The Rise Of The Greeks - Softcover

In this challenging book Michael Grant sets out to discover the extraordinary epoch between 1000 and 494 BC, a period which he shows was one of the most creative in history. He takes the reader on an intriguing detective trail to understand the world of the early Greeks, a people who are to be found not only within the boundaries of modern Greece, but also in parts of Asia Minor, Italy, Sicily and Russia, scattered in hundreds of independent city-states, united by common blood, customs, language and religion. Michael Grant discusses the economic and social roles of slaves and women, often seen as mysterious, polluting elements in these male-dominated societies, in curious contrast to their powerful role in mythology and literature. In a civilization where leisure was thought to be 'more desirable and more fully an end than business', there was time for outstanding artistic and intellectual developments, notably the pottery of Protogeometric and subsequent epochs and the introduction of the Phoenician alphabet (after half a millenium of illiteracy) which enabled Homer's Iliad and Odyssey to be recorded.

Michael Grant is a highly successful and renowned historian of the ancient world. He has held many academic posts including those of Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh University; Vice Chancellor of The Queen¿s University, Belfast and Vice Chancellor of the University of Khartoum. He is a Doctor of Letters at Dublin and a Doctor of Laws at Belfast. He has also been President of the Classical Association of England, the Virgil Society and the Royal Numismatic Society, and is a Medallist of the American Numismatic Society. He lives and writes in Italy.