Download Masterpieces of Ancient Greek Literature AudioBook Free
The early Greeks left the globe that arrived after them - specifically our own and our means of discovering it - an incalculable legacy. Mention politics, philosophy, legislation, medicine, background, even the visible arts, and we hardly scratch the surface of what we owe this extraordinary culture. How can we best find out about these people who have given us so much, who have deepened and enriched our knowledge of ourselves, and whose world remains considerably closer than we would picture? The 36 lectures of this dazzling series from a frequently honored educator is an outstanding place to begin, as Professor Schenker opens up to us the epics of Homer; the remarkable genius of the playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes; and the poems of Archilochus, Sappho, and many more. He includes a few of the world's most significant works of background and beliefs, and he gives rhetoric and oratory their proper due, as well. You start with Homer and both great epics credited to him, the Iliad and the Odyssey - including a provocative talk of whether Homer even been around - Professor Schenker offers a wide-ranging overview of the subject that is both instructive and amusing. His lectures are rich in anecdote, so that the works are established against a stunning backdrop of the times, as exemplified by his information of the debut of Aeschylus's the Eumenides, first staged in Athens in 458 B.C.E. You'll learn that the presentation was said to have elicited full-blown terror in its audience. When the Furies - the hideous, avenging spirits roused from sleeping by the ghost of the murdered Clytemnestra - made an appearance in the audience, men are said to have shrieked and fainted, with pregnant women miscarrying at that moment.
