Greek ideas of body, sex, history and politics shape modern thinking

Much of the British Empire was founded on a limited education of the classics, and elements of Greek and Roman architecture adorn modern buildings from the Americas to Thailand.

So does Ancient Greece matter today?

The author’s answer to this question is a definite “yes”, although after reading this book I am not that convinced. E.g. the first chapter is about the attitude to the body. Although that attitude to the man’s body is very much the same as it is today, it is not to the woman’s, and that attitude has changed drastically over the centuries. If there is no continuity, how much more interesting then is this calibration compared to one against the Soviet Union or China’s Ming dynasty?

More a collection of essays than a continuous story line, the book does contain some interesting chapters. I particularly enjoyed the one comparing Athenian democracy to the current variations. Athenian democracy was decidedly more direct, and chance played a greater role. Only men with citizenship rights could vote, but the also suffered the direct consequences. Athenians were divided in “demes” with their own identities and cults. The “demes” were part of “tribes”, also with their own cults. The executive council consisted of men of each “deme”, chosen for a year by lot. Basically, every role within the state except for the army general was decided by chance. Being an Athenian citizen meant as much rights as duties. If the council voted for war, the men voting could see themselves or their family members on an expedition with the risk of death.

So despite the cheesy title, the book is a worthy read. ( )

Goldhill's book is all and all a good read, but be aware that it may masquerade as a philosophy of modern identity when it is really a textbook on the social aspects of Ancient Greece and Rome. Yes it talks about controversial subject matter, but perhaps not the extent it so blatantly implies. And yes it relates the Ancient world to our own, at least to the world of Freud, Hitler, and Nietzsche. Perhaps it falls upon looking back to the far past instead of the immediate one – as there is no mention of Dante, Shakespeare, Donatello, and a whole pantheon of figures who were greatly shaped by the ancient world and thus greatly shape our lives in return. However, the book also is very informative on aspects of ancient society that will not appear in conventional texts, either because of the subject matter, or the obscurity of the information itself. Not having an index makes it hard to use academically, and the summary on the back is a review of just the last chapter, not the entire book. Read if you want to know more about Rome or Greece than the standard Homer, Caesar, and Plato. -J

A truly wonderful book written by one of today's foremost classicists. His argument is that contemporary society must, but continually fails to, understand our classical heritage in order to understand not just our institutions, but our very selves. Sweeps majestically through classical and contemporary depictions of the human body, the development of Christianity in a classical environment, the birth of democracy, penises, Freud, the importance of Greek tragedy in today's world and Victorian Britain. Doesn't miss much, really... ( )