I’m winding down the Greeks. I’ve just finished Durant on Alexander and am now beginning his chapter on the Hellenistic period, that time when Green colonies and ideas influenced everyone from the Romans to the Persians and Arabs.
We are the inheritors of Greek ideas in fields ranging from architecture to philosophy, from military tactics to epic literature, from science and mathematics to drama.
Today is Sunday, and personal circumstances left me weary and beaten down. The weather was grey and rainy, dreary thoughts slipped into my bones, and as Johnny Cash and others sang, “There’s something in a Sunday, that makes a body feel alone.”
We are the inheritors of Greek ideas in fields ranging from architecture to philosophy, from military tactics to epic literature, from science and mathematics to drama.
Today is Sunday, and personal circumstances left me weary and beaten down. The weather was grey and rainy, dreary thoughts slipped into my bones, and as Johnny Cash and others sang, “There’s something in a Sunday, that makes a body feel alone.”
And so I read.
I read nearly eighty pages of Will Durant on the Greeks: his thoughts on Plato and Aristotle, his take on Alexander the Great, his observations on government. The Greeks were a fractious, brilliant, adventurous people, competitive with one another, rewarding winners in everything from their Olympics to drama and music, facing many of the same problems we face today.
What Duran writes about them is fresh as today’s headlines online.
Here are just a few blips from my reading:
The “back-to-nature” devotees of our own day are the intellectual descendants of those men and women or Oriental or Greek antiquity who, tired of unnatural and cramping restraints, thought that they could turn and live with the animals. No full life is without a touch of this urban fantasy. (It's not yet Spring, and the cat who lives in this house entered this afternoon sporting a flea on his back. I have no desire to turn and live with the animals. The Life of Greece, page 509)
As the mad pursuit of wealth destroys the oligarchy, so the excesses of liberty destroy democracy. (Ah, yes. The excesses of democracy. We're familiar with those nowadays. The Life of Greece, page 520. Durant on the thought of Plato.)
When a democracy is dominated by the lower classes the rich are taxed to provide funds for the poor. (Sounds familiar. Durant on Aristotle, The Life of Greece, page 535).
“Though one form of government may be better than others,” reads a sentence which every American should memorize, “yet there is no reason to prevent another from being preferable to it under particular conditions.” (Durant quoting Aristotle, The Life of Greece, page 534. Something to keep in mind when we go “nation-building” in places like the Middle East).
He (Alexander) could lead many thousands of men, could conquer and rule millions, but he could not control his own temper. (The Life of Greece, page 540. Sound familiar? Look in a mirror.)
Marching back into Asia, he (Alexander) met the vast polyglot arm of Darius at Gaugamela, near Arbela, and was dismayed by their multitude; he knew that one defeat would cancel all his victories. His soldiers comforted him: “Be of good cheer, Sire; do not fear the great number of the enemy, for they will not be able to stand the smell of goat that clings to us.” (The Life of Greece, page 545. Note to self: take a shower tomorrow.)
Now Alexander is dead, and we—the Greeks and I— march forward to face other travails, including the conquest of the Romans.
I read nearly eighty pages of Will Durant on the Greeks: his thoughts on Plato and Aristotle, his take on Alexander the Great, his observations on government. The Greeks were a fractious, brilliant, adventurous people, competitive with one another, rewarding winners in everything from their Olympics to drama and music, facing many of the same problems we face today.
What Duran writes about them is fresh as today’s headlines online.
Here are just a few blips from my reading:
The “back-to-nature” devotees of our own day are the intellectual descendants of those men and women or Oriental or Greek antiquity who, tired of unnatural and cramping restraints, thought that they could turn and live with the animals. No full life is without a touch of this urban fantasy. (It's not yet Spring, and the cat who lives in this house entered this afternoon sporting a flea on his back. I have no desire to turn and live with the animals. The Life of Greece, page 509)
As the mad pursuit of wealth destroys the oligarchy, so the excesses of liberty destroy democracy. (Ah, yes. The excesses of democracy. We're familiar with those nowadays. The Life of Greece, page 520. Durant on the thought of Plato.)
When a democracy is dominated by the lower classes the rich are taxed to provide funds for the poor. (Sounds familiar. Durant on Aristotle, The Life of Greece, page 535).
“Though one form of government may be better than others,” reads a sentence which every American should memorize, “yet there is no reason to prevent another from being preferable to it under particular conditions.” (Durant quoting Aristotle, The Life of Greece, page 534. Something to keep in mind when we go “nation-building” in places like the Middle East).
He (Alexander) could lead many thousands of men, could conquer and rule millions, but he could not control his own temper. (The Life of Greece, page 540. Sound familiar? Look in a mirror.)
Marching back into Asia, he (Alexander) met the vast polyglot arm of Darius at Gaugamela, near Arbela, and was dismayed by their multitude; he knew that one defeat would cancel all his victories. His soldiers comforted him: “Be of good cheer, Sire; do not fear the great number of the enemy, for they will not be able to stand the smell of goat that clings to us.” (The Life of Greece, page 545. Note to self: take a shower tomorrow.)
Now Alexander is dead, and we—the Greeks and I— march forward to face other travails, including the conquest of the Romans.
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