Everyday Things in Ancient Greece [Second Edition]

First published in 1954, this is the Second Edition of the single-volume amalgamation of husband-and-wife team Marjorie and Charles Quinnells’ three-volume anthology on Greek antiquity, originally between 1929-1932: Everyday Things in Homeric Greece, Everyday Things in Archaic Greece, and Everyday Things in Classical Greece.

Part I tells of the Trojan War and of the heroes who sustained the Greeks in their early struggles, with Homer cited as the main source.

Part II deals with the Archaic period (about 560 to 480 B.C.) ending with the great struggle between Greeks and Persians which culminated in the victory of the Greeks at Salamis, as related in the History of Herodotus.

Part III begins with the story of how the Greeks went to work after Salamis and built on the well-laid foundations a civilization which ever since has been regarded as Classical and closes with the account in the History of Thucydides of the struggle between Athens and Sparta and the failure of the Athenian Expedition to Sicily.

A comprehensive study of Ancient Greek History, revised in this edition by Greek authority Kathleen Freeman.

“In this book we have attempted to show some of the beautiful products of these artists, and their use in everyday life. It is our hope that the boys and girls who read it will discover that the Greeks were not a people extremely foreign and remote, who spoke a difficult language, but folk much like themselves, who lived and worked and played in the surroundings and among the objects we have depicted and described.”—Preface