The history, mythology, and literature of Greece, taken up by the Roman Empire, shaped the development of European and American culture. ToposText is a free tool, a mobile app and website, for going back to the primary sources and historic roots of western civilization, and in particular a tool for students and travelers eager to experience the ancient world through its surviving texts.

Although Mr. Osbourne styled himself as a menacing banshee, offstage he was a genial homebody. Devoted fans had known this at least since 1988, when the Penelope Spheeris documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years” featured a gregarious Mr. Osbourne making scrambled eggs while wearing a leopard-print kimono.

‘The Destiny of Civilization’

We are as concerned as anybodyelse at the headlong plunge into the abyss that Western civil-ization seems to be taking.

Inother words, we have projected backward the idea that there was aself-contained “Western civilization” (a concept that didn’t even reallyexist until the early twentieth century)