Greek as a Treat: Introduction to the Classics

228 Pages·1993·16.554 MB·English

by  Peter France

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AS A
An Introduction to the Classics
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GREEK AS A TREAT
PeterFrance was alate convertto classical Greece. Itwas notuntil 1987
that he first visited the Greek islands, when he immediately lost all
reasonandboughta tinyhouseonPatmos, wherehe spendssixmonths
ofevery year wresding with the language and enjoying the ouzo and
hterature.
The first fifteen years ofhis working life were spent as a colonial civil
servant on the Fiji Islands, where he rose to Permanent Secretary. After
a spell as an academic working on his thesis, which was published
imder the tide The Charter of the Land, he started a new career in the
media, firstinradio, wherehe laimched (andpresented) Kaleidoscope, and
then in television. His television credits include Everyman, for which he
was writer andpresenter for ten years. Heart oftheMotter, Global Report, The
NaturalWorld,WildlifeonOne,HorizonandTime-watch.Hewroteandpresented
the five-part documentary series The Birth of Europe for Radio 4 in 1991,
and has published The Rape ofEgypt.
Greek as a Treat accompanies six programmes first broadcast on Radio 4
in spring 1993.

PETER FRANCE
GREEK AS A TREAT
AN INTRODUCTION TO
THE CLASSICS
PENGUIN BOOKS
BBC BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
BBC BOOKS
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PenguinBooksLtd,RegisteredOfiBces: Harmondsworth,Middlesex,England
FirstpublishedbyBBC Books,adivisionofBBCEnterprisesLtd 1993
PublishedinPenguinBooks 1994
3579 10 8642
Copyright©PeterFrance, 1993
AHrightsreserved
Themoralrightoftheauthorhasbeenasserted
PrintedinEnglandbyClaysLtd,StIvespic
ExceptintheUnitedStatesofAmerica,thisbookIssoldsubject
totheconditionthatitshallnot,bywayoftradeorotherwise,belent,
re-sold,hiredout,orotherwisecirculatedwithoutthepublisher's
priorconsentinanyformofbindingorcoverotherthanthatin
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book was written on the island of Patmos and I am very grateful to the
HeadmasterofthePatmianSchool fortheuse ofbooksinModemGreekandto the
UbrarianoftheHolyMonasteryofStJohnTheologianforpermissiontoworkthere.
Carraigh B. Thomson of Agrio Livadi generously made available his Ubrary and
critical faculties from which I gready benefitted and I made the most ofthe advice
ofmy friend thepainterVasiUs Kpreoswho lovesGreek culture.
Swan Hellenic Cruises very kindly shipped me around the sites and I learned a
lot from their guest lecturers Colin Badcock and the Revd. Robert Glen. In Athens,
IwasencouragedbyEleniKipreos oftheNewFormsGalleryandMaryMichaehdou
ofthe MinistryofCulture.
Professor Sir Keimeth Dover, at St Andrews, was generous with his time and
adviceandProfessorBernardWiUiams,inOxford, setmerightnotonlyaboutGreek
ethics but about Greek drama. Professor Dan O'Cormor of Exeter and Dr OUver
Taplin ofMagdalen College, Oxford, kindly shaped my early ideas and Dr Stephen
Instone ofLondon University the later ones. Above all, I am grateftil to Dr Peter
Jones of Newcasde University whose enthusiasm for his subject would ignite a
passion for Aeschylus in the breast ofan aardvark. He kindly cast an eye over the
manuscript and pointed out its more obvious howlers. For the ones that remain I
am, ofcourse, completely responsible.
I am very gratefiil to Penguin Books for permission to quote extracts from the
following: Aeschylus, TheOresteianTrilogy,trans, byPhihpVellacott; Aristophanes,Birds
and otherplays, trans, by David Barrett; Aristophanes, Lysistrata and otherplays, trans, by
Alan H. Sonmierstein; Euripides, Medea and other plays, trans, by Phihp Vellacott;
Herodotus, The Histories, trans, by Aubrey de Selincomt, revised by A. R. Bum;
Homer, The Iliad, trans, by Martin Hanunond; Homer, The Odyssey, trans, by E. V.
Rieu, revised by D. C. H. Rieu in consultation with Peter V. Jones; Plato, The Last
DaysofSocrates,trans,byHughTredeimick;Plato, TheLaws,trans,byTrevorJ.Saunders;
Sophocles,Electraandotherplays,trans.E.F.Watling;Thucydides,HistoryofthePeloponnesian
War, trans. RexWarner.

CONTENTS
Introduction
Map of Ancient Greece
ONE Academics in Arcadia i
TWO Biology and the Life Sciences 43
THREE Of Gymnastics and Gynaecology 67
FOUR Democracy and Drama 99
FIVE Ethics: The Philosophy of Behaviour 132
Epilogue 173
A few good books 174
Bibliography of references 178
Picture credits 183
Index 184