In this elegant survey of the ancient Greek world, Nicolson brings some of history's great figures—like Homer and Sappho—to vivid life. We meet Heraclitus, who found the extraordinary hidden in the ordinary; Pythagoras, who introduced the concept of immortality to the Western world; and witness the elevation of intellectual achievement over brute strength. Almost uniquely, Nicolson combines a delight in the physical world—figs, honey—with a grasp of metaphysics and ethics that sees straight to the heart of things.