The Glory of Hera

by Philip Slater

Description

The ancient Athenians were "quarrelsome as friends, treacherous as neighbors, brutal as masters, faithless as servants, shallow as lovers--all of which was in part redeemed by their intelligence and creativity." Thus writes Philip Slater in this classic work on narcissism and family relationships in fifth-century Athenian society. Exploring a rich corpus of Greek mythology and drama, he argues that the personalities and social behavior of the gods were neurotic, and that their neurotic show more conditions must have mirrored the family life of the people who perpetuated their myths. The author traces the issue of narcissism to mother-son relationships, focusing primarily on the literary representation of Hera and the male gods and showing how it related to devalued women raising boys in an ambitious society dominated by men. "The role of homosexuality in society, fatherless families, working mothers, women's status, and violence, male pride, and male bonding--all these find their place in Slater's analysis, so honestly and carefully addressed that we see our own societal dilemmas reflected in archaic mythic narratives all the more clearly."--Richard P. Martin, Princeton UniversityOriginally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. show less

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deckla 449 reviews

As far as I can tell, his contention is that ancient Greek culture, in one way or another, bequeathed to the west, and Americans in particular, a society in which achievement is a direct result of narcissism, based particularly on the mother-son relationship. Maybe, but he dismisses art as a crutch for this narcissistic society: "For art exists, emotionally, to supply what a narcissistic orientation takes away—it provides seasoning for the air-pudding of fantasy with which we feed ourselves. Without it we would experience our starvation, but were we fed, we would not need it. By 'fed' I mean, if it were possible for people to live in the present, experiencing their world as it is." Perhaps if he were to substitute the word show more "entertainment" for "art"—but even then I have questions.

He's a Luddite; thinks technological change is malevolent, and an optimist, because in 1971 he saw the younger generation as salvation, talking about the split between the old narcissists, "yearning for mastery, lost in competitive dreams of glory, seeking libidinal expression in vicarious violence, and the young who are trying to escape the pattern, who are yearning for a world of cooperation and (sic) brotherhood, of simple sensual pleasure and experiential immediacy." The slogan "Make Love Not War" is the most radical rejection of Western Culture ever made, he says, and decries the narcissistic priority system that places competition before cooperation, mastery before pleasure, conceptualization before sensation." While I certainly agree that competition should be banished in favor of cooperation, the other two parts of that triumvirate are indefensible: pleasure and the pursuit of money especially in the hands of the rich, foist all sorts of evils on the world, and sensation--well, lets just say that the age of free love ended up enforcing the patriarchy. See, e.g., Donald Trump. Why must I view everything through the lens of opposition to this horrible stain on society, this ignorant, dangerous man? show less

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