They Were The First Westerns: The Greek Way By Edith Hamilton

“The Greek Way” by Edith Hamilton

“They were the first Westerns; the spirit of the West, the modern spirit, is a Greek discovery and the place of the Greeks is in the modern world” (Hamilton 19). In the first chapter of her book the author suggests that ancient Greeks created a basis for the modern Western civilization. Hamilton admitted people can have access to the limited part of this cultural heritage, but they still reap its benefits. She highlighted that the Greek civilization significantly differed from its contemporaries with words: “a new civilization had arisen in Athens, unlike all that had gone before” (Hamilton 16). Hamilton claimed that this unusualness in the case of altitude to people and knowledge made its heritage so important.

Both these civilizations had own achievements and power that could surpass Greece’s results in some spheres: “compared with the Egyptians, we are childish mathematicians”, Hamilton cited Plato (28). She also mentioned that Indians were more skillful in this field than Greeks. But these civilizations had less impact on the Western world because of their attitude to people’s life and knowledge’s availability. Ancient Egyptians were interested more in the afterlife than in their current existence. They created a culture that was built on the death: “countless numbers of human beings for countless numbers of centuries thought of death as that which was nearest and most familiar to them” (Hamilton 23). The after-life is a common thing for many religions. However, some of them were too focused on it that made people (at least society’s lower classes) to neglect their existence in favor of the future happiness. Individuals did not want to worry about their education or life conditions too much in this environment. Upper classes also did not aim for the knowledge