Grèce

"Homer's ""The Odyssey"" is an epic that has endured for thousands of years, and this ""Penguin Classics"" edition is translated by E.V. Rieu, revised by D.C.H. Rieu, and contains an introduction by Peter Jones. The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan war forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - from the witch Circe who turns his men into pigs, to the twin terrors of Scylla and Charybdis; from the stupefied Lotus-Eaters to the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon himself - Odysseus must test his bravery and native cunning to the full if he is to reach his homeland safely. But the danger is no less severe in his native Ithaca, as Odysseus finds himself contending with the suitors who, in his absence, have begun to surround his wife Penelope...E.V. Rieu's translation of ""The Odyssey"" was the first ""Penguin Classic"" to be published, and has itself achieved classic status. For this edition, Rieu's text has been sensitively revised and a new introduction added to complement his original introduction. Seven greek cities claim the honour of being the birthplace of Homer (c. 8th-7th century BC), the poet to whom the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey are attributed. The ""Iliad"" is the oldest surviving work of Western literature, but the identity - or even the existence - of Homer himself is a complete mystery, with no reliable biographical information having survived. If you enjoyed ""The Odyssey"", you might like Homer's ""The Iliad"", also available in ""Penguin Classics"". ""One of the world's most vital tales...""The Odyssey"" remains central to literature"". (Malcolm Bradbury)."

Penelope has been waiting for her husband Odysseus to return from Troy for many years. Little does she know that his path back to her has been blocked by astonishing and terrifying trials. Will he overcome the hideous monsters, beautiful witches and treacherous seas that confront him? This rich and beautiful adventure story is one of the most influential works of literature in the world.

A story of the passion between a man of fifty "plus" and a girl of nineteen, a seemingly not unusual situation were it not for the fact that everything that takes place between the two "protagonists* is constantly and faithfully recorded by someone: the mature "grey" woman who is the man's past and who chronicles the lovers' passion with adoration and respect. The place is Salonica, the Old Curiosity Shop, Africa and the prevailing element is Passion, destructive, merciless, rapacious, without inhibitions and "objections" until the End. This End which is their life in a state of decay and which moment by moment passes through the eyes of the "grey woman", a road parallet to that of city life and so very solitary. Their real find is not some sort of fate that awaits them or an ordinary death; it is not catastrophe or a normal ending for a newspaper story. Daring, harsh, rough and at the same time intensely erotic, Costoula Mitropoulou's book is yet another deep incision into the enernal problem of human relations and of the Passion that ends only with our own end.

In the Oresteia - the only trilogy in Greek drama which survives from antiquity - Aeschylus took as his subject the bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos.
Moving from darkness to light, from rage to self-governance, from primitive ritual to civilized institution, its spirit of struggle and regeneration is eternal.

This first novel in an exciting new series takes readers to ancient Greece to follow the adventures of Nicolaos, son of a minor sculptor, as he becomes embroiled in murder and political intrigue.

The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander's life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas is sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but finds freedom with Alexander the Great after the Macedon army conquers his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander's mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.

“Alice is trapped by her misreading of love in a marriage that stifles her passion and independence. The “person” of her husband
is driven by ambition – his own material advantage. With uncompromising rationality Alice analyses the beliefs and actions that underlie their marital relationship. Their drama plays out against a background of Oxford university and village life where Alice comes to realise that love is more easily recognised than understood.”
“Nikos Athanasou probes into the lives of his characters with forensic skill, revealing how emotional insecurities can trigger dysfunctional philosophies of love.” Rhyll McMaster
The Person of the Man is an exploration of love and possession set against the backdrop of university and country life in Oxford. It analyses the pathological marriage between an Oxford academic of Australian origin and his English wife. The basis of this marriage is essentially the universal Hobbesian dictum that “what most people regard as love is really just approval or more precisely the absence of disapproval”. When Martin's betrayal and the tragedy that follows reveal the true Person of the Man Alice discovers that love cannot be analysed, it can only be understood.

Nine Greek biographies illustrate the rise and fall of Athens, from the legendary days of Theseus, the city's founder, through Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, and Alcibiades, to the razing of its walls by Lysander.