Author:
Thornton, Bruce S.
Imprint:San Francisco : Encounter Books, 2000.
Description242 p. ; 24 cm.
Note:Seeing with Greek eyes -- Eros the killer -- The best and the worst thing -- The roots of emancipation -- The father of all -- The birth of political man -- The birth of rational man -- The birth of freedom -- The critical spirit.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (p. 226-233) and index.
Note:"Nearly 70 years ago, Edith Hamilton published The Greek Way, an immediate classic that educated two generations of readers about the debt we owe the handful of Greek city-states that developed the "spirit of the West" some 2500 years ago. Now, in Greek Ways, Bruce Thornton has written a book that is for our time what Hamilton's was for a prior era - a reassertion of the Greeks' crucial role in creating Western civilization and in developing the core concepts that continue to shape our assumptions about human identity and human good." "Greek Ways is above all an impassioned act of scholarship covering a wide range of works - from Homer and Hesiod to Aristotle and Demosthenes - in a fascinating discussion about the nature of sex, love, war, politics and philosophy in ancient Greece. Thornton shows what Greeks actually said about these subjects, and, more importantly, what their ideas have meant for the West." "By the end of this narrative, the reader will find it difficult to disagree with Bruce Thornton that "the course the Greeks charted for humanity is the one that has the best likelihood, on this earth and in this life at least, of leading us to our highest fulfillment as human beings." His achievement in Greek Ways is to hold a steady mirror up to Greek culture and allow us to see ourselves."--Jacket.
