Background
Gilbert Murray was born on January 2, 1866, in Sydney, Australia.
(This edition of Gilbert Murray's renowned examination of ...)
This edition of Gilbert Murray's renowned examination of how religion evolved in Ancient Greece, includes all of his original notes. Murray was a renowned scholar of Greek classics, who used his academic background as grounding for this astonishingly detailed book on the topic of the Olympian Gods. How the pantheon of Gods was conceived, and grew to eventually define large aspects of Ancient Greek culture, form the topics at hand. The book begins by examining the earliest surviving religious texts of Greek, identifying the first indications of the Gods in the lore. The increasing prevalence of writing among Greece's educated citizenry sparked a growth in the number of Gods and Goddesses, and the stories relating to them. However, Murray is careful to note that there is no single event or turning point. Hellenic polytheism was, we discover, defined by a gradual and steady evolution over centuries. For a scholarly work, Five Stages of Greek Religion is of modest length. This attribute defines it as a superb introductory primer to aspects of Olympian religion. Composed in answer to scholars who placed higher value upon the art, literature and poetry of Ancient Greece, as opposed to the religion which guided and inspired many of these greatest works, Gilbert Murray's insight remains authoritative profound to this day.
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(Æschylus is often regarded as the father of Greek tragedy...)
Æschylus is often regarded as the father of Greek tragedy; he moved play writing from the simple interaction of a single character and a chorus to one where many characters interact and thereby create more dynamic and dramatic situations. Æschylus, was the son of Euphorion, and a scion of a Eupatrid or noble family. He was born at Eleusis 525 B.C., or, as the Greeks calculated time, in the fourth year of the 63rd Olympiad. He first worked at a vineyard and whilst there claimed to have been visited by Dionysis in a dream and told to turn his attention to the tragic art. It was a dream that would deliver a rich and incredible legacy through his writing talents. His earliest tragedy, composed when he was twenty-six years of age, failed to win the fabled Dionysia, (a revered festival of theatre) and it was not until fifteen years later that he gained this victory in 484BC going on to win it again in 472 BC (for The Persians), 467 BC (for Seven Against Thebes) and 463 BC (for The Suppliants). Æschylus was also known for his military skills and was ready to fight in defence of Athens whenever the call was made. He and his brother, Cynegeirus, fought against Darius's invading Persian army at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE and, although the Greeks won against overwhelming odds, Cynegeirus died in the battle, which had a naturally had a profound effect on Æschylus. He made several visits to the important Greek city of Syracuse in Sicily at the invitation of the tyrant Hieron, and it is thought that he also travelled extensively in the region of Thrace. His writing continued to be the envy of others. With the series of plays of which Seven Against Thebes was a part, his supremacy was undisputed. He was the "father of tragedy." Æschylus made many changes to dramatic form. The importance of the chorus was demoted and a second added to give prominence to the dialogue and making that interchange the leading feature of the play. He removed all deeds of bloodshed from the public view, and in their place provided various spectacular elements, improving the costumes, making the masks more expressive and convenient, and probably adopting the cothurnus to increase the stature of the performers. Finally, he established the custom of contending for the prize with trilogies, an inter-connecting set of three independent dramas. The closing years of the life of Æschylus were mainly spent in Sicily, which he had first visited soon after his defeat at the Dionysia by Sophocles. Æschylus returned to Athens to produce his Orestean trilogy, probably the finest of his works, although the Eumenides, the last of the three plays, revealed so openly his aristocratic tendencies that he became extremely unpopular, and returned to Sicily for the last time in 458 BCE and it was there that he died, while visiting the city of Gela in 456 or 455 BCE.
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(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
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Gilbert Murray was born on January 2, 1866, in Sydney, Australia.
He was educated at Merchant Tailor's School, London, and St. John's College, Oxford, and became Fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1888.
Murray is considered one of the most important scholars of Greek history and culture.
A recurrent theme in his scholarly works involved the continuing importance of ancient theology and religions to modern thought.
He illustrated this by recounting the many theological trends of ancient Greece. This approach guided his writing in such scholarly works as The Rise of the Greek Epic, which was published in 1907, and Five Stages of Greek Religion, published in 1925.
His other well-known works include History of Ancient Greek Literature (1897), The Classical Tradition in Poetry (1927), and Hellenism and the Modern World (1953).
His Euripides and His Age (1918) is considered on of the best books written about its subject.
"All through a long life he was almost invariably beaten in the State competitions.
He was steadily admired by some few philosophers, like Socrates; he enjoyed immense fame throughout Greece; but the official judges of poetry were against him, and his own people of Athens admired him reluctantly and with a grudge.
After death, indeed, he seemed to come into his kingdom.
"Commenting about Greek scholarship and the value of the ancient texts, Murray once said, as quoted in Libertystory. net, "Between us and [ancient Greek authors], there has passed age upon age of men … who sought in the books that they read other things than truth and imaginative beauty, or who did not care to read books at all.
All that has reached us has passed a severe test and far from discriminating ordeal.
It has secured its life by never going out of fashion for long at a time.
"In another scholarly book, with subject matter more anthropological than classical, Stoic, Christian, and Humanist, published in 1940, Murray took a look at the world's earliest rites and religions and considered their relevance to later religions.
Became Interested in International Affairs
Murray not only made a name for himself as an important Greek scholar, he also became an important international figure as a peace advocate who was instrumental in the creation of the League of Nations and the United Nations. In the early part of the twentieth century, Murrary's concerns grew to include world affairs.
From that point on, Murray became active in the cause of world peace.
He later supported the Covenant of the League of Nations, drafted by United States President Woodrow Wilson and submitted on February 14, 1919.
The document advocated the need for an international organization that could preserve peace and settle disputes by arbitration as opposed to war.
The League of Nations Union itself was formed after World War I, and Murray was one of the founding members.
In 1924, while in Geneva, Switzerland, working with the League of Nations Union, Murray took part in a discussion about effective contributions to world peace.
His suggestion led to the creation of the Committee of Intellectual Cooperation.
Not only was he instrumental in its development, Murray served as chairman for eight years. In 1934, Murray was one of the organizers of the famous League of Nations "Peace Ballot" of 1934-1935.
More than 11 million British voters supported the ballot as well as Britain's membership in the League.
However, the League's efforts did little to affect the rising tide of Fascist aggression that came out of Germany and Italy during the 19306.
Murray blamed the failures on the United States' lack of participation up to that point.
However, the eventual outbreak of World War II only caused Murray to be a more staunch advocate in his efforts toward world peace.
In 1942, Murray became one of the founding members of the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, or Oxfam, as well as one of its trustees.
The formation of the committee resulted from a situation in Europe directly attributable to the German invasions.
In April 1941, when Greece surrendered to Germany, food and supplies belonging to the citizens were given to the German soldiers, which made a bad situation even worse.
Before the invasion, the Greek people already suffered shortages due to Allied blockades intended to deplete the German army.
The situation was almost as bad in other occupied countries, including Norway, Belgium, and Poland.
Not helping matters was the British government's stance on relief for the starving countries.
It firmly believed that it was the duty of the occupying enemy to feed the citizens.
Britain was reluctant to send relief, because it feared that any supplies offered would be given instead to German soldiers, and that could prolong the war.
However, awareness of the situation—as well as their government's stance—grew among the British civilians.
Oxfam was part of this movement.
The response of the British War Cabinet was pretty much the same as before.
The supplies, they believed, would inevitably be taken by the Germans and diverted to its workers in munitions factories and thus help the German war effort.
To support the committee, a Famine Relief Fund was established that help fund relief that the government deemed permissible.
Oxfam was comprised of more than 200 local committees.
However, its effect was relatively modest.
The British government stuck fast to its policy on the blockade and would only allow relief to Greece.
After the war, Oxfam continued its efforts on behalf of the lingering needs of European countries. Even before Oxfam was formed, Murray had attempted to help stem the growing famine.
The two men sought a meeting with the Ministry of Economic Warfare tosee if anything could be done, but the government would not change its policy.
He applied his own unique approach to translating the works of the ancient Greek masters—including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes—and in the process generated new interest for Greek drama on the contemporary London stage.
Murray was also a staunch advocate for world peace, and he gained international renown for his efforts in establishing the League of Nations and the United Nations.
(Æschylus is often regarded as the father of Greek tragedy...)
(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
(This edition of Gilbert Murray's renowned examination of ...)
