I'll probably never learn to read Greek, but Hamilton makes me want to at least seek out some good translations. The powerful are compelled to seek more power." Thucydides speaks of the absolute corruptive effect of power, and an inevitable cycle in human societies, running from the dictator who in his greed for power over-reaches and is overthrown by a cohort, which in turn reaches for more power until the people under the oligarchy rise up against them, forming a democracy which eventually becomes so chaotic from each individual's search for power that the people turn to a strong man to restore order, and there we go again. The insights Hamilton describes are so relevant to today's world it is downright scary. Then I got to her chapter on Thucydides, the historian. Perhaps the real lesson here is how many ways there are to perceive beauty, and how tragic it will be when no-one can read classical Greek any longer, and Pindar’s genius will be as irrelevant to our lives as the Mayan carvings. How can I challenge them, never having read a word of Greek? Then I recollect my struggles in China to understand the high regard the Chinese aesthetic pays to beautiful calligraphy, an art which simply has no counter part in European culture. Kipling, says Hamilton, comes the closest among English poets to using meter and movement to drive his poems, though she acknowledges that Kipling’s poetry is only a tenth of Pindars.īy this time I was a bit impatient at Hamilton’s claims. The beauty of the Greek poetry of Pindar comes from its movement, meter, sonority, none of which can be translated into English. The Greeks deplored re-statement, instead valuing the exquisite clarity of a single statement of an idea. Western poetics admires metaphor, comparison, restatement in multiple ways of a central theme – traits visible in Shakespeare’s sonnets and the King James Bible, as examples.
He is, per Hamilton, a poet on the level of Shakespeare or Milton, but completely incapable of being translated because of the different aesthetics available in the original Greek. It is age, not austerity, which has given them that pristine simplicity. We now know that those pure white marble friezes and statues gracing the Parthenon and other Greek antiquity sites were once flamboyantly painted and decorated. But a recent exhibit at the San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum, “Gods In Color”, explodes this comparison. Hamilton devotes almost a chapter in contrasting the elaborate color and detail of Asian art with the austerity and simplicity of Greek marble sculpture. West is urging less emphasis on things and more on simplicity in the pursuit of happiness and, incidentally, the salvation of the planet. In our current world it is China and India who are galloping into materialism. She speaks of the contrast between vibrant, materialist Western culture (sparked in her view by the Greeks) versus the introspective, un-worldly culture of the east.
This volume was attractively packaged as a “Time/Life Book Selection” and I took it home for bedside reading.Īt first, Hamilton seems hopelessly dated. Thus, a major rewrite of the US Constitution was undertaken based on a foundation of sand, and we are still reaping the wind as a result of the nonsense that Edith Hamilton wrote.īrowsing along my mother’s bookshelf, I found “The Greek Way” by Edith Hamilton – a name I recognized as the translator/curator of the book on Greek Mythology I had read for extra credit in junior high. Black used its premises to persuade other Supreme Court justices to totally reinterpret the "establishment" clause of the 1st Amendment.
He had no idea it was absolutely a mischaracterization of the Greek civilization and thought. This book was Justice Hugo Black's favorite book and he believed it more than the Bible.
#Mythology timeless tales of gods and heroes audiobook full#
While is it full of inaccuracies and gives a totally incorrect picture of the Greeks at this time, its characterization of religion is key to understanding American 1st amendment law development. For the historical bluff on American history, it is a must read. If you want to understand this era, I would recommend starting with Arthur Herman's "The Light and the Cave." While that book contains some error, it is extremely readable and, for the most part, accurate. It gives a totally incorrect narrative and background. To quote a friend of mine who is a classics professor at a top 25 American university - Edith Hamilton is a hack! If you want to understand Greek philosophy and how it developed, do NOT buy this book.
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