Know Thyself, Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance by Rossellini, Ingrid -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Frontispiece Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Contents Preface Part One: Ancient Greece

The Birth of the Polis Sparta and Athens Reason, the Irrational, and the Danger of Hubris Hesiod and the Cosmic Origin of the World The Heroic Ideal Greek Art: Reason Versus Passion From Mythology to Philosophy Pythagoras: The Divine Reason and the Immortal Soul The Myth of the Rational West Versus the Irrational East Splendor and Contradiction of the Classical Age The Achievements of Theater, Rhetoric, and Philosophy From Plato to Aristotle: The Empowering Wisdom of Philosophy The Hellenistic Era

Part Two: Ancient Rome

The Roman Republic: History and Myth Augustus and the Empire: The Theater of Politics and Power Augustus’s Successors The Decline of the Empire and the Rise of Christianity Augustine’s Tale of Two Cities

Part Three: The Early Middle Ages

The Triumph of Christianity and the Demise of the Rational Mind The Symbolic Discourse of Art The New Vocabulary of Faith and Spirituality Latin West Versus Greek East The Monastic Experience From the Iconoclastic Revolt to the Splendor of Byzantine Art Charlemagne and Feudalism

Part Four: The Later Middle Ages

Part Five: Humanism and The Renaissance

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: The Historical Context The Italian City-States Petrarch’s Literary Humanism Political Humanism Florence: The City of Splendor Lorenzo the Magnificent and His Court The Gathering Clouds of Disenchantment and Cynicism The Roman Renaissance: Glory and Ambiguity The Protestant Reformation and the Sack of Rome The Last Judgment Conclusion

Acknowledgments Bibliography Illustration Credits About the Author