[cornelis]

other discussions

[AnAmericanMother]

Hear, hear!

- (major in History but a minor in Classics.)

Another, often overlooked advantage to studying Greek and Latin is that you can argue theology with your rector. :-) (It's astounding how low we have sunk from the days when a man with a theology degree was expected to have Greek, Latin, AND Hebrew -- a rector of a major metropolitan Atlanta church has NONE of the above.)

[DrNo]

Ohmygod, what will Marge and the kids do?!

;^)

[arkady_renko]

Thank the Lord it's just about literature - I thought they cancelled the Simpsons!

Doh!

arkady_renko

[The Chief]

[woofie]

Greek restaurants are also well loved in our society ...I favour the Classic "shish ka bob"

[freebilly]

When I was a kid, we learned about the Greeks from Greek literature. The next generation will learn about the Greeks from Persian literature.

Our culture will exchange the Hellenic ideas and ideals for those of the Medes and Persians.

Ain't we lucky....

[Taft in '52]

In his classic commentary, On Education (1944), which I just finished reading, Richard Livingstone, an English classicist, comments that "our civilization...was born in Greece; Rome applied Greek thought to the life and assumptions of a great empire; Christianity added new forces." He adds that "Greece, Rome, and Christianity have made Western Civilization, permeate its thought, morals, literature, and institutions, ant touch its members at every moment of their lives."

It's time to rise to the occasion and confront the challenge to Western civilization posed by the multiculturalists and deconstructionists.

[xp38]

So the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding was right!

[Dumb_Ox]

One depressing day of my life came when I realized that my Greek professor was but a scholar of Aristotle, and not an Aristotelian. It is impossible for the Classics to be a living tradition when the scholars themselves see their ancient subjects as things to be dissected, rather than men to argue with.

Doesn't professor Hanson overreach when he says that modern classicists have abandoned Greek traditions by capitulating to postmodernists? It seems that contemporary scholars have in fact adopted the philosophy of one disreputable set of Greeks, the sophists. I recall one textbook's distinct glee of newly discovered relevancy when it pronounced that the sophists, too, viewed society as a social construct.

The academic deans willing, I will have my Bachelor's degree in Classics this December. I have found that focusing upon learning the languages is a sure way to get to the meat of the ancient texts, while avoiding the latest theoretical fads.

[The Great Satan]

CLASSICS PAGES (fun stuff)

[independentmind]

But it is foolish -- and dangerous -- to embrace these conventions of the West without understanding that the Greeks also insisted that such energy was to be monitored and restrained by a host of cultural protocols that have nearly disappeared: civic responsibility, philanthropy, a world view that is rather absolute, a belief that life is not nice, but tragic and ephemeral (Greek words both), a chauvinism of the middle class and an insistence on self-criticism. The death of the Greeks means an erasure of an entire way of looking at the world, a way diametrically opposite to the new gods that now drive America: therapeutics, moral relativism, blind allegiance to progress and the glorification of material culture.

I haven't liked most of what's been posted on FR by Hanson. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that National Review seems to favor his articles justifying the "War on Terrorism" rather than those providing his social commentary.

Very few in America now know much about the origins of the West in ancient Greece -- and our citizens are moving further from the central philosophical and ethical tenets that are so necessary if we are to understand and manage the leisure, affluence and freedom of the West.

And what do the authors propose to do about it? How do you make what seems like ancient history relevant and interesting to people today? At least part of the failure lies with a lack of imagination and a failure to inspire on the part of conservative academics. Even more probably has to do with the intellectual snobbery that seems to run rampant among those, who in spite of years of post-graduate education, possess less than impressive powers of perception. A better audience might be those who have more "real world" experience who sense that something was missing from their undergraduate education.

[1rudeboy]

bttt

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG homepage, not sending a general distribution.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[justshutupandtakeit]

I love to study the Greeks. It never gets old.

[Drawsing]

It is a little known fact that The Iliad was not actually written by Homer, but by another man with the same name.