Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western CivilizationEncounter Books, 2000 - 242 páginas In the classics departments of today's universities, Bruce Thornton says, the Greeks are accused of stealing their achievements from black Egyptians, of oppressing their wives and daughters, and of hypocritically speculating about freedom while holding slaves. Most of all, classic Greek culture has come under attack precisely because its glorious achievement, extended into history, is what defines the West and makes it distinct. Thornton clears away these misconceptions. Writing with wit and erudition, he discusses in fascinating detail those areas of Greek life - sexuality and sexual roles; slavery and war; thought and speculation - that some modern critics have made into 'contested sites'. Perhaps more importantly, he also reclaims the importance of those core ideas the Greeks invented, ideas about human fate and purpose that shaped the modern world. Nearly seventy years ago, Edith Hamilton published 'The Greek Way', a book that educated two generations of readers about the debt we owe the handful of city-states that developed 'the spirit of the West' some 2500 years ago.'Greek Ways' is for our time what Hamilton's book was for a prior era - a classic inquiry that holds up a mirror to Greek culture where we can see ourselves. |
Conteúdo
INTRODUCTION Seeing with Greek Eyes | 1 |
THREE The Roots of Emancipation | 61 |
SEVEN The Birth of Freedom | 162 |
Direitos autorais | |
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Termos e frases comuns
Achilles Aeschylus ancient Greece ancient world appetites aristocratic Aristophanes Aristotle assembly Athenaeus Athenian democracy Athens battle beauty Cambridge character Chicago citizens civic Classical Cleon comedy Crawley critical culture David Grene death debate defined destructive Diels Diogenes Laertius Egyptians elites enemy enslaved equal Eros Euripides evil father fifth century fighting force freedom gods Greek city-states Greek literature Grene and Richmond Helen Herodotus Hesiod Hippolytus Homer homosexuality hoplite household human identity husband ical idea ideal Iliad intellectual Isocrates Jowett killing king lives London Lysistrata male marriage Mass nature noble Odysseus Oedipus orator passions pederasty Penelope Pentheus Pericles Persian Phaedrus philosopher Pindar Plato Plutarch poet polis political rational reason Richmond Lattimore says self-control Sélincourt sexual shameful slavery slaves social Socrates Solon Sophocles soul Spartans speech suffering Suppliant Women things Thucydides tion tradition tragedy trans Translated virtue Western wife woman Xenophon Xerxes York