In Ancient Greeks in their own Words, historian Matthew Dillon reveals the nature of everyday life in the classical world. Using a series of telling extracts from Greek literature to provide a picture of their customs, concerns and underlying values, he allows the people to speak for themselves, both in the formal language of public office and in the colloquial speech of the household and the street.

Their words reveal activities and opinions which are sometimes remarkably similar to those of the modern day, but which are otherwise so different that they are difficult for us to understand.

Through everything from poetry, hymns and war-songs to official documents, inscriptions, laws, histories, funerary monuments, war memorials and graffiti, this book records not only the lives of famous Greeks like Sophocles and Aristotle, but also those of ordinary individuals. In Ancient Greeks in their own Words, glimpse the public and private facets of their everyday life, and gain an insight into the mentality of the ancient Greeks.

MATTHEW DILLON teaches classics at the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia.