Customer Reviews

The Ancient Greece of Odysseus (The Ancient World)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book combines Peter Connolly's expansive knowledge of the literature of Homer with his enormous knowledge of the archaeology of the ancient world. He manages to give full value in both areas for any interested reader, whether new to either subject or not. That seems to be true of the target age group or even those of us of much hoarier vintage. Something an interested child should treasure long past the time he has apparently "grown out of it."

Peter Connolly has provided (as usual) excellent illustrations in this book. He has the uncanny ability to draw what is already in your imagination.

The text itself is interesting and a great recap of Homer's works. The archaeological tidbits on Mycenae and Troy are also worth reading.

If nothing more, this book is worth buying in order to liven your visualization of Homer.

This is basically a retelling of the Iliad and the Odyssey geared for preteens/young adults. I freely confess I bought it just for the artwork, which of course was excellent. Like the previous reviewer I would strongly caution those who are considering this book for young or sensitive students; there is (not surprisingly) a fair bit of gore and graphic battlescenes throughout, and some of the characters, particularly the goddesses, might be a bit shocking to a young reader. Connolly does a very accurate job of recreating the costumes of the ancient Mycenaeans which means bare chests for some of the women and perilously short tunics for most of the men.

This book would also be interesting for us old folks for its numerous details on the historical background of the Iliad, such as the people(s) who may have inspired the Trojans and their Asian allies, and of course the artwork (which includes cutaway maps of several Bronze Age fortifications, and Nestor's Palace). In short this is a good intro or education supplement to the Iliad for the preteen/junior high age, but would not be appropriate for little kids and would have little to offer an adult that has read Homer or has a good knowledge of this topic.

Peter Connolly's extensive knowledge and illustrations in this book are to be commended. We used this at school, for our classical education curriculum, and though it was a bit long and involved for my class, we gleaned much knowledge and background for our history lessons. The students in my class were just a bit shocked at some of the pictures of the women, and for this reason, I did not give it a 5. We picked it, unable to preview it, on the recommendation of others.