Legends of Hellenism: Echoes of Hellas" takes readers on a journey through Greece's history, from ancient times to the present. Starting with early settlements and farming, it covers the Bronze Age, showcasing the achievements of civilizations like the Minoans and Mycenaeans. The book vividly portrays epic heroes, grand palaces, and legendary battles. It then explores Greek mythology and philosophy in the Iron Age and medieval era, highlighting figures like Homer, Socrates, and Aristotle. Finally, it discusses Greece's struggle for independence, its path through conquests and revolutions, and its transition to a modern democracy. Throughout, the book celebrates the resilience of the Greek people, offering a deeper understanding of their remarkable story.

This book collects twenty two previously published essays and one new one by Erich S. Gruen who has written extensively on the literature and history of early Judaism and the experience of the Jews in the Greco-Roman world. His many articles on this subject have, however, appeared mostly in conference volumes and Festschriften, and have therefore not had wide circulation. By putting them together in a single work, this will bring the essays to the attention of a much broader scholarly readership and make them more readily available to students in the fields of ancient history and early Judaism. The pieces are quite varied, but develop a number of connected and related themes: Jewish identity in the pagan world, the literary representations by Jews and pagans of one another, the interconnections of Hellenism and Judaism, and the Jewish experience under Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman empire.

In these fictive creations, Jewish writers reinvented their own past, offering us vital insights into Jewish self-perception.

Studies Hellenism's influence on a predominantly Christian world

A study of the origins and history of the Minoan civilization of Crete and its myths, legends, and interactions with neighboring Hellenic kingdoms.

Professor Bowersock analyses Hellenism and the impact on late antiquity Eastern paganism and Christianity.