I thought that Midsummer Nights Dream was a good comedy by William Shakespeare. This book is about 2 couples who are in love with one another but their love changes when fairies come with a special plant to change their hearts. The couples are then in love with the wrong person for the wrong reason. While all this is going on, common people are preparing a play for the duke's wedding. Although the play is short, every part of it is enjoyable and funny. If you read one scene, you will want to read the next.

As a seventh grader I have just finished the required read of a MidSummer's Night dream and I found it to have a plot line that kids can relate to through movies but not through the life that a kid lives. We see love all over televsion and we see how it works and we can connect that to the play. What I do think that was great about this is how it kept to ryhming and a rhythem, I think that is what creates a great book!

One of Shakespeare's most enjoyable works, "A Midsummer's Nights Dream" is the story of four lovers (either loved, in love, or both) who travel into an "enchanted" forest, filled with magical fairies who play tricks on them and even themselves. Meanwhile, a hapless stage production prepares for a performance at the Duke's wedding. All storylines lead to an enjoyable resolution climaxing with the hilarious performance of "The Most Lamentable Comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe." This is one of Shakespeare's funniest and consequently is one of his most univerally-enjoyed plays. I recommend it for anyone with any interest at all in Shakespeare's works.

Extremely well reserached and briskly written, this book provides both young people and general adult readers with an outstanding general overview of ancient Athenian society, culture, arts, religious festivals, athletics, warfare, and plenty more. Also, the author has done a fine job of selecting and editing primary and secondary source quotes that enliven the text while making it that much more authoritative. The large glossary and even larger bibliography are an added bonus in this excellent entry, which I highly recommend.

I really got a lot out of this little book, even though its written for kids. Stuff about the ancient world fascinates me, and this historian, Don Nardo, really knows how to explain things clearly and simply at the same time includes tons of interesting details. I recommend the book to everybody who like to read about ancient societies.

As a high school history teacher, I appreciate studies of ancient times that manage to cover the subject in appropriate detail and at the same time hold the reader's interest, particularly younger readers, who can be and often are turned off at the idea of studying about anything that happened before they were born. This volume, one of a recent series of studies of ancient Greece and Rome for young people by historian Don Nardo, perfectly blends factual, accurate information about ancient Athenian society with an easy-to-read, often lively writing style. The first chapter presents an excellent summary of the city and its people in the Bronze Age. Subsequent chapters cover Athens' growth over the centuries, the establishment of its political institutions, its homelife and social life, the role and status of women, religious beliefs and customs (with a riveting description of the yearly festival and sacrifices dedicated to the goddess Athena), athletic games, art and sculpture, and warfare. This is non-scholarly historical writing at its best and I recommend it highly to both history teachers and casual readers.

Aristophanes is at the top of his form here, despite what some critics say. His lampooning of several ideas floating around Athens at the time(women's rights, communism, free love, etc, to use modern terms) is hilarious, and this praise is coming from an avid supporter of everything he's satirizing. The raunchy sex jokes are just as entertaining and twice as intelligent as anything coming out of Hollywood these days, and the political humor teaches one a great deal about contemporary events in Athens. The actual political and social order depicted in the play is very reminiscent of Plato's Republic(written later); as the previous reviewer has stated, this play is excellent in conjuction with Plato's writings on the subject. A class dealing with both works was how I came across this play in the first place, and it provided excellent fodder for discussion.

In terms of this specific edition, Mayhew translates every joke with absolute faith to the witty, vulgar original. The footnotes are unobtrusive, but they provide just the right amount of explanation of obscure references and odd figures of speech. They even mention which sections were expurgated by uptight Victorian translators! Accept nothing less than this version. (PS: If you loved this play, Lysistrata is at least as good, if not even better.)

A specter is haunting Athens, the specter of communism.

This premise animates the plot of Aristophenes' comedy "Ecclesiazusae" (or "Assembly of Women"), wherein the heroine Praxagora leads a conspiracy of hags dressed as men to vote themselves into power. Fresh from her victory, Praxagora unveils her plan for a brave, new world where all property, children and sex are held in common. What follows is an uproariously funny, shockingly vulgar, tremendously insightful satire of communists and the logical consequences of their ideology.

Mayhew's translation and introduction would make for a perfect adjunct to any discussion of Plato's *Republic*, especially in an introductory Greek Lit & Civ course. First, Aristophenes has arguably innovated aspects of communism that would later influence Plato. Second, the play contains so many allusions to contemporary events (helpfully explained by Mayhew), that it provides a useful introduction to ancient history, political philosophy, and dramatic literature. Last, the comedy is funny enough for anyone (particularly sophomores!) to enjoy, and if it's the only play they actually read, they'll know something important about ancient Athens, thanks to the guidance of Robert Mayhew.

This book distils generations of research and provides up-to-date information.

My only quibble is that the author accepts the art historians' view on the refinements in the Parthenon rather than having presented a practical architectural examination of the building. Otherwise it's a tour de force.

One more thing: don't be put off by the out of focus photograph on the cover.

Jeffrey Hurwit's compelling way of introducing the reader to an Ancient Greek marvel is both fun and informative. You learn anwsers to things you would personally want to know like "Could the average Greek enter the Parthenon?" A great "bread and butter" book to have on hand if you are at all interested in art or architecture.

The problem with "The Birds" ("Ornithes") is that for once Aristophanes does not seem to be attacking some specific abuse in Athens. Still, we suspect that even this little fantasy is not simply escapist entertainment. Certainly there are those who see it as a political satire about the imperialistic dreams that resulted in the disastrous invasion of Sicily (which happened the year before his play was produced in 414 B.C.). Then again, this could just be Aristophanes bemoaning the decline of Athens.

Pisthetaerus ("Trusting") and Euelpides ("Hopeful") have grown tired of life in Athens and decide to build a utopia in the sky with the help of the birds, which they will name Necphelococcygia (which translates roughly as "Cloud Cuckoo Land"). Pisthetaerus and his feathered friends have to fight off those unworthy humans, malefactors and public nuisances all, who try and join their utopia. Then there are the gods, who come to make some sort of agreement with the new city because they have created a bottleneck for sacrifices coming from earth.

Because it is a more general satire, "The Birds" tends to work better with younger audiences than most comedies by Aristophanes. Besides, the chorus of birds lends itself to fantastic costumes, which is always a plus with young theater goers. In studying any of the Greek plays that remain it is important to I have always maintained that in studying Greek plays you want to know the dramatic conventions of these plays like the distinction between episodes and stasimons (scenes and songs), the "agon" (a formal debate on the crucial issue of the play), and the "parabasis" (in which the Chorus partially abandons its dramatic role and addresses the audience directly). Understanding these really enhances your enjoyment of the play.

Or rather, you can give an Athenian wings but he won't become a gentle agrarian bird rather, he'll rouse the citizenship, attack the Gods, and turn on you at the last possible moment. While some literary critics tout this as Aristophanes' most unfathomable work, well, I just think they're being silly. Maybe that's my own lack of education speaking, but I think The Birds a pretty obvious, as well as bitingly funny, commentary on humans, or men, or Athenians (all of these concepts probably being more or less the same to Aristophanes)as hopelessly political and power-hungry beings. One thing I love about this, and, I suppose, all of the Greek dramas, is that they are ultimately very malleable and applicable to my (our?) modern experience. (With a certain ammount of difficulty) you can lead a 21st Century North American to social conciousness but they're still gonna want and have the economic buying power to get, cheap Nikes. Cynical? Yes. Scathing? Yes. Real? You betcha. Sure we've got indoor plumbing, but our cultural context is back in the golden age. Lucky we've still got dudes like Aristophanes to give us a clue as to how to slog through it all.

Dr. Athens is a forensic genius! I'm reading this book as anaspiring and self-proclaimed "forensic scholar" and throughthe eyes of one who has, in fact, been-there-and-done-that. Hisnotion of the "violentization" process, with its fourdistinct stages, is shockingly accurate! This book is a masterpiece!Reviewer is the author of the book Not Guilty by Reason ofInsanity:One Man's Recovery.

Pulitzer Price winner Richard Rhodes has written a new book, "Why They Kill," as a biography of Lonnie Athens and an explication of his book and work on the origins of violence in individuals. He clearly wants to lift perceptions of the research value of Athens' work to a level that will give it the credibility it deserves in the face of opposition from vested but less-well-researched interests in the fields of criminology and sociology.

Wow! I just finished reading The Walled Orchard series, and it was incredible! I don't think any other book has made me laugh this much before. Yet, this book is not all about jokes. Behind the jokes, I felt that there was a pretty strong message. Tom Holt is a genius of a writer. I can't wait to get more of his books. I think that anyone and everyone would love this book.

Well researched and screamingly funny, Goatsong parades a century of literary, political, and philosophical heroes before the unsympathetic gaze of a goatherd and finds them wanting. Eupolis of Pallene, an up and coming playwright, usually finds them wanting in courtesy, dignity, and heroics, but he manages to sketch such legends as Aristophanes, pericles, and Alcibiades so perversely that the reader transforms fundamental assumptions before realizing that the book in fiction, and comic fiction at that.

Eupolis descrbes and lampoons the institutions of chorus selection, legislative debate, and marriage with little historical and cultural relics which further deter one from suspending disbelief, but even he dows nto escape his own boil-lancing mirth. If one hasn't a sense of the absurdity of the Peloponnesian War-era Athens by the end of this book, at least a few thousand laughs will have elapsed in the process

Lacking knowledge of the Architectural issues involved, I had to approach "Athena and Eden" with my experience of ancient and classical Greek literature. I was shocked by the strength and cogency of Mr. Johnson's arguments. Though not yet fully convinced of all of the conclusions Mr. Johnson has reached, "Athena and Eden" has definitely given me some ideas to chew on while Mr. Johnson writes his second volume.

Many near eastern/mediteraenean cultures exhibit shared memories of a common prehistory. From Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia to early tales of Osiris in Egypt, echoes of the Genesis and Flood stories abound. If Mr. Johnson is correct, than Greek mythology is a very twisted (possibly Satanic) retelling of the fall of Man.

As far as particulars--

I found his arguments about the true identity of the Zeus figure extremely compelling. Yet the Athena/Hera division is still a little muddled in my mind (probably more my fault than the author's).

Overall, "Athena and Eden" is a very intriguing book that deserves a lot of attention. It gets my recommendation.

The focus of Greek civilization, the Parthenon captures viewers imaginations even as it conceals its true meaning. In his ground breaking work, Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr. author of ATHENA AND EDEN: THE HIDDEN MEANING OF THE PARTHENON'S EAST FACADE demonstrates that when Athena is seen to be Eve, then Greek mythology becomes narrative art. Consequently, the marble sculptures on the east pediment of the Parthenon relate the story of the origin of mankind, matching the Genesis account in detail.

Johnson asserts that scholars have previously been unsuccessful in identifying most of the figures in the east pediment because they have failed to connect Athena with Even and the story of Eden in the Book of Genesis. Through careful research, Johnson demonstrates that we do have the literature and art to serve as a source of reconstruction. Painstaking comparison demonstrates shows that the sculptures of the eastern pediment depict the Garden of Eden, the birth of Eve, the Great Flood. Furthermore, the goddess Athena, whom the Greeks worshipped as the one who brought the serpent's wisdom, is the same person the Book of Genesis calls Eve.

Johnson, a West Point graduate, author, teacher and public speaker based his research on surviving sculptures, the ancient writings of Homer, Hesiod, Pindar and others, plus myths, vase art and the work of numerous experts. His controversial approach will certainly garner attention from all who are interested in the classics, religion, art, and mythology. Indeed, Johnson's unique perspective will provoke avid discussion among academics for years to come, yet is easily approachable by any who hold an interest in our origins.

Athena And Eden: The Hidden Meaning Of The Parthenon's East Facade by author and educator Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr. offers the non-specialist general reader a unique, accessible, and provocative look at classical artwork and human spirituality. Athena And Eden focuses on the majesty of the Parthenon and its mystical connection to the Book of Genesis. Illustrated with numerous black-and-white photographs of Greek artistic treasures, sculptures, and pottery, Athena And Eden is an original, seminal, ground breaking, unforgettable, and highly recommended perspective that will be of particular interest to students of Hellenic art, architecture, mythology, and religion.

The Ancient City: LIfe in Classical Athens and Rome is a good book because it has a good description of the two civilizations. Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece are two different periods, and the book divides the two with clarity and nice colorfull pictures. It will give you good information that you can't find in a encyclopedia.

I wanted a basic overview text on Greek and Roman civilizations. Luckily I stumbled upon this book by Connolly and Dodge. The book is terrific. The layout is excellent. The writing is succinct and the text moves along smoothly. I now have a basic knowledge of Greek and Roman eras. I got a lot more out of this book by also reading Edith Hamilton's The Greek Way. However, I must confess, this book is far more interesting and keeps one glued. A joy to read. Very highly recommended.

Having returned from my first visit to Rome I was looking for answers to many questions about how the Coloseum was built used. The 27 pages here devoted to the Colosseum are far more informative than other books more specifically focused on the subject. The architectural illustrations throughout are outstanding.

Many other aspects of daily life, food, plumbing, politics, marriage customs (Ancient Athens had wedding cakes), idioms (the origin of "deus ex machina"), philosophy and the arts are richly told and illustrated.

We have been more strongly influenced by Athenian and Roman culture than we usually realize.

An great book for understanding about leadership in ancient Athens. Since Pericles was elected to the position of general once a year he was required to walk a political tightrope. This book will give you a good feel for the difficulties of yearly elections. You will not get great detail for the life of Pericle beyond Plutarch. Fans of leadership, democracy, warfare and international relations this book is a must!

In reading Kagan's epochal Peloponnesian War series (if Amazon had a six-star rating that series would deserve it) one is struck by the relative paucity of material present on one of the central characters of that period, Perikles of Athens. While Kagan gives his usual detailed treatment of events, what led up to many of Perikles' attitudes and intellectual precepts is left untreated.

A reader lucky enough to possess this volume will find the time spent in reading it in parallel with the four-volume magnum opus to be well spent. It supplies a view of the great man and his city with a color and richness that truly makes the reader's cup overflow, and might, if treated in this detail in the larger series, have slowed the latter's breakneck pace to a crawl. It is, of course, wonderful as a standalone reference.

Readers unfamiliar with Professor Kagan are missing a real treat. His prose is lean and concise, and its vividness lights the sometimes bland subject material of ancient Greek history with clarity and a contemporary relevance that is always illuminating and occasionally breathtaking. This is not "pop" history, but it is so well-written that it achieves the latter's accessibility without its superfluity. If more ancient history were written this way it would a much more popular subject of study.

Donald Kagan offers here a well-written popular account of the birth of democracy in ancient Greece. This book represents the capstone to a lifetime of research, reflection, writing (just check Amazon's list of his books; Kagan is perhaps the top writer in English on the Peloponnesian War), and teaching on classical Greece and illustrates both Kagan's eloquence and his belief that we can learn from the successes and failures of democracy in Ancient Athens. His Pericles is a hero but a tragic hero; his attempt to educate the entire population of Athens to achieve excellence reached an impressive level of success, but his relentlessly rational moderation refused to take into account emotional reactions of both individuals and states abroad and at home and helped bring on an unnecessary and disastrous war. His portrait of Periclean Athens offers many valuable analogies with contemporary democracy - and many warnings for us as well. Along with W.G. Forrest's The Emergence of Greek Democracy, sadly out of print, this is the best account of Greek History for the general reader, for its substance is intriguing, and it is a "great read."