The black hunter travels through the mountains and forests of Greek mythology, living on the frontier of the city-state, of adulthood, of class, of ethics and of sexuality. Taking its title from this mythological figure, this book approaches the Greek world by charting the elaborate system of contradictions which pervaded Greek society and culture - wild yet cultivated, citizen and foreigner, real yet imaginary, god and man. The text organizes the discussions around four principle themes: space and time; youth and warriors; women, slaves and artisans; and the city of vision and reality. It focuses on the congruence of the textual and the actual, on the patterns that link literary, philosophical and historical works with social activities such as war, slavery, education and commemoration. Probing the interplay of world view, language and social practice, the book seeks to illuminate the complex sphere of the ancient Greek world.