Greek To Us
The Fascinating Ancient Greek That Shapes Our World
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- $249.00
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- $249.00
Descripción editorial
Ancient Greek lives on in our culture in surprising ways. Sometimes funny - the word for an actor, hupokrites, gives us 'hypocrite'; sometimes beautiful - an astronaut is literally a sailor of the skies. And that's before we get to the myths which gave us our Achilles heel or our Midas Touch. And what about crocodile tears, which comes from the Greek's belief that crocodiles cried while eating their victims!
This is a learned but always entertaining journey through the world of the Ancient Greeks, their extraordinary language and how it has shaped our own understanding of the world today. After all, what is language but the frame through which we understand the world? Davie aims to bring more than just humour, he seeks to trace the thread of ancient Greek thought that runs through our own civilization, always with the lightness of touch and fascinating etymology. We meet Eros and Aphrodite, Alexander the Great and Oscar Wilde, the stoics, Epicurus and Sparta.
While this is a book about language and the touching and illuminating presence of the ancient Greeks in our current words, it's also about how Ancient Greece shapes our culture today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Classicist and translator Davie (Et Tu, Brute?) offers an erudite, entertaining look at how the ancient Greeks have left an imprint on the modern world through their words. Surveying the realms of art, science, warfare, love and friendship, and more, Davie shows that many concepts taken for granted today have their roots firmly planted in the fertile soil of ancient Greece, from drama, tragedy, and comedy to oligarchy, demagogue, tyrant, and politics (derived from politika, meaning "‘matters to do with the polis' or ‘citizen body' "). Davie shows how the nuanced nature of these inherited terms adds richness to modern life. For instance, Aristotle drew a clear distinction between the king and the tyrant: the king consulted the interests of his subjects, the tyrant only his own, a notion that inspired America's founding fathers to put in the Constitution a series of roadblocks against a tyrant seizing power. Davie posits some strange and surprising lineages, as well, including the possibility that the melody of "The Star-Spangled Banner" can be traced, via a bawdy British drinking song, back to the ancient poet Anacreon. This offers rich food for thought about the way language informs human experience, history, and culture.
