4th Edition

The Greeks An Introduction to Their Culture

By Robin Sowerby, Brad Cook Copyright 2025
298 Pages 126 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

298 Pages 126 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

298 Pages 126 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This fully revised, new edition of The Greeks is a concise but wide-ranging introduction to the culture of ancient Greece, providing a comprehensive survey that covers all the key elements of ancient Greek civilisation from the age of Homer to the Hellenistic period. It opens with an overview of ancient historical sources and their authors and perspectives before delving into early history,... Read more

1. Introduction: defining Greeks & ancient sources; 2. Beginnings: early Greece, Homer & Hesiod; 3. History: Archaic & classical; 4. Politics: Sparta, Athens, & Macedon; 5. Religion: honoring gods, cities, & mortals; 6. Daily life: community & self; 7. Literature: from Sappho to Hyperides; 8. Philosophy & science: seeking to know; 9. Art & architecture: constructing images; 10. Hellenistic culture: from antiquity on; Appendix 1, Chronological Table; Appendix 2, Glossary. 

Biography

Robin Sowerby was Senior Lecturer in English Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland. Trained as a classicist, his research interests centre upon the classical tradition. He has written introductory studies of the major classical epics and is author of Early Augustan Virgil (2010), The Augustan Art of Poetry (2006), and The Classical Legacy in Renaissance Poetry (1994).

Brad Cook is a professor of Classics at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi, and has written on the lives and legends of the Athenian orator Demosthenes, the Roman orator Cicero, Philip II of Macedon, and Alexander the Great, and on ancient inscriptions and medieval manuscripts.