Hemlock Cup Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life
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Biographical note
Bettany Hughes is a historian, author and broadcaster who has devoted much of the last twenty years to the vibrant communication of the past. Her first book, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore was published to great critical acclaim and has now been translated into ten languages. Bettany has made a number of factual films for the BBC, Channel 4, PBS, Discovery, The History Channel and ABC for both the British and International markets including The Spartans, When The Moors Ruled in Europe, Athens:The Truth of Democracy, The Women of the Bible and Helen of Troy. These have now been seen by over 100 million worldwide.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 <i>The Hemlock Cup</i> 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
<i>The Hemlock Cup</i> 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 <i>tour de force</i> 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
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.