On museum visits, we pass by beautiful, well-preserved vases from ancient Greece - but how often do we understand what the images on them depict? In "Image and Myth", Luca Giuliani tells the stories behind the pictures, exploring how artists of antiquity had to determine which motifs or historical and mythic events to use to tell an underlying story while also keeping in mind the tastes and expectations of paying clients. Covering the range of Greek style and its growth between the early Archaic and Hellenistic periods, Giuliani describes the intellectual, social, and artistic contexts in which the images were created. He reveals that developments in Greek vase painting were driven as much by the times as they were by tradition - the better-known the story, the less leeway the artists had in interpreting it. As literary culture transformed from an oral tradition, in which stories were always in flux, to the stability of written texts, the images produced by artists eventually became nothing more than illustrations of canonical works. At once a work of cultural and art history, "Image and Myth" builds a new way of understanding the visual culture of ancient Greece.

A Short History of the Ancient World examines the emergence of urban civilizations on the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Tracing developments from prehistoric times through the end of antiquity, the book investigates the unique social, cultural, religious, economic, and political characteristics of each civilization. Employing a social historical approach, Rauh argues that the ancient world encompassed more than simply Greece and Rome, and that urban populations across Eurasia and northern Africa were linked by an ancient world system. He explores the interconnectivity between societies in the Roman Mediterranean, East Africa, India, and China as they attained urban development, material prosperity, and cultural achievement. This beautifully designed full-color book includes an impressive range of images, as well as chronologies, timelines, overviews of dynasties, and chapter reviews.

A Short History of the Ancient World examines the emergence of urban civilizations on the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Tracing developments from prehistoric times through the end of antiquity, the book investigates the unique social, cultural, religious, economic, and political characteristics of each civilization. Employing a social historical approach, Rauh argues that the ancient world encompassed more than simply Greece and Rome, and that urban populations across Eurasia and northern Africa were linked by an ancient world system. He explores the interconnectivity between societies in the Roman Mediterranean, East Africa, India, and China as they attained urban development, material prosperity, and cultural achievement. This beautifully designed full-color book includes an impressive range of images, as well as chronologies, timelines, overviews of dynasties, and chapter reviews.

A menudo intuimos que las cosas no son lo que parecen, las gentes de otras epocas se complacian en descubrir y velar al mismo tiempo aquellas ideas que, por su sutileza, no pueden ser expresadas de otro modo. Nuestra relacion con las palabras se parece mucho a la de un drogadicto con su droga, las necesitamos para todo, exigimos explicaciones razonadas y razonables, y creemos que basta usar palabras para resolver los problemas. La gente de otros tiempos no usaba ni necesitaba tantas palabras, por ejemplo, todos los dichos de Cristo, caben en unas pocas paginas, Cuantas paginas habran escrito los hombres sobre ello sin aclarar su significado en la mas minima fraccion? Del mismo modo pueden escribirse sesudos y profundos tratados sobre este o aquel aspecto de esta o aquella obra de arte, pero nunca seran nada mas que palabras, inconmensurables con la obra de la que hablan. El Universo en que vivimos es una obra de Arte, el arte se percibe, hablar, lo impide.

Beginning with a short intellectual history of the academic culture wars,Eric Adler's book examines popular polemics including those by AllanBloom and Dinesh D'Souza, and considers the oddly marginal role ofclassical studies in these conflicts. In presenting a brief history of classicsin American education, the volume sheds light on the position of thehumanities in general. The book dissects three significant controversies from the era: theso-called AJP affair, which supposedly pitted a conservative journaleditor against his feminist detractors; the brouhaha surrounding MartinBernal's contentious Black Athena project; and the dustup associatedwith Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath's fire-breathing jeremiad, WhoKilled Homer? The book concludes by considering these controversiesas a means to end the crisis for classical studies in American education.How can the study of antiquity-and the humanities-thrive in thecontemporary academy? Classics, the Culture Wars, and Beyond providesworkable solutions to end the crisis for classics and for the humanities aswell. This major work also includes findings from a web survey of Americanclassical scholars, offering the first broadly representative impression ofwhat they think about their discipline and its prospects for the future. EricAdler also conducted numerous in-depth interviews with participants inthe controversies discussed, allowing readers to gain the most reliableinformation possible about these controversies. Those concerned about the liberal arts and the best way to educateyoung Americans should read this book. Accessible and jargon-free,this narrative of scholarly scandals and their context makes for bothenjoyable and thought-provoking reading.

In the fourth century b.c.e., the Athenians introduced to the sacred isle of Delos the habit of making marble inscriptions that noted "inventories" of goods in religious precincts. These inscriptions are now quite damaged and badly preserved, but they offer a trove of information about religious practice on this most unusual island. Richard Hamilton has tackled the difficult task of examining and analyzing these inscriptions, and his new book provides a fund of information about the inventories and their island. The volume is important and innovative in that it offers detailed insight into the workings of one of the most important Greek sanctuaries. Treasure Map brings together information that is otherwise widely scattered in a number of languages, modern and ancient. It offers translations of the inventories in English for the first time, and it presents extensive notes on objects recorded, on how the inventories were listed and weighed, and on aspects of Delian life and politics. Treasure Map will be a major resource for scholars and students of Greek religion and history, epigraphy, ancient economics, and politics.