The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life - Paperback

by Bettany Hughes (Author)

From the celebrated British author and historian: a brilliant new book combining historical inquiry and storytelling élan to paint an unprecedentedly vivid portrait of Socrates and the Golden Age of classical Athens.

We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did; in his unwavering commitment to truth and in the example of his own life, he set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. And yet, for twenty-five centuries, he has remained an enigma: a man who left no written legacy and about whom everything we know is hearsay. His life spanned "seventy of the busiest, most wonderful and tragic years in Athenian history." Athens in the fifth century B.C. was a city devastated by war, but, at the same time, transformed by the burgeoning process of democracy. Drawing on the latest sources--archaeological, topographical, and textual--Hughes re-creates the streets where Socrates walked, to place him there, and to illuminate for us the world as he experienced it.

Author Biography

Bettany Hughes is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster. Her first book, Helen of Troy, has been translated into ten languages. She has written and presented numerous documentaries for the BBC, PBS, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and National Geographic, which have been seen by more than 100 million viewers worldwide. She received her degrees in ancient and medieval history from Oxford University and holds a Research Fellowship at King's College, London. She was awarded the 2012 Norton Medlicott Medal for Services to History by the Historical Association. She lives in the United Kingdom and abroad with her husband and their two daughters.