Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece

by Paul Cartledge, David Timson (Read by)

Overview

The riveting, definitive account of the ancient Greek city of Thebes, by the acclaimed author of The Spartans.

Among the extensive writing available about the history of ancient Greece, there is precious little about the city-state of Thebes. At one point the most powerful city in ancient Greece, Thebes has been long overshadowed by its better-known rivals, Athens and Sparta. In Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece, acclaimed classicist and historian Paul Cartledge brings the city vividly to life and argues that it is central to our understanding of the ancient Greeks’ achievements—whether politically or culturally—and thus to the wider politico-cultural traditions of western Europe, the Americas, and indeed the world.

From its role as an ancient political power, to its destruction at the hands of Alexander the Great as punishment for a failed revolt, to its eventual restoration by Alexander’s successor, Cartledge deftly chronicles the rise and fall of the ancient city. He recounts the history with deep clarity and mastery for the subject and makes clear both the differences and the interconnections between the Thebes of myth and the Thebes of history. Written in clear prose and illustrated with images in two color inserts, Thebes is a gripping read for students of ancient history and those looking to experience the real city behind the myths of Cadmus, Hercules, and Oedipus.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781799931294
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	12/22/2020
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Paul Cartledge is the A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Clare College. He has written and edited more than twenty books, many of which have been translated into foreign languages, including The Spartans, Alexander the Great, and Thermopylae, all published by the Overlook Press/Abrams Press, and most recently Democracy: A Life. He is an honorary citizen of modern Sparta and holds the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor awarded by the president of Greece.

David Timson is an actor, voice actor, and playwright. He is best known for his narration of The Complete Sherlock Holmes audiobook, in which he voices all 125 characters in the Holmes novels and short stories. His narrations have earned eight AudioFile Earphones Award.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Note on Spelling xi

Timeline xiii

List of Illustrations xxi

Maps xxiv

Preface xxix

Part I Pre-History

Chapter 1 Introduction: From Myth to History 3

Chapter 2 City of Myth: the Theban Cycle 22

Chapter 3 City of Prehistory and Protohistory: Archaeology, the Linear B Tablets and Homer 32

Part II Archaic Thebes

Chapter 4 Religion 47

Chapter 5 Politics 65

Part III Classical Thebes

Chapter 6 Foreign Affairs 89

Chapter 7 City of Song: Pindar and Athenian Tragedy 110

Chapter 8 The Peloponnesian and Corinthian Wars 132

Chapter 9 Theban Heyday: City of Epaminondas and Pelopidas 184

Part IV Downfall

Chapter 10 Battle of Chaeronea, 338 217

Chapter 11 The Destruction of Thebes, 335 234

Part V Afterlife: The Persistence of Oedipus

Chapter 12 Thebes Rebuilt 243

Chapter 13 Mythic Revivals: the 'pigs' bite back 253

Chapter 14 Conclusion 272

Afterword: A Tribute to Peter Mayer 275

Sources and Further Reading (a selection) 278

Index 287

Editorial Reviews

07/13/2020

Historian Cartledge (Democracy: A Life) explores the mythic origins and enduring legacy of the ancient Greek city of Thebes in this comprehensive account. Though frequently overshadowed by rival city-states Athens and Sparta, Thebes played an integral role in the achievements and culture of ancient Greece, according to Cartledge, who brings the city back to life through the myths of Oedipus and Heracles, the dramas of Pindar and Sophocles, and the histories of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch. Cartledge also notes that, though Thebes committed the treacherous act of “medism” by siding with Persia in its invasion of Greece in 480 BCE, Theban soldiers fought alongside the Spartan army at the Battle of Thermopylae. Liberated from Athenian rule by Sparta’s victory in the Peloponnesian War, Thebes became the “single greatest power and power broker of mainland Greece” between 371 and 362 BCE, Cartledge writes. Though it was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 335 BCE, Thebes was eventually refounded and flourished in relative peace under Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman rule. Cartledge concludes with an illustrative rundown of Theban influences on Western culture, including Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the theories of Sigmund Freud. Diving deep into centuries’ worth of scholarship, Cartledge manages to make the ancient world accessible to modern readers. This deeply informed and richly detailed chronicle restores Thebes to its rightful place in history. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Mr. Cartledge’s command of the historical material is effortless and exhaustive, and his appreciation of Thebes is persuasive.

The Wall Street Journal

a welcome addition to any philhellenic library by a reliable, readable interpreter of the ancient past.”—Kirkus Reviews

"Diving deep into centuries’ worth of scholarship, Cartledge manages to make the ancient world accessible to modern readers. This deeply informed and richly detailed chronicle restores Thebes to its rightful place in history."—Publishers Weekly

“Mr. Cartledge’s command of the historical material is effortless and exhaustive, and his appreciation of Thebes is persuasive.”—The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

2020-06-30
Eminent classicist Cartledge examines the history, mythical and proven, of an ancient Greek city that is often overlooked in standard texts.

Located in the province of Boeotia, Thebes was “almost continuously inhabited for five millennia, at one point the most powerful city in all ancient Greece.” It was unusual in having been founded, in legend, by a non-Greek, a refugee from what is now Palestine named Cadmus, who sowed a slain dragon’s teeth on the city site and harvested a mighty army. Cadmus, the legend continues, married Harmonia, the child of an adulterous affair between the god of war and the goddess of love, to unhappy result: “the near-total (metaphorical, moral) ruin of Thebes and frequent disasters for their mortal descendants.” In real life, Thebes was too close to Athens for comfort, and Athens often waged war against Thebes as a result. It was also relatively close to Sparta, Corinth, and other sometime rivals and sometime allies, and it was in the path of the invading Persians during the reign of Xerxes, when Theban soldiers died nobly alongside Spartans and Athenians at Thermopylae. In the pivotal fifth century B.C.E., writes Cartledge, “mainland Greek history can be seen as playing out within the frame of the fateful Thebes–Athens–Sparta triangle.” The Thebes of history too often suffered loss. Against this, writes the author, stands the Thebes of myth, with an equally unhappy history: It was the home of Oedipus and Electra, yielding what is widely considered the best of all the Greek tragedies, Sophocles’ cycle of Theban plays. Thebes was also the home of the musician Pronomus, who “was the first to be able to play the three harmonies or modes known ethnically as the Dorian, the Phrygian, and the Lydian on one and the same, enhanced (double) aulos.” The cultural contributions were many, but all the same Thebes was overshadowed, and Cartledge’s well-paced, illuminating survey shows why that should not be the case.

A welcome addition to any philhellenic library by a reliable, readable interpreter of the ancient past.

Kirkus Reviews