Harry Mount's Odyssey: Ancient Greece in the Footsteps of Odysseus is a journey round Greece inspired by the heroes, locations and tales of the Odyssey and tracing ancient Greek civilization at its height.Architecture, art, sculpture, economics, mathematics, science, metaphysics, comedy, tragedy, drama and epic poetry were all devised and perfected by the Greeks. Of the four classical orders of architecture, three were invented by the Greeks and the fourth, the only one the Romans could come up with, was a combination of two of the former.The powerful ghost of ancient Greece still lingers on in the popular mind as the first great civilization and one of the most influential in the creation of modern thought. It is the starting block of Western European civilization.In his new Odyssey, eminent writer Harry Mount tells the story of ancient Greece while on the trail of its greatest son, Odysseus. In the charming, anecdotal style of his bestselling Amo, Amas, Amat and All That, Harry visits Troy, still looming over the plain where Achilles dragged Hector's body through the dust, and attempts to swim the Hellespont, in emulation of Lord Byron and the doomed Greek lover, Leander. Whether in Odysseus's kingdom on Ithaca, Homer's birthplace of Chios or the Minotaur's lair on Crete, Mount brings the Odyssey - and ancient Greece - back to life.

Introduction: from Heathrow to Troy1 Bye-bye, Penelope2 From Europe to Asia - by Breast Stroke3 Greece 1 Rome 04 Shakespeare's Classical Education5 My Great-Grandfather's Cenotaph at Gallipoli6 In Search of Priam's Troy7 In the Wake of Odysseus 8 Sex Life in Ancient Greece9 Homer - The Early Years10 How Homer Conquered the World11 It was all Greek to Jesus12 Mykonos - the Party's Only13 Into the Marble Mountain14 The Athenian Miracle15 A Marathon Effort16 The Decline and Fall of Plato's Athens17 Greek Tiger Mothers - the Sparton Guide to Bringing Up Baby18 Scylla and Circe Get An Italian Makeover19 The Sicilian Cyclops20 Going Home to Ithaca21 Calypso's LamentBibliographyAcknowledgements