Overview

The long awaited masterpiece of Britain's most widely read ancient historian This remarkable and original book proposes a new way of thinking about the Greeks and their myths in the age of the great Homeric hymns. It combines a lifetime's familiarity with Greek literature and history with the latest archeological discoveries and the author's own journeys to the main sites in the story to describe how particular Greeks of the eighth century BC travelled east and west around the Mediterranean, and how their extraordinary journeys shaped their ideas of their gods and heroes. It gathers together stories and echoes from many different ancient cultures, not just the Greek - Assyria, Egypt, the Phoenician traders - and ranges from Mesopotamia to the Rio Tinto at Huelva in modern Portugal.

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9780140244991

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Reviews

Praise for Robin Lane Fox's Travelling Heroes Fox has produced a work of prodigious scholarship. . . . A major contribution to Classical scholarship. . . . Strongly recommended. --Clay Williams, Library Journal [Robin Lane Fox's] intellectual discipline is impressive. -- Kirkus Reviews The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian Fox is a fluent, perceptive color commentator on the pageant of ancient history, while giving readers some idea of where the parade was headed. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Lane Fox's survey deserves to be widely read. Indeed, I cannot think of a better introduction to the subject for those with no prior knowledge. . . . Lane Fox's strong and clear narrative will stimulate those reacquainting themselves with this fascinating era as much as it enthralls newcomers. -- The Washington Post Fox, the author of numerous works on classical civilization, is a masterful writer whose elegant but highly readable prose offers an evolving portrait of Greek and Roman culture over a period of roughly 900 years. . . . [Fox] discusses in often fascinating detail topics that are normally given short shrift in general histories. . . . This is an excellent work of scholarship and literature. -- Booklist The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible Biblical historiography, with an edge. . . . [S]ound and clearly argued. A wealth of information. -- Kirkus Reviews Magnificent...delivered with authority and verve. Learned but never pedantic, [Lane Fox] is an unfailingly incisive, thought-provoking, humane, courteous, and often entertaining guide. -- The Economist A remarkable achievement . . . [Lane Fox] manages, like a skilled juggler, to keep a number of intellectual balls in the air...with wit and grace. . . . The book could serve as a useful review for knowledgeable readers or as a crash course for the biblically impaired. -- The New York Times Book Review [A] bracing precis of cutting-edge biblical criticism . . . The Unauthorized Version reacquaints us with one of the chief achievements of post-Enlightenment civilization. -- Philadelphia Inquirer Fox does not approach his subject as an antagonist, but with the care and knowledge to make the text more meaningful. This book deserves a place in all libraries. -- Library Journal Praise for Robin Lane Fox s Travelling Heroes Fox has produced a work of prodigious scholarship. . . . A major contribution to Classical scholarship. . . . Strongly recommended. Clay Williams, Library Journal [Robin Lane Fox s] intellectual discipline is impressive. Kirkus Reviews The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian Fox is a fluent, perceptive color commentator on the pageant of ancient history, while giving readers some idea of where the parade was headed. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Lane Fox's survey deserves to be widely read. Indeed, I cannot think of a better introduction to the subject for those with no prior knowledge. . . . Lane Fox's strong and clear narrative will stimulate those reacquainting themselves with this fascinating era as much as it enthralls newcomers. The Washington Post Fox, the author of numerous works on classical civilization, is a masterful writer whose elegant but highly readable prose offers an evolving portrait of Greek and Roman culture over a period of roughly 900 years. . . . [Fox] discusses in often fascinating detail topics that are normally given short shrift in general histories. . . . This is an excellent work of scholarship and literature. Booklist The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible Biblical historiography, with an edge. . . . [S]ound and clearly argued. A wealth of information. Kirkus Reviews Magnificent...delivered with authority and verve. Learned but never pedantic, [Lane Fox] is an unfailingly incisive, thought-provoking, humane, courteous, and often entertaining guide. The Economist A remarkable achievement . . . [Lane Fox] manages, like a skilled juggler, to keep a number of intellectual balls in the air...with wit and grace. . . . The book could serve as a useful review for knowledgeable readers or as a crash course for the biblically impaired. The New York Times Book Review [A] bracing precis of cutting-edge biblical criticism . . . The Unauthorized Version reacquaints us with one of the chief achievements of post-Enlightenment civilization. Philadelphia Inquirer Fox does not approach his subject as an antagonist, but with the care and knowledge to make the text more meaningful. This book deserves a place in all libraries. Library Journal Praise for Robin Lane Fox s Travelling Heroes Fox has produced a work of prodigious scholarship. . . . A major contribution to Classical scholarship. . . . Strongly recommended. Clay Williams, Library Journal [Robin Lane Fox s] intellectual discipline is impressive. Kirkus Reviews The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian Fox is a fluent, perceptive color commentator on the pageant of ancient history, while giving readers some idea of where the parade was headed. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Lane Fox's survey deserves to be widely read. Indeed, I cannot think of a better introduction to the subject for those with no prior knowledge. . . . Lane Fox's strong and clear narrative will stimulate those reacquainting themselves with this fascinating era as much as it enthralls newcomers. The Washington Post Fox, the author of numerous works on classical civilization, is a masterful writer whose elegant but highly readable prose offers an evolving portrait of Greek and Roman culture over a period of roughly 900 years. . . . [Fox] discusses in often fascinating detail topics that are normally given short shrift in general histories. . . . This is an excellent work of scholarship and literature. Booklist The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible Biblical historiography, with an edge. . . . [S]ound and clearly argued. A wealth of information. Kirkus Reviews Magnificent...delivered with authority and verve. Learned but never pedantic, [Lane Fox] is an unfailingly incisive, thought-provoking, humane, courteous, and often entertaining guide. The Economist A remarkable achievement . . . [Lane Fox] manages, like a skilled juggler, to keep a number of intellectual balls in the air...with wit and grace. . . . The book could serve as a useful review for knowledgeable readers or as a crash course for the biblically impaired. The New York Times Book Review [A] bracing precis of cutting-edge biblical criticism . . . The Unauthorized Version reacquaints us with one of the chief achievements of post-Enlightenment civilization. Philadelphia Inquirer Fox does not approach his subject as an antagonist, but with the care and knowledge to make the text more meaningful. This book deserves a place in all libraries. Library Journal Praise for Robin Lane Fox's Travelling Heroes Fox has produced a work of prodigious scholarship. . . . A major contribution to Classical scholarship. . . . Strongly recommended. --Clay Williams, Library Journal [Robin Lane Fox's] intellectual discipline is impressive. --Kirkus Reviews The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian Fox is a fluent, perceptive color commentator on the pageant of ancient history, while giving readers some idea of where the parade was headed. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) Lane Fox's survey deserves to be widely read. Indeed, I cannot think of a better introduction to the subject for those with no prior knowledge. . . . Lane Fox's strong and clear narrative will stimulate those reacquainting themselves with this fascinating era as much as it enthralls newcomers. --The Washington Post Fox, the author of numerous works on classical civilization, is a masterful writer whose elegant but highly readable prose offers an evolving portrait of Greek and Roman culture over a period of roughly 900 years. . . . [Fox] discusses in often fascinating detail topics that are normally given short shrift in general histories. . . . This is an excellent work of scholarship and literature. --Booklist The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible Biblical historiography, with an edge. . . . [S]ound and clearly argued. A wealth of information. --Kirkus Reviews Magnificent...delivered with authority and verve. Learned but never pedantic, [Lane Fox] is an unfailingly incisive, thought-provoking, humane, courteous, and often entertaining guide. --The Economist A remarkable achievement . . . [Lane Fox] manages, like a skilled juggler, to keep a number of intellectual balls in the air...with wit and grace. . . . The book could serve as a useful review for knowledgeable readers or as a crash course for the biblically impaired. --The New York Times Book Review [A] bracing precis of cutting-edge biblical criticism . . . The Unauthorized Version reacquaints us with one of the chief achievements of post-Enlightenment civilization. --Philadelphia Inquirer Fox does not approach his subject as an antagonist, but with the care and knowledge to make the text more meaningful. This book deserves a place in all libraries. --Library Journal

Intellectual detective work sifts fact from mystery in the stories spread across the ancient world by Greek adventurers.Though not an archaeologist, Fox (Ancient History/Oxford Univ.; The Classical World<\i>, 2006, etc.) seems to possess a precise mental catalogue of every significant pottery shard recently surfaced in the Mediterranean and Near East. Equally important, he knows what has not <\i>yet been found and acknowledges it, often with anticipation. These objects, along with the excavated sites of ancient habitation, burial mounds, cemeteries and shipwrecks, comprise an extraordinary, if sometimes tentative roadmap of the roving Greeks' trajectory in the eighth century BCE. They traveled east and west, trading, raiding and sometimes settling in a time of cultural awakening. Virtually illiterate since Mycenaean Era syllabic script had been abandoned 400 years earlier, they adapted a Semitic alphabet around 750 BCE. They took with them, in oral tradition, the epic poems of Homer and the myths in which heroes from a glorious past challenged the gods, performed miraculous feats, won great victories, slew monsters, avenged rape and murder, rescued kidnapped virgins, etc. Tracing the impact of these travelling stories throughout the world the Greeks influenced, the author's acumen shines like a beacon. For example, cults to Heracles (Hercules to the Romans) spread from Asia Minor to Spain; place names attributable to Io, a maiden seduced by Zeus and transformed into a cow, track the migration of those stories eastward from Argos. Fox focuses on the island of Euboea as an origin of the travelers, citing proven links along with tantalizing leads. Throughout, his intellectual discipline is impressive. Culture-heroes do approximately similar things is different societies, he stresses, warning against mistaking parallel stories for causes and origins. Fox notes that although Homer's tales were of the distant past, the poet was often precise about landscapes and places from his own time.Heady stuff for those with interest in the subject, but so dense that casual history buffs may fall by the wayside. (Kirkus Reviews)

Praise for Robin Lane Fox's Travelling Heroes Fox has produced a work of prodigious scholarship. . . . A major contribution to Classical scholarship. . . . Strongly recommended. --Clay Williams, Library Journal [Robin Lane Fox's] intellectual discipline is impressive. -- Kirkus Reviews The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian Fox is a fluent, perceptive color commentator on the pageant of ancient history, while giving readers some idea of where the parade was headed. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Lane Fox's survey deserves to be widely read. Indeed, I cannot think of a better introduction to the subject for those with no prior knowledge. . . . Lane Fox's strong and clear narrative will stimulate those reacquainting themselves with this fascinating era as much as it enthralls newcomers. -- The Washington Post Fox, the author of numerous works on classical civilization, is a masterful writer whose elegant but highly readable prose offers an evolving portrait of Greek and Roman culture over a period of roughly 900 years. . . . [Fox] discusses in often fascinating detail topics that are normally given short shrift in general histories. . . . This is an excellent work of scholarship and literature. -- Booklist The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible Biblical historiography, with an edge. . . . [S]ound and clearly argued. A wealth of information. -- Kirkus Reviews Magnificent...delivered with authority and verve. Learned but never pedantic, [Lane Fox] is an unfailingly incisive, thought-provoking, humane, courteous, and often entertaining guide. -- The Economist A remarkable achievement . . . [Lane Fox] manages, like a skilled juggler, to keep a number of intellectual balls in the air...with wit and grace. . . . The book could serve as a useful review for knowledgeable readers or as a crash course for the biblically impaired. -- The New York Times Book Review [A] bracing precis of cutting-edge biblical criticism . . . The Unauthorized Version reacquaints us with one of the chief achievements of post-Enlightenment civilization. -- Philadelphia Inquirer Fox does not approach his subject as an antagonist, but with the care and knowledge to make the text more meaningful. This book deserves a place in all libraries. -- Library Journal

Author Information

Robin Lane Fox is our most widely-read historian of the ancient Greek world. His other books include Alexander the Great, Pagans and Christians, The Unauthorized Version and The Classical World. He was historical advisor to Oliver Stone on the making of the film Alexander, and as the gardening correspondent of the Financial Times is author of the longest running column of any kind in a British newspaper.

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