Loved itAnd I've read little bits and pieces here and there. And I think it's absolutely stunning and would definitely function as a fantastic introduction to this topic.
Ancient Greece: The Definitive Visual History (2025)
Others: Positive Embark upon a lavish visual journey through ancient Greece—its origins, its rise and fall, and its legacy that still permeates the Western world today. Spanning more than 3,000 years, Ancient Greece explores the tumultuous history of this glorious empire in vivid detail—from its Minoan and Mycenaean origins to the apogee of the warring city-states of Athens and Sparta, and from the death of its most charismatic leader, Alexander the Great, to its ultimate defeat by Rome. Sumptuous photography and authoritative, engaging text cover every facet of life in ancient Greece, from art, entertainment, and schools of thought to politics, medicine, and war, while myths and religious beliefs are explored and explained in visual context. Greece’s military and political power shines through attractive and detailed maps of its legendary battles. The buried palaces and Athenian agoras where Plato and Socrates discussed philosophy are brought back to life with specially commissioned CGI recreations, while the stories of ordinary citizens, policymakers, and the first Olympic athletes are told with the help of illustrations, artifacts, and eyewitness accounts.
- ISBN:
- 9780593961599
Genres: nonfiction
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Aphrodisia: Women, Sex, and Pleasure in the Classical World
Jean Menzies
2026 · 1 review
Others: PositiveWas Ovid a surprising champion of women's sexual pleasure? Or did he just want them to fake it? Where did the British Museum curators hide the most pornographic of frescoes? And what exactly was the phallic wooden object excavated in 90's Northumberland? In APHRODISIA, Dr Jean Menzies dives into the hidden history of women's sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. The classical world stretched across the Mediterranean for more than a millennium, its people and cultures wide and varied and its sexual proclivities equally so. Yet so often when we read about sex in antiquity it is about the men folk first and which brothels they were visiting, how they balanced wives and lovers, and what they got up to in the gymnasium. Delving into the literature, art and artefacts of the ancient world, from sex toys to seduction tips to kink, Dr Jean Menzies instead centres women and their desire. In doing so, she uncovers the many faces of women's sexuality over the course of thousands of years, and asks intriguing, and sometimes provocative questions about women, sex and desire today.
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Also nonfiction76%Jean's Thoughts loved both13%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations11%Stealing Helen
Lowell Edmunds
2015 · 448 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveIt's a familiar a beautiful woman is abducted and her husband journeys to recover her. This story’s best-known incarnation is also a central Greek myth―the abduction of Helen that led to the Trojan War. Stealing Helen surveys a vast range of folktales and texts exhibiting the story pattern of the abducted beautiful wife and makes a detailed comparison with the Helen of Troy myth. Lowell Edmunds shows that certain Sanskrit, Welsh, and Old Irish texts suggest there was an Indo-European story of the abducted wife before the Helen myth of the Iliad became known. Investigating Helen’s status in ancient Greek sources, Edmunds argues that if Helen was just one trope of the abducted wife, the quest for Helen’s origin in Spartan cult can be abandoned, as can the quest for an Indo-European goddess who grew into the Helen myth. He explains that Helen was not a divine essence but a narrative figure that could replicate itself as needed, at various times or places in ancient Greece. Edmunds recovers some of these narrative Helens, such as those of the Pythagoreans and of Simon Magus, which then inspired the Helens of the Faust legend and Goethe. Stealing Helen offers a detailed critique of prevailing views behind the "real" Helen and presents an eye-opening exploration of the many sources for this international mythical and literary icon.
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Also nonfiction78%Jean's Thoughts loved both13%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations9%The Oxford illustrated history of witchcraft and magic
Owen Davies
2017 · 310 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveThis richly illustrated history provides a readable and fresh approach to the extensive and complex story of witchcraft and magic. Telling the story from the dawn of writing in the ancient world to the globally successful Harry Potter films, the authors explore a wide range of magical beliefs and practices, the rise of the witch trials, and the depiction of the Devil-worshipping witch. The book also focuses on the more recent history of witchcraft and magic, from the Enlightenment to the present, exploring the rise of modern magic, the anthropology of magic around the globe, and finally the cinematic portrayal of witches and magicians, from The Wizard of Oz to Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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Also nonfiction79%Jean's Thoughts loved both13%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations8%A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Emma Southon
2020 · 320 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveIn Ancient Rome all the best stories have one thing in common - murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city; Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theatre, Claudius was poisoned at dinner and Galba was beheaded in the forum. In one fifty-year period, twenty-six emperors were murdered. But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? Emma Southon examines real-life homicides from Roman history to explore how perpetrator, victim and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's unique culture of crime and punishment, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.
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Also nonfiction79%Jean's Thoughts loved both13%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations8%From Olympus to Camelot
David Leeming
2003 · 228 pages · 2 reviews
Others: PositiveFrom the stories suggested by the great cave paintings of the Paleolithic period to the thought experiments of modern scientists, From Olympus to Camelot provides a sweeping history of the development of the rich and varied European mythological tradition. David Leeming, an authority on world mythology, begins with a general introduction to mythology and mythological terms, and then turns to the stories themselves. Discussing well-known figures such as Zeus, Aphrodite, Thor, and Cuchulainn, and less familiar ones such as Perun, Mari, and the Sorcerer of Lescaux, Leeming illustrates and analyzes the enduring human endeavor to make sense of existence through deities and heroes. Following an initial exploration of the Indo-European sources of European mythology and the connections between the myths of Europe and those of India and Iran, the book proceeds to survey the major beliefs of Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, and Slavic cultures, as well as the mythologies of non-Indo-European cultures such as the Etruscans and the Finns. Among its contents are introductions to the pantheons of various mythologies, examinations of major mythological works, and retellings of the influential mythical stories. This work also examines European deities, creation myths, and heroes in the context of Christian belief, and considers the translation of traditional stories into the mythologies of modern European political, scientific, philosophical, and economic movements. European mythology is the core mythology of Western civilization. This wide-ranging volume offers a lively and informative survey, along with a provocative new way of understanding this fundamental aspect of European culture.
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Also nonfiction80%Jean's Thoughts loved both13%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations7%Heroines of Olympus
Ellie Mackin Roberts
2020 · 208 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveGoddesses, monsters, humans and the semi-divine – whether courageous or meek, gruesome or irresistible, female characters are ever present on the peripheries of the great Greek myths, but rarely do they take centre stage. Their time has finally come to act as protagonists in their own stories. Heroines of Olympus retells the tales of 50 classic characters, plucking the threads of their lives from the myriad narratives in which they have appeared and weaving them together to create the full stories of these legendary women. Each story is accompanied by a captivating illustration and followed by a critical analysis of their role in the tradition of Greek storytelling, and in ancient society. Renowned ancient historian Ellie Mackin Roberts offers a contemporary perspective on loved, reviled and feared figures who are finally placed at the centre of their own story.
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Also nonfiction80%Jean's Thoughts loved both13%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations7%
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