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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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279 Items found Print
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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
Aeschylus I: The Oresteia (old)
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Aeschylus (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from University of Chicago
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Clearance: Literature (Location: ZCLE-LIT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Aeschylus II: The Oresteia
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Aeschylus (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
3rd edition from University of Chicago
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$14.00
Aeschylus' Oresteia
Penguin Classics
by Aeschylus (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$17.00 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Aeschylus' Oresteia
by Aeschylus, translated by Peter Meineck
from Hackett Publishing Company
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$14.00
Aeschylus' Oresteian Trilogy
Penguin Classics
by Aeschylus, translated by Phillip Vellacott
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$13.00 $7.00 (1 in stock)
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop
from Signet Classics
Fairy Tales & Fables for 10th grade-adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$6.95
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
Alexander the Great
by Jacob Abbott
from Canon Press
for 4th-7th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$12.00 $7.50 (1 in stock)
Alexander the Great
by Andrew Langley
Reissue from Oxford University
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.99
Alexander the Great
by Robert Green
from Grolier Publishing
Biography for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Alexander the Great, Killer of Men
by David J. Lonsdale
from Carroll & Graf Publishers
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.00 (2 in stock)
Amber and Clay
from Candlewick Press
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$22.99
Ancient City
by Hazel Dodge, Peter Connolly
First Thus from Oxford University
for 8th-Adult
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient Civilizations: Greeks!
by Carmella Van Vleet, illustrated by Tom Casteel
from Nomad Press
for 1st-4th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Ancient Greece
for 2nd-4th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Ancient Greece
by Robert Nicholson
from Chelsea House Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$4.50 (2 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 Greece
by Robert Nicholson
from Scholastic Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Ancient Greece Activity File
by DK Publishing
Book and Access from DK Publishing
for 4th-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient Greece of Odysseus
by Peter Connolly
from Oxford University
for 4th-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient Greece!
by Avery Hart & Paul Mantell
from Williamson Publishing Company
for 4th-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Ancient Greek Art
Art in History
by Susie Hodge
from Heinemann Educational Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Art History & Appreciation (Location: ELE-ARTHIS)
$7.99 $4.50 (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 Temple
by John Malam, Mark Bergin
for 3rd-7th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$8.00 (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)
Ancient Greeks
by Sophie Descamps-Lequime & Denise Vernerey
from Millbrook Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient Greeks
by Allison Lassieur
from Children's Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons - Set
by Lori Verstegen
6th edition from Institute for Excellence in Writing
for 3rd-6th grade
in IEW Theme-Based Writing Lessons (Location: WRI-IEWTBW)
$55.00
Antigone
Dover Thrift Editions
by Sophocles, translated by Sir George Young
from Dover Publications
Ancient Tragedy for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$4.00
Antigone
by Sophocles
from Hackett Publishing Company
Ancient Tragedy for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$11.00
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
Art and Civilization: Ancient Greece
Art and Civilization
by Matilde Bardi
from Peter Bedrick Books
Ancient Greek History Reference for 4th-6th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Athenians In the Classical Period
Life Long Ago
by Leonard Weisgard (pictures and text)
from Coward McCann
for 2nd-5th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$48.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Bacchae and Other Plays
Penguin Classics
by Euripides (translation by John Davies)
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Tragedy for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$12.00
Basic Works of Aristotle
by Aristotle
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$25.00
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
$24.99
Black Ships Before Troy
by Rosemary Sutcliff
from Laurel-Leaf Books
Greek Mythology for 4th-8th grade
$8.99 $5.00 (2 in stock)
Black Ships Before Troy - Comprehension Guide
by Adam Kuliszewski
from Veritas Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Veritas Press Literature Guides (Location: LITSG-VP)
$19.00
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)
$20.10
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)
$20.50 $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)
$20.50
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)
$23.99
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)
Brave Cloelia
by Jane Curry
1st edition from J. Paul Getty Museum
for 4th-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$17.95
Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology
Dover Thrift Editions
by Thomas Bulfinch
from Dover Publications
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00
Burial at Thebes
by Sophocles, translated by Seamus Heaney
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Children's Homer
by Padraic Colum & Willy Pogany
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
$10.99 $6.00 (2 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)
$13.95
Classic Myths to Read Aloud
by William F. Russell
from Three Rivers Press
in Reading Aloud & Storytelling (Location: LIR-RAST)
$16.00
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)
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-CAP)
$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-CAP)
$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-CAP)
$29.95 $20.00 (1 in stock)
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Yearling
Greek Mythology for 4th-8th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$19.99
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Doubleday Book For Young Readers
Greek Mythology for 4th-9th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$29.99
D'aulaires' Book of Greek Myths - Memoria Press Package
from Memoria Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$64.30
D'Aulaires' Greek Myths - MP Student Guide
by Leigh & Cheryl Lowe
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$20.50 $13.00 (2 in stock)
D'Aulaires' Greek Myths - Teacher Guide
by Leigh & Cheryl Lowe
2nd edition from Memoria Press
Teacher's Guide for 3rd-6th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$20.50
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 Workbooks: Ancient Greece
by Kate Scarborough
from DK Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
DK Eyewitness: Ancient Greece
DK Eyewitness Series
from DK Publishing
Greek History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
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
Euclid's Elements
by Euclid & Sir Thomas Heath (translator)
2nd edition from Green Lion Press
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$29.95
Euripides I
by Euripides
from University of Chicago
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$12.00
Euripides III
by Euripides
2nd edition from University of Chicago
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Euripides: The Trojan Women and Hippolytus
by Euripides
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$2.50
Excavating the Past: Ancient Greece
by Christine Hatt
from Heinemann Educational Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$8.99 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Exploits of Xenophon
by Geoffrey Household, illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher
from Purple House Press
for 5th-9th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$13.99
Exploits of Xenophon
by Geoffrey Household
from Purple House Press
for 5th-9th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$24.99
Explore Greek Myths!
by Anita Yasuda, illustrated by Mike Crosier
from Nomad Press
for 1st-4th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Explore the Classical World
A Child's Geography Volume III
by Terri Johnson
Revised from Master Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Geography Curriculum (Location: GEO-CUR)
$39.19
Famous Men of Greece
by John Haaren & A. B. Poland
from Greenleaf Press
Greek History for 4th-9th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$7.50 (1 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)
$20.05
Famous Men of Greece - Greenleaf Guide (old)
by Cynthia Shearer
from Greenleaf Press
for 3rd-8th grade
Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
in Old Edition History & Geography (Location: OHIS)
$9.95
Famous Men of Greece - Memoria Press Package
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 4th-9th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$64.35
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)
$20.50
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)
$20.50
Favorite Greek Myths
by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Troy Howell
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Favorite Greek Myths
by Bob Blaisdell
from Dover Publications
for 4th-6th grade
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Fire From Heaven
from Vintage Books
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
First Civilizations
History of Everyday Things
by Giovanni Caselli
from Peter Bedrick Books
for 4th-7th grade
in Ancient History (Location: HISW-ANC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
First Olympic Games
from Silver Burdett Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Five Dialogues of Plato
by Plato, translated by G.M.A. Grube, revised by John M. Cooper
2nd edition from Hackett Publishing Company
Ancient Philosophy for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
From Achilles to Christ
by Louis Markos
from InterVarsity Press
for Adult
in Classical Literature Guides (Location: LIR-CLA)
$26.00
Genesis through Deuteronomy & Ancient Egypt (old)
by Sonya Shafer
3rd edition from Simply Charlotte Mason
for 1st-12th grade
in Old Edition History & Geography (Location: OHIS)
$12.50 (1 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 (1 in stock)
Gorgias
Penguin Classics
by Plato
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Philosophy for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$10.00
Gorgias
Oxford World's Classics
by Plato
from Oxford University
Ancient Philosophy for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$8.95 $6.00 (2 in stock)
Great Dialogues of Plato
Signet Classics
by Plato
from Signet Classics
Ancient Philosophy for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$7.95
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