What are /r/ancientgreece's favorite Products & Services?

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Not sure if it's exactly what you're looking for, but you might find the Blue Guide series useful. It focuses on archaeological/historical sites with thorough descriptions that help you understand the context and significance of what you're looking at.

The Blue Guide to Crete is by far my most beloved travel guide. It was basically my bible each time I visited.

This might be a helpful resource: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26095/26095-h/26095-h.htm

It gives an overview of the political system in Athens and the legal system. You should include a hermeneutical discussion when using this source, however. (It was probably not written by Aristotle, and there are some other problems with it.)

Do you think you could use the speeches by lawyers defending a client, for example? Because those are abundantly present on the interwebs. They are a bit later than your period, though (between 400-300 BCE).

Let me know if this helps you, or if you need more sources. I can look up more when I'm at home tonight.

Herodotus was not Athenian and attests to their existence several times. They are regularly depicted as the subject of Spartan commands. When the Spartans fought in the battle of Plataea, the state appointed seven helots to every Spartiate (spartan citizen). In other instances you see them accompanying Spartan similar to servants. The great majority of their population were agrarian laborers in a sort of serfdom-like situation. Paul Cartledge does some of the best work on Sparta and likely would answer your questions best, however.

This is a solid textbook that will give you an overview of Greek history and culture:

https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Greece-Political-Cultural-History/dp/019068691X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=pomeroy+greek&qid=1620702327&sr=8-2

If you read something like that, then you'd have enough of a framework that you could figure out where to dive deeper, depending on your interests.

Thanks for taking a look! It's currently digitally available on Comixology and Amazon Kindle. You can also grab it directly from Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/products/MZgtQ

As far as a physical copy - this is part I (60 pages) of what will be three parts. I plan the physical book to be the full graphic novel (about 180 pages).

Eek! Let me just preface this by saying I've never been very good at essays. Occasionally I outdo myself but that's purely by accident. I think this was one of my more surprising marks, but it's still not a great essay. It's basically a rant.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B43C5kYNP10BekM4dFlnWXp4WjQ/edit?usp=sharing

Edit: hope the link works, I've never shared individual files from google drive before.

Thanks for reading my article and writing a comment.

The Minoans have been primarily known as traders and from what I have read of traditional history, one of the reasons they were believed to have been conquered by the Mycenaeans was the fact they were not militarily inclined. However, that perception has undergone revision.

Here is a good summary of how this perception arose and how modern archaeology is moving toward revising the traditional image of the Minoans:

https://www.academia.edu/1552481/Martial_Minoans_War_as_social_process_practice_and_event_in_Bronze_Age_Crete

I do not know. But that depends on the definition. If we assume that a robot is a mechanical device capable of performing certain actions automatically, then such devices existed already in antiquity.

Let me, however, repeat after my original post. The key word is predict. It means (following my first search result: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/predict#dataset-cacd):

> to say that an event or action will happen in the future, especially as a result of knowledge or experience.

You will find similar definitions in other dictionaries. Despite different wording, they generally agree that the word means saying that something will take place at a later time. The appearance in Greek myths (and indeed in various other mythologies) of various entities which we can anachronistically call robots does not mean that said mythologies predicted anything. They did not state: humans will build automata.

Moreover, it can be argued that Greek myths on human creation (Prometheus creates humans out of clay, Athena breathes life into these figures) can also be interpreted as robot creation myths – since inanimate matter is given spirit from an outside source.

Edit: added the word "saying".

For anyone interested in The Iliad, but a bit daunted by the workload, it's available on audiobook from Librivox (free). Homer is meant to be heard.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman

Knock yourself out. A basic reading list would, at the very least, contain: The Illiad and/or the Odyssey by Homer, The Theogony by Hesiod. That's some basic mythology in place. The Histories by Herodotus, The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, should do for history, at first. Apology, Symposium and Republic by Plato, Politics, Metaphysics, Rhetorics, Poetics by Aristotle. Something by Xenophon. Oedipus Rex, or another tragedy by either Sophocles or Euripides. A comedy by Aristophanes. Some Sappho and/or Callimachos.

100 percent no. This is the book you want on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Lie-Shattering-Spartan-Supremacy/dp/1472843754/ref=asc_df_1472843754/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=532827134322&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11314488729867445398&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&a...

They didn't have textbooks or google or written language! Stories personifying important concepts were a sort of "technology" for remembering and relaying important concepts/information from generation to generation without a literate culture. Elizabeth Wayland Barber's When They Severed Earth From Sky is a fantastic book that explores how stories help the brain "encode" important info like science, calendars, technology, history/government, biology, agriculture, medical info, poison control, etc. The fact that so many of the stories have outlived their original practical purposes is a testament to how insanely useful storytelling was as a memory tool.

When They Severed Earth From Sky by Elizabeth Wayland Barber and Paul T Barber is a fantastic little book about how mythology filled the roles of science, technology, history, and even basics like calendars/poison control/emergency-preparedness because in a pre-literate society stories were the most useful way to codify important information into memory. (amazon link)

The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram has an interesting chapter on Socrates in particular and how he came from the first generation of Ancient Greece to be educated with a phonetic alphabet rather than the pictographs of the previous generations, and how that gave birth to analysis of internal thought versus unquestioning literal belief. (amazon link)

On the subject of progress and invention, Athens invented a precursor to patent law where the state would pay handsomely for inventions that could boost food production, livestock rearing, and seafaring, spreading them throughout the region in order to increase the wealth of their landowners while also providing nicely for army rations. Later this would also inform the patronage program for the wealthy to attract lots of artistic talent to their cities, promoting progress in literature, sculpture, architecture, theatre, music, etc. I'm sure there's lots of references for these policies but tbh I learned about them through Mary Renault novels...

Thanks for taking a look! It's currently digitally available on Comixology and Amazon Kindle. You can also grab it directly from Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/products/MZgtQ

As far as a physical copy - this is part I (60 pages) of what will be three parts. I plan the physical book to be the full graphic novel (about 180 pages).

MH Hanson can be a bit dense. Ober and Fornara are brilliant.

I would guess this person probably just needs something like a survey text--somtheing like the Oxford Illustrated History would probably be a good starting point?

You should definitely read this: History (Comedic Tragedy) of Modern Greek State (1830-1974)

Yale University do a bunch of open lectures podcasts, this one by Donald Kagan is really good, he wrote a bunch about the peloponnesian war.

Yale Lectures - Donald Kagan

I wnjoyed your write up and think it's a fun comparison to make!

Two books I'd recommend if you're interested in the period are Funeral Games by Mary Renault https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_Games_%28novel%29#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DFuneral_Games_is_a_1981%2Cbook_of_her_Alexander_trilogy.?wprov=sfla1

and

Dividing the Spoils by Robin Waterfield

Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great's Empire (Ancient Warfare and Civilization) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0199931526/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_3DATXKE8DA49BXFDFY5G

If you want to learn more you can check this out http://www.4shared.com/office/GDJbsGWS/Wasson_-_The_Road_to_Eleusis.html?locale=en there is part about kykeon and Albert Hoffman who invented the LSD, says something about if ancient Greeks could use psychoactive substances or not.

To echo what others have said: Narrow. Always go narrow, especially when working out the initial subject - it's easy to accidentally add 2000 words on a interesting digression!

To demonstrate: http://www.worldcat.org/title/chariots-in-early-greek-culture-myth-vs-reality-from-the-bronze-age-to-the-fourth-century-bc/oclc/557436652?referer=di&ht=edition This guy wrote a PhD on chariots. Just chariots, in a similar sort of time frame. It's two chunky books long.

Happy to help. I prefer books that have a more narrow focus and go deeper, but that book is from a series that's designed to be a primer and written by a world class expert.

Prof Eric Cline (you may have seen his massively popular videos about the Bronze Age Collapse on YouTube) has a good one on the Trojan War:

https://www.amazon.com/Trojan-War-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0199760276/

Late reply but I just finished reading “Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great's Empire” by Robin Waterfield. Which covers the death of Alexander in 323 BCE to the assassination of Seleucus in 281, the last of the Diadochi and the last man who arguably had the ambition and a realistic shot to reunify Alexander’s empire. The book not only covers the military conflict but also the impact the wars had on Society, Literature, art and (when sources are available) how the various men administered their territories.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0199931526/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_JYZH5XN9B6G6FWAR05TE

I really like Paul Roche's translations of the Greek dramas (he has translations of almost all of them). His Sophocles here: https://www.amazon.com/Sophocles-Complete-Plays-Signet-Classics/dp/0451531531

It's out of print and a little bit dated, but this is still a great reference if you can find it:

https://www.amazon.com/Pictorial-Dictionary-Ancient-Athens-Travlos/dp/B0006VUBCA

(Parthenon and Propylaea are looking good!)

Thanks, Benjowenjo!

I have Hansen and Quin.

I also saw this there: <em>An Introduction to Ancient Greek: A Literary Approach</em>

Any good?

I'd also like to try a 'course' online so that I can interact and hear sounds. Any ideas, please?

Well it isn’t available for free, but you can purchase it on either Amazon or ComiXology. If you’re a member of ComiXology unlimited, you can read it and several other great comics for free, along as you pay whatever the monthly fee is.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Three-1-Kieron-Gillen/dp/1607069636/ref=nodl_

Link to ComiXology: https://m.comixology.com/Three/digital-comic/91164?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L21vYmlsZS90cmFkZUl0ZW0

If you like Fagles (and I do), he also translated Aeschylus' <em>The Oresteia</em> (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides) as well as Sophocles' <em>The Three Theban Plays</em> (Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone). I haven't actually read either of these, although his translation of Aeschylus is on my bookshelf, and I can't speak to their popularity but I'd imagine they're somewhat similar to his translations of epic poetry. I don't think he translated Euripides though. Hope this helps!

One of the best introductions that I read was Democracy and Classical Greece by J. K. Davies. It's a relatively slim volume, but it's readable and covers lots of the bases – plus it's quite cheap on Amazon.

Tom Holland's Persian Fire is a very readable account of the Persian Wars (c.494-478 BCE), which also comes highly recommended. It's generally pretty accurate, although he doesn't shy away from including all the sensational and salacious details, which most 'proper' histories probably wouldn't include.

Finally, I'd recommend G. E. M. de ste. Croix's The Origins of the Peloponnesian War, which (as the title suggests) focuses a little more on the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) rather than the 5th century as a whole. That said, it's very readable and was hugely influential, although it might be a little expensive.

I found when doing my undergraduate work that this book was a great reference for how various types of women were regarded throughout difference periods of Greek and Roman history. May be worth a read if it's something you're interested in it, and it's super cheap for a textbook.

Unfortunately I'm traveling right now so can't give you any good sourced answers, but I can recommend a good source since sometimes answers on this subreddit can be lacking.