Title: The epic city : urbanism, utopia, and the garden in ancient Greece and Rome /
Authors: Giesecke, Annette.
Publisher: Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University ; Distributed by Harvard University Press ,
Year: 2007
Subjects: Gardens Greece History.; Gardens Symbolic aspects Greece History.; Gardens Rome.; Gardens Symbolic aspects Rome.; Greece Antiquities.; Rome Antiquities.
Abstract: "As Greek and Trojan forces battled in the shadow of the Troy's wall, Hephaistos created a wondrous, ornately decorated shield for Achilles. At the Shield's center lay two walled cities, one at war and one at peace, surrounded by fields and pasturelands. Viewed as Homer's blueprint for an ideal, or utopian, social order, the Shield reveals that restraining and taming Nature would be fundamental to the Hellenic urban quest. It is this ideal that Classical Athens, with its utilitarian view of Nature, exemplified. In a city lacking pleasure gardens, it was particularly worthy of note when Epicurus created his garden oasis within the dense urban fabric.