"Primitive Athens as described by Thucydides" by Jane Ellen Harrison, is a thorough look at how the ancient city of Athens was before it became unified. Harrison focuses on what the historian Thucydides wrote about Athens, especially its features and boundaries before Theseus united it. Arguing that the famous historian's account has been misinterpreted, Harrison uses both archaeological finds and literary analysis to paint a picture of a smaller, more basic Athens that existed before its later glory. At the beginning of the book, the author shares her reasons for writing, as she challenges common understandings of Thucydides’ writings, which she feels don’t match what archaeology shows. She puts forward the idea that Thucydides depicts Athens as mainly the Acropolis with some nearby areas, drawing a comparison to what would become a larger city later. The preface introduces "burghs," or small communities, that were central to early Athenian life, before Theseus' Synoikismos changed everything, making it clear that the book aims to present a more accurate view of Athens’ early history and importance.
Primitive Athens as described by Thucydides
By Jane Ellen Harrison
Explore a time when Athens was not a mighty city-state but scattered villages clinging to the Acropolis.
Summary
About the AuthorJane Ellen Harrison was a British classical scholar and linguist. With Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, Harrison is one of the founders of modern studies in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. She applied 19th-century archaeological discoveries to the interpretation of ancient Greek religion in ways that have become standard. She has also been credited with being the first woman to obtain a post in England as a 'career academic'. Harrison argued for women's suffrage but thought she would never want to vote herself. Ellen Wordsworth Crofts, later second wife of Sir Francis Darwin, was Jane Harrison's best friend from her student days at Newnham, and during the period from 1898 to her death in 1928.
Jane Ellen Harrison was a British classical scholar and linguist. With Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, Harrison is one of the founders of modern studies in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. She applied 19th-century archaeological discoveries to the interpretation of ancient Greek religion in ways that have become standard. She has also been credited with being the first woman to obtain a post in England as a 'career academic'. Harrison argued for women's suffrage but thought she would never want to vote herself. Ellen Wordsworth Crofts, later second wife of Sir Francis Darwin, was Jane Harrison's best friend from her student days at Newnham, and during the period from 1898 to her death in 1928.
More Like This
Explore books similar to the one you're viewing
A Day in Old Athens; a Picture of Athenian Life
By William Stearns Davis
Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.
By active approximately 150-175 Pausanias
The book of the ancient Greeks An introduction to the history and civilization of Greece from the coming of the Greeks to the conquest of Corinth by Rome in 146 B.C.
By Dorothy Mills
Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete
By Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
The Athenian Constitution
By Aristotle
Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Book I
By Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
More by This Author
Discover other books written by the same author
Related by Category
Discover books in the same genre or category
The Story of Joan of Arc
By Andrew Lang
Coaching Days & Ways
By E. D. (Edward William Dirom) Cuming
Memoirs of the Duchesse de Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1831-1835
By Dorothée Dino
The Russian Advance
By Marr Murray
Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor Series One and Series Two in one Volume
By R. (Robert) Walsh
Machiavelli, Volume I
By Niccolò Machiavelli