The Lyric Age of Greece

by Andrew Robert Burn

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Very Good, Reprint 1967, Edwin Arnold. Thick Royal 8vo. xvi + 422pp. Very good celan tight sound square, no bookplate, small discreet inscription, no further marks of any kind. In bright gitl lettered magenta cloth together with original unclipped coloured pictorail dustwrapper featuring Greek meander. 'Surely no better introduction to the history and litrature of Archaic Greece.' From the collection of an ex-classics university lecturer, this is a solid addition to the library of reader and scholar alike.

Genres: History

440 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a review for the Folio Society edition, with an introduction by Hornblower:

I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interst in the Greece of the 8th through 6th centuries B.C. It is wide ranging but has a very logical progression.

Part one sets up the historical framework post-Bronze age.

Part Two is one of the best discussions on the colonizing of the West, Ionia and the Black Sea regions as I have ever read. Never dry, and highly detailed, you will refer repeatedly to the very useful and well concieved maps throughout.

Part Three addresses chanegs in greek culture from the 700s to the 500s, with particular emphasis on Sparta and Dorian societies. The chapters on poetry are very interesting.

The 4th part addresses the natural philosophers, mystery religions and the less ackowledged influences of Western Greek philosophers on Athens (generally the Ionian enlightenment gets most of the ink when discussing early Greek Philosphy). I particularly liked the author addressing the mistaken conclusion that Greeks were becoming less religious as the classical age dawned.

[Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lyric Age of Greece completes a trilogy by A.R. Burn, covering the prehistory of the Greek world (Minoans, Philistines and Greeks) through the "Dark Ages" between the fall of Mycenae and the emergence of writing (The Age of Hesiod) and now up to the emergence of the Classical Age in the fifth century B.C.E. Burn calls this era "The Lyric Age" because this was the period when lyrical poetry flourished. Though he does include chapters on many of the most prominent poets of this age, including Alkman, Sappho and Alkaios, Anakreon, Stesikhoros, among others, Burn also delves deeply into the contemporary political history. His chapters are arranged geographically, so we build up a sense of how various city-states interacted with each other, and how disorder in one area affected other regions.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Greek history. For a study of lyric poets and poetry, it is a great companion piece to C.M. Bowra's Greek Lyric Poetry and Pindar.