About this item
Why do the ancient Greeks occupy such a prominent place in conceptions of Western culture and identity? The Greeks are a source of much that we esteem: democracy, philosophy, tragedy, epic and lyric poetry, history-writing, ideals of athletic competition, aesthetic sensibilities, and more. Spanning roughly 1,000 years, the lectures cover the Late Bronze Age (1500 B.C.E.) to the time of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century (400 B.C.E.) . Greek civilization experienced a period of magnificent achievement, and then plunged into darkness, from which blossomed a second flowering of that civilization, giving us the foundation of our own.
About the Author
My research has moved across a few areas, not necessarily closely connected. I have written on ethnicity at the local level in a book on ancient Phokis and recently returned to this topic, editing a volume for Blackwell on ethnicity in the ancient Mediterranean world. Between these projects I wrote a study of cattle in the Greek world that addressed a whole set of questions around cattle, from the empirical (who owns the herds, where are they raised, what do cows cost in the 5th century) to the interpretive (why are there so many myths about cattle, what lies at the heart of sacrifice) . The book was an absolute blast to write and reminded me of how lucky we are to work in a field that allows us to do research in areas we love.I am currently at work on a few different projects. One is the topic of salt production in the Greek world, while another is the theme of hybridity. If you have any thoughts on either of these I'd love to hear from you.
