling (Location: LIR-RAST)
$16.00 $9.50 (1 in stock)
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)
Favorite Greek Myths
by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Troy Howell
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Favorite Greek Myths
by Mary Pope Osborne
from Scholastic Inc.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
Favorite Greek Myths
by Bob Blaisdell
from Dover Publications
for 4th-6th grade
$2.50 (2 in stock)
Gods and Goddesses of Olympus
by Aliki
from HarperCollins
for 1st-3rd grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$7.99
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)
Greek Gods
by Bernard & Dorothy Evslin, Ned Hoopes, illustrated by William Hunter
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
$2.00 (20 in stock)
Greek Gods and Goddesses
by Geraldine McCaughrean
from Margaret K. McElderry Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
Greek Myths
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Edouard Sandoz
from Houghton Mifflin
Greek Mythology for 4th-6th grade
$10.99
Greek Myths
by Geraldine McCaughrean, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark
from Margaret K. McElderry Books
for 3rd-6th grade
Greek Myths
by Marcia Williams
from Walker Books
for 1st-3rd grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$8.99
Greek Myths
by Olivia Coolidge
from Houghton Mifflin
Greek Mythology for 4th-6th grade
Greek Myths: A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrated by Walter Crane
from Barnes & Noble
Myths for 5th-10th grade
Hercules
Heroes Series #4
by Geraldine McCaughrean
from Cricket Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Hercules and Other Tales from Greek Myths
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by David Lockhart
from Scholastic Inc.
Greek Mythology for 2nd-5th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Heroes
by Charles Kingsley
from Yesterday's Classics
for 4th-7th grade
$12.95 $7.50 (1 in stock)
Heroes
by Charles Kingsley
from Living Book Press
for 4th-7th grade
$9.99
Heroes & Monsters Of Greek Myth
by Bernard Evslin, Dorthy Evslin, ned Hoopes
from Scholastic Inc.
for 5th-7th grade
$2.50 (1 in stock)
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
Odysseus
Heroes Series #1
by Geraldine McCaughrean
from Cricket Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Odyssey (retold)
Puffin Classics
by Geraldine McCaughrean retells Homer
Puffin Classics from Puffin Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$6.99 $4.00 (2 in stock)
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
Pegasus
by Marianna Mayer & K. Y. Craft
1st ed from HarperCollins
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$17.99
Pegasus
by Marianna Mayer & K. Y. Craft
1st ed from Morrow Eagle
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Percy Jackson's Greek Gods
by Rick Riordan
from Disney-Hyperion
for 4th-8th grade
$12.99
Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes
by Rick Riordan
from Disney-Hyperion
for 4th-8th grade
$12.99
Persephone
by Sally Clayton, Illustrated by Virginia Lee
from Eerdmans
for 1st-5th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$20.00
Perseus
Heroes Series #2
by Geraldine McCaughrean
from Cricket Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Song to Demeter
by Cynthia & William Birrer
from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Story of the Golden Age of Greek Heroes
by James Baldwin
from Yesterday's Classics
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$11.95
Story of the Iliad
by Alfred J. Church, edited and updated by Cyndy Shearer
from Greenleaf Press
Greek Mythology for 5th-8th grade
Story of the Iliad
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
Greek Mythology for 5th-8th grade
$9.99
Story of the Odyssey
by Alfred J. Church
from Living Book Press
Greek Mythology for 5th-8th grade
$8.99
Tale of Troy
Puffin Classics
by Roger Green
from Puffin Books
Greek Mythology for 6th-9th grade
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$7.99 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Tales of the Greek Heroes
Puffin Classics
by Roger Green
from Puffin Books
Greek Mythology for 6th-9th grade
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$8.99
Tales of Troy and Greece
by Andrew Lang
from Faber & Faber
for 3rd-6th grade
Tales of Troy and Greece
by Andrew Lang
from Yesterday's Classics
for 3rd-6th grade
Tanglewood Tales
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ill from Yesterday's Classics
for 3rd-6th grade
$13.95 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Tanglewood Tales
Calla Editions
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Dover Publications
for 3rd-7th grade
Tanglewood Tales
Copper Lodge Library
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Classical Conversations
for 3rd-6th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$11.99
Tanglewood Tales
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ill from Living Book Press
for 3rd-6th grade
$16.99
Theseus
Heroes Series #3
by Geraldine McCaughrean
from Cricket Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Theseus and the Minotaur
by Leonard Everett Fisher
from Holiday House
for 3rd-5th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Theseus and the Minotaur
by Leonard Everett Fisher
from Holiday House
for 3rd-5th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Titan's Curse
Percy Jackson & the Olympians #3
by Rick Riordan
from Hyperion/Madison Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$8.99
Trojan Horse
Step Into Reading Level 5
by Emily Little
from Random House
Greek Mythology for 2nd-4th grade
in Step into Reading (Location: EAR-STEP)
$4.99 $2.50 (1 in stock)
Trojan War
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Edouard Sandoz
from Houghton Mifflin
Mythology for 4th-6th grade
$9.99
Trojan War
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Edouard Sandoz
from Houghton Mifflin
Mythology for 4th-6th grade
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Usborne Greek Myths
by Heather Amery
from Usborne
for 2nd-3rd grade
$4.05 (1 in stock)
Wanderings of Odysseus
by Rosemary Sutcliff & Alan Lee
from Frances Lincoln
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
Winged Girl of Knossos
by Erick Berry
First Paul Dry Books from Paul Dry Books
for 4th-8th grade
1934 Newbery Honor Book
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$15.95
Wonder Book
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrated by Dick Cuffari
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-5th grade
Wonder Book
Windermere Readers #1
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
for 3rd-5th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Wonder Book
Windermere Series 1
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-5th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Wonder Book
Windermere Series 2
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-5th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Wonder Book
Windermere Series 3
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-5th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Wonder Book
Windermere Series 4
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-5th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Wonder Book / Nonsense Books
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edward Lear
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-5th grade
in Companion Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Yesterday's Classics
Myths for 5th-10th grade
$12.95 $7.50 (1 in stock)
Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Living Book Press
Myths for 5th-10th grade
$15.99
Wonder Book: Heroes & Monsters of Greek Mythology
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Dover Publications
Myths for 5th-10th grade
$5.99
Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys
Everyman's Library Children's Classics
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 5th-10th grade
$17.00
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