Friday, October 15, 2004
The Ancient Greeks
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), On the Manners of the Ancients:
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What was achieved in Greece between the birth of Pericles in 499 B.C. and the death of Aristotle in 322 B.C. was undoubtedly, whether considered in itself or with reference to the effects it has produced upon the subsequent destinies of civilized men, the most memorable in the history of the world. So potent has been the appeal of Greece, so passionate the devotion which it arouses, that there is almost no sphere of spiritual or intellectual activity which has not been touched by its living flame. Ever since the Italian Renaissance of the 15th Century brought a new interest in the ancient world, what the Greeks said or thought or made, has affected living men and women and enabled them to discover new truths about themselves, their conditions and their capacities.
