Ancient Greece

GREEK LITERATURE & CULTURE

Greek Literature and the Tragic Vision

Ian Johnston explores how Greek ideas of justice, divine power, and human freedom shaped the heroic and tragic vision of ancient Greek literature.

Introduction to Ancient Greece

A concise guide to the geography, history, political life, and cultural development of ancient Greece, from the Bronze Age civilizations of Crete and Mycenae through the rise of the city-states, Classical Athens and Sparta, and the age of Alexander the Great.

SOPHOCLES—IN HIS OWN WORDS

Quotes from Ajax

Selected passages from Ian Johnston's Ajax Translation

SOPHOCLES—IN HIS OWN WORDS

Quotes from Oedipus

Selected passages from Ian Johnston's Oedipus Translation

SOPHOCLES—IN HIS OWN WORDS

Quotes from Women of Trachis

Selected passages from Ian Johnston's Women of Trachis, Translation

THE ODYSSEY

You Speak More Homer Than You Think

You may never have sailed past the Sirens or faced a Cyclops, but you probably speak Homer's language more often than you realize. From odyssey and mentor to siren song, lotus-eater, and between Scylla and Charybdis, discover how a 3,000-year-old poem still lives on in the words and expressions we use today.