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Myths, Muses and Mortals: The Way of Life in Ancient Greece
- GenresGreek MythologyHistory
368 pages, Hardcover
Published November 21, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 2, 2024
a rare treat!
This is a fascinating book that doesn't talk down to us but is easy to read, at least for those with some college.
We've all heard about ancient Greece's heroic philosophers, poets, and playwrights, but hardly anyone has told us that they were speaking to their contemporaries and not merely to us.
That is what Professor Furley is doing, sharing his learning with us, showing us how those contemporaries heard the greats among them--ordinary Greeks of long ago, ordinary like us readers. He shows us--with engaging prose, doesn't "lecture"--how their listeners lived, loved, dressed, ate, drank, fought, worked, talked, traveled, celebrated, and worshipped.
What the ancient Greek greats meant may not simply be what we moderns imagine they must have meant.
And their listeners had lives, different lives, perhaps harder but sometimes better than ours.
Professor Furley is something America needs more of--he's a public intellectual, a scholar who doesn't just debate with academic peers, but shares her/his learning via op-ed's and, better, books such as Myths, Muses and Mortals.
I must give this book the highest compliment a reader can give: I finished reading it only last week, but I fully intend to read it again in a couple years. Such pleasure ought be repeated.
This is a fascinating book that doesn't talk down to us but is easy to read, at least for those with some college.
We've all heard about ancient Greece's heroic philosophers, poets, and playwrights, but hardly anyone has told us that they were speaking to their contemporaries and not merely to us.
That is what Professor Furley is doing, sharing his learning with us, showing us how those contemporaries heard the greats among them--ordinary Greeks of long ago, ordinary like us readers. He shows us--with engaging prose, doesn't "lecture"--how their listeners lived, loved, dressed, ate, drank, fought, worked, talked, traveled, celebrated, and worshipped.
What the ancient Greek greats meant may not simply be what we moderns imagine they must have meant.
And their listeners had lives, different lives, perhaps harder but sometimes better than ours.
Professor Furley is something America needs more of--he's a public intellectual, a scholar who doesn't just debate with academic peers, but shares her/his learning via op-ed's and, better, books such as Myths, Muses and Mortals.
I must give this book the highest compliment a reader can give: I finished reading it only last week, but I fully intend to read it again in a couple years. Such pleasure ought be repeated.
February 25, 2026
This ends so abruptly I had to check if my copy was missing a chapter 😅 book desperately needs a final recap/conclusion chapter.
bonus points for the gorgeous cover and admitting Achillies wasn't gay but the ending leaves me with an unfinished feeling
bonus points for the gorgeous cover and admitting Achillies wasn't gay but the ending leaves me with an unfinished feeling
February 5, 2026
3.5/5. can feel a little disorganized at times, but overall a good collection of contemporary literature and explanations of Greek life
January 28, 2025
That was disappointing.
Let's start by quoting the inner jacket sleeve. This book "gives new insight into a multitude of life experiences in ancient Greece. The book introduces the lives of the ancient Greeks through extracts taken from a range of sources, including poems, plays, novels, histories, lawsuits, inscriptions, and private note-tablets."
OK, so we're going to learn about day-to-day life of the commoners. We're going to learn social history of the average Greek. Well, that's what I expected.
I'm not really sure what Furley delievered. He'll pick a topic he wants to talk about for a chapter -- say, love, for example. And then he'll recount every story of love in The Iliad. OK ... that's not really what I'd expect you to go. That might serve as an ideal for Greek relations; a template --but Furley doesn't even do that. He just talks about love in this epic poem, then love in this play, then love in this other source, and ... he kinda forgets to bring it back to the lives of the ancient Greeks themselves. And he gets so caught up in looking over these sources, that there's no broader picture. Furley fixates on his literaure and never really leaves his book.
There's a telling omission in his list of sources he's looking at in his examination of daily life in Greece: archeology. This reads more like a litany of Greek literary themes rather than an examation of Greek life. It's like he wrote the wrong book by accident.
Some info in the book: the Greeks had two words for love, philia (a close bond with another) and eros (more romantic/passionate love). "New Men" in Greece gained power through their oratory ability. They believed in omens, using birds, oracles, dreams, and animal diviniation. Athens's agora, and similar places in other towns, were the center fo life - socially, politically, economically - it was the gathering place to shop, gossip, or engage in politics. They had few (if any) taboos on sex, and no age of consent.
There wasn't much I got from this book.
Let's start by quoting the inner jacket sleeve. This book "gives new insight into a multitude of life experiences in ancient Greece. The book introduces the lives of the ancient Greeks through extracts taken from a range of sources, including poems, plays, novels, histories, lawsuits, inscriptions, and private note-tablets."
OK, so we're going to learn about day-to-day life of the commoners. We're going to learn social history of the average Greek. Well, that's what I expected.
I'm not really sure what Furley delievered. He'll pick a topic he wants to talk about for a chapter -- say, love, for example. And then he'll recount every story of love in The Iliad. OK ... that's not really what I'd expect you to go. That might serve as an ideal for Greek relations; a template --but Furley doesn't even do that. He just talks about love in this epic poem, then love in this play, then love in this other source, and ... he kinda forgets to bring it back to the lives of the ancient Greeks themselves. And he gets so caught up in looking over these sources, that there's no broader picture. Furley fixates on his literaure and never really leaves his book.
There's a telling omission in his list of sources he's looking at in his examination of daily life in Greece: archeology. This reads more like a litany of Greek literary themes rather than an examation of Greek life. It's like he wrote the wrong book by accident.
Some info in the book: the Greeks had two words for love, philia (a close bond with another) and eros (more romantic/passionate love). "New Men" in Greece gained power through their oratory ability. They believed in omens, using birds, oracles, dreams, and animal diviniation. Athens's agora, and similar places in other towns, were the center fo life - socially, politically, economically - it was the gathering place to shop, gossip, or engage in politics. They had few (if any) taboos on sex, and no age of consent.
There wasn't much I got from this book.
July 2, 2025
I got 10 pages into the introduction and was shocked by the amount of inaccuracies to Ancient Greek life. This book cannot be taken as a valid, serious introduction to Ancient Greek life when so much of it is wrong from the offset.
I stopped reading when the author claimed that all free citizens of Greece could read, as they all went to primary school and learnt letters.
The concept of group schooling didn’t exist until well after the Roman period. The idea that ALL free citizens (including girls) would be given an education is not only laughable but reduces the privilege that the elite had, and frequently abused.
If you’re interested in the Ancient Greek world, read something else, I beg you.
I stopped reading when the author claimed that all free citizens of Greece could read, as they all went to primary school and learnt letters.
The concept of group schooling didn’t exist until well after the Roman period. The idea that ALL free citizens (including girls) would be given an education is not only laughable but reduces the privilege that the elite had, and frequently abused.
If you’re interested in the Ancient Greek world, read something else, I beg you.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews