The Greek Way (1930)

I have always been fascinated by the beginning of Western Culture in the flowering of Athens. Somehow over the space of roughly a century or two there occurred a magnificent growth of culture and ideas in that city that has made the mind and spirit of the world today forever changed. This book is a description of the men and ideas that contributed to the changes that occurred and how they molded the Western Culture that grew out of that remarkable time.
Edith Hamilton was sixty-three when she wrote this book and she synthesized a lifetime of knowledge to bring to the reader the world of Athens during this time. Her chapter on Socrates and the growth of philosophy is a delight. Casual conversations become discussions on the nature of virtue. Socrates always asking questions, seeking after truth.
Her comparisons of Herodotus and Thucydides illustrate the different approaches that gave rise to Western history. Herodotus wrote down everything that came his way while Thucydides sought to provide a guide to the future through the story of the past.
The comedy of Aristophanes described by the author as the speaking picture of the follies and foibles of his day illustrates the impulse to make fun of all aspects of life. The concept of tragedy grew out of the ability to look calmly at the pain in life without fear. This grew through the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides developing ideas I cannot say I truly understand. She then moves forward to the works of Shakespeare to show how those beginnings grew.
Underlying this fantastic growth of ideas was the concept of freedom. The gift of the Greeks was that they felt free to think about anything that came to mind. Their thoughts were not constrained by religion or fear of the unknown. That was their great gift to Western Civilization. The ability to use their reason to think allowed them to question freely the world around them. It was their attempts to answer those questions that gave rise to the world we live in.
I feel this was a feeble attempt to bring to the reader some small glimpse of this classic book. I could read it time and again to gain a real understanding of the ideas the author has set forth. I do know that I now have a greater knowledge of who we are and the world we live in. ( )

Edition: // Descr: 254 p. 18 cm. // Series: Call No. { 948 H15 } Contains References. // //

Hamilton is the most knowledable of the Greek scholars and her translations are superb. I find her works easy to read. ( )

Boy is it nice to read an older book. It really highlights how simplified, almost dumbed down, the English language has become. Miss Hamilton explains her theory about what made the Greeks so great, basically that they found a balance between the seen and unseen, reality and spirit, the individual and the community, the likes of which has never been equalled. In so doing she discusses the surviving literature of the Athenian age, comparing Aristophanes and his satirical comedies to the plays of Gilbert and Sullivan. (Gilbert was the musician and Sullivan wrote the libretti? Very far from my area of expertise in music lore.) She goes on to compare the tragedies of Aeschylus to Shakespeare, Sophocles to Milton and Euripedes to Isaiah. As an aside, Isaiah is the highlight of the Bible as far as this ornery old pagan is concerned and is another of the required reading that I would mandate if I were the Thain of the Land.
The author uses parallel examples to highlight similarities between the above writers. I find Euripides to be exceptionally emotional. His play 'The Trojan Women' takes the heroism of Homer's Iliad and turns it completely around to show the anguish of the wives of defeated Troy as they lament their losses of family and home while awaiting the princes of Greece to draw lots for them. I don't think I could read the whole thing, it being just too sad.
The highlight is Chapter 7 (VII to be specific) where the author explains what exactly makes tragedy so difficult, rare and powerful. 'Why is the death of an ordinary man a wretched, chilling thing which we turn from, while the death of a hero, always tragic, warms us with a sense of quickened life? Answer this question and the enigma of tragic pleasure is solved.' An excellent primer for beginning an exploration of a great age in history as well as an exercise in reading good English, a rarity in these days when some guy can publish an entire novel in text message abbreviation. ( )

Hamilton collects various stand-alone essays, engaging subjects both general and particular -- though I'm not certain they were written specially for this book or adapted from other presentations. They often read as if she presented them orally.

Hamilton is a cheerleader here, convinced as she is that Greek history and culture are one of the highest achievements of human civilization, and if not aiming to persuade the reader, certainly does not approach her subject with anything like skepticism. Interestingly: the essays with broad themes -- say, Greek (Western) thought contrasted with Chinese or Indian (Eastern) thought, or the role of mind versus spirit in Attic Greece -- fare worse than those dealing particularly with one or another Greek thinker. However, even when unpersuasive, Hamilton raises provocative questions and themes, and for that reason these essays are worth revisiting.

A case in point is Hamilton's discussion of tragedy in general, defining it as the human capacity for suffering while yet finding in this suffering cause for exaltation. I wonder if the root of tragedy really lies in this capacity for suffering and awe, but I had not wondered very specifically until reading her essay.* Hamilton does a bit better in reviewing the separate contributions of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes: apart from hyperbole like "no other poet ever felt suffering as deeply as did Euripedes", her essays present specific examples from their writings and biography, and are the better for it.

Another example: condemning magic as mere fear and ignorance, or Egyptian civilization as cruel, aristocratic, and fixated upon the dead rather than the living. It's not so much that these points are without merit, as that they are grossly oversimplified in a way she carefully avoids when reviewing Greek civilization ... unless to heap praise upon it.

Once her perspective is seen for what it is, however (justifying the legacy of Attic Greece), Hamilton provides as fine a survey of Greek letters and history as I could wish. It remains only for me to correct her on various points by reading the specific titles she reviews.

* The role of sacrifice now occurs to me as pretty central to my idea of what makes a tragedy, but I'll have to mull that a bit. That, and immortality achieved through works outlasting their creator, which Hamilton mentions but in an entirely different context. ( )