The Wisdom of The Ancient Greeks | Date: 30 April 2011, 09:22
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The Wisdom of The Ancient Greeks (Oneworld of wisdom)
By Mel Thompson
* Publisher: Oneworld Publications
* Number Of Pages: 192
* Publication Date: 2002-10-25
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1851682988
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781851682980
Product Description:
Contained in this illustrated anthology are insights from all the key thinkers of Ancient Greek civilization, from Homer to Sophocles and Socrates.
IT IS quite impossible to sum up in a few words the
enormous wealth of epic poetry, drama and philosophy
that has come down to us from Ancient Greece. It has
provided inspiration for both rational thought and artistic
creativity from one generation to the next within Western
culture.
The wisdom of Ancient Greece combined passion, a raw
appreciation of human emotions and the tragedy of a life
driven by them, with the most rigorous and careful analysis of
ideas. Greek drama probed every recess of human frailty,
exposing the agony of self-doubt and the sense of injustice in
the world, and in doing so elevated language as never before.
That wisdom was also the source of science, philosophy,
psychology and politics as we know them today, and the
language in which we explore these subjects depends to a
great extent on Greek terms.
The passages included in this anthology can therefore
represent no more than a personal choice, selected from this
vast literature. Whether poetry, drama or philosophy, they
seek to address the key issues of human life and death, its
meaning and its place within the universe.
Those who explore the art and literature of Ancient Greece
and set them within the context of Western culture, tend to
resort to superlatives, for it is difficult to overestimate the
achievements of that period. Below you will find just a few
such comments, included here to set the context for the
passages of wisdom that follow.
HE CAME at the end of the creative period in Greek
thought, and after his death it was two thousand years
before the world produced any philosopher who could
be regarded as approximately his equal.
BERTRAND RUSSELL on Aristotle, History of Western Philosophy
THESE DIALOGUES are among the world’s great literature. In
addition to containing some of the best philosophy ever
produced they are beautifully written – many language
scholars think they contain the finest of all Greek prose.
BRYAN MAGEE on Plato’s Dialogues, The Story of Philosophy
THE ANCIENT philosophers created and laid much of the
groundwork for later philosophical debate in the fields of
ontology, epistemology, logic, ethics and political
philosophy. They also established the crucial features of
philosophical method – open-mindedness about the agenda of
problems, and rational progress through argument and debate.
J. D. G. EVANS, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy
THE PERSON of Socrates became, and has remained ever
since, so powerful an icon for the life of moral scrutiny
that it is his name that is used to mark this watershed in
the history of philosophy. In the century or so that followed
his death, many schools looked back to him as the living
embodiment of philosophy and sought the principles of his life
and thought in philosophical theory.
A. J. BAKER, The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
ALMOST EVERYTHING about Homer is debatable, except the
centrality to ancient Greek culture of the two epics
connected with his name, the Iliad and the Odyssey,
and thus their importance for Western civilisation as a whole
… The sophistication and polish of the writing gave the
Homeric narratives universal appeal. They remained part of
the Greek consciousness throughout Greek history, and have
retained their appeal today. One reason for this is that their
focus of interest is always human. The Olympian gods, when
they appear, are treated as beings with distinctly human
frailties – they are often less admirable than the men and
women whose fates they govern. Human beings, by contrast,
are enlarged rather than diminished, even when they are
shown behaving badly.
EDWARD LUCIE-SMITH, Art and Civilisation
FROM A period of about 200 years, beginning in the late
500s BC, Athens was the centre of Greek culture. The
height of this period, from 461 BC to 431 BC, is often
called the Golden Age. During this period, largely as a result of
the emergence of democracy, literature flourished. Drama in
the form of tragedy became the most important literary form.
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides are the three greatest
tragic playwrights. Aeschylus’s plays are noted for seriousness,
majestic language and complexity of thought. Those of
Sophocles are noted for characterisation, graceful language,
and sense of proportion. Euripides, the ‘philosopher of the
stage’ explored human emotions and passions. Comedy was
also prominent in the 400s BC. The plays of Aristophanes, a
writer of bawdy and satiric comedy, reflected the sense of
freedom, vitality, and spirit that pervaded Athens at the time.
The New Webster’s International Encyclopedia
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