The greek way summary

The Greek Way Study Guide The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton (c)2015 BookRags, Inc. All rights reserved.

Contents The Greek Way Study Guide ....................................................................................................... 1

Contents ...................................................................................................................................... 2

Plot Summary .............................................................................................................................. 4

Chapter 1, East and West ............................................................................................................ 6

Chapter 2, Mind and Spirit ........................................................................................................... 8

Chapter 3, The Way of the East and the Way of the West in Art ................................................ 10

Chapter 4, The Greek Way of Writing ........................................................................................ 12

Chapter 5, Pindar: The Last Greek Aristocrat ............................................................................. 14

Chapter 6, The Athenians as Plato Saw Them ........................................................................... 17

Chapter 7, Aristophanes and the Old Comedy ........................................................................... 19

Chapter 8, Herodotus: The First Sight-Seer ............................................................................... 20

Chapter 9, Thucydides: The Thing That Hath Been Is That Which Shall Be .............................. 22

Chapter 10, Xenophon: The Ordinary Athenian Gentleman ....................................................... 25

Chapter 11, The Idea of Tragedy ................................................................................................ 27

Chapter 12, Aeschylus: The First Dramatist ............................................................................... 28

Chapter 13, Sophocles: Quintessence of the Greek .................................................................. 30

Chapter 14, Euripides: The Modern Mind .................................................................................. 32

Chapter 15, The Religion of the Greeks ..................................................................................... 34

Chapter 16, The Way of the Greeks ........................................................................................... 37

Chapter 17, The Way of the Modern World ................................................................................ 38

Characters ................................................................................................................................. 39

Objects/Places ........................................................................................................................... 44

Themes ...................................................................................................................................... 47

Style ........................................................................................................................................... 49

Quotes ....................................................................................................................................... 51

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Topics for Discussion ................................................................................................................. 53

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Plot Summary Twelve chapters of the book were published in 1930 under the Title "The Greek Way." In 1942, five new chapters were published with the original twelve under the title "The Great Age of Greek Literature." Current editions have retained the original title for the complete book and included the preface to the 1942 edition.

"The Greek Way" is an attempt to present to the modern reader an understanding and appreciation of the unique and distinctive cultural, intellectual and artistic achievements of Classical Athens. In particular, Hamilton focuses on fifth-century Athens, a time of significant political, social and intellectual change.

The unique and unparalleled achievements of fifth-century Athens are defined and delineated against both the intellectual, cultural and religious life of surrounding nations and the changing struggles and needs of Athenian culture itself. Comparison with other nations and cultures of the period emphasizes the distinction Hamilton draws between the life of the mind and the life of the spirit, between the rational and the irrational responses of human culture to pain, sorrow and fear. Comparison of Athenian writers of the period allows her to sketch changing responses to changing circumstances in Athenian society during this period.

Hamilton's intention in writing the book is clearly stated in the Preface to the 1942 edition as providing "a picture of Greek thought and art at the time of their highest achievement." Her goal is to provide to the modern reader a "perception of the breadth and depth and splendor of the intellectual life in fifth-century Athens."

Although the intention behind the book might have been originally more purely academic, as she wrote the Preface to the 1942 edition Hamilton was acutely aware of the abiding value of the Athenian intellectual achievement for later generations as they struggled to cope with difficult, confusing and frightening times. Indeed, much of the world was overwhelmed with confusion, fear and suffering in 1942.

There is, perhaps, no clearer statement of the abiding value of an understanding of the culture and art of fifth-century Athens for later generations than that contained in Hamilton's Preface. "We have many silent sanctuaries in which we can find a breathing space to free ourselves from the personal, to rise above our harassed and perplexed minds and catch sight of values that are stable, which no selfish and timorous preoccupations can make waver, because they are the hard-won and permanent possession of humanity."

The singular achievement of fifth-century Athenian culture was a unique intellectual balance in thought and life. These Athenians, she says, were uniquely able - throughout all of human history - to achieve the balance of mind and spirit, of intellect and religion that is the hallmark of human sanity. These Athenians were able to ascend to the intellectual heights that understood the importance of both the individual and the

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community and place both in proper perspective within the larger scheme of human existence.

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Chapter 1, East and West Chapter 1, East and West Summary and Analysis In this critical chapter, the author establishes her assessment of the unique and eternal achievements of fifth Century BCE Athenian culture. In this chapter, she also introduces several basic dichotomies that will prevail and define her understanding of the various writers and events of the period in the ensuing chapters.

Her assessment of the intellectual and cultural achievement of Athenian culture is clearly stated: "Something had awakened in the minds and spirits of the men there which was so to influence the world that the slow passage of long time, of century upon century and the shattering changes they brought, would be powerless to wear away that deep impress. Athens had entered upon her brief and magnificent flowering of genius which so molded the world of mind and of spirit that our mind and spirit to-day are different. . . . What was then produced of art and of thought has never been surpassed and very rarely equaled, and the stamp of it is upon all the art and all the thought of the Western world."

One of the basic themes of the book is immediately introduced - that the thought and the art of classical Athens "is full of meaning" for people of later generations. In particular, it is "full of meaning" for nations, cultures or societies beset by broad-scale and profound social and political change and the accompanying confusion and fear produced in the minds and souls of human beings. Why are the intellectual achievements of Athenian culture in the fifth century BCE so important? Because, Hamilton says, "it is ever to be borne in mind that though the outside of human life changes much, the inside changes little, and the lesson-book we cannot graduate from is human experience."