The Hemlock Cup

Author : Bettany Hughes
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0224071785
Total Pages : 550 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Hemlock Cup written by Bettany Hughes and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did. His aphorism 'The unexamined life is not worth living' may have originated twenty-five centuries ago, but it is a founding principle of modern life. Socrates lived and contributed to a city that nurtured key ingredients of contemporary civilisation - democracy, liberty, science, drama, rational thought - yet, as he wrote nothing in his lifetime, he himself is an enigmatic figure. The Hemlock Cup gives Socrates the biography he deserves, setting him in the context of the Eastern Mediterranean that was his home, and dealing with him as he himself dealt with the world. Socrates was a soldier, a lover, a man of the people. He philosophised neither in grand educational establishments nor the courts of kings but in the squares and public arenas of Golden Age Athens. He lived through an age of extraordinary materialism, in which a democratic culture turned to the glorification of its own city; when war was declared under the banner of democracy; and, when tolerance turned into intimidation on streets once populated by the likes of Euripides, Sophocles and Pericles. For seventy years he was a vigorous citizen of one of the greatest capitals on earth, but then his beloved Athens turned on him, condemning him to death by poison. Socrates' pursuit of personal liberty is a vibrant story that Athens did not want us to hear, but which must be told."--Publisher's description.

Author : Bettany Hughes
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 1541674243
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Venus and Aphrodite written by Bettany Hughes and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cultural history of the goddess of love, from a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian. Aphrodite was said to have been born from the sea, rising out of a froth of white foam. But long before the Ancient Greeks conceived of this voluptuous blonde, she existed as an early spirit of fertility on the shores of Cyprus -- and thousands of years before that, as a ferocious warrior-goddess in the Middle East. Proving that this fabled figure is so much more than an avatar of commercialized romance, historian Bettany Hughes reveals the remarkable lifestory of one of antiquity's most potent myths. Venus and Aphrodite brings together ancient art, mythology, and archaeological revelations to tell the story of human desire. From Mesopotamia to modern-day London, from Botticelli to Beyoncé, Hughes explains why this immortal goddess continues to entrance us today -- and how we trivialize her power at our peril.

Author : Robin Waterfield
Publisher : Emblem Editions
ISBN 13 : 0771088639
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Why Socrates Died written by Robin Waterfield and published by Emblem Editions. This book was released on 2010-05-04 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revisionist account of the most famous trial and execution in Western civilization — one with great resonance for modern society In the spring of 399 BCE, the elderly philosopher Socrates stood trial in his native Athens. The court was packed, and after being found guilty by his peers, Socrates died by drinking a cup of poison hemlock, his execution a defining moment in ancient civilization. Yet time has transmuted the facts into a fable. Aware of these myths, Robin Waterfield has examined the actual Greek sources, presenting a new Socrates, not an atheist or guru of a weird sect, but a deeply moral thinker, whose convictions stood in stark relief to those of his former disciple, Alcibiades, the hawkish and self-serving military leader. Refusing to surrender his beliefs even in the face of death, Socrates, as Waterfield reveals, was determined to save a morally decayed country that was tearing itself apart. Why Socrates Died is then not only a powerful revisionist book, but a work whose insights translate clearly from ancient Athens to the present day.

Author : Bettany Hughes
Publisher : Da Capo Press
ISBN 13 : 0306825856
Total Pages : 709 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Istanbul written by Bettany Hughes and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 709 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Istanbul has long been a place where stories and histories collide, where perception is as potent as fact. From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names--Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul -- resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City," but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city, but a global story. In this epic new biography, Hughes takes us on a dazzling historical journey from the Neolithic to the present, through the many incarnations of one of the world's greatest cities--exploring the ways that Istanbul's influence has spun out to shape the wider world. Hughes investigates what it takes to make a city and tells the story not just of emperors, viziers, caliphs, and sultans, but of the poor and the voiceless, of the women and men whose aspirations and dreams have continuously reinvented Istanbul. Written with energy and animation, award-winning historian Bettany Hughes deftly guides readers through Istanbul's rich layers of history. Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, this captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul is visceral, immediate, and authoritative -- narrative history at its finest.

Author : Diana Wynne Jones
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 110156699X
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Fire and Hemlock written by Diana Wynne Jones and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-04-12 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fantastic tale by the legendary Diana Wynne Jones—with an introduction by Garth Nix. Polly Whittacker has two sets of memories. In the first, things are boringly normal; in the second, her life is entangled with the mysterious, complicated cellist Thomas Lynn. One day, the second set of memories overpowers the first, and Polly knows something is very wrong. Someone has been trying to make her forget Tom - whose life, she realizes, is at supernatural risk. Fire and Hemlock is a fantasy filled with sorcery and intrigue, magic and mystery - and a most unusual and satisfying love story. Widely considered to be one of Diana Wynne Jones's best novels, the Firebird edition of Fire and Hemlock features an introduction by the acclaimed Garth Nix - and an essay about the writing of the book by Jones herself.

Author : Bettany Hughes
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307485889
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Helen of Troy written by Bettany Hughes and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-06-03 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For 3,000 years, the woman known as Helen of Troy has been both the ideal symbol of beauty and a reminder of the terrible power beauty can wield.In her search for the identity behind this mythic figure, acclaimed historian Bettany Hughes uses Homer’s account of Helen’s life to frame her own investigation. Tracing the cultural impact that Helen has had on both the ancient world and Western civilization, Hughes explores Helen’s role and representations in literature and in art throughout the ages. This is a masterly work of historical inquiry about one of the world’s most famous women.

Author : Bettany Hughes
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 184413329X
Total Pages : 532 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Helen of Troy written by Bettany Hughes and published by Random House. This book was released on 2006 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As soon as men began to write, they made Helen of Troy their subject; for close on three thousand years she has been both the embodiment of absolute female beauty and a reminder of the terrible power that beauty can wield. Because of her double marriage to the Greek King Menelaus and the Trojan Prince Paris, Helen was held responsible for an enduring enmity between East and West. For millennia she has been viewed as ane xquisite agent of extermination. But who was she?

Author : Peter Macinnis
Publisher : Allen & Unwin
ISBN 13 : 1741154375
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Killer Bean of Calabar and Other Stories written by Peter Macinnis and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2004-07-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A triumphantly toxic tome. As a dedicated Macinnis fan, I relish this latest display of erudition, story-telling and fun. One of his very best.' Robyn Williams, Head, ABC Science Unit Was Abraham Lincoln really as mad as a hatter? Who poisoned Phar Lap? Can wallpaper really kill? Was Jack the Ripper an arsenic eater? Painting a broad canvas, from the early Egyptians to the arsenical tube wells in Bangladesh and the Sarin gas attacks in a Tokyo subway, The Killer Bean of Calabar explores the accidental and intentional tales of poisons and their use throughout history. Historically difficult substances to trace, poisons have been used by many for their own dastardly purposes, from the Great Poisoners such as Nero and Madame de Brinvilliers to the mass gassings of World War II. But the truly great poisoners are those who make selective use of poisons to save human life, not the few who use poison to take human life. Most of the medicines we take are themselves poisons - therapeutic only by virtue of being more deadly to our viruses than to us. Poisons are all around us - from the plants in our gardens and lead in our homes, to the bacteria and toxins in our bodies. With ripping yarns and unusual views of famous people, Macinnis explains the whys and wherefores of poisons and poisoning.

Author : William Golding
Publisher : Faber & Faber
ISBN 13 : 0571299547
Total Pages : 178 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Double Tongue written by William Golding and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With an introduction by Meg Rosoff William Golding's final novel, left in draft at his death, tells the story of a priestess of Apollo. Arieka is one of the last to prophesy at Delphi, in the shadowy years when the Romans were securing their grip on the tribes and cities of Greece. The plain, unloved daughter of a local grandee, she is rescued from the contempt and neglect of her family by her Delphic role. Her ambiguous attitude to the god and her belief in him seem to move in parallel with the decline of the god himself - but things are more complicated than they appear. 'A remarkable work ... A compelling storyteller as well as a clear-eyed philosopher of the dangerous puzzles of being human.' The Times 'A wonderful central character. The story stretches out as clean and dry and clear as the beach in Lord of the Flies.' Independent 'Feline, deadpan and at moments hilarious.' Observer

Author : Bettany Hughes
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 1400076013
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Hemlock Cup written by Bettany Hughes and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the celebrated British author and historian: a brilliant new book combining historical inquiry and storytelling élan to paint an unprecedentedly vivid portrait of Socrates and the Golden Age of classical Athens. We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did; in his unwavering commitment to truth and in the example of his own life, he set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. And yet, for twenty-five centuries, he has remained an enigma: a man who left no written legacy and about whom everything we know is hearsay. His life spanned “seventy of the busiest, most wonderful and tragic years in Athenian history.” Athens in the fifth century B.C. was a city devastated by war, but, at the same time, transformed by the burgeoning process of democracy. Drawing on the latest sources—archaeological, topographical, and textual—Hughes re-creates the streets where Socrates walked, to place him there, and to illuminate for us the world as he experienced it.