Some Traces Of The Pre Olympian World In Greek Literature And Myth

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For statesmen, friendship is the lingua franca of politics. Considering the connections between personal and political friendship, John von Heyking’s The Form of Politics interprets the texts of Plato and Aristotle and emphasizes the role that friendship has in enduring philosophical and contemporary political contexts. Beginning with a discussion on virtue-friendship, described by Aristotle and Plato as an agreement on what qualifies as the pursuit of good, The Form of Politics demonstrates that virtue and political friendship form a paradoxical relationship in which political friendships need to be nourished by virtue-friendships that transcend the moral and intellectual horizons of the political society. Von Heyking then examines Aristotle’s ethical and political writings – which are set within the boundaries of political life – and Plato’s dialogues on friendship in Lysis and the Laws, which characterize political friendship as festivity. Ultimately, arguing that friendship is the high point of a virtuous political life, von Heyking presents a fresh interpretation of Aristotle and Plato’s political thought, and a new take on the most essential goals in politics. Inviting reassessment of the relationship between friendship and politics by returning to the origins of Western philosophy, The Form of Politics is a lucid work on the foundations of political cooperation.

The ancient Greeks told stories about their gods and these stories were later called myths and became part of Greek mythology. Even today, myths about ancient Greek gods, goddesses and heroes are quite popular. In fact, many of the products we buy today get their names from Greek mythology. The very popular Amazon.com got its name from a race of mythical female warriors. The ever popular, Nike, got its name from the goddess of victory. That's not all. The Titans, the Spartans, and Trojans are popular sports teams, but their names are actually derived from ancient Greek stories. There is no single original text in Greek mythology. In fact, it is known mostly from Greek literature. Among the earliest literary sources are Iliad and Odyssey, epics written by Homer, which date back to 8th century BC. The epics talk about the mythical Trojan War was both a divine as well as a human war. The epics don't explain the different gods and goddesses, but assume that the readers are already familiar with them. A possible contemporary of Homer, Hesiod, wrote Theogony or the Origin of Gods. He mentions the earliest Greek myths in this literary source, including the ones about the origin of the gods, and the creation of the world. He also introduces the myths of Prometheus, Pandora and the Five Ages in another book of his, which went by the name of Works and Days. Basically, stories about ancient Greece have actually been picked up from various literary sources and there are so many gods and goddesses, so many monsters and heroes, and so many places and events to describe that even thousands of pages would probably not be enough to describe all of them. In this book, we will be discussing some of the most popular figures and events of Greek mythology and we hope you enjoy reading about them as much as everyone who has known these stories for ages.

A lively combination of scholarship and unorthodoxy makes these studies in ancient history and literature unusually rewarding. Few of the objects of conventional admiration gain much support from Peter Green (Pericles and the "democracy" of fifth-century Athens are treated to a very cool scrutiny) but he has a warm regard for the real virtues of antiquity and for those who spoke with "an individual voice." The studies cover both history and literature, Greece and Rome. They range from the real nature of Athenian society to poets as diverse as Sappho and Juvenal, and all of them, without laboring any parallels, make the ancient world immediately relevant to our own. (There is, for example, a very perceptive essay on how classical history often becomes a vehicle for the historian's own political beliefs and fantasies of power.) The student of classical history will find plenty in this book to enrich his own studies. The general reader will enjoy the vision of a classical world which differs radically from what he probably expects.

This volume is the first monograph in English dedicated to the study of the Greek mythical hero Pelops. While popular in antiquity, Pelops’ popularity has since faded; this book presents a comprehensive treatment of his character and legacy. Ancient tradition held that Pelops was the son of Tantalus and the ancestor of the Atreids, Agamemnon and Menelaos, who appear in the Homeric poems as leaders of the Greek forces against Troy. After arriving in Greece from the east, Pelops was eventually worshipped in Olympia, became the eponym of the Peloponnese, and was celebrated as one of the founders of the Olympic Games. However, his character is morally problematic, his family were heavily condemned, and few tales about Pelops exist. Patay-Horváth takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of this obscure figure, presenting and analyzing written sources and depictions of Pelops, the etymology of his name, the history of his mythical family, and the afterlife of his myths. Drawing on folklore and ethnography, art and archaeology, linguistics and geography, this volume provides a detailed and accessible overview of both old and new theories about Pelops, his descendants, and his legacy. Transformations of Pelops is suitable for students and scholars of ancient Greek history and mythology, classical philology, and archaeology.