Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Great Courses (2001), 12 hours, 24 lectures, 138 pages
Description
Presents an examination of the lives, achievements, and influence of seminal figures in the history of ancient Greece.
User reviews
LibraryThing member NLytle
Rufus Fears is sometimes quite bad, and sometimes quite good, in "Famous Greeks." For example, his portrayal of Alexander the Great includes a claim that his generals and men thought Alexander was a god; my understanding is that the generals perceived Alexander as first among equals and were
Yet Fears provides a good survey of Greek history through his biographies, and often provides a good overview of their accomplishments and of what we know of their life.
And then there is Fear's delivery of the course: it's awful. Most annoying are his pauses, given for dramatic effect, that are overly long and actually detract from the content. His imagined dialogues between people, used as a dramatic device, sometimes also detract from his biographies.
Thus, I only give him two stars for the course.
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distressed and confrontive when he behaved differently, such as when he wanted people to prostrate themselves to him after defeating Darius. Fears also uses estimates of the Persian army that are wildly inflated; we don't have good estimates of their strength, although it was certainly more than the Macedonian numbers.Yet Fears provides a good survey of Greek history through his biographies, and often provides a good overview of their accomplishments and of what we know of their life.
And then there is Fear's delivery of the course: it's awful. Most annoying are his pauses, given for dramatic effect, that are overly long and actually detract from the content. His imagined dialogues between people, used as a dramatic device, sometimes also detract from his biographies.
Thus, I only give him two stars for the course.
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LibraryThing member datrappert
One of my all time favorite courses. It doesn't matter that Fears has a tendency to exaggerate a bit. What makes this (and Famous Romans) so great is that he puts you in the shoes of a Greek or Roman looking at history through their eyes, including the mythological beginnings. This course is a
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complete joy from beginning to end. Show Less
LibraryThing member datrappert
One of my all time favorite courses. It doesn't matter that Fears has a tendency to exaggerate a bit. What makes this (and Famous Romans) so great is that he puts you in the shoes of a Greek or Roman looking at history through their eyes, including the mythological beginnings. This course is a
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complete joy from beginning to end. Show Less
LibraryThing member themulhern
This isn't working out for me so well. I liked the same professor's Churchill lecture, but with just 1/2 hour for each person, the approach really grates.
Language
Original language
English
Local notes
[1] Theseus [2] Achilles and Agamemnon [3] Hector [4] Odysseus [5] Lycurgus [6] Solon [7] Croesus [8] Xerxes [9] Leonidas [10] Themistocles [11] Pausanias [12] Pericles [13] Anaxagoras, Phidias, and Aspasia [14] Sophocles [15] Thucydides [16] Alcibiades [17] Nicias [18] Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War [19] Lysander and Socrates [20] Trial of Socrates [21] Xenophon, Plato, and Philip [22] Alexander the Great [23] Pyrrhus [24] Cleopatra