The Classical Tradition

How do we get from the polis to the police? Or from Odysseus’ sirens to an ambulance’s? The legacy of ancient Greece and Rome has been imitated, resisted, misunderstood, and reworked by every culture that followed. In this volume, some five hundred articles by a wide range of scholars investigate the afterlife of this rich heritage in the fields of literature, philosophy, art, architecture, history, politics, religion, and science.

Arranged alphabetically from Academy to Zoology, the essays—designed and written to serve scholars, students, and the general reader alike—show how the Classical tradition has shaped human endeavors from art to government, mathematics to medicine, drama to urban planning, legal theory to popular culture.

At once authoritative and accessible, learned and entertaining, comprehensive and surprising, and accompanied by an extensive selection of illustrations, this guide illuminates the vitality of the Classical tradition that still surrounds us today.

The New York Times - Steve Coates

Academia treads here with stout boots, but even for the inquisitive generalist, this is a browser's paradise…The Classical Tradition is a worthy companion to The Oxford Classical Dictionary, itself a nimble and refined classic. Both remind us of a peculiarly modern paradox: While Greece and Rome are no longer the foundation of education, classical scholarship has never been richer.

Anthony Grafton is Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University.

Glenn W. Most is Professor of Greek Philology, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, and Professor of Social Thought, University of Chicago.

Salvatore Settis is Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, where he is also Professor of the History of Classical Art and Archaeology.