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The Hemlock Cup
  • Published: 1 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9780099554059
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $42.99
Categories:

The Hemlock Cup

Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Dec 2010
Paperback
1 Nov 2011
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A riveting, lively and brilliantly researched biography of Socrates by the author of the acclaimed bestseller Helen of Troy.

We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did. His aphorism 'The unexamined life is not worth living' may have originated twenty-five centuries ago, but it is a founding principle of modern life. For seventy years Socrates was a vigorous citizen of Golden Age Athens, philosophising in the squares and public arenas rather than in the courts of kings, before his beloved city turned on him, condemning him to death by poison.

Socrates lived in and contributed to a city that nurtured key ingredients of contemporary civilisation - democracy, liberty, science, drama, rational thought - yet, as he wrote almost nothing down, he himself is an enigmatic figure. In The Hemlock Cup, acclaimed historian Bettany Hughes gives Socrates the biography he deserves, painstakingly piecing together Socrates' life and using fresh evidence to get closer to the man who asked 'how should we live?' - a question as relevant now as it has ever been.
  • Published: 1 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9780099554059
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $42.99
Categories:

About the author

Bettany Hughes

Bettany Hughes is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster, who has devoted the last 25 years to the vibrant communication of the past. Her speciality is ancient and mediaeval history and culture. A Scholar at Oxford University, she has taught at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and lectured at Cornell, Bristol, UCL, Maastricht, Utrecht, Manchester and Swansea. She is a Tutor for Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education, a Research Fellow of King's College London and recently joined the New College of the Humanities as Professor of History. She has written and presented over 50 TV and radio documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, Netflix, Discovery, PBS, The History Channel, National Geographic, BBC World and ITV and is Co-Founder and Creative Director at Sandstone Global Productions. Her programmes have now been seen by over 250 million worldwide and include the hit Channel 4 TV series Treasures of the World. She has been honoured with numerous awards including Europe’s Cultural Heritage Prize and an OBE for services to history. Bettany is also an honorary, founding patron of Classics For All - a national campaign to get classical languages and the study of classical civilisations back into state schools. She was named as one of the BBC’s 100 Global Woman, was asked to launch the UK’s Inspiring Women mentoring scheme and in 2017 she was chosen as one of London’s 20 most influential cultural people by the Evening Standard in their 1000 awards. She sat on the Innovation Committee of NESTA and has been an advisor to the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation. Bettany has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times and chaired the Man Booker panel. She judges for BAFTA, Queen’s Anniversary Prize and the Royal Television Society, amongst others.
BH

Also by Bettany Hughes

There Was an Egyptian in Your School
There Was a Roman in Your Garden
The Ideas That Make Us
Helen of Troy
See all

Praise for The Hemlock Cup

Hughes cleverly extracts the man from the dramatic scene-setting... This intelligent, bright-eyed vigorous book [has] a life as vibrant and provocative as that lived by its subject

The Times

In The Hemlock Cup Bettany Hughes does a very good job of recreating the material world in which Socrates lived...she is up to date on recent archaeological discoveries... She writes frankly of the nastiness of the world in which Socrates grew up and lived

Mary Beard, Sunday Times

No physical aspect of life as experienced by an Athenian man is left out...Hughes's expert attempts to make him flesh and blood, to fill in the gaps...teach us about the value of the real as well as the philosophical

Lesley McDowell, Scotsman

Terrific and passionate writing about a philosopher whose heroism is unquestionable (though that heroism resides in a constant questioning); and as lively and learned an introduction to classical Athens as you could want

Tom Payne, Daily Telegraph

Hughes's prose is the literary equivalent of CGI, re-creating for the reader a sense of the clamour and dazzle of the classical city that has rarely been bettered

Observer

The Hemlock Cup is another vibrant and atmospheric work from this well-known promoter of the ancient world

BBC History Magazine

A lively and learned introduction to classical Athens

Daily Telegraph, Christmas round up

In trying to find the man, Hughes uses the skills of historian and documentarian combined in create a fresh and surprisingly pacy biography

Joy Lo Dico, Independent on Sunday, Christmas round up

This tour de force is a vivid social and political history of Athens in the 5th century BC. An extremely exciting narrative...Descriptions of Athens aren't dry but dripping with colour; the city itself is dirty, smelly, defiantly alive. This is not a study of Socrates' philosophy but his world. As thought-provoking as it is thrilling, the book is a beacon for the relevance and interest of classics today

Francesca Wade, Times

A fascinating reconstruction of the era

Colin Waters, Sunday Herald

Hughes' writing is full of the kind of earthy, real-life details and personality that can make events from thousands of years ago seem real and relevant to a modern reader... This book is as all encompassing as it can be. For anyone who has felt that they should know more about Socrates... The Hemlock Cup has to be the best place to start

bookbag.co.uk

This is a fascinating history, which gives a great deal more than might be expected

Lesley McDowell, Herald

You won't get a better introduction to every aspect of the classical city than this... A fascinating, provocative read

Irish Times