Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Thomas Cahill's fourth book, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, is part of his ongoing seven book history of western civilization entitled The Hinges of History. The book is a spectacular, wild ride through Grecian philosophy, art, politics and culture from its infancy through to its demise. Cahill writes so fluidly and descriptively one would think of him as an accomplished novelist first, historian second. This is not the case however as Cahill exhibits historical brilliance throughout the entire text.

The book culminates with the advent of Western history in what Cahill describes as 'the Meeting of the Waters, the point at which the two great rivers of our cultural patrimony ' the Greco-Roman and the Judeo-Christian ' flow into each other to become the mighty torrent of Western Civilization.'

Having been recently reading N.T. Wright's excellent, and exhaustive book ' The Resurrection of the Son of God, I recognized immediately Cahill's historical support of a main premise of Wright's that the concept of bodily resurrection, though foreshadowed in Hebrew history, was unexpected and a new work of God reflected in Christianity and borrowed from no one.

Cahill writes ''the idea of physical resurrection struck them (the Greeks) as ghoulish. Who wants his body back anyway, once he's got rid of it? Matter is the very principle of unintelligibility. Best to be done with it. For the Jews, who had little or no belief in the immortality of the soul, only salvation in one's body could have any meaning."

I highly recommend this book as a must read. Cahill packs ridiculous amounts of information into a small space and much of it spectacularly relevant to our own experience today. I should warn readers that Cahill often becomes vulgar as he is describing sexual attitudes in Grecian art and culture. Whether this is because he wants to reflect the culture as realistically as possible or this is simply his own character it is hard to tell though I suspect a mix of both is the truth.

The book is a classic as his series is bound to be'read it.

As a Greek-American, a college professor who has taught a course on the ancient Greeks (Hellenes), and something of a fan of Thomas Cahill, I was very excited to see his latest book on the rise of the Western Liberal Tradition, "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter." Perhaps because my expectations were so high, I was a little disappointed. It is a worthy volume in his "Hinges of History" series, but it is not without some problems. But let us be honest, Cahill is a humanist and speaks of ancient Hellas from the perspective of the humanities in general rather than history or political science and that may be the problem here. Much of his historical narrative is episodic and misses some vital points. For instance, despite his title, "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea," he fails to emphasize the importance of the sea to Greek life or mention the battle of Salamis, "Holy Salamis," which according to many historians, including Victor Davis Hanson, saved Western culture from the Iranian (Achaemenid Persian) onslaught. Cahill devotes a chapter to "The Warrior: How to Fight," but makes no mention of this vital battle or the importance of Hellenic warfare by use of the trireme. The battle is not even included in his brief Chronology (later battles, Plataea and Mycale, are mentioned). True, some have questioned the overall impact of Salamis, but to the Hellenes it was a victory sent by the gods. It is interesting that this subject is missing but other, rather obscure cultural elements such as a somewhat odd emphasis on Greek sexual preferences, are included. Still, this is a valuable volume that will be embraced by the general public. In this context, his discussion of Christianity's debt to the Greeks is quite accurate and illuminating. And like a number of others he reminds us of the current relevance of Thucydides, in light of American imperial temptaions in the Persian Gulf. Even so, the West's debt to a people that gave us the single most defining element of the Western Liberal Tradition, "secularism" and the division of church and state, the very notion that the people who live by law should have the right to write them and govern themselves according to written constitutions, is only a passing reference here, and reduces the impact of what could have been a much better book.

This is a disappointing book. Its title suggests an intellectual adventure of the new, and its subtitle promises that it will be about why the Greeks are important to us -- in other words, what the ancient Greeks offered that is distinct to them and that made western civilization possible. This book does not deliver on the promises of its title.

It is a rehash of standard scholarship delivered in language of the common man (common according to Cahill). As such it presents what amounts to a laundry-list of non-essentials that does not clearly differentiate the Greeks from other cultures, nor account for western civilization. For example, this list includes the following Greek "contributions" to the West: blood-lusting militarism, vowels, the subconscious yearning for community, unfettered discourse and inquiry, homosexuality, pornography, orgiastic debauchery, slavery, democracy, political theatre, the idea of innate guilt, xenophobia, sexism, racism, imperialism, "help" inventing things like philosophy, science and history, the Socratic Method, the syllogism, transcendentalism and the divine, improvements in architecture and sculpture, pathos and yearning for an impossible ideal, pedophilia, reckless conceit, the idea of self-sacrifice for the common good. How can the reader determine what out of this hash made western civilization possible? In the spirit of cultural relativism, Cahill offers no guidance.

Cahill's list of non-essentials ignores the most fundamental Greek contribution that made western civilization possible: the discovery and use of reason. Because Cahill does not recognize this foundational, defining contribution of the Greeks, he cannot differentiate those aspects of the Greeks that are due to their discovery of reason versus those inherited from irrational, primitive cultures that in no way made the West possible.

All in all, Cahill's work is without distinction -- it is typical of a certain stream of academia still knocking around since WWII that remains fascinated with unreason. For example Cahill devotes over 20 pages to Plato and his Socrates, quoting extensively in loving detail, while he offers only a couple of pages in passing reference to Aristotle. This is a standard pattern of some academics who still find comfort in the rambling, transcendental dialogues of Plato, and chilly apprehension before the disciplines of Aristotle. On this score there is nothing new here.

The banality of this book is sealed by its failure to acknowledge that there is such a thing as human greatness, or to name what it is about western civilization that is truly great as compared with other cultures. The cultural relativism of this book, so in-line with mainstream thinking today, renders the Greeks as just another group of people that did some things that we sort of do too. The only interest offered in this alleged adventure is knowing that the Greeks were the first to do a lot of what we do. How boring.

The only originality this work offers to the great conversation about the classical world is the author's flippant "common man" style that includes four-letter words and silly footnotes about banning SUVs and Donald Rumsfeld of all things.

If readers want books that do offer a view of why the Greeks matter, they are much better off exploring Edith Hamilton's The Greek Way, or The Greek Achievement by Charles Freeman (who Cahill cattily describes in his Sailing book as an "amateur" -- a projection on Cahill's part.) For the best view to the Greeks, the Loeb Classical Library offers a true adventure over the wine-dark sea.