Conford traces the remarkable burst of abstract speculation among pre-Socratic thinkers of the sixth century B.C. from the religious thought of the preceding era in Greece. Combining deep classical scholarship with anthropological and sociological insights, he examines the mythic precursors of enduring metaphysical concepts such as destiny, God, the soul, substance, nature, and immortality. His original and engaging explorations profile the rise of...

"Thucydides (/?ju?sddi?z/; Ancient Greek:??????????, Thoukydídēs; c. 460? c. 395 BC) was a Greek historian and Athenian general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history", because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods,...