A summary of the author's previous work, examining Greek and Roman culture, and the Christian culture which derived from both, but principally from Roman culture, in Hamilton's opinion. I have yet to read any of Hamilton's books about Christianity, but that would properly round things out. ( )

This is a nice introduction to classical Greece. It assumes practically nothing of the reader. My knowledge of classical Greece is quite minuscule so this book was perfect for me! It's quite short so there is not much analysis of alternative perspectives etc. but it just sketches out a sort of standard schoolbook portrait.

Some of it I found overly simplistic. The Greeks were the unique inventors of human individuality and freedom. Hmmm. I imagine Karl Jaspers was formulating his ideas of a global Axial Age at about the same time that Hamilton was writing this book. So yeah there is more to learn from Jaspers, but Hamilton still provides a first elementary pass for later refinement.

I must say that I really enjoyed the last chapter. I have been thinking about a contrast between cultures of uniformity and cultures of diversity, and that is pretty much what Hamilton presents. She ends the book on a rather optimistic note, which I don't think fits the 60 years or so since it was written. Imperialism seems stronger than ever and racism seems to be reasserting itself against civil rights. But still, the embers of freedom yet smolder. There is work to be done - ah, work is possible! Let's do it! ( )

A fun read on Greece (rare indeed). Entertaining and fast paced. I plan to read it again. ( )

Not sure if Hamilton "idealizes" the intense love of Freedom which is claimed to have emerged, if it did, so strongly in the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Herodotus reports a Greek saying to a Persian: "You do not know what freedom is. If you did, you would fight for it with bare hands even if you had no weapons." [17] Not sure if the Greeks were the only exception to a history that claims there was only "universal slavery" in 500 BC. Did they meet Scythians? Bedouin?
No Index. Easy reading. Incredibly inspiring..."freedom" after all.

Hamilton's basic research is unimpeachable and well-witted. Of course, there is that concern over the lack of footnotes.

She concludes with a chapter on Plutarch, placing him where his "lives" are most important -- in their times. As Plutarch saw that the oracles were failing -- in times of change, all see it -- he states that the Delphic priestess spoke under the influence of the vapor in the cave. Neither was divine. And "God is not a ventriloquist." [205]

Hamilton takes what we know about Plutarch -- and we know much because he was a prolific writer -- and applies it to what we do not know. For example, we have virtually nothing about the personal lives of Plato and Aristotle. Hamilton compares Marcus Arelius.

Finally, Hamilton asks a loaded question about Christian Religion. Christianity was first addressed to Greeks. The Gospels are in Greek (and Aramaic). And yet, extraordinarily, with two paths laying open to her, the Church bent its way to Rome.

New York, W. W. Norton