G R E E K S
THE THREE
O
ne way to think about Western civilization is to think of it as consisting of three cultures: those of Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem. It is, in fact, these three cultures, historically tied together and intimately linked, that we refer to when we use the expression "Western civilization." It is this civilization we purport to be passing on in classical Christian education. These three cultures became so integrated over the course of the last two millennia that they have become hard to distinguish from one another. These three harmonic cultural voices speak to us out of the past and are sometimes hard to disentangle. But we can draw some basic distinctions. Greek culture was artistic, literary, and philosophical. The Greeks invented representative art, drama, and philosophy as we know it today. The Romans, being less theoretical and more practical, were noted more for their contributions to ordered government, roads, and architecture. The culture of the Hebrews was noted for its posture toward a personal, transcendent God. It was to the Hebrews that God directly revealed Himself, and it was the Hebrews, His own people, with whom He dealt—individually and as a nation. It was these three cultures which, in the first five centuries after Christ, were taken by the Church Fathers and transformed into a greater thing than the combined parts: Western civilization, which was handed down over the last two thousand years by what we know today as classical Christian education.
THE GREEKS
The two great values of the Greeks were strength and intelligence, as articulated in their literary tradition. The value of strength is illustrated in the first of Homer's great works, the Iliad. It is the story of a warrior, Achilles, who values martial strength and personal honor (which is the individual reputation of strength) over all else. It is about his ability to defeat the Trojans in battle, his angry retirement from the conflict when his honor has been challenged, and his return to the battle where, as we know from other accounts, he is killed because of his one weakness. The value of intelligence is personified in the protagonist of Homer's other great work, the Odyssey. Unlike Achilles, who succeeds due to his physical strength and the strength of his character, Odysseus succeeds through his intelligence. He is "Odysseus of many wiles." He does not rely on physical strength to defeat his enemies, but rather relies on his intelligence. He outsmarts his foes. As time went on, the earlier martial culture of the Greeks gave way to the great intellectual culture that grew out of Athens. This transformation is illustrated in Sophocles' play Ajax, when a meeting of the generals is held after the death of Achilles: They must decide who will receive the armor of their now dead champion. The two nominees are Ajax, the next strongest warrior after Achilles, and Odysseus, known for his subtlety and quickness of mind. The scene represents a symbolic decision point for the Greeks. Will they remain primarily a martial culture, or become known instead for their intellects? The award is given to Odysseus. And, though the Greeks retained their reputation as great warriors, they did so in large part on account of the strategic and tactical abilities of their great generals—Leonidas, Themistocles, Pyrrhus, Lysander, and, of course, Alexander the Great. They also conquered Martin Cothran is the editor of The Classical Teacher and author of Traditional Logic Books I & II, Material Logic, and Classical Rhetoric.
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