Recapture the glory that was Ancient Greece with this brilliant course ... Ancient Greek Civilization offers 24 information-packed lectures on one of the greatest cultures the world has ever seen.(Taped lectures on Greek history)(Advertisement)

Blazoned above the portals of Apollo 's temple at Delphi were the words, "Know thyself." For us, this means knowing the Greeks.

In a corner of the Mediterranean, emerging from the darkness of prehistory, the Greeks created a culture that still shapes us every day: democracy, philosophy, tragedy, poetry, history-writing, our aesthetic sensibilities and ideals of athletic competition, and more. Who were these people? The answers are fascinating, particularly with Professor Jeremy McInerney as your guide.

These recorded lectures cover the 11 centuries from the end of the Neolithic period to the conquests of Alexander the Great. Professor Jeremy McInerney traces the complex links between our civilization and its Hellenic origins. You can be confident that the insights you get from him are based on the newest and best in academic research and criticism. You'll come away enriched by new knowledge, not only of history, but of literature, art, philosophy, religion, and more.

You'll pay special attention to the era of the Persian and Peloponnesian wars and of classical Athens as unforgettably described by Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plato. Professor McInerney guides you through a rich trove of literary and archaeological evidence, including the Iliad and Odyssey; Heinrich Schliemann 's excavations at Troy and Mycenae; Aeschylus 's Oresteia; and the traces left by the wealthy Greek colonies in Sicily.

Ancient Greek Civilization lays bare the deepest historical roots of ideas upon which our world still depends. You'll see how and where they first arose, and you'll trace the course of their development in the ancient Hellenic world, a place at once highly familiar and acutely strange.

About Your Professor

Jeremy McInerney (Ph. D., University of California at Berkeley)is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where from 1994 to 1998 he held the Laura Jan Meyerson Term Chair in the Humanities. He also currently serves as chair of the University 's Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. He has firsthand archaeological experience at sites in Corinth, Crete, ...