Epicurus the Sage is a biting satire about the philosophical and historical climate of classical Athens. Although not at all historically accurate, it takes each character, including good old Socrates himself, to the extreme. No knowledge of philosophy or the mythology is required to get the most out of this book, although it certainly helps. It seems to take a while for the plot to kick and it winds up very quickly, which is a little disappointing. Still, it had my whole household rolling on the floor with laughter. In the tradition of Asterix, this is a great comic.

The Loeb series is meant to aid students, which is why its translations often read very literally. When Murray writes, "The wrath sing, goddess, of Peleus' son Achilles," he is following the word order of the Greek exactly: "Mênin aeide, thea, Pêlêiadeô Achilêos." If you buy this book for the Greek text, the literal English translation will help as a quick reference when stuck on a word. If you buy this book for the English translation, you'll gain a sense of the logic of the Greek language and a much more reliable translation than most.

The Maxx is the most popular work of creator/writer/artist Sam Kieth. Maxx is a superhero who exists in the "real" world as a bum who lives on social worker Julie Winter's couch, but in the trippy "outback" world, Maxx is a superhero who defends Julie Winters against Mr.Gone and the nasty Isz's. Little does he know that Mr.Gone has actually invaded the "real" world and is attacking Julie Winters there!
The Maxx is ultimately a philosophical book that will make you question the reality of your surroundings.
Sam Kieth was one of the early Image Comics creators, and is known for his amazing artistic ability. A must read for any comics fan both for the artwork and the story...
Also check out Sam's version of the Maxx as done by Mtv's Liquid television on video....

This book, Wonder Woman: Challenge of Artemis is the sequel to the other DC comics Trade paperback, Wonder Woman: The Contest! This book was written by William Messner Loebs with supurb art work by Mike Deodato Jr. this book continues the story left off in the Contest. Wonder Woman (Diana) is now a private detective working Freelance while her Amazon sister, Artemis is fighting crime as the new Wonder Woman in New York city. Princess Dina squares off against many DC villians in this book including a funny issue with the Joker! As Dina travels to Paradise Island she finds out the real reason why Artemis took her mantle sd wonderwoman. When her Amazon mother confesses that Diana might have died if she had the mantle so they picked artemis to win the Amazon games! Dina rushes to save Artemis's life and Artemis learns her listen about crime in American society. Will Diana be able to save Artemis from dying? Will Diana be able to become Wonder Woman again?! Great artwork by Mike Deodato Jr! He knows how to draw women superheros in comics! a must read!

This book is the conclusion piece to Wonder Woman: The Contest. If you enjoyed that great book, you are sure to enjoy this one as well. It immediately follows The Contest as we see the further adventures of Diana and Artemis in Patriarch's World as Artemis comes to understand exactly what it means to become a 'Wonder Woman'. This book if filled with emotionally charged moments and a large cast of interesting characters. Don't worry though, Messner-Loebs has a great way of weaving in characters into his stories without leaving the reader at a loss of who is who. Mike Deodato Jr. does an outstanding job as well depicting both beautiful characters and realistic expressions. I urge all Wonder Woman fans (and those not) to purchase this wonderful book as it shows many of Diana's and Artemis' trials and tribulations, and what it really means to be 'human'.

In "The Contest," Artemis made her debut as a fierce, competitive warrior who sought to gain respect for her tribe by competing in a contest held by Hippolyta to choose the new Wonder Woman. In an upset victory, Artemis triumphed as the victor and assumed her duties in the patriarch's world. In "The Challenge of Artemis," she vows to end the oppression of women and children, and to end the violence that corrupts society.

With her quick tongue and rash actions, Artemis makes headlines as she rubs people the wrong way, being viewed as opinionated, controversial, and arrogant. Diana dons a new costume and works to re-establish a new identity. It's not long before tension flares up between Artemis and Diana - Artemis accuses Diana of trying to interfere with Artemis' new role, but Diana will soon learn of a terrible prophecy that lies ahead for Wonder Woman. Tragedy looms in the near future for both Diana and Artemis with mayhem, murder, and ultimately ... betrayal.

The conclusion left me emotionally choked up as both women are heroes in their own right. This book is a turning point for both of them as the betrayal has ramifications that changes the course of future Wonder Woman issues. Their lives will never be the same again after this.

"Wonder Woman: Amazonia" is an interesting and complex (albeit a somewhat convoluted) tale set in an imaginary Victorian-era England where proper ladies wear chains and the British army employs powerful, flying vessels to wage war. In "Amazonia," William Messner-Loebs explores Victorian cultural ideologies about patriarchy, colonialism, imperialism and gender roles. Drawing on William Moulton Marston's original Wonder Woman stories, Messner-Loeb's has crafted a feminist tale this is an homage to the original and features familiar characters such as Etta Candy and Steve Trevor. This graphic novel is published in a slightly oversized edition (8" x 11") to accommodate Phil Winslade's atmospheric drawings which recall wood engravings and are beautifully embellished by Patricia Mulvhill's subtle use of color. Read this story and find out why the word "amazonia" was "whispered from woman to woman and never without a shiver."

I thought that this book wouldn't be that great, but the story is really gripping. It takes place in London around the time of Tarzan and has a lot of interesting parallels. This Wonder Woman is submissive until the end. The art is pretty good, though Phi used too many black lines on the faces. It was also sad to see Steve Trevor, the noble character of the comics, turn out to be a most heinous villain.

There probably isn't much I can add in a scholarly vein to what people have already said about Plato. So I thought I would make a few personal observations from the standpoint of a somewhat philosophically literate, 21st century man who is reading such an august classic in middle age.

I came to this book with more of a background in modern epistemology and the philosophy of science than in classical philosophy. So political philosophy isn't exactly my strong suit, but nevertheless I found the book interesting reading in a way I hadn't really thought of before.

Actually, I had read portions of this book 20 years ago when I was a young student first studying philosophy, and I have to say, there is something to be said for having a more mature outlook in approaching such a venerable work. At the time I thought political philosophy pretty dull stuff, and besides, I felt there was no real way to answer any of the important political questions that get debated here, despite the easy way Socrates disposes of everybody else's half-baked opinions and theories.

The fact is, if you move ahead 2400 years and read something like Karl Popper's "The Open Society and Its Enemies," an advanced modern work, you can see how much, or how little, political philosophy has progressed in the last 24 centuries.

Well, that may be true, but at least with this book you know where it basically all started. The best way to decide this issue is to read the book and decide for yourself.

Although entitled "The Republic," this society isn't like any republic you've probably ever read about. Plato proposes an ant-like communism where there is no private ownership of property, philosophers are kings, kings are philosophers, people cultivate physical, moral, and ethical qualities, and the idea of the good takes the place of political and social virtues.

Another odd facet is that the bravest citizens are permitted more wives than those less brave in battle. And then there is the infamous proposition that all poets and artists are to be banished since they are harmful purveyors of false illusions.

I find the Socratic method as a way of moving along the dialogue between the participants sort of interesting, and it is certainly an effective device. However, none of these people, even the Sophist Thrasymachus, are really Socrates' intellectual equal, so he really doesn't have much competition here.

If ancient Athens disproportionately had so many towering intellects, relative to its small population (about 20,000 people, most of whom were slaves anyway), you'd think they would show up in Plato's dialogues more. But all we seem to get are second-raters who are really no match for the clever Socrates.

Yet I would say this is still a great book. Classical scholars say there are more perfect, less flawed dialogues than Plato's Republic, but none that are as profound, wide-ranging, and as influential and important for later philosophy. As someone once wrote, in a sense the entire history of western philosophy consists of nothing but "footnotes to Plato." After finally reading it, I can see why there is so much truth to that statement.

Plato's Republic is unquestionably the origin of philosophical lines of thought which are still undoubtedly relevant today. Written in dialogue form (i.e. like a discussion between many characters), the main exponent of the argument is Socrates, Plato's friend and mentor who was executed by the Athenian government - an event which led Plato to effectively denounce democracy as an impractical system. The Republic is the result of this denouncement: beginning with the philosophical question 'What is justice?', it proceeds to lay out the nature of the ideal state. Along the way, we are given Plato's legandary Theory of Forms, including the fantastically simple Simile of the Cave - a brilliant philosophical exposition of the difference between this world and the 'proper', 'real' world of which Earth is only a shadow. Desmond Lee's translation makes the very best of a particularly tricky task, and compromises on several key passages with effective authority. The main problem for the modern layman is in getting used to the Socratic form of argument in textual form - seeing Glaucon and Adeimantus answering with "Yes", "I agree" and "That's quite right" for 350-odd pages will drive anybody a little crazy after a while! That (very minor) nitpick aside, there are two excellent appendices regarding the philosophical passages in the text, plus a detailed bibliography for those who wish to follow up on the book. And it's worth it, believe you me.

It has been said that all philosophic work of the past 2400 years stands as footnotes to Plato's writings. 'Do the ends justify the means? What is justice? Whom does it serve? Who should serve as its guardians? Is it absolute or relative?'
Plato's protagonist is his old teacher, Socrates. The arguments are presented as dialogues and thus embody a literary aspect different from many, although certainly not all, subsequent philosophical writings. His object is "no trivial question, but the manner in which a man ought to live." The answers are seen to point to the manner in which a utopian society should be operated.
As a storied mountain calls to a climber from afar, Plato calls to the student of the art of thinking. This is why we read Plato, for the "neo-Platonists" -- Plotinus, Augustine, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, Whitehead, Gödel, and others -- have certainly propounded improved philosophy. But it is Plato on whom they improve. Most thinkers (perhaps especially most mathematicians and logicians) yet agree with Plato, at least insofar as his understanding of "form" -- often adapted or restated as: ideas / perfection / consciousness / mind / or, 'the thing in itself'.
Plato's realm of [what he calls] "forms" acknowledges the mysterious, yet logically necessary, existence of non-material reality. In Republic he views this as the realm of reference in constructing his understanding of an ideal society. We find in the work of subsequent thinkers (and within Plato's Republic as well) that this non-material reality is perhaps more easily recognized in purer considerations of reason, aesthetics, mathematics, music, love, spiritual experience, and ultimately in consciousness itself, than in idealized human social institutions. Mathematics, for example, although readily practiced in material ways, is not itself material. Thus the understanding of the purity of reason as opposed to the synthetic (and uncertain) nature of empiricism, arises from the work of Plato (and is particularly well developed in Descartes' existentialism).
Modern readers should rightly find that Plato regards the State too highly; in pursuit of an ideal State his supposedly improved citizen is highly restricted and censored. His "utopian" citizens are automatons, bred by the State; unsanctioned infants are "disposed of." Where his ideas are wrongly developed, they are in fact important ideas, i.e., they are issues deserving serious examination. Should the ruling class be restricted to philosophers? Plato says yes, that wisdom and intellectual insight are more desirable in leaders than are either birthright or popularity. Of course we, in the democratic West, tend to see this idea as totalitarianism, but it remains an interesting argument.
Although the product of polytheistic culture, Plato is leery of the tangled accounts of the gods received from the poets, Homer, Hesiod, etc. His view of the divine -- that "the chief good" has one eternal, unchanging and surpassingly superior form -- which he also calls "Providence", hints strongly of the common ground which was to emerge between neo-Platonism and monotheism. Like Plato's proverbial cave dwellers, we perceive this transcendent entity through poorly understood "shadows" of the actual truth. Beside its philosophical, literary, political, and theological aspects, Republic is also important as a treatise on psychology, in fact the science of mind seems to have progressed very little beyond Plato's insights. Books 5-7 are particularly fascinating.

This book is without a doubt one of the best game books to come out in some time. It has totaly changed the way my group has played the game in reguards to Clerics.

>>"If you own Defenders of the Faith, Deities and Demigods, and/or Faiths and Pantheons you are wasting your money on this. Way too generic to be useful. NOT the best money I've spent... "

On the contrary, this book renders all of those others completely redundant. What's more, this book is far, far more interesting to read, and far, far easier to incorporate piecemeal, or whole into any campaign. Of every RP book on my shelf--and I probably have a few hundred--this is by far the best money I have ever spent on an RP product as far as useability. Ignore the nay-sayer. He doesn't know what he's talking about.

Absolutely, and completely, well worth the price. See the lengthy review below for more info on the book.

_Why'd I buy it?_
I've been looking for material to spruce up the religious aspect of my campaign. Clerics and Paladins seems to be rife with role playing opportunity and adventure hooks, and yet the material I've seen so far was lacking (like WotC: Defenders of the Faith). I was especially interested in the "Holy Warrior" new core class and in how a "complete description of each god's church" would look like. I was not disappointed...in fact, I was very pleasantly surprised.

_Overview_
This book can be used in many different ways: it's a complete patheon and mythology of gods, it's a "pick-and-choose" box of common gods plus detailed churches, and it's a "do-it-yerself" tool-kit for making the gods of your campaign world relevant to your players. It succeeds at all of these things...and if you think about it, that's pretty amazing.

The book prose is tight and entertaining. Rule changes are clearly spelled out, and are repeated where relevant. The game mechanics seem simple and balanced (although I've not yet play-tested it myself). (And a further note to all of those crunch-lovers out there, like me: There are game mechanics in here where there needs to be.) Overall, a very well written and insightful book.

_The Complete Pantheon and Mythology_
I loved reading this section -- it reminded me of Greek, Norse, and Native American myth. It's good story, and it tempts me to include it, lock, stock, and barrel, into my home brew campaign. And it's probably pliable enough for me to tweak it here and there and then do just that.

_Plug n' Play gods and their churches_
What I'm more likely to do, however, is take the gods and their churches out and plug them in where they fit into my existing home-brew. The book gives quite a bit of help for this sort of thing. The churches are well laid out, and yet they can be self-contained; that is, the churches don't wholy depend on the mythology presented in the book. Useful, that.

Kudos, BTW, on the structure of the book with respect to churches, clerics, "paladins", and new PrC. It's all wrapped up in a seamless whole, so that the relationships between the clerics, "paladins" (holy warriors, a superior concept, IMO), and the secret orders (PrCs) is believable and very playable. Makes me (almost!) want to play a goody-two-shoes Holy Warrior.

_Cosmography Tool-kit (or "how the gods, the universe's creation, and the Planes of Existence fit together")_
The thing this book is best at, IMO, is how it opens up Myth and the Gods for you to tinker with. Paired with the excellent WotC offering, Manual of the Planes, I'm not sure there's anything else you need to come up with a compelling and logical cosmography. How the universe is created => how the gods act => how their churches are structured => how PC clerics et al. act. It's all there, so that if the PC asks....well, he'll get at least one answer....
******************************************
_Conclusion_

Production: 5 - Excellent. Fonts, headers, and spacing is very good. Layout and organization is excellent. I was very happy with both the table of Contents and the index. Note to publishers: this is how it should be done for all products!

Art: 4 - Good. The art work quality is good, most of the time, and the art work is very topical to the text on the page.

Game Mechanics: 5 - Excellent. The new core class (Holy Warrior) is expecially good.

"Cool" Factor: 5- Excellent. Even the name is good (shout "Book of the Righteous!" a couple o' times...you'll get what I mean). The mythology and churches are especially inspiring.

Overall: 5 - Excellent. If you are a DM with a home-brew world, you're a fool for not having this book. It's that good.

I've never read a Wonder Woman book before. What I know of her is what I've read from JLA, Superfriends, The 1970s Wonder Woman TV show, and the Justice League. This book reads as if it's incomplete. It does a fine job with the characters from Wonder Woman's home island even though they all look like and sound alike (ok, a few have different color hair)... but we are definitly missing a number of pages in the beginning and unless you read the series, you are lost at the end. I was looking forward to a good introduction to the series, but if this is how the series reads, I don't think I'd be interested in reading more.

This trade paperback collects Wonder Woman #90-93 and #0.

Diana returns to Themyscira and it seems that her mother, Hippolyta (queen of the Amazons), thinks she is no longer fit to serve the role of Wonder Woman. Hippolyta says Diana has failed to positively act upon the most important role of Wonder Woman, fighting to end all acts of hate on Earth. As a result, a contest is held in which every Amazon is invited to compete to become the new Wonder Woman.

The story is very well-written by William Messner-Loebs. Here, he has given the characters of Diana and the Amazons a little depth. They have believable emotions, and not once does the story escape into camp. The only downside is that once the contest ends nothing seems to make sense. If you are not an avid reader of Wonder Woman and know nothing of her supporting characters, then the last ten pages of this book will be confusing. Hawkman appears, too, out of nowhere; I guess, his point was supposed to be revealed in later issues.

The art is absolutely incredible. The panels are fast and exciting, and the Amazons are depicted as strong but delicate, sexy but independent ... except for the many panels of "rears-in-the-air." These are just a little too blatantly sexual. They are unnecessary because the Amazons are just as sexy without having to be drawn in such a manner. But, I'm sure most fanboys won't mind.

Buy the book if you are looking for a great Wonder Woman story with the perfect balance of story and art, but don't expect an intro that explains what has happened up to this point.

This DC comics tradepaperback features wonderful art by Mick Deodato Jr! Written by William Messner-loebs, This story starts in Paradise Island where Princess Diana meets her long lost Amazon sister, Artemis. Diana faces her greatest challenge with Artemis for the mantle of Wonder Woman! Artemis wins the contest and is taken to New york to become the New super Heroine! Princes Diana becomes a private eye and goes on her own crimial cases! Will Artemis, the New Wonder Woman be able to stop crime and stop Diana from interfering with her duties?! Will Artemis's new mean streak be able to take care of crime in New York? Will Diana ever be able to reclaim the mantle of Wonder Woman? Find out! Buy this DC comics Trade paperback! Beautiful art by Mike Deodato Jr (he is known for drawing beautiful women in the comics feild!) Mike's draws the Amazons, Artemis, Wonder Woman (Diana) with such great detail! They look awsome!

Cicero's 'Letters to Friends' has three volumes in the Loeb Classical Library. In vol.II there are three main subjects: the civil war, the illness of his secretary Tiro and the divorce from his wife Terentia. There are also other topics like travels, books and domestic pleasures.
I find the letters to his secretary the most interesting because Cicero shows himself here as a caring human being ( in contrast to his cold and formal attitude towards his wife ).
In general though The Letters have a tendency to rhetorics and are therefore often long-winded and sometimes a little boring.

For those of you unsure who William Messner-Loebs is, he's the guy who wrote all that swell dialogue for the first few years of Kieth's inexplicably non-award-winning series THE MAXX (no, I did not misspell "Kieth"). I originally hunted down and bought EPICURUS for Sam's art, but the writing threatened to overshadow the art at times... which is not to say that the art is sub-par, but rather that the story, although a tad uneven, is almost funny and engaging enough to make one forget how good the art is. Political satire tends to age quickly, but EPICURUS THE SAGE is one of those works that manages to remain timeless by not getting overly topical.