{"title":"Classical non-fiction","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"the-bad-boy-of-athens-classics-from-the-greeks-to-game-of-thrones","title":"The Bad Boy of Athens : Classics from the Greeks to Game of Thrones","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the past three decades, Daniel Mendelsohn’s essays and reviews have earned him a reputation as ‘our most irresistible literary critic’ (New York Times). This striking new collection exemplifies the way in which Mendelsohn – a classicist by training – uses the classics as a lens to think about urgent contemporary debates. There is much to surprise here.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMendelsohn invokes the automatons featured in Homer’s epics to help explain the AI films Ex Machina and Her, and perceives how Ted Hughes sought redemption by translating a play of Euripides (the ‘bad boy of Athens’) about a wayward husband whose wife returns from the dead. There are essays on Sappho’s sexuality and the feminism of Game of Thrones; on how Virgil’s Aeneid prefigures post-World War II history and why we are still obsessed with the Titanic; on Patrick Leigh Fermor’s final journey, Karl Ove Knausgaard’s autofiction and the plays of Tom Stoppard, Tennessee Williams, and Noël Coward. The collection ends with a poignant account of the author’s boyhood correspondence with the historical novelist Mary Renault, which inspired his ambition to become a writer.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn The Bad Boy of Athens, Mendelsohn provokes and dazzles with erudition, emotion and tart wit while his essays dance across eras, cultures and genres. This is a provocative collection which sees today’s master of popular criticism using the ancient past to reach into the very heart of modern culture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55790208614779,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/9780008245122.jpg?v=1758897945"},{"product_id":"the-hidden-image-of-anaphoros-1","title":"The Hidden Image of Anaphoros","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn a Cycladic island, some forty years ago, a young Greek painter meets a retired English doctor, versed in Greek history and poetry. They visit the excavation of an ancient grave yard, directed by a Greek lady archaeologist and her enchanting assistant.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe story unfolds along beaches, cliffs and fields, and is shared by some of the island's shepherds and fishermen, widows, shopkeepers and coffee house patrons.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEnsconced between perpendicular cliffs half-way to the top of the island, lies the pearl of Anaphoros, a thousand year old monastery with its miraculous icon and water-oracle. The abbot and some monks explain their language of images and symbolism, and initiate the young painter in the art of icon painting.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThey attend church services and walk up together with monks and villagers to the small chapel high above the monastery on the summit of the mountain. They discover a plundered cemetery of four thousand years ago.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe confession of a dying shepherd leads them to a stolen Cycladic statue hidden in a most unexpected way. After an all-night, earth shattering service in the monastery, the old fisherman, who had been with them in their adventures, ferries them home across the waters of infinity.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA riddle of a hidden statue wrapped in the mystery of the world of the Spirit.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56106548232571,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/AndreaKephalas.jpg?v=1772107431"},{"product_id":"the-colossus-of-maroussi","title":"The Colossus of Maroussi","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Out of the sea, as if Homer himself had arranged it for me, the islands bobbed up, lonely, deserted, mysterious in the fading light' Enraptured by a young woman's account of the landscapes of Greece, Henry Miller set off to explore the Grecian countryside with his friend Lawrence Durrell in 1939.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn The Colossus of Maroussi he describes drinking from sacred springs, nearly being trampled to death by sheep and encountering the flamboyant Greek poet Katsumbalis, who 'could galvanize the dead with his talk'. This lyrical classic of travel writing represented an epiphany in Miller's life, and is the book he would later cite as his favourite.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56106841768315,"sku":null,"price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/Colossus.jpg?v=1772113591"},{"product_id":"quid-pro-quo-what-the-romans-really-gave-the-english-language","title":"Quid Pro Quo: What the Romans Really Gave the English Language","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this original and entertaining book, Peter Jones takes the reader on a fascinating journey along the highways and byways of Roman life and culture, telling the amazing stories behind the ancient roots of the English language.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom germs and bullets to custard and tinsel, Quid Pro Quo traces the often surprising origins of hundreds of everyday words and reveals the important role Latin has played in the creation of our vast English vocabulary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTaking in every aspect of the ancient world, including science, medicine, religion, military matters, politics, literature and everyday life, Jones shows just how much English owes to the ancient Romans, and why we really should all still be learning Latin.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":56151931191675,"sku":null,"price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":56151931224443,"sku":null,"price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/9781782399339.jpg?v=1773332014"},{"product_id":"classics-in-action","title":"Classics in Action","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eClassics is one of the most varied and interdisciplinary of all subjects; it includes literature, history, philosophy, art and archaeology. There is growing interest among teachers in the subject, and recent studies have shown that learning Latin and\/or Greek can have a positive impact on student outcomes in English and literacy.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJessica Dixon and Arlene Holmes-Henderson showcase ideas from their own teaching experience, plus innovative examples from a range of schools, to provide strategies for teaching Latin, Greek, Classical Civilisation and Ancient History that will enrich, enliven and extend your teaching practice.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInspiring and eye-opening, this will be an enjoyable and useful read for all teachers who are currently teaching, training to teach, or interested in teaching classical subjects and related disciplines, in primary or secondary schools.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56158623269243,"sku":null,"price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/CIA.jpg?v=1773765143"},{"product_id":"symphosius-the-aenigmata-an-introduction-text-and-commentary","title":"Symphosius The Aenigmata : An Introduction, Text and Commentary","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe post-classical compilation known to modern scholarship as the Latin Anthology contains a collection of a hundred riddles, each consisting of three hexameters and preceded by a lemma. It would seem from the preface to this collection that they were composed extempore at a dinner to celebrate the Roman Saturnalia. The work was to have a defining influence on later collections of riddles; yet its title (probably the Aenigmata) has been debated, and almost nothing is known about its author: questions have even been asked about his name (Symphosius?) and date (4th-5th century AD?).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn this edition of the riddles, the Introduction discusses the work’s title and its author's identity: as well as his name and date, it considers his national origin (North African?) and intellectual background (a professional grammarian?), and argues that he was not Christian, as has been suggested. It examines the Saturnalian background to the work, setting it in its sociological context, and discusses the author’s literary debts – especially to Martial. The Introduction also explores the author’s ordering and arrangement of the riddles, discusses his literary style, Latinity and metre, and comments briefly on his Nachleben.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt concludes with a survey of the textual tradition. The commentary on each riddle includes a translation, general notes on the object it describes (with reference, as necessary, to museums and artefacts), and discussion of how it fits into the ordering of the collection, of variant readings and, with suitable illustration, of literary, stylistic and metrical considerations. Other areas, such as history and mythology, are also covered where relevant.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hellenic Bookservice","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56236053823867,"sku":null,"price":95.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/6862\/0411\/files\/Symp.jpg?v=1778069215"}],"url":"https:\/\/hellenic-books.com\/collections\/classical-non-fiction.oembed","provider":"Hellenic Bookservice","version":"1.0","type":"link"}