Athens: A Cultural History

by Michael Llewellyn Smith

Modern Athens is a bustling, overgrown city, continually coming to terms with its illustrious past. Dominated by the Parthenon, the world-famous symbol of classical antiquity, it has been touched by every aspect of Greece's turbulent history, suffering invasions and occupations, sieges, division and dictatorship, and has grown dramatically into a metropolis of four million people. Mixing old and new, the Greek capital is a treasure house of eastern Orthodox and western culture, rich in the visual arts, architecture and poetry. Michael Llewellyn Smith describes the history and culture of Athens, site of the 2004 Olympic Games and city of monuments enduring, purged and restored. Exploring its streets and squares, he reveals layers of Ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine history, elegant Bavarian neoclassical buildings, and a modern city of concrete and glass, metro and tram. • The city of treasure hunters and Philhellenes; Byron and Chateaubriand; Thackeray and Mark Twain; Freud, Virigina Woolf and Winston Churchill. • The city of host of the first modern Games of 1896 and the Olympiad of 2004; the revival of the Olympic idea. • The city of classical soldiers and thinkers; poets, politicians and princes; migrants and refugees from Greece and beyond.

Genres: Travel

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2004

About the author

Sir Michael John Llewellyn-Smith is a British diplomat and academic.
He was Ambassador to Poland from 1991 to 1996 and Ambassador to Greece from 1996 to 1999.
Since his retirement he writes and lectures about Greek history and culture.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thus far it is a very interesting guide book to Athens. The writing is very good and makes the city seem alive and interesting unlike most other guide books that sound like history texts.