Ancient Greece in Film and Popular Culture (Revised second edition)

This revised and expanded second edition responds to new developments in the reception of Greece in contemporary popular culture, and particularly the impact of the film "300" (2006).Why, in a century of film-making, have so few versions of the story of Alexander the Great - or that of Troy's fall - made it to the big screen? In the aftermath of "Gladiator" (2000), with Hollywood studios rushing to revisit the ancient world with "Troy" and "Alexander" (both 2004), this question takes on renewed significance.Nisbet unpacks the ideas that continue to make Greece hot property - often too hot for Hollywood to handle. His lively explorations, which assume no prior expertise in classical or film studies, will appeal to all with an interest in 'reception': the present day's re-use and re-invention of the past.

List of illustrations, vi; Preface: The Dog in the Night-time, vii; Acknowledgements, xv; A Note on Terminology, xvi; 1 Socrates' Excellent Adventure, 1; 2 Mythconceptions, 45; 3 Wars of the Successors, 87; 4 2007: It's Raining Men, 137; Epilogue: Radio Gaga, 153; Glossary, 157; Suggestions for Further Reading (and Viewing), 164; Index, 174.

 

Gideon Nisbet is a Lecturer in Classics at the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham. He is the author of Greek Epigram in the Roman Empire: Martial's Forgotten Rivals (Oxford, 2003). He is also an ardent film-goer and observer of the Hollywood scene.