The Bottom Line
In a non-pretentious format, "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea - Why the Greeks Matter" does indeed show to those interested why the ancient Greeks should matter -- even to modern Americans.
Pros
- Clear, easy reading
- Photographs of representative artwork
- Puts all of ancient Greece into a compact framework
Cons
- Needless profanity and slang
- Some factual errors
Description
- Retells various important Greek myths and puts them in historical context.
- Describes the contributions the Greeks made in all aspects of culture.
- Discusses Plato's Republic's cave and the sex discussion in the Symposium.
- Contains many photographs of ancient Greek sculpture and pottery.
- Compares ancient democracy and leaders with modern politics and political leaders.
- Catalogues important writers and philosophers.
- Drenched with facts and anecdotes.
Guide Review - Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea - Why the Greeks Matter
In eight chapters Thomas Cahill covers the history of ancient Greece in a light, informal manner, using anecdotes and comparisons with modern mores and political figures. Although Cahill has been criticized for exactly this modern outlook, this seems to me crucial to a look at a distant world with an eye to making it relevant as the subtitle "Why the Greeks Matter" demands. If we do indeed have problems with people who are racist, classist, and sexist, as Cahill says the ancient Greeks were, they must have other redeeming characteristics if they're to be worth studying. They developed art, adapted Egyptian mathematics, added vowels to the Semitic consonants to produce the alphabet, produced innovations in various literary fields, created science and philosophy, and introduced the democratic system. It is a bit hard to decide the audience for Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea. It is not a scholarly work, nor is it a work for people who can't tell Ancient from Medieval History. A certain familiarity with ancient Greece seems crucial, but if you already have that understanding, "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea" is somewhat redundant. Still, it is hard to keep the wealth of detail in mind at all times, so Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea seems a refresher for those of us who originally learned about ancient Greece -- whether at the Met, like Cahill, or in school -- in our youth and have since forgotten some of the lessons we learned.
