Welcome to Athens in 431 BC! This entertaining guide provides all the
information a tourist needs for a journey back in time to ancient Athens
at its pinnacle of greatness more than 2000 years ago. Travel via
Thermopylae, the Oracle at Delphi, and the site of the epic Battle of
Marathon to the city of Athena, goddess of wisdom. Meet Socrates,
Thucydides, Phidias, and others who are among the greatest philosophers,
writers, and artists who ever lived. Encounter ordinary Athenians in the
marketplace and at the theater and learn the true character of one of
the most extraordinary cities of any age.
Of course, ancient Athens was not all art, intellect, and politics. This
well-researched yet irreverently unacademic guide also plunges gleefully
into the hedonistic side of Athenian life with wine-sodden symposiums,
brothels, and brawls, advising the reader to avoid slatternly
prostitutes and inns where the beds are infested with bugs, and warning
that both torches and an escort are needed to avoid muggers after an
evening on the town.
Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day takes you through the raucous city
crowds to the serene heights of the Parthenon and evokes the wonder of a
city where the monuments and ideas that form the bedrock of Western
culture are as fresh and new as the garlands of flowers on Athena's
altar.
