Product Description
One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode of the Trojan War. At its center is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks, and his conflict with his leader Agamemnon. Interwoven in the tragic sequence of events are powerfully moving descriptions of the ebb and flow of battle, the besieged city of Ilium, the feud between the gods, and the fate of mortals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Good Book
The book was in the shape the seller said it would be in and it arrieved well before the date

My favorite translation (so far)
Last year I bought the Fagles translation of The Iliad without having read a page, simply on the recommendation of others. That was a mistake. It was very hard for me to follow and I could barely understand what was going on. I had to look up older, free translations on the internet to read alongside my book, which was no fun. So after 100 pages or so I gave up.

A few days ago I decided to travel to a few bookstores and do my own Homer translation "shootout." This translation was a clear winner for me on readability, clearness and style. I can't say I'm surprised; I'd read The Odyssey from the same translator and loved it.

The Illiad
I really love Homer and Greek Mythology. That being said The Iliad is not my favorite work involving either. I just don't consider it as entertaining or as useful for trying to decipher the riddle of Indo-European religious beliefs and practices as other sources. Its still something you should read if you have an interest in the subject matter and is still a pretty good yarn as far as entertainment value.

The bones of civilization
The Iliad by Homer was written about 2500 years ago.It is the story of a long ago war between the Greeks and the Trojans.Unfortunately a lot of attention has always been given to the heroes and battles, while important details of the story are generally ignored.The reasons for the war and the results still affect societies today.When you strip away all the drama and get down to the bones of the story you'll discover some interesting historical details.Helen was not just another beautiful woman; she was also rich, powerful, and independent.According to the story she was heir to the throne of Sparta.She married Menelaus, brother to the king of nearby Mycenae.Menelaus was king of Sparta ONLY because he was married to Helen.Much of his brother's power was based on his alliances with Sparta.When Helen ran off with Paris, prince of Troy, Menelaus had no real claim to the throne, so he had to get Helen back in order to hold political power over Sparta and his brother had to help him for the same reason.By calling her Helen of Troy, the Trojans were actually saying the queen of Sparta was a princess of Troy and therefore Sparta was now a part of their empire.
Troy lost the war and the men were killed.The babies were thrown from the walls of the city and the women and children were taken as slaves.It was the descendants of those who escaped that created Rome.The most tantalizing and untold part of the story is what affect did the Trojan slaves have on the cultural development of ancient Greece?When examining the ruins of Troy today it seems obvious that the Trojans had already advanced greatly in architecture and art and I can't help wondering if the Trojans were part of the great flowering of ancient Greece, just as Romans were a part of the flowering of western civilization.Losing that war caused the Trojan cultural ideals and DNA to be sprinkled across the landscape of our ancestors and that may be one of the things Homer was telling us in this ancient tale.

The Horror!!
I picked up a free copy of this book at a Goodwill type free store.I had heard about this classic but never read it--it wasn't required reading at my high school.Even so, I enjoyed it more knowing more about history today than when I was young.Two things make this book interesting, to me at least--one is the courage and fortitude it would take to drive a sword or spear through another human being (face it--it's not like firing a gun); the other is the sincerity they placed in their gods, which was quite comical.Perhaps someday another civilization will laugh at the religions of today as well.Another thought that kept popping into my mind ishow could a blind poet keep a story so complex in his head, and equally amazing, how did this story survive down thru the ages.I thought, as incredible as that fact is alone, it's worth reading just on that basis.And I'm glad I did. ... Read more

Product Description
NOW AVAILABLE - Digitally remastered, and on CD for the first time

Translated by Robert Fagles, with an introduction by Bernard Knox
Read by Sir Ian McKellen ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Homer's Odyssey, As it was meant to be
Whether you love Homer's Odyssey, or have yet to discover its magic, this full-length recording of Robert Fagles' brilliant translation is the way it should be enjoyed.Ian McKellan is in full, majestic voice as he recites Homer's great saga, modulating his pitch and tone just enough to create the dozens of characters - gods and mortals - which people the tale.The Odyssey started out just this way, as an oral performance by a gifted teller of tales, and it comes vividly to life in this modern version.This is simply not to be missed.

The Odyssey, audio book of Homer's epic poem
My students and I enjoyed the sonorous voice of Sir Ian Mckellen.He held us spellbound throughout the recording of the excellent translation of Robert Fagles' story of Odysseus' fantastic voyages.Homer's, The Odyssey, came alive through the spoken word as it
must have when it was performed and passed through time by bards or rhapsodists.

CD didn't work
The CD arrived without a case. The product description did not mention there was no case. It didn't play at all. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Not even a skip. I tried it in two other CD players: Same problem.

An incredible audiobook!
What a fantastic narration!If you have listened to many audiobooks, you will be amazed at what you have been missing.Listening to Ian McKellen's delivery, it's easy to imagine how captivating recited epic poems once were.I highly recommend this audiobook to everyone, but especially to any reader who is not confident in his or her resilience to complete the book.In no time, you will be hooked!Robert Fagles' translation is wonderful on its own -- but Ian McKellan's narration is well worth the extra investment.

Best translation on the market!
Without a doubt, fagles' is the best English translation of the Odyssey I have ever seen. The man has done a phenomenal job! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

This may just change your life if you let it...
Where do I start to sum up the life's work of Homer Kelley? He felt strongly enough about golf to allow his legacy to be spent on the sport. Given he was never an acclaimed professional golfer or writer, every reader should be pleasantly surprised. The concept of taking an everyday activity and dissecting the movements into focused components in terms of limiting variability is unique yet logically simple. He clearly spells out how to read the work and what to get out of each section. This is a great resource in parts and in whole. You easily understand how this can relate to all forms of learning and it really does take a lot of the mystery away from replicating swings and muscle memory. Very enjoyable even at the higher price than Stack and Tilt. I thank those authors for highlighting this reference early in their work. Glad to see Homer's life's work has led many to better golf and perhaps even a higher quality of life. A must read for anyone who wants to problem solve and understand mechanics and motion in more detail. It may even improve your scores. Thanks Mr. Kelley!

Not for beginners
This is essentially a catalog of Homer Kelley' observations of the golf swing.It is not an instruction manual.It is not a philosphy of golf.Homer Kelley wrote technical manuals describing the work of others.This book follows that pattern.Mr. Kelley's observations break down the swing into atomistic parts which can remove all fluidity from a golfer's swing.There are thousands of cross references in this book.You won't be able to find some of them.

Takes a lot of patience to work through
Kelley claimed this book is a textbook, and is written in the corresponding style.Well, it is somewhat like a textbook, but the organization of the material is needlessly arbitrary, and the keys to productive study are inadequate.However, it contains a report of an exhausitive and insightful study of the golf swing and all realistic variations.I wish one of the Authorized Instructors would write a guide to study.That would be helpful.

The Golfing Machine
This is a must read for all golfers with IQ's over 120. Below 120, you're too dumb.If you can think, possibly have a degree, this book will make perfect sense. Read it through, think about how you swing and what works and what doesn't and it makes absolute sense. If you have a very short attention span, possibly adult ADHD, don't bother, you won't be able to focus to "get" this stuff. Homer Kelly was a prodigious thinker and note writer and this was his book. It's been fussed over and "rewritten" to make it a little easier to read but you get the gist of it anyway. Don't let all the jargon and continual referencing of things other than where you're reading bog you down. The message is this: take what you want from this amazing dissertation and you WILL HAVE A MUCH BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICS OF GOLF THAN YOU EVER DID BEFORE.

Chicken Soup For the Common Cold
Generally, before buying a book these days, I look carefully at the one star reviews. These are unlikely to be written by the author or his publisher, and most of the people who genuinely hate a book have some respectable reason (assuming the book is not about politics). For those similarly inclined, I feel an urge to temper the vitriol of the one star reviewers of Mr. Kelley. Yes, it would have been nice if Homer had written the book in English (or at least had it translated), but I suspect that had he done so the book might have been too expensive to self publish and might have been too heavy to lift as well.

All the information a golfer needs to build a perfect swing (indeed a variety of perfect swings) is imbedded this book. Also imbedded in the book is all the information a golfer needs to protect himself from the army of charlatans coming out of the woodwork day by day to offer him the secret to golf for only three easy payments of twenty-nine ninety-five. The problem with The Golfing Machine is that NOBODY can sit down and read it. I have been a golfer for over fifty years and once played well enough to compete both in college and in the championship flight of club events. I will also match reading credentials, as I have been reading what seems like two hundred books a year for the past thirty years and enjoy a law degree from Harvard too. Nearly twenty years ago I stopped practicing law and began studying golf. I have been dipping into the Golfing Machine for nearly that long and believe I very nearly understand it. I have yet to find anything in the book which is wrong, but a great deal of it does seems unnecessary.

The problem with Homer Kelley's writing is that the sentences do not make sense and the paragraphs are often worse. On top of everything else, the book is divided into numbered sections and subsections and at the end of nearly every sentence there is a cross reference to five other places in the text which make no more sense than the sentence and paragraph you have just finished. Reading this book is like reading the Internal Revenue Code, or being the AFLAC duck in a conversation with Yogi Berra, or listening a Who's on First routine that continues for twenty years, except that you do not get the occasional laugh. I should add, however, that a William Gass or Thomas Pynchon novel is far worse than this, so golfers should count their blessings that Kelley was not a post modern academic.

Somehow, a would be reader must ignore all that and try to glean the essence of the author's Ideas, which if they are not exactly clear are occasionally startling and, in so far as I can tell, fundamentally correct. Now, is the book worth the current out of print price tag? I would certainly buy it in preference to another sloppy journalistic rehash published under the name of the latest tour star or television guru, most of whom have no more real idea of the geometry and biomechanics of golf than a squirrel understands mathematics, Newtonian physics or anatomy, although a squirrel can run and jump a good deal better than Isaac Newton ever did. ... Read more

Product Description
Further adventures of Homer Price, including those in which a juke box sets the whole town singing against its will and in which a mad scientist develops weeds that overrun the town. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A must read book.
I have loved these stories since my early childhood. In an age of [...]on the TV and movies. These stories will delight children young and old and make you wish you were born back when this stuff was comon place.

Homer Price is back...
Centerburg Tales is the second book to hold stories about Homer Price and friends.The first four stories are tales from Grandpa Hercules, an old man known for his tall tales.All of the stories, including the three not told by Hercules, are fun to read, even outloud!Giant ragweeds, 'Eversomuch More-So' (which makes everything better) and a song you just can't stop singing!Good, old fashion, drug free, rocket-ship free, non-violent FUN for most of the family.

"That character," said Freddy after a long silence, "could make some little squirrel very happy."

Homer Price redux
This is a great sequel to the original "Homer Price".Homer and his friends are off on more wacky adventures, each one funnier than the last.The final story, in which Homer and his fellow citizens are literally dancing all over town, is one of the most hilarious children's tales ever written.McCloskey had magic in his writing pen and his drawing pencil; it's hard to say which are better, the stories or the illustrations.Suffice to say that they all add up to a wonderful book for young folks.Highly recommended.

Tall Tales that Stick with you
The Adventures of Homer Price in the quaint town of Centerburg are flat out hilarious.Homer's uncle Hercules quickly sets the tone of disbelief by spinning some yarns that have just enough "truth" to them to be plausible.This is a truly a story of the American Scene in a time when people entertained themselves by gabbing with one another and singing songs together instead of hiding in the basement watching videos.Good old timey values like hucksterism, lying, and cheating face the good natured community of Centerburg and sometimes turn it upside down.Strange things happen in Centerburg, and the curious Homer Price is going to get to the bottom of it.Robert McClosky is also one of our finest illustrators and his lively drawings add texture and background to the story.Highly Recommeded.

Centerburg Rocks
I loved the silly stories of Centerburg as a kid and hoped that my nine-year-old nephew would not find the material too dated to understand.No worries!He laughs out loud at the complicated adventures that ensnare Homer Price and his friends.I'm pleased that he's enjoying a book that enlarges his vocabulary and his ideas about life way back in the mid-twentieth century. ... Read more

Product Description
American painter Winslow Homer (1836-1910) created some of the most breathtaking and influential watercolours in the history of the medium. This handsome volume provides a comprehensive look at Homer's technical and artistic practice as a watercolourist, and at the experiences that shaped his remarkable development. Focusing on 25 rarely seen watercolours from the Art Institute's collection, along with 75 other related watercolours, gouaches, drawings, and paintings - including many of the artist's characteristic subjects - this book proposes a new understanding of Homer's techniques as they evolved over his career.Accessibly written essays consider each of the featured works in detail, examining the relationship between monochrome drawing and watercolour and the artist's lifelong interest in new optical and colour theories. In particular, they show how his sojourn in England, where he encountered leading British marine watercolourists and the dynamic avant-garde art scene, precipitated an abrupt change in technique and subject matter upon his return home.Conservators address the fragility of these watercolours, which are prone to fading due to light exposure, and demonstrate, through pioneering research on Homer's pigments and computer-assisted imaging, how the works have changed over time. Several of Homer's greatest watercolours are digitally 'restored', providing an exhilarating glimpse of the original impact of Homer's groundbreaking colour experiments. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Great for all Watercolor fans and artists
I absolutely LOVE this book.My watercolor teacher assigned this book as our text for class.I have never seen a book like this ever.They took a microscopic look at Homer's paintings to determine how he did what he did and have done a wonderful job of describing the techniques.While beginning watercolor students would probably need to supplement this text with a more step-by-step book (I favor anything by Michael Crespo) I would rate this book as indespensible for anyone who loves watercolor... and not just the artist, but the viewer as well.Truly, this book is a masterpiece in itself.It's worth every penny they are asking.

buy it
I agree with all the good things said about this wonderful book! It is very well printed and the illustrations are beautiful! It is indeed very interesting to read.Only one thing about the graphic design: the coloured titles are the most ugly thing I have ever seen in an artbook, it makes it all so cheap looking. Bad taste!

A beautiful book
Watercolours by Winslow Homer: Color of light(Art Institute of Chicago)When I placed my order I had not had the possibility to see the book in advance, so I didn't know what it would be like.First of all I expected to get a book with good colour illustrations about W. Homer's watercolours and of course with some information about the artist, his life and paintings. I was very surprised because not only does the book have good colour illustrations, but also very detailed information about the techniques, types of paper, pigments that W. Homer used in his watercolours and in the different periods of his life. A beautriful book for people who do or simply love watercolours.
Beatrice Vaccari

Simply the Best
As a painter and an art educator, I have an abundance of books on paintings, painters and technique.This book beautifully combines all three and somehow transcends every other book on Winslow Homer or professional watercolor technique that I've experienced.Of course, it isn't a primer on watercolor; it is a scholarly, yet very accessible, treatise on the watermedia artwork of one of my two favorite American painters (Sargent being the other).
Besides, the book is gorgeous.The plates are excellent, readily conjuring up both the ruggedness and the lyricism of Homer's technique, as well as the abstraction in the realism, and the metaphor threaded throughout his work.

ATerrific Achievement
This is the most interesting, informative and insightful book I've ever read about Homer's artwork and his intense struggle to master color. ... Read more

Product Description
This timeless poem-more than 2,700 year old-still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amid devastation and destruction as it moves inexorably to its wrenching, tragic conclusion. Readers of this epic poem will be gripped by the finely tuned translation and enlightening introduction.

Translated by Robert Fagles
Introduction and Notes by BernardAmazon.com Review
This groundbreaking English version by Robert Fagles is themost important recent translation of Homer's great epic poem. Theverse translation has been hailed by scholars as the new standard,providing an Iliad that delights modern sensibility andaesthetic without sacrificing the grandeur and particular genius ofHomer's own style and language. The Iliad is one of the twogreat epics of Homer, and is typically described as one of thegreatest war stories of all time, but to say the Iliad is a warstory does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action andcharacters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek mythand history in the tenth and final year of the Greek siege of Troy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (150)

Quality Purchase
Fast delivery and book was in great quality! I would definitely purchase from this seller again.

A classic all should read
The Iliad and then the Odyssey are two of my favorite Greek Epics.Beautiful stories, themes, and imagination fill this book and the Odyssey.

Fantastic book but don't buy Kindle edition.
This is one of the best pieces of literature ever produced in the history of human civilization so I feel slightly uncomfortable giving it anything less than five stars.That said, the Kindle version of this book has several problems.Words are misspelled throughout the text and the footnote numbers are not listed in the text.I read the entire poem on the Kindle before I arrived at the end of the book and found out that footnotes and reading notes do exist.Their referring numbers are not listed in the body of the text, however.

Buy this, read it, and keep it for life, but just don't get the Kindle version.

One star for Kindle version, five for the book.

4 stars for the translation, 3 for the story
4 stars for the translation, which I selected after careful consideration (and looking through several of the most well-respected translations from the library), 3 stars for the actual text. I feel that this is the best of both worlds for a work like this: accessible to a modern audience, yet remaining fairly faithful to the text and keeping an epic-sounding tone. Other translations either erred on the side of being too literal, with clunky or high-handed phrasing, or on the side of watering the text down. The book is handsome if hefty, with maps, glossary, bibliography, and a lengthy, helpful introduction by respected classicist scholar Bernard Knox. The intro might seem too academic for some, but for a fuller understanding of the text, I think it is worth the time.

Then again, I'm a bit of a nerdy scholar myself, and would also recommend Moses Finley's The World of Odysseus to prepare for reading either The Iliad or The Odyssey. Knox also provides the intro for Fagles' translation of The Odyssey, which I've moved onto next. The Iliad itself was not as enjoyable for me. While I am glad I read it because it is such an important piece of classical literature, it is repetitious and meticulous in details that, for the modern reader, are perhaps not as interesting as they might have been for the ancient listener, who heard these tales told or sung aloud. The scenes of battle between the Achaeans (as they are called, rather than Greeks--Greece as a unified entity did not exist at the time this was supposed to have taken place) and the Trojans, which comprise most of the text, are the most boring part. Instead of being fast-paced entertainment, we get warriors stopping to spout off their lineage and accomplishments before cutting one another down, or warriors complaining about or insulting other warriors (either those on their same side or on the other).

The characters are also largely unsympathetic: Achilles, most skilled of all, is a petulant brat; Agamemnon, leader of the Achaeans, is a huffy, pretentious egomaniac; and Paris, the guy who started this whole war, is a sniveling pretty boy who doesn't even display much tenderness towards Helen. Only some of the Trojans are sympathetic: King Priam beset by the stress of the war; his son, Hector, courageous and loyal, who gets the only convincingly human scene in the whole text when he bids his wife and infant son farewell (though when he finally confronts Achilles, we get a ridiculous, Benny Hill-like scene of Achilles chasing him around the wall of Troy several times). Even Helen, in her brief appearance, I feel sorry for, since, disgusted with the bloodshed she has instigated, she tries to go back to her husband.

Which reminds me, the gods are also in bad form here, as petty and careless as usual. Although Athena, as usual, displays her nobility and power--even defeating Ares in battle--her unequivocal defense of the Achaeans, due to being insulted by Paris, seems narrow-minded. There are two interesting scenes in which mortals actually talk on the gods--Diomedes, driven into battle fury by Athena, and Achilles, when he confronts the river god Xanthus after clogging the river with Trojan bodies. Overall, though, the text tended to drag, and the only thing that kept me going was that it was considered one of the greatest pieces of world literature.

12 year old loving it
I did quite a bit of research on the various translations available, before selecting these (we got bth the Iliad and th Odessey). It was a birthday present for my now 12 year old son, who has studied a lot of ancient Greece in school. Right now he is about a quarter of the way through, and very much enjoying it. ... Read more

Product Description

But Hanson and Heath are not content to simply make afiery, articulate case for what's right about understandingthis particular ancient civilization in a contemporary world wheremore and more non-Western societies openly seek to embrace thedemocratic spirit. They go on to launch a deliciously vituperativejeremiad on what's wrong with the priorities of those entrustedwith passing on this wisdom. Classics departments, as portrayed inWho Killed Homer?, appear to be filled with politicallycorrect, insecure footnote fawners who, steeped in minutiae, miss theBig Picture. Hanson and Heath have a plan, sure to raise the hacklesof tenured professors, for reviving classical studies that emphasizesthe importance of teaching, communicating, and popularizing overpublishing arcane monographs in journals not even the writer's familywill ever read, insisting that the alternative--the extinction of avivid intellectual pursuit--borders on cultural suicide. --JeffSilverman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (45)

Well, 3.5 stars
Just a couple of thoughts after many long reviews: The prose is too cute and verbose. These are intelligent men, so I assume they picked this style on purpose. Too often I felt they continued to bludgeon a corpse with their gritted-teeth humor.

The middle section, about who did the killing of Homer, was not nearly as interesting as the beginning and end (which are more about the Greeks). Write something inciting and enticing and student will come to it, demanding something of value. Whine over your colleagues, and you may drive some away. Pair the two ends together for the general populace, saving the bombast for your silly peers, and would be a worthwhile book.

So, do read this book, but don't regret skipping over the answer to the question the title poses.

An Incomplete Odyssey
Rarely have I encountered a book wherein the answer to a question posed by its rhetorical -- but well-intended and no doubt provocative -- title is so obvious. Merely reading the cover jacket will inform a potential reader who "killed" the ancient Greek poet; one needn't slog through over three hundred pages to solve this mystery. Furthermore, the questioning title assumes a fact I wholeheartedly reject: that Homer is "dead" -- a concept (as it must be) that the authors never actually define beyond his near-disappearance from the collegiate curriculum.

To that end, I doubt it'd be giving away much to tell you that -- according to Hanson and Heath -- Homer's killing took place in that nest of vipers itself, the modern university. Being professors they cover this familiar territory quite well, recounting seemingly every folio of recent classics scholarship that wouldn't be out of place in a Woody Allen spoof: everything from "feminine subjectivity in the Odyssey" to the homoerotic breakdown between Achilles and Patroclus. The authors go further and posit solid reasons for this tawdry state of affairs, and while their culprits -- academic infighting and privilege, multiculturalism, subjective historicism, devaluation of the humanities -- are not terribly surprising they still benefit from a fresh airing, especially in this context. The introduction itself describes a sordid little tale of how their initial paperback publisher balked at its *own printing* at the last minute, apparently strong-armed by a clutch of academics whose delicacies were bruised in the first edition. On more than one occasion, I got the impression the authors -- both in writing this book and toiling within their respective classics departments -- were characters in their own Greek tragedy.

And perhaps that was at least partly their intention, for when they arrive at remedies Hanson and Heath fall back on Greek wisdom itself. Reviving the study of Homer by "thinking like a Greek" and having professors actually *model their behavior* by centuries-old standards might seem a quaint piece of overreach. But the authors appear quite serious, and given their intricate detailing of the university's suffering due to the loss of Greek wisdom they have little choice but to recommend harsh remedies. I was rather disappointed they didn't consider more pragmatic alternatives, from both the "demand" (e.g., introducing the epics to a younger audience) and "supply" (suggesting more wholesale university reform) sides. I understand that college is their turf -- but I wish they betrayed more knowledge that it's not the *only* turf.

A few other pitfalls tarnish the author's case. Organization is not a strong suit: five languid chapters read like extended (albeit interesting) essays and one is even entitled "Who Killed Homer - and Why". (Isn't that the name of the book?) Curiously missing among the chapters, however, is a more serious omission: any *consequences* of Homer's "death". (Wholesale elimination of Classics departments? The final death knell of classical wisdom? A new dark ages?) I'm aware this comes perilously close to reviewing a book the authors *didn't* write -- but given the dramatic problems and remedies discussed, this seemed an especially curious oversight.

But "Who Killed Homer?" is still worthwhile reading for both its withering indictment of university practices and detailing of the cavalcade of rude jokes that now pass for classics scholarship. Its bibliography and suggestions for "when all we can do is read" are also more than welcome and might even inspire a healthy number of non-students to tackle the Greeks (and Romans). In fact, if enough readers outside the ivory towers surmount the tasks of understanding classics and even applying their teaching to their lives -- another topic Hanson and Heath consider far too briefly -- their demise at universities might just be nothing more than another nail in that overpriced, coddled, and increasingly irrelevant coffin.

Who Killed Homer? It Was an Inside Job
In WHO KILLED HOMER, Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath address the pressing issue of the rapid demise and death of classical Greek learning in the west. At the time of its publishing (2001), the dire straits that Greek thought and culture found itself in have not improved a whit. If anything, the trend is toward a total obliteration of the very foundation of western civilization.Hanson and Heath have plenty of blame to lay and fingers to point, but the bulk of their ire is surprisingly enough directed at their colleagues, all of whom were charged with keeping the immortal spark of classical learning alive. They are especially angry when their colleagues insist that there is nothing wrong at all with their profession.Such misguided academics most often point to the geometric increase in scholarly articles published and conferences attended.And that, Hanson and Heath insist, is precisely the point.The scholarly articles are written in the most opaque jargon-ridden prose imaginable with no one reading them. The conferences are attended mostly by senior tenured professors of Greek and Latin who hand over their few teaching duties to underpaid and overworked teaching assistants who can only dream of the day when they too will be able to enter the sheltered life of a tenured academic when they know only too well that with the shrinking pool of college students who choose classics as a major that that scenario is very likely not to occur.And it is not simply laziness or cupidity that has caused today's teachers of classics to abandon the very barricades that were their responsibilities to maintain.Much of the problem they see as a changing mindset in the very viability and desirability of thinking like the ancient Greeks. Hanson and Heath charge modern modes of thought like post-modernism, cynicism, nihilism, and skepticism as the collective root cause in subverting a two thousand year tradition in the belief of Eternal Truths like beauty, justice, and patriotism into a witches' brew of deconstructive thought that insists that there is no solid linguistic, cultural, or historical groundfloor under our feet.All that we used to call Traditional Values are now to be seen as slipping and sliding in ways that suggest that there was nothing special or enduring about the ancient Greeks at all. They note that it is trendy for cultural relativists to insist that all cultures in all ages are equally viable and worthy of emulation. If so, then why study classics in the first place.The answer, Heath and Hanson insist, is that the relativists are wrong.When Homer was writing his ILLIAD, there was nothing like Greek ideals of polis or thought available anywhere else in the world. This, of course, does not sit well with those who decry the United States as the primary source of all the world's evil.Those who claim that are also the same ones who deny Greece as the initial and irreplaceable source of current western concepts like egalitarianism, property rights, and religious tolerance.

As bad as things are, Hanson and Heath do not think them hopeless. In their concluding chapter, "What We Could Do," they list alternatives to the dissolution of their profession. Among them:
1) Re-introduce the classics into high school and college curriculums
2) Have senior tenured classics professors attend fewer conferences and teach more undergraduate classes
3) Reduce the time to complete a Phd in classics to five years or less
4) Scrap the traditional doctoral dissertation in favor of several broad papers of Greek culture
5) Give tenure only to those who teach a lot rather than publish a lot
6) Re-acquire the belief that the Greeks were a special people who have a great deal to say that is relevant today.

On the down side, both Hanson and Heath do not believe that any of their suggestions will be implemented anytime soon. As a result, when future Greek classes will be attended only by the doddering senior professors who will preside over a legion of empty seats, then it will be evident even to these soon to be retired professors that their profession has already gone the way of the dodo.

True -- I have been there
If I had the money, I would give financial aid to any entering graduate student in the field of Classics who read and discussed this book.My only regret about WKH? is that it escaped my notice for ten years.As I told my wife, I felt that the book had been written about my own experience, or that I had actually written it myself.On almost every page it now has numerous highlights and many margin notes, some as simple as "Amen!"

The authors make a strong, clear case for the value of Greek and Roman thought in the modern age.Along the way they make much deserved attacks on the academic institution of America's institutions, with its obscure and pointless writings, emphasis on fringe issues, general failure to embody the values of what it claims to teach.I can agree wholeheartedly with almost everything the authors say because I have been there.The issues they attack, and even some of the very professors whom they charge with dereliction of academic duty, served to end my own pursuit of a Ph.D. in Classics some years ago thanks to their focus on things that did not truly matter.

If you want an encomium of Greco-Roman learning, if you want solid reasons why the Greeks and Romans matter very much today, this book is required reading.If you want to know what really goes on in higher education, whether before sending your own child off to study or whether deciding if you want to go yourself, then you must read WKH?.For once I am keeping the review short.You don't need to read me, you need to read Who Killed Homer?.

Important to understand
It is important for all Americans to understand from which ancient cultures this country was ultimately formed. The government we live under, our way of life, our views about things good and bad were ultimately the result of Greek thinking. Not Chinese, not Persian, but Greek and to some extent Hebrew. In this age history is devalued to the point where it seems we don't even wish to understand our origins. Certainly other cultures have contributed to the American miracle but we MUST understand the Greeks and Romans in order to understand where we have been and where we are going. The picture these two authors paint of the Greeks isn't always a cheery one. They made mistakes, a lot of them, but since our nature was their nature we need to understand them in order to avoid their mistakes. That's really all the authors are saying. ... Read more

Product Description
A History of Interest Rates presents a very readable account of interest rate trends and lending practices over four millennia of economic history. Despite the paucity of data prior to the Industrial Revolution, authors Homer and Sylla provide a highly detailed analysis of money markets and borrowing practices in major economies. Underlying the analysis is their assertion that "the free market long-term rates of interest for any industrial nation, properly charted, provide a sort of fever chart of the economic and political health of that nation." Given the enormous volatility of rates in the 20th century, this implies we're living in age of political and economic excesses that are reflected in massive interest rate swings. Gain more insight into this assertion by ordering a copy of this book today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Interesting but I'm wondering what I can do with the information
The author states that he doesn't want to get into analysis of the why the interest rates did what they did during the last 5000 years. I agree, it would take numerous books just to explain that but I do question what value recording interest rates for the last few hundred years has and how we can benefit. It's an interesting book but it's almost written like a farmer's almanac, in the historical sense. Do you really care if it was 68 degrees this day 5 years ago? I don't want to critize anymore but it's an intesting book and the thing that I got from it was that interest rates have historically been between 2-10% for every developed nation the last 200 years. Too bad this book was written in the 1960's because the rates in the 70's would have thrown off this conclusion too. In summary, interesting but not much you can apply to today's world.

Exactly as Advertised
The book came in a timely fashion and its condition was exactly as the seller said it would be.Would buy again! Thanks!

Book Review from the Aleph Blog
This book is big, very big at ~700 pages. It is a testimony to the idea that history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

The book is arranged chronologically, and geographically within each time period.Time is spent on each are roughly in proportion to the amount of unique data that we have from each era.Thus, the recent past gets more pages per year.Roughly one-quarter of the book goes from ancient times to 1800, and one quarter to the 19th century.Half of the book is 1900-2005.

There are several things that the book points out, common to each time and area investigated.

1) It is very difficult to eliminate interest.Even when governments or religions try to restrict interest, either in rate charged or in entire, systems arise to create promises to pay more in the future that than full payment today.

2) The more technologically advanced economies get, the lower interest rates tend to get.

3) Boom/bust cycles are impossible to avoid.

4) Governments introduce currencies and often cheat on them (debasement, or inflation of a fiat currency).

5) Governments do sometimes fail, whether due to a lost war, civil war, or default, taking their currencies and debt promises with them.

6) The economic cycle across the world is usually more correlated than most people believe at any given point in time, even in ancient times.(How much more today... decoupling indeed...)

7) Cultures that allowed for a moderate amount of debt financing prospered the most, in general.

Those are my summary points after reading the book.Homer and Sylla drew some but not all of those conclusions.It's an ambitious book and and ambitious read.Sidney Homer did a lot of significant work researching from the past to the middle of the 20th century, and Richard Sylla did an admirable job giving the grand sweep of the increasing complexity of the bond markets as the 20th century progressed until 2005, which was an interesting point at which to end the fourth edition.The fifth edition, should there be one, will prove even more interesting as it surveys the end of the housing and credit bubbles, and the shape of the financial system in their aftermath.

This book is a must for those that like economic history.I really enjoyed it.For those without such an interest, it's a big, somewhat-expensive, show-off book that will be occasionally useful as a reference.

Superb
Many might say that a book of this subject matter would be incredibly dry and boring. But if one reads it from cover to cover, as was the case for this reviewer, one will find it to be packed with fascinating information and insights on almost three thousand years of financial history. Nearly every culture and geography is represented as the authors take the reader on a roller coaster ride over the hills and valleys of lending policies and usury in both private and public contexts. There are many surprises for the reader who is unaware of the great impact that interest rates can have on human activities, including war and pestilence, but also human discovery and adventure. For the serious researcher, there are also a multitude of tables and graphs, illustrating the behavior of interest rate time series for different cultures and governments throughout history.

The scale of importance of interest rates in the modern world is staggering if compared with the historical periods that are discussed in this book. Indeed, and this is brought out by the authors, interest rates in their words are "watched like a hawk", and millions of dollars are spent every year in interest rate modeling and analysis of fixed income securities such as bonds and mortgage-backed financial instruments. All investors, no matter which sector of the market they are involved in, have to monitor very closely the trends in interest rates.

The magnitude of interest rates can enable wars to be fought and lost, as is brought out brilliantly in this book. Legal philosophies and developments have also guided humans as to what is considered just compensation for lending, with rates in some cultures considered to be astronomical as compared to others. And the authors show that there have been periods where lending has barely occurred at all, with progress in such periods taking as expected a back seat. One cannot grow and flourish without taking risk, and lending risk is measured with the level of interest rates and their volatilities.

Many might say that economic and financial history cannot be romanticized. After all, economics is supposed to be the "dismal science". The authors do not intend to present such a romantic view, but they do so inadvertently perhaps. With all the conflicts that have been waged because of financial competition, with most of these conflicts being horrifying and in some cases completely destructive to the societies that waged them, lending encapsulates the need for humans to plan for the future. It exemplifies the attitude that the future holds promise, and solidifies a level of trust between borrower and lender. It allows both parties to assess their current position with what it will be in the future. And of course it is an axiom that it is always infinitely preferable to exchange coins rather than bullets.

Pure History, Little Insight
Sidney Homer delivers what he promised - a lengthy and extremely detailed history of interest rates.Almost completely absent is any commentary on why interest rates have changed through history.Any observations of cause and effect are left up to the reader to discern.But as a pure history text, the book is readable and thorough both in breadth and depth. ... Read more

Product Description
Haunted by inner demons, Josh Thurlow returns home to Killakeet Island to command a small Coast Guard patrol boat manned by a colorful crew of locals. Dominating the glorious beauty of the little island is the majestic Killakeet Lighthouse, kept for generations by the Thurlow family. Its presence is a continuous reminder to Josh of the mysterious loss of his baby brother at sea seventeen years before, a tragedy for which he was blamed. But Josh is convinced that his brother might still be alive and begins searching for him even after German U-boats arrive and soak the beaches with blood.

Josh's quest puts him in the path of Otto Krebs-the most audacious of the U-boat commanders and a deadly enemy who may also hold the answers Josh is seeking. But when he meets Dosie Crossan, a young woman fighting her own war against the invaders, Josh must decide whether to risk all on a love that could destroy him or redeem him...
... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

Good read for WWII fiction fans
A good fictional account of what was happening on the coast of the United States at the beginning of the war.Also a look at the end of the lighthouse keepers profession.I enjoyed the book immensely, and will finish the series.

Secondary characters make it hard to believe
Homer Hickam is a great memorist as he titles himself. His semi-autobiographical novel, Rocket Boys, is one of my treasured reads. The follow-ups to that were also works I found to be more than worthwhile. Wanting to write in a new genre, that of fiction, we turn to his account of a time that he is an expert on. That of the fighting that took place along the outer banks right when the US joined WWII.

Here I think we have not seen the full potential that we found in his earlier works. Perhaps it is the pacing, perhaps it is trying to apply a formula to the writing. Certainly the subject of the submarine attacks on american shipping are a subject that lend themselves to an historical novel. That everyone involved amongst the US are characters, virtually all eccentric, takes away from some of the details of the time period. Certainly our heroine typifies a modern woman in deed and attitude which also takes away from creating the nuance of the late thirties and early forties. These are things that Mr. Hickam's writing of the era of his teenage years do so well. Here I find it hard to believe in the people he has embody his story.

To some extent even our villains are not believable. Was there such a group of U-Boat men that waged war on innocents? Hard to say or know in this novel.

Perhaps with less quirky supporting characters, or even the one trait that drives the main character taken out of the story might have made this a much better and more believable book.

The Keepers Son
You don't find to many books out there about the Coast Guard Service,and the actual roles that they did during WWI/WWII.Thank you to all the Men and Women Past and Present that serve in our USCG.

Hickam takes on fiction
Very good first fiction for Hickam of Rocket Boy fame.He has an ear for dialogue and not-overdone description.One key plot twist was telegraphed too early, but Hickam wove the story around it so well that it didn't kill it.

The story is based on a fictional Outer Banks island and the life that centers around its lighthouse and the fishermen who live there.

This is the first of a series, followed up by The Ambassador's Son (Josh Thurlow Series #2)

Desperate WWII Naval Action Off the Outer Banks
The horrendous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor focused American attention on the Pacific and the threat of German submarine attack on merchant shipping off the Atlantic coast was not appreciated.Homer Hickam writes a great story of a small Coast Guard unit based on Killakeet Island who man an 84-foot patrol boat in an attempt to forestall the U-boat aces as they destroy freighters and tankers shortly after the U.S. enters the war.Hickam describes the crew jarring transition from rescue work and fishing to desperate action against a ruthless and lethal enemy.He also includes a description of the mounted beach patrol, when cowboys along with their horses, were recruited to plug the patrol gap.

This is a entertaining story based on one of the more unique episodes in the vast conflict.
... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (78)

Small Font Size
I am not giving Homer a single star. His work is one of the greatest pieces of literature in history. However, be very cautious of this edition. The font size is very small and makes for difficult reading. I would strongly urge you to choose another edition with larger font size.

This translation has a noble, stately rythm.
This translation attempts to replicate the rhythms of the original Greek.The hexameter verse of this translation has a stately, noble rhythm that the other blank verse translations can't replicate. The other translations seem flat, like regular prose compared to Lattimore's translation. To really appreciate it, sound it out in your mind as you read.The Companion to the Iliad by Malcolm Willcock is based on this translation and really enhanced my appreciation and understanding of the epic. I plan to get Lattimore's translation of the Odyssey next.

Hated it.
The Odyssey was a much better book. Skip this one if you can, you get a good summary of it in the Odyssey, it'll save you some time.

The Iliad of Homer; Trans. R Lattimore
Latimore's translation follows the Greek translation line by line; making this translation closest to what Homer intended. Also, Lattimore comes highly recommended by university professors who love antiquity. In addition, I would recommend Malcom M. Willcock's brilliant "A Companion to the Iliad" who explains the literary allusions found in Lattimore's "The Iliad." Between Lattimore and Wilcock, it took me three months (two to three hours a day) to read the 24 Books of "The Iliad." [Yes, I am a slow reader.] This intense immersion may not be for everyone. But, trust me, the compliment is well-deserved. I now look forward to three months of Lattimore's "Odyssey."

Great Classic
When I first read this book, I enjoyed its themes and the overall story, but there were certainly time when I got lost in the sea of names of dying men.It wasn't until after I discussed this book in class that I realized how amazing and profound it really was.Free will, fate, the honor code, the power (or lack of power) of the gods, the various and often conflicting roles of women, and lots of symbolism are all waiting to be discovered inside the world's first written epic poem.You will be surprised how relatable the characters are centuries later.Enjoy! ... Read more

Product Description
Homer Hickam won the praise of critics and the devotion of readers with his first two memoirs set in the hardscrabble mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. The New York Times crowned his first book, the #1 national bestseller October Sky, “an eloquent evocation ... a thoroughly charming memoir.” And People called The Coalwood Way, Hickam’s follow-up to October Sky, “a heartwarmer ... truly beautiful and haunting.”

Now Homer Hickam continues his extraordinary story with Sky of Stone, dazzling us with exquisite storytelling as he takes us back to that remarkable small town we first came to know and love in October Sky.

In the summer of ‘61, Homer “Sonny” Hickam, a year of college behind him, was dreaming of sandy beaches and rocket ships. But before Sonny could reach the seaside fixer-upper where his mother was spending the summer, a telephone call sends him back to the place he thought he had escaped, the gritty coal-mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia.There, Sonny’s father, the mine’s superintendent, has been accused of negligence in a man’s death—and the townspeople are in conflict over the future of the town.

Sonny’s mother, Elsie, has commanded her son to spend the summer in Coalwood to support his father. But within hours, Sonny realizes two things: His father, always cool and distant with his second son, doesn’t want him there ... and his parents’ marriage has begun to unravel. For Sonny, so begins a summer of discovery—of love, betrayal, and most of all, of a brooding mystery that threatens to destroy his father and his town.

Cut off from his college funds by his father, Sonny finds himself doing the unimaginable: taking a job as a “track-laying man,” the toughest in the mine. Moving out to live among the miners, Sonny is soon dazzled by a beautiful older woman who wants to be the mine’s first female engineer.

And as the days of summer grow shorter, Sonny finds himself changing in surprising ways, taking the first real steps toward adulthood. But it’s a journey he can make only by peering into the mysterious heart of Coalwood itself, and most of all, by unraveling the story of a man’s death and a father’s secret.

In Sky of Stone, Homer Hickam looks down the corridors of his past with love, humor, and forgiveness, brilliantly evoking a close-knit community where everyone knows everything about each other’s lives—except the things that matter most.Sky of Stone is a memoir that reads like a novel, mesmerizing us with rich language, narrative drive, and sheer storytelling genius. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (45)

Perfect Escapism...
'Sky of Stone' chronicles Hickam's summer after his freshman year at Virginia Tech. Hickam's hopes of spending his summer at the beach get dashed after he gets into a car wreck speeding down the narrow, twisty roads of Southern West Virginia. Instead of living on the warm/sunny beach for a few months, he ends up living in Coalwood working in his father's mine.

I am awed at Hickam's ability to make you feel as if you are living in the setting he is writing about. He writes in somewhat of a Hemingway style when describing a setting, which really immerses you in the story. He makes the characters very three dimensional. The story itself is very engrossing; it is not just a story about coal-mining, it is a story of love, hard work, and a son's attempts to garner his father's respect. All of these elements make 'Sky of Stone' one of the best books I have ever read.

5/5

Sky of Stone
"Sky of Stone" is a rich and real examination of a deeply troubled Homer Hickam. It is 1961, the summer following his freshman year at VPI. Academic difficulites, his parents marital problems and tumoil in Coalwood darken Homer's outlook and confidence. A fine read.

Sky of Stone
We never received this book. Amazon said there were none in the warehouses. We were disappointed.
So why are we having to rate and review it?

It just gets better and better
If you have read Rocket Boys, it's imperative you continue with Coalwood Ways and Sky of the Stone.All are wonderful reads with great life lessons.Sky of the Stone was my favorite of the three but they build on each other.I look forward to reading Red Helmet in February!

Rocket Boys continued!
Just a great part 3 continuation of "The Rocket Boys", AKA: "October Sky". I could hardly put it down. I really enjoyed this book, too. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Children's Homer Review
This review does not deal with the content of the book and is based solely on the printed version from publisher "General Books".

This version of the book is unreadable as it is full of typos and formatting mistakes based on the method that the publisher used to print the book.
They scan the book and use OCR software only.They do not go back and correct any parts that the OCR software failed to transfer properly.
I am returning this and buying another copy from a different publisher. ... Read more

Product Description
Here is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of Homer's stirring heroic account of the Trojan war and its passions. The eloquent and dramatic epic poem captures the terrible anger of Achilles, "the best of the Achaeans," over a grave insult to his personal honor and relates its tragic result-a chain of consequences that proves devastating for the Greek forces besieging Troy, for noble Trojans, and for Achilles himself. The poet gives us compelling characterizations of his protagonists as well as a remarkable study of the heroic code in antiquity. The works attributed to Homer include the two oldest and greatest European epic poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad. These have been published in the Loeb Classical Library for three-quarters of a century, the Greek text facing a faithful and literate prose translation by A.T. Murray. William F. Wyatt now brings the Loeb's Iliad up to date, with a rendering that retains Murray's admirable style but is written for today's readers. ... Read more

Product Description

Here is a new Loeb Classical Library edition of the resplendent epic tale of Odysseus's long journey home from the Trojan War and the legendary temptations, delays, and perils he faced at every turn. Homer's classic poem features Odysseus's encounters with the beautiful nymph Calypso; the queenly but wily Circe; the Lotus-eaters, who fed his men their memory-stealing drug; the man-eating, one-eyed Cyclops; the Laestrygonian giants; the souls of the dead in Hades; the beguiling Sirens; the treacherous Scylla and Charybdis. Here, too, is the hero's faithful wife, Penelope, weaving a shroud by day and unraveling it by night, in order to thwart the numerous suitors attempting to take Odysseus's place.

The works attributed to Homer include the two oldest and greatest European epic poems, the Odyssey and Iliad. These texts have long stood in the Loeb Classical Library with a faithful and literate prose translation by A. T. Murray. George Dimock now brings the Loeb's Odyssey up to date, with a rendering that retains Murray's admirable style but is worded for today's readers. The two-volume edition includes a new introduction, notes, and index.

Customer Reviews (4)

Buyer beware of the "used" and "new" secondary market sellers
Murray's translation of the Odyssey was issued in 1919 and several times since.

Dimock's was issued in 1995 (2nd edition).

Dimock's was re-printed "with corrections" in 1998.

If the best text of this version is important to you for scholarship, you want the latest, "corrected" version, not an out-dated second-hand book or a library discard.

I have no opinion on the quality of Greek or the usefulness of the translation for academic purposes, and defer to the other reviewers.

On snobbishness: the Classics Libraries with which I am familiar (at two universities) are chock-full of Loeb and proudly so, it seems. Yale Bookstore stocks them, so they have overcome their rivalry that much. No good reason to be a snob about Loeb--especially if you have little Latin and less Greek.

Loeb always a classic
Dimock's revision of Murray's translation has updated the text so that it seems a little less archaic.However, as an aid for translation of the Greek, the line by line literal translations have no equals.
Excellent for those learning, or relearning, reading Homeric Greek in the "original"

An Indispensable Aid for Greek Students
Talking to other students of Greek, I'm fascinated by the ambivalence they feel for the Loeb series. For some, to read a Greek text in a Loeb edition is an act of sacrilege for which burning at the stake is not sufficient punishment. According to these Greek students, one should have only the Greek text furnished with an appropriately massive critical apparatus. Amusingly, the one person I know who is most vociferously against the Loeb series was quite upset when, a few months ago, I ran into him at a university bookstore and found, horror of horrors, that he was purchasing a Loeb. Needless to say, I have no such prejudice against the Loeb series and find certain volumes to be quite helpful in learning Greek.

Unfortunately, many of the translations that come alongside the Greek texts in the Loeb series are not particulalry faithful to the original text and are therefore useless if one is looking for a simple crib to help construe the meaning of this or that word or construction.

Fortunately, the translation for the Loeb edition of the Odyssey is a great crib. It is, for the most part, painstakingly faithful to the Greek, although there are a few strange lapses here and there where the translator(s) have decided to add a few words that are not in the Greek.

As for those who are Greekless and are simply looking for an accurate translation of the Odyssey, I'm not sure that I can recommend the translation. On the one hand, it is faithful to the sense of the text, but capture none of the sensuality of the text; that is to say, the rhythm and sound that make Homer so pleasurable are not reproduced in the translation. So, the translation is an excellent crib for construing the sense of Homer's text, but that's the extent of its merit.

A dated translation; a work that never ages
Every generation must have its own translations of Homer, but a good place for an aspiring translator to start will always be the Loeb library: translations facing the original Greek, a reasonable price, a cover design that doesn't try to look especially modern. Of course, if you're just looking to read Homer in English, there are better translations (my own personal favorite is Fagles). ... Read more

Product Description
The myths of the ancient Greeks have inspired us for thousands of years. Where did the famous stories of the battles of their gods develop and spread across the world? The celebrated classicist Robin Lane Fox draws on a lifetime’s knowledge of the ancient world, and on his own travels, answering this question by pursuing it through the age of Homer. His acclaimed history explores how the intrepid seafarers of eighth-century Greece sailed around the Mediterranean, encountering strange new sights—volcanic mountains, vaporous springs, huge prehistoric bones—and weaving them into the myths of gods, monsters and heroes that would become the cornerstone of Western civilization. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Classic in Every Sense of the Word
This Robin Lane Foxes take on the "Greece v. the Near East" debate, i.e. to what extent classical Greek culture was inspired by the older, more well established of the near east, specifically the neo-hittite indo european speakers.Fox approaches the question by taking heavily from recent archaeological studies in the Mediterranean world and methodically discussing the "world" of 8th century Greek/Euboean adventurers. The writing style and scholarship are first rate, I literally gobbled this book up.Foxes conclusion is basically that the Greek/Euboeans were aware of Near Eastern religious practices largely through individual experiences both trading and settling in places like Crete.Fox outlines different points of contact and also does an excellent job charting western expansion in the 8th century.

Although I'm not a specialist in the field, I found his placement of Homer in the 8th century as convincing.I think Fox, while obviously conversant with some of the advances in "indo european" studies, is largely dismissive of that discipline, but of course it's impossible to ignore the relationship between Hittite culture and Greek myth.

A Fascinating Inquiry Into the Homeric World
Robin Lane Fox is a distinguished British classicist with a number of signficant books to his credit that have helped expand the modern understanding of the ancient world."Travelling Heroes" is another example of this.In this book, Fox attempts to probe and gain a greater comprehension of the bases for the Greek myths that form the background context for and also add a good deal of content to the Homeric tales, the Iliad and the Odyssey.He does this through careful consideration of ancient texts, the geography of the Homeric world, and by review of some of the most recent archaeological evidence.

This inquiry lead the author to some rather startling conclusions:some of the most important Greek myths such as Zeus's victory over the monster Typhon can be attributed not only to Eastern influences from such faiths as those of the Assyrians and Hittites, they were also swayed by stories from the far West of antiquity (Italy and parts beyond) and also by the geographical features that were witnessed by the Greek "travelling heroes" of antiquity.

Fox goes further in his hypothesis and specifically identifies the group of early Greek wanderers who he deems responsible for this enriching of Greek mythology:8th Century BCE seafarers and colonists from the island of Euboea or its colonial offshoots.He is able to provide some fairly solid evidence for this theory in reliance on stratigraphic analysis of pottery deposits, other physical evidence at field sites (such as the presence of volcanic or earthquake activity), and through close reading and interpretation of ancient sources.Fox goes further to investigate how this mythic activity on the part of the early Euboeans did or didn't influence the work of near contemporaries such as Hesiod and Homer.He concludes with a brief, learned inquiry into the possible date when Homer's works were first set down in writing.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in antiquity, particularly the early days of Greek civilization.I must make the caveat, however, that the book may prove rather heavy going for laymen with little or no knowledge of or interest in archaeology.There is a good deal of discussion of pottery strata at the book's beginning which newcomers may find daunting.Nonetheless, once the reader slogs past this part, he or she will be rewarded with a fascinating examination of how the ancient Greek mind envisioned and dealt with the world around it, making sense of and linking various phenomena and place locations in the Mediterranean.

Thoroughly Enlightening
Just a brief note on this wonderful book.I found it by accident, doing research into mythic heroes, but wow, am I glad I did.This is one of the most fascinating reads I have had in a while.What Fox manages to accomplish is impressive:he relates an incredible amount of archaeological, historical, linguistic, literary, anthropological, and mythological data is a reader-friendly, accessible, easy-going way.I still don't quite know how he managed to make so much deep research easy and fun.You breeze right through this book and simply accumulate a treasure trove of information.He distills the hardest, most detailed theories into easily accessible conversation -- It's like learning from a good friend without realizing you're learning.

My hat is off to Mr. Fox for a great, well-researched text.It is quite brilliant.

Glad this wasn't exiled to academic purgatory
The Post reviewer criticizes this book for being too academic for the general public, but I found it to be fascinating. There are those of us who are students of history even though we aren't academics--we like to be challenged intellectually, too--we don't need to read another generalized history of the Greek world. This is a very well-written, exhaustively researched book and I highly recommend it.

A Challenging, Illuminating Book
Robin Lane Fox's "Travelling Heroes:In the Epic Age of Homer" is a challenging, illuminating work.After a short introduction, the author presents a highly detailed examination of the archaeological evidence for the spread of Greeks - especially Greeks from the island of Euboea - through the Mediterranean in the 8th century BC, an examination so detailed that seemingly every piece and fragment of Euboean ceramics ever found outside of Greece is discussed.

After the archaeological exposition, Fox launches into his main subject: the creation and evolution of Greek myth and poetry as it was influenced by what these 8th century Euboean travelers saw and experienced.Fox contends that for the most part Greek myths were indigenous, not fundamentally borrowings from other peoples, but that the indigenous mythic elements were modified and shaped by the new worlds into which the Greeks were moving:not lands empty of other people, but lands where other people were already living and telling their own mythic tales.This long central portion of "Travelling Heroes" demands careful attention by the reader, as the evidence and arguments presented are complex and subtle.Of necessity, the foundations for the author's conclusions are less solid than the archaeological evidence presented earlier in the book; frequently, the evidence is linguistic or threaded through literary sources dating centuries later.

The final section of the book examines the direct effects of the 8th century Euboean experience upon the poems of Homer and Hesiod (Fox concludes that Homer most likely worked on Chios in the middle of the 8th century, while Hesiod came a few decades later).

Undoubtedly, Robin Lane Fox's conclusions will not find universal acceptance, but at a minimum this book provides a fascinating view of the foundations of much of Western culture.
... Read more

Product Description
"Unequaled" Rewriting of Homer for Children. Padraic Colum's retelling of Homer's classic epics for children is still considered by many to be the finest introduction younger readers will have to Homer. Combining the broad stories of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, Colum creates an intricately woven, fast paced tale that will enthrall children and adults alike. Publishers Weekly considered his rendition of Homer 'unequalled' and thousands of readers have agreed with that assessment. This edition includes Willy Pogany's classic illustrations created for the original 1918 edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A child's introduction to Homer.
Every parent should buy this book for their 8-13 year-old children. Originally published in 1918, it avoids the the excesses of modern-day political correctness while telling these exciting stories in beautiful and simple language. As a child I was so inspired by these tales that I went on to read both many times in full and in different translations. A "Must" for every parent who wants to inspire their children. ... Read more

Product Description
With close analysis of Homer's art and of the personal challenges he faced throughout his life, Winslow Homer: The Nature of Observation is the most comprehensive study to date of the relationship between the artist's work and the psychological stages of his life. Elizabeth Johns uses theories advanced by Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson to look at Homer's evolution as a painter and a person within the context of the continuing dynamics of his family. Her incisive and absorbing readings of the artist's work take into account the developmental stages of young, middle, and late adulthood, analyzing what Homer painted at the various turning points in his life.With this psychosocial approach, Johns examines the wood-engraved illustrations of Homer's early career in relationship to the values of his family; his images of the Civil War in the context of his young manhood; his paintings of the social scene and young women's place in it in connection with his own potential for marriage; his images of fisherwomen at Cullercoats and fishermen at Prout's Neck as they relate to his interior vision during middle age; and his intrigue with the sea in his late works as an identification with the larger processes of the universe. With more than seventy-five black-and-white illustrations and forty color plates of arresting images by this American master, Winslow Homer takes into account all available documentation, including the rich trove of the artist's correspondence at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and his entire body of work-illustrations for wood engravings, watercolors, and oils.40 color illustrations, 77 b/w photographs ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Winslow Homer
This is one of the most instructive books on painting that I have read.I could understand the concepts so well. Now I hope I can make use of them.Beautiful!

InsightfulAdjunctto the Art of Winslow Homer
Considered by most art historians to be one of the more important American artists, Winslow Homer was essentially self-taught and that fact informs his prolific span of works as much from the progressive technical maturity of his paintings and drawings as from the intuitive approach to his subjects that, at time, 'over-schooling' can flatten.

Elizabeth Johns has written an engrossing study of how Homer's life and psychological development are evident in the various stages of his work.Never cloying or intrusive in demeanor, Johns intertwines facts gleaned from correspondence and from criticism and Homer's responses to same to paint her own portrait of a man at odds with the world in some ways and in other ways as an integral observer of such phenomena as his passion for the sea.

Johns' writing is so facile that the book could comfortably exist without illustration, but add to the power of her writing the fine reproductions of both black and white and richly colored plates of Homer's paintings and this becomes a book that will satisfy even those who have questioned Homer's importance in American art history.A fine read.Grady Harp, November 05 ... Read more

Product Description
Though a Bostonian by birth and upbringing, Winslow Homer lived and maintained his studio in New York City for twenty-five years, establishing himself as a leading figure in New York s art world. In 1881, determined to broaden his status as a painter, Homer journeyed to Great Britain. During his trip, major changes appeared in nearly everything he did as a painter. The changes came so rapidly during his first months abroad that there can be little doubt that the crucial turning point occurred during his first weeks in London. After his return to New York in November of 1882 and during his later years in Maine, the sequence of major oil paintings that came from his brush owed much, in the most fundamental ways, to transformations that began in London.

Tatham s Winslow Homer in London: A New York Artist Abroad, 1881-1882 is the first to examine in detail this preeminent American painter s crucial weeks in London during his year and half in Great Britain. Tatham presents new information concerning Homer s time in the city, the centuries-old American associations of his London neighborhood, and his visits to London art institutions; he also considers in detail the artist s iconic painting The Houses of Parliament. Concluding chapters consider New York s reception of Homer s post-London paintings from the fishing village of Cullercoats and show how London and this village together formed the foundation for the major paintings of the artist s later career. Tatham s acute examination is enhanced with several illustrations of Homer s most celebrated paintings. ... Read more

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Three thousand years of the greatest Greek poetry, exquisitely translated and assembled in a handsome volume sure to be a modern classic.This landmark volume captures three millennia of Greek poetry—more than 1,000 poems and 200 poets. From the epics of Homeric Greece to the historical and erotic ironies of Cavafy, from the romances, hymns, and bawdy rhymes of Byzantium to the innovative voices of a resurgent twentieth century, this anthology brings together the diverse strands of the Greek poetic tradition. The favorites are all here—raging Achilles, restless Odysseus, strong-hearted Penelope—but The Greek Poets also presents neglected eras, from the rise of Constantinople to the end of the Ottoman occupation. In offering canonical poets such as Sappho and Pindar, and the modern Nobel laureates Seferis and Elytis, the renowned editors give us their new translations and bring together other masterful translators, including Robert Fagles, James Merrill, and W. S. Merwin, along with a younger generation that includes Anne Carson, Paul Muldoon, and Alicia Stallings. This is an essential companion to the Western literary tradition. map ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Brilliant
For anyone interested in history, in writing, especially in excellent prose, plays and poetry should buy this book.

It is exquisite, full of detail but not overwhelming.

'The Greek Poets' contains within it's pages a wealth of information of which the reader can approach in any order.

The book itself is handsome, a quality not often found. Plus, there are so many wonderful pieces, no reader can possibly be disappointed. ... Read more

Product Description
When a mysterious man promises to make him a great player, Sylvester accepts and begins a phenomenal home-run streak. Black-and-white illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

The kid who only hit homers...Awesome books
This was a preselected book by my grandson who loves
to read. I am glad I was able to order it on Amazon
and that they make it available through their great
program for those who love to read.

Boring
This book was on my son's summer reading list.I thought it would interest him since he enjoys baseball, but he could not get through it.I finally read it to him, and honestly it was painful for me to read as well.It was a cute story, however.

A Good Book For A Kid
The main character in the book reminds me of my friend who goes to my school and is on my team. He did not like baseball at first, but after 2 years of playing is now one of the best players on our team.I liked this book because it reminds me of my life. Also, the book is great because it is a story that can happen to anyone.

The book that kept me awake!!!
I thought this was a great book because when I had to go to bed, I was still reading an hour later! I could not put it down. I would recommend "The Kid Who Only Hit Homers" because if you're into baseball and suspense, this is the book for you.

Sam W, 11
Framingham, MA

The Kid Who Only Hit Homers
The Kid Who Only Hit Homers
By Matt Christopher

If you're a kid who likes baseball, than you should read the Kid Who Only Hit Homers by Matt Christopher. This book is about a kid who is named Sylvester Coddmyer. Sylvester is a kid who loves baseball but is not that good at it.He doesn't want to sign up for his team, but that all changes when he meets someone named Mr.Baruth. Mr. Baruth really is Babe Ruth.Babe Ruth practices with Sylvester every day. He teaches him how to hit and how to catch.Sylvester joins the team. Every game he hits a homerun.The moral ofthe story is practice makes perfect.


Sam F, 10
Cunniff School
Watertown, MA ... Read more