Misinterpreting Ancient Greek Culture

Those of you reading my blog consistentely (hopefully I'm not speaking to imaginary people) may have found yourself wondering if my last two posts (Why Europe and Pol. Soc. vs. Philosophy) were related in any way. Before today, I would have said yes, but not all that much, but my reading of an opinion piece in the New York Times this morning jarred me into synthesizing the two.

In his column, "The Tipsy Hero," Alexander (good name!) Nazaryan wrote about the prevalence of alcohol (particularly wine) in Ancient Greek writings. His primary example was The Odyssey, Homer's epic poem about the great hero Odysseus. Throughout The Odyssey, there are countless references to wine and the pouring of libations for the gods. Yet it was not the wine which spurred me into cognitive action, but rather a throwawy parenthetical phrase inserted by Mr. Nazaryan: (in reference to the Greeks) "a people whose highest ideal was 'the examined life'."

Let us look back for a minute on Greek culture and see if "the examined life" was really their highest ideal. The reference to the examined life comes from arguably the most famous quote from The Apology, written by Plato, intended to be an account of Socrates' trial. Socrates, allegedly famously claimed that "the unexamined life is not worth living." To Socrates, this was no doubt true; he pursued people who thought they knew something around Athens trying to get them to examine if what they thought they knew was actually true.

The question remains whether this life examination was true of Greek culture in general, or merely Socrates himself. The answer is painstakingly clear. The Athenians killed Socrates for his beliefs and methods. They got so pissed off at him for biting (Socrates' term) them into self-reflection that the made him drink hemlock. This does not sound like the actions of culture intent upon reflecting. But this begs another question. If the Greeks weren't all about the examined life, why is it a commonly held belief in Western society that we are descended (culturally) from the Greeks in our enlightenment and wisdom (which is superior to the rest of the world's)?

When Western historians set about to explain why the West had reached a pinnacle of dominance in world history, they wanted a reason that justified their dominance. Saying, "we're dominant because we slaughtered, massacred, destroyed, exploited, conquered, and gave disease to the rest of the civilizations in the world" isn't particularly flattering to Western society. So instead, historians turned to the "rich tradition of thought and enlightenment" present in Western society with their foremost example being that of Ancient Greece and their philosophical glory.

It is undoubtedly true that the Greeks had a rich tradition of philosophy - a tradition that spanned many generations and dominanted monotheistic thinking (that of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim worlds) for over 1,000 years. Yet historians, in looking at Greek culture, misinterpreted the philosophic writings as representative of culture as a whole. Clearly, the Athenians were not "a people whose highest ideal was the examined life." To such nonsense is absurd (and irresponsible of the New York Times to print).

It may have been an ideal espoused by the philosophers of Greece, but the people were not of the same sentiment. Socrates himself noticed this phenomenon and commented on it in The Apology, the very same work Mr. Nazaryan must have been referencing. In a phrase commonly thought to be Socrates' opinions about most of the men of Athens, Socrates says, "My excellent man, you're an Athenian, you belong to the greatest city, renowned for its wisdom and strength; are you not ashamed that you take care to acquire as much wealth as possible - and reputation and honor - but that about wisdom and truth, about how your sould may be in the best possible condition, you take neither care nor thought?" Socrates here addresses Meletus, one of his accusers. Well, the jury (a group representative of the population) decided it was better to have people like Meletus running around caring about wealth, reputation, and honor, than it was to have Socrates around being obnoxious, but encouraging the citizens of Athens to examine their lives.

This goes to show the dangers of misinterpreting history and the dangers of not examining things in context. Yes, I agree, "the unexamined life is not worth living," but we must remember that this is the view of one man, and that he is not all men of his time and place.