Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom

amazon ^ | April 7, 1998 | Victor Davis Hansen

[KC Burke]

For over two millennia in the West, familiarity with the literature, philosophy, and values of the Classical World has been synonymous with education itself. The traditions of the Greeks explain why Western Culture’s unique tenets of democracy, capitalism, civil liberty, and constitutional government are now sweeping the globe. Yet the general public in America knows less about its cultural origins than ever before, as Classical education rapidly disappears from our high school and university curricula.

Acclaimed classicists Hanson and Heath raise an impassioned call to arms: if we lose our knowledge of the Greeks, we lose our understanding of who we are. With straightforward advice and informative reading lists, the authors present a highly useful primer for anyone who wants more knowledge of Classics, and thus of the beauty and perils of our own culture.

[KC Burke]

Next month on the 7th we can celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Victor David Hansen classic. Certainly overly satirical and sarcastic, less brilliant and measured than his later work, this is where the professor crosses over to popular author.

Similar works that can be discussed include a number by C. S. Lewis, The Devil Knows Latin by Kopff, War on the West by Murray and any number of others.

As I had never read this I recently got it in Audible to listen to like poetry.

[Red Badger]

Bart................

[Right Brother]

[KC Burke]

Wonderful

[4yearlurker]

Didn't he have a turtle dropped on his head?

[pierrem15]

A few years ago there was an article in a big UK paper where a current British university professor mocked 19th Century Britain for educating its elites almost exclusively with Greek and Latin literature.

I can't think of a better education for officials, diplomats and soldiers ruling a world-spanning empire.

[BipolarBob]

Bad beer at Moes?

[GingisK]

Nelson would be my first suspect.

[PUGACHEV]

I do not read Greek, nor particularly Homeric Greek, but I have a friend who does and she help me with it from time to time. What I find is that Homer has to re-translated at least once a generation, if not more frequently, to have the proper impact. Nevertheless, when evaluating a translation of the Iliad, I always go to Book XXI and read the passage where Achilles slays Priam’s son, Lycaon,. The dialogue between Achilles, in a blind rage rage over the death of Patroclus, and Lycaon is utterly bone-chilling: first, because it is direct and cold, and partly because, if properly translated, the sheer horror of Lyacon’s dismemberment is rendered so poetically. “ .. And the silver-sided fish will dart from beneath the dark waters-ripple to nip at the white fat of Lycaon” is an example of what I mean.

[Boogieman]

Well, Homer was blind. For all we know, he just walked off a cliff and fell into the sea.

[ConservativeInPA]

What? Homer Simpson is alive and well.

[SunkenCiv]

• Mr. Socrates Goes To Beijing: While Americans revere the classical tradition, Chinese thinkers view classical thought as a source of Western corruption. [03/08/2023]

[Brass Lamp]

The two-pronged attack against classical education issues from the pretentious psuedo-intellectualism of jumped-up middle class dilettantes and, from the direction of the political Left, consists of a dialectical shift from analytical discourse, categorical thinking, and logical argumentation toward the purely rhetorical continental method of critical commentary, as a part of the Left's ongoing war against objective reality. But(!), from the false conservatives of the nebulous "right" (which is just a label applied with momentary and subjective difference to the "left"), it comes in the form of near-envious deprecations of all forms of Arts Degree programs by people who have not earned one and who could not distinguish a Science Degree from a vocational certification program.

[Honorary Serb]

When I was an undergraduate at MIT, the vast majority of us were science or engineering majors. But we all had required Humanities courses every semester.

These courses started with ancient Greek and Roman literature (in translation). Then we studied the Bible, (Western) Christian literature, medieval literature, and on to the moderns.

I don’t know if the current MIT faculty continues with this wise course of study, or what happens in other leading universities. But it would be good if something like this old policy continues.

[Alas Babylon!]

Some say it was Ned Flanders.

Over some stupid donut.

Doh!

[LadyDoc]

My granddaughter learned about Greek mythology from the Percy Jackson books.

A bit friendly toawrd gays but hey so were the Greeks.

[SunkenCiv]

• Who Killed Homer? [09/26/2002]