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The World of Athens
The World of Athens is a serious, up-to-date account of the history and culture of 5th century Athens for adults, university students & 6th-formers with an intelligent interest in ancient Greece. The book, which is profusely illustrated, contains chapters on all aspects of the history, culture, values & achievements of Athenian life. Teachers & students of Reading Greek now have a full & instant guide to the cultural & historical topics in which the course is so diverse & rich. The book is essential for all users of Reading Greek.
419 pages, Paperback
First published January 30, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 8, 2013
This “undergraduate textbook” was written by Paul Cartledge, George Cawkwell, John Gould, Desmond Lee, Jeremy Paterson, Brian Sparkes, Virginia Webb and John Wilkins under editors Peter Jones and, in its second edition, Robin Osborne. It therefore represents a summary of current scholarly consensus. Unlike some collaborative works, the editors have done a fair job of providing a consistent voice.
As indicated by the subtitle, it covers the period 500-323 BCE, with closest attention paid the years from Marathon (490) to the resolution of the Peloponnesian Wars in 404, the heyday of Athens and very essence of what is commonly referred to as “classical” Greece. The reason for this narrow focus has, of course, as much to do with available sources as it has with political, economic and cultural achievements. We simply don't know as much of other poleis and classical Attica has long served our own traditions of cultural self-understanding and self-justification, particularly as regards polity in our avowedly “democratic” era.
Indeed, one of the better chapters of this book is that entitled “Athenian Democracy and Imperialism.” In just under fifty pages the authors give not only an impressively detailed representation of what we know of Attic politics, but also present some serious questions about the possible linkages between such a populist system and imperialist adventurism.
Despite its composition-by-committee, the text does have some controversial tendencies. The chapter on “Human Obligations, Values and Concerns” overemphasizes the importance of competitiveness (agon and arete), underemphasizing moderation (sophrosune). This, in my opinion, is suspect. As the authors do mention, belatedly, our sources are overwhelmingly aristocratic and upper class. The virtues of the noble cavalryman are not necessarily those of the hoplite or of the peasant drafted as a rower. Venerating the heroes of the Iliad no more entails entire subscription to the warlike values therein than modern veneration of the Gospels demonstrates our peaceableness.
Similarly, while the text as a whole is quite declarative, the occasional caveats appearing within it give insufficient impression of the paucity and prejudices of our sources. That important discussion only begins—and just only begins—in a postscript. If the point of this text is to initiate students to an historically accurate classics curriculum, then much more attention should have been paid at the outset to the processes of formulating pictures of a bygone era and the problematics of drawing conclusions about it.
As indicated by the subtitle, it covers the period 500-323 BCE, with closest attention paid the years from Marathon (490) to the resolution of the Peloponnesian Wars in 404, the heyday of Athens and very essence of what is commonly referred to as “classical” Greece. The reason for this narrow focus has, of course, as much to do with available sources as it has with political, economic and cultural achievements. We simply don't know as much of other poleis and classical Attica has long served our own traditions of cultural self-understanding and self-justification, particularly as regards polity in our avowedly “democratic” era.
Indeed, one of the better chapters of this book is that entitled “Athenian Democracy and Imperialism.” In just under fifty pages the authors give not only an impressively detailed representation of what we know of Attic politics, but also present some serious questions about the possible linkages between such a populist system and imperialist adventurism.
Despite its composition-by-committee, the text does have some controversial tendencies. The chapter on “Human Obligations, Values and Concerns” overemphasizes the importance of competitiveness (agon and arete), underemphasizing moderation (sophrosune). This, in my opinion, is suspect. As the authors do mention, belatedly, our sources are overwhelmingly aristocratic and upper class. The virtues of the noble cavalryman are not necessarily those of the hoplite or of the peasant drafted as a rower. Venerating the heroes of the Iliad no more entails entire subscription to the warlike values therein than modern veneration of the Gospels demonstrates our peaceableness.
Similarly, while the text as a whole is quite declarative, the occasional caveats appearing within it give insufficient impression of the paucity and prejudices of our sources. That important discussion only begins—and just only begins—in a postscript. If the point of this text is to initiate students to an historically accurate classics curriculum, then much more attention should have been paid at the outset to the processes of formulating pictures of a bygone era and the problematics of drawing conclusions about it.
May 22, 2020
A companion to the JACT's Reading Greek course, which I reviewed earlier. Most of the usual facts are here, filtered, as you would expect, through two centuries of Victorian bullshit, but they're additionally overlaid with explicitly modern Tory politics, leading to a curious situation where the part of the book that pretends "history" is synonymous with warfare conducted by the ruling class is actually the least exhausting part. Some choice quotes from the other ones:
(Not shown: the multi-page whine about political correctness that seeks to defend the Greeks from charges of racism or sexism and the practice of slavery from a charge of immorality by pretending that such charges are mutually exclusive with having insight into their origins.)
Still, World of Athens has had a number of writers, and it's fairly obvious that much of the bullshit is the result of one or more censors editing after the fact (giving us such beautiful half-corrected sentences as "The Greeks developed their own, unique system of writing in the years 800-750 from the Phoenicians."†), so I want to be careful not to blame all of them for it; I'll just blame the most recent editor, Robin Osborne, and obviously also Peter Jones again.
I'll never understand how people can study a society that, even for most of its many slaves (though not for its noble women), had so much more freedom in almost every material sense than most of us do today and come out the other side waving a Union Jack and thinking we need to get more reactionary. There's something deeply rotten in British Classics departments, and it's books like this, and people like the JACT, that give Classics the reputation it has today.
And I just never want to read another account of the life of Alexander, however brief, that mentions Roxane but not Hephaistion.
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† Somewhat less politically, the same paragraph also describes the Greek alphabet as "the first fully phonetic alphabet" (it wasn't even fully phonemic, as it couldn't distinguish most long and short vowels, even leaving aside [ŋ]) and visually compares Greek letter forms to "Phoenician" ones that are clearly modern Hebrew.
An abysmal appendix on pronunciation also states that "Greek words have accents which indicate change in pitch. They are best ignored.", which in itself tells you everything you need to know about the JACT's love of Greek.
How should one live one's life? Philosophers attempt to establish a rational basis for how we should behave towards each other; economists attempt to show what behaviour is in our best interests on the assumption that others too are concerned to maximise their interest. But most people derive their moral values from a mixture of parental influence, self-interest, understanding of the law, vague memories of Biblical values, particularly those of the Christian Gospels, and imitation of people known from life or fiction.
In the United Kingdom today, 'citizenship' means little more than the right to vote in elections, and is automatically bestowed by blood-line or place of birth, and on almost anyone with a residence permit. In Athens, it was very different.
Christians and Jews believe that there is one god, who made the world and is external to it. This god, whose characteristic is love, works for good in the world. He demands not only worship but a particular lifestyle, a lifestyle characterised by love, from his adherents. Adherents identify themselves by affirming their belief in a set of propositions about the one god expressed in a creed. They consider that god [MANY MORE SENTENCES REMOVED]
(Not shown: the multi-page whine about political correctness that seeks to defend the Greeks from charges of racism or sexism and the practice of slavery from a charge of immorality by pretending that such charges are mutually exclusive with having insight into their origins.)
Still, World of Athens has had a number of writers, and it's fairly obvious that much of the bullshit is the result of one or more censors editing after the fact (giving us such beautiful half-corrected sentences as "The Greeks developed their own, unique system of writing in the years 800-750 from the Phoenicians."†), so I want to be careful not to blame all of them for it; I'll just blame the most recent editor, Robin Osborne, and obviously also Peter Jones again.
I'll never understand how people can study a society that, even for most of its many slaves (though not for its noble women), had so much more freedom in almost every material sense than most of us do today and come out the other side waving a Union Jack and thinking we need to get more reactionary. There's something deeply rotten in British Classics departments, and it's books like this, and people like the JACT, that give Classics the reputation it has today.
And I just never want to read another account of the life of Alexander, however brief, that mentions Roxane but not Hephaistion.
--------
† Somewhat less politically, the same paragraph also describes the Greek alphabet as "the first fully phonetic alphabet" (it wasn't even fully phonemic, as it couldn't distinguish most long and short vowels, even leaving aside [ŋ]) and visually compares Greek letter forms to "Phoenician" ones that are clearly modern Hebrew.
An abysmal appendix on pronunciation also states that "Greek words have accents which indicate change in pitch. They are best ignored.", which in itself tells you everything you need to know about the JACT's love of Greek.
February 26, 2017
Well done, and mostly would be very accessible to its intended audience (students studying beginning Greek; it's a companion to the JACT Reading Greek series). I like that it specifically focuses on Athens (most other Greek civ books do too, but this one is up front about it). The sections on "Human obligations, values and concerns," "Athenian society," and (especially) "Athenian democracy and imperialism" were particularly well-done. The "Athens at war" chapter I found less interesting, wrong detail level for the audience.
I would've preferred, personally, to have at least a few pages about what might have happened in Athens after the death of Alexander; the city was still there into the Roman period, you know.
I also felt the book's treatment of marginalized people (women, slaves, foreigners) could've been stronger; in fact, it generally felt like the topic was mostly only handled begrudgingly. Similarly, there was one section on "Homosexual [sic] relations" that one, was short at less than six pages, some of which was illustrations, and two, walled off the topic from the rest of the book, which is not representative of Classical Athens at all. Other than that section, the only other mention of "homosexuals" (again, sic) in the book was that they were a target of some of Aristophanes' jokes. Again, that's not really representative of Athens.
A timeline of Athenian history would've been really helpful.
The updated bibliography/suggestions for further reading are good (although really, no student will *ever* follow up on them...).
The transliteration scheme is... idiosyncratic. "Athens," but "Spartē;" "Hippolutos" the play in the same sentence with "Hippolytos" the character. Vowel length was always noted, though, which is nice.
There's a few errors and typos throughout the book, but overall, it's well-done. If I were adopting an entire Greek civ textbook, it would definitely be a contender.
I would've preferred, personally, to have at least a few pages about what might have happened in Athens after the death of Alexander; the city was still there into the Roman period, you know.
I also felt the book's treatment of marginalized people (women, slaves, foreigners) could've been stronger; in fact, it generally felt like the topic was mostly only handled begrudgingly. Similarly, there was one section on "Homosexual [sic] relations" that one, was short at less than six pages, some of which was illustrations, and two, walled off the topic from the rest of the book, which is not representative of Classical Athens at all. Other than that section, the only other mention of "homosexuals" (again, sic) in the book was that they were a target of some of Aristophanes' jokes. Again, that's not really representative of Athens.
A timeline of Athenian history would've been really helpful.
The updated bibliography/suggestions for further reading are good (although really, no student will *ever* follow up on them...).
The transliteration scheme is... idiosyncratic. "Athens," but "Spartē;" "Hippolutos" the play in the same sentence with "Hippolytos" the character. Vowel length was always noted, though, which is nice.
There's a few errors and typos throughout the book, but overall, it's well-done. If I were adopting an entire Greek civ textbook, it would definitely be a contender.
September 7, 2025
A summary textbook broadly covering the history of ancient Athens through to its subordination to the Macedonians. It covers a brief narrative history, then culture, art, and intellectual history all in short summary form. It's very traditional, but also very digestible.
May 21, 2018
This is a book I'll dip in and out of, definitely. Lots of good information, but it is an introduction to Athens.
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March 31, 20212 copies
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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December 6, 2023Just glad this class is over.
May 8, 2022
This is a book, I read through in high school, in the first edition, most likely; It was quite interesting to glance through and re-read recently- some of the remnants, in the form of pottery and sculpture, are of exceptional quality, especially given they were created millenia ago. It would be an exploration, again for me to study sculpture, especially, and what the process is in the creation of such artwork.
August 4, 2011
An extremely interesting book which helps you to understand ancient Greek culture in many aspects; it focuses on Athens, my city and its athenocentricity is what makes it a useful tool for experts on that field.
June 30, 2014
One of my text books for the year. I'll write a review at the end of the course, but so far it's proving a common sense, easy to search and understand piece of excellence. Well-written and compiled.
June 11, 2013
A well round text book.
January 20, 2017
Decent intro, but there are better.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews