The Greek Way Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1 – East and West
In Chapter 1, the author assesses the unique and eternal achievements of 5th century BCE Athenian culture. She introduces several basic dichotomies that define her understanding of the writers and events of the period in the later chapters.
One of the basic themes of the book is that the thought and the art of classical Athens is full of meaning for people of later generations. It is the full of meaning for nations, cultures and 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.
The first question Hamilton addresses is “What gave rise to such an unprecedented and unique achievement?” To answer this question, she says, the reader must understand prevailing thought of the ancient world. Only then can the uniqueness of Athenian thought be appreciated. You must recognize the dichotomy between East and West in the thought and lifestyle of the ancient world.
In a society that offers no hope of happiness or release from struggle and suffering, people quite naturally begin to place their hopes elsewhere. They respond to their condition by hoping for something that lies outside the conditions and constraints they cannot control or influence. Religion becomes some kind of hope for rescue from life. Religion responds by offering either internalization to a spiritual realm or an external hope of a better world and a better life beyond the pale of death.
In the East, people feared what they did not understand. People suffered from different forces, because they didn’t understand them and were told to make the forces more personable and to pay homage to them. The appropriate responses were to make sacrifices and/or rituals.
Chapter 2 – Mind and Spirit
In Chapter 2, Hamilton emphasizes to explain the uniqueness of Athenian cultural achievement in the ancient world. The particular achievement of Athenian life and thought was, for
In Chapter 1, the author assesses the unique and eternal achievements of 5th century BCE Athenian culture. She introduces several basic dichotomies that define her understanding of the writers and events of the period in the later chapters.
One of the basic themes of the book is that the thought and the art of classical Athens is full of meaning for people of later generations. It is the full of meaning for nations, cultures and 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.
The first question Hamilton addresses is “What gave rise to such an unprecedented and unique achievement?” To answer this question, she says, the reader must understand prevailing thought of the ancient world. Only then can the uniqueness of Athenian thought be appreciated. You must recognize the dichotomy between East and West in the thought and lifestyle of the ancient world.
In a society that offers no hope of happiness or release from struggle and suffering, people quite naturally begin to place their hopes elsewhere. They respond to their condition by hoping for something that lies outside the conditions and constraints they cannot control or influence. Religion becomes some kind of hope for rescue from life. Religion responds by offering either internalization to a spiritual realm or an external hope of a better world and a better life beyond the pale of death.
In the East, people feared what they did not understand. People suffered from different forces, because they didn’t understand them and were told to make the forces more personable and to pay homage to them. The appropriate responses were to make sacrifices and/or rituals.
Chapter 2 – Mind and Spirit
In Chapter 2, Hamilton emphasizes to explain the uniqueness of Athenian cultural achievement in the ancient world. The particular achievement of Athenian life and thought was, for