Cliffs Notes on Greek Classics

by Mary Ellen Snodgrass

This sweeping survey of ancient Greek culture covers the greatest works of Greek poets, dramatists, philosophers, writers, and historians. These writings are the foundation of the way we think and act and are important to the student of the human condition.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Mythology, Classics, History

429 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Mary Ellen Snodgrass is an American educator and writer of textbooks and general reference works.

Reviews

[Margaret Harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull.

First I wrote the following (with some embarrassment for my obvious inability to appreciate the ancient scribes):
I made it through Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and part way through Euripides, until I wearied of constant murder and mayhem, interspersed with fruit-basket turnover of wives and concubines. Then skipped over to Aristotle and back to Plato/Socrates, where the navel gazing was rather equally boring. Does the real poetry of the original works somehow compensate for the banality of this Cliffs summary?

Then I happened to read the following from pages 24 and 25 of the fiftieth anniversary edition of Bernard Bailyn’s The Ideological Origins of the America Revolution, concerning the sources of the ideas of eighteenth century Americans:
. . . . [many writers] “thought Plato had been a liberty-loving revolutionary, while Jefferson, who actually read the Dialogues, discovered in them only the ‘sophisms, futilities, and incomprehensibilities’ of a ‘foggy mind’— an idea concurred in with relief by John Adams, who in 1774 had cited Plato as an advocate of equality and self-government but who was so shocked when he finally studied the philosopher that he concluded that the Republic must have been meant as a satire.”

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

love it love it love it

[Janet]

Seriously. Don't tell my Classics instructors. Ssssh!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a class.