'Legacies of Ancient Greece in Contemporary Perspectives' provides
readers with opportunities to reconnect with the origins of thought in
an astonishingly wide variety of areas: politics, economics, art,
spirituality, gender relations, medicine, literature, philosophy, music,
and so on. As the chapters in the book show, Classical Greek thought
still informs much of contemporary culture.
There are countless books and articles that deal with ancient Greece
historically, and a similar number that focus on Greece as a
contemporary travel destination. There is both a lot of interest in
Greece as a place now, and in Greece's history and culture, which formed
the early origins of much of Western civilisation. The distinctive
attraction of 'Legacies of Ancient Greece in Contemporary Perspectives'
is that it brings together, by means of fascinating examples, the two
areas of interest: Greece's past in relation to its, and our, present.
In addition to the general interest factor, the book suggests questions
for re-examination: the individual chapters provide abundant original
research on their subjects, and in most cases offer critiques on the
assumptions about, and the interpretations of, Greece's ancient and
contemporary cultural practices. These challenges themselves stimulate
far-reaching thought and discussion, a feature highly attractive to
readers (and students) wishing to develop a more in-depth understanding
of the legacies of ancient Greece.
