The Archaeology of Nostalgia: How the Greeks Re-created their Mythical Past

The Greeks were obsessed with their past; it infused every aspects of their culture. In this interesting and insightful book, John Boardman explores 'How the Greeks re-created their mythical past' in a physical, artistic and literary sense and how they drew on this nostalgia to comment on contemporary behaviour. He discusses how finds of massive fossil bones, strange natural features and eerie places, along with stories from other cultures, plus a bit of imagination, were combined to form the essence of Greek myth. 'By the end of this book the reader may be persuaded that a major source for Greek myth was also the result of the Greeks' imaginative response to the natural world around them and to the artefacts of their predecessors'.