One of the best ways to improve your historical knowledge (and your knowledge of the Western World) is to know how to learn about Ancient Greece. The Greeks gave us things like philosophy, advanced mathematics and geometry, and even made contributions to literature, poetry, and music. Understanding more about Greek history and culture may even help your vocabulary, since many English words (especially regarding medicine and science) are actually descended from the Greek!http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa052698.htm

In Step 1, we'll look at some readily available online sources for primary documents, i.e. things originally written in Greek or perhaps Latin, but now available in English translation on the Internet.

In Step 2, we'll look at some good secondary-source websites, or sites that are written about aspects of Greek history and culture and usually rely heavily on primary material.

Finally, in Step 3, we'll look at some books that will be of interest to the student of Greek history; these are most likely available from your favorite online bookseller (i.e. Amazon, Powells, or ABEbooks) or else from your local library or university library.

Finally, as a note, some people may need work on their Greek alphabet either for fun or as a way to start studying the Greek language on their own. There are many places online to view the Greek alphabet, and iBiblio has an especially helpful page.http://www.ibiblio.org/koine/greek/lessons/alphabet.html Learning your Greek letters is a valuable tool in its own right, but it is crucial for those interested in history and the classics.

One of the best places to begin learning about the Greeks is from the Perseus Project website, from Tufts University.http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/

This site contains many Greek authors, such as Homer, Plato, and Xenophon. Of course, it also has links to works by Herodotus ("The Histories") and Thucydides ("History of the Peloponnesian War"). These latter two works are fundamental for studying Greek history, though as a good historian, you have to remember to try to separate out fact from lore and identify each historian's biases.

The Internet Classics Archive also has many Greek authors, including playwrights like Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, and Sophocles.http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/index.html

Reading examples of 5th century drama from Athens may help to reveal what the Greeks thought about issues like war and domestic life, as well as how some writers viewed the traditional Greek myths.

The ICA also has links to works by Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, who were some of the greatest Greek philosophers to ever live. Aurelius was, admittedly, a Roman emperor, but he wrote in fluent Greek for his "Meditations." These may be technically a bit more complicated for people with just a general interest in Greece, but they are indispensible as primers on Greek thought and intellectual development. Indeed, Plato and Aristotle are usually included in most political science courses, and perhaps even in some English classes.

Now, we turn to secondary sources on Greece and aspects of Greek life and history. These sites will be useful to people looking up more specialized information, i.e. someone wanting to learn about Greek military history or the role of Athenian women during the 5th century BC.

One of the first sites is, rather conveniently, named "Ancient Greece"! This site offers all kinds of information about ancient Greece - as its name might suggest - including chapters on culture, famous people, myths, and even the Olympics.http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Main_Page/

Richard Hooker has written a detailed page about the Persian Wars, hosted at the Washington State University website. This page will be useful for those who want to get short but accurate information about this epic conflict.http://wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/PERSIAN.HTM

Similarly, the forum website "Roman Army Talk" has a whole section devoted to Greek military history and military archaeology, where users can interact and discuss topics pertaining to these fields.http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewforum.php?f=19

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy offers a tremendously helpful resource about Greek philosophy, in which the major schools and people are explored and commented upon.http://www.iep.utm.edu/greekphi/

Richard Hooker has also written two excellent pages, one on Plato and one on Aristotle.http://wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/PLATO.HTM http://wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/ARIST.HTM

Finally, "Crystalinks" offers a very nice site about all kinds of Greek topics, especially Greek culture.http://www.crystalinks.com/greece.html

For advanced students who have an idea of what they want to explore in-depth, there is always JSTOR and Google Scholar to use.http://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en&tab=ws http://www.jstor.org/?cookieSet=1

This last section is devoted to recommending some quality textual works on ancient Greece, which you can obtain by ordering online or checking with your local library. Similarly, you may be able to use Google Books to view some or all of a work.http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp

A great book which explores Plato's view on democracy is aptly titled "Plato on Democracy," by Thanassis Samaras. Samaras traces Plato's arguments against the democratic systems of ancient Greece, using linguistic and philosophical analysis. Highly technical, but potentially very useful.

A classic in the field is "The Greek Way" by Edith Hamilton, having been in print for some time. Hamilton's book offers commentary on most all aspects of the ancient Greeks. Also by Hamilton is a book simply titled "Mythology" which covers Greek, Roman, and Nordic mythology. (As a note, if you are interested in the Greek myths, you might want to check out the "Metamorphoses" by Ovid in English translation - Ovid attempts to order the various Greek myths chronologically in this long, beautiful poem).

John Boardman has put out a series of books detailing and analyzing Greek art, especially the Greek vase painting of Athens and elsewhere as well as the statuary developments in the time of Alexander the Great. The titles are "The Parthenon and its Sculptures", several books on "Athenian Red Figure Vases" (from the Archaic period up through the Classical), and "Greek Sculpture" books which deal with the Archaic up through the Late Classical period).

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of books about Alexander the Great, mostly in the form of biographies. However, some of the best include "Alexander the Great" by Robin Lane Fox, a book by Lewis Cummings with the same title, and "Alexander the Great: A Reader" by Ian Worthington, which is a series of essays on various Alexandrian topics.

Greek religion has received much treatment, and "Greek Religion" by Walter Burkert may give a good introduction.

For those interested in the role of women in Greece, "Women in Ancient Greece" by Sue Blundell addresses the topic directly.

Finally, one of the shortest and most concise (though older) books on general Greek history and culture is "An Introduction to Greek History, Antiquities, and Literature" by A. Petrie.