Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Hinges ... (ISBN 0385495544)

Cahill's Hinges of History:
This is another of Thomas Cahill's wonderful series he calls the Hinges of Hisory. It is informative and entertainingly written, providing the link between the ancient Greeks and our own art, attitudes and institutions of government, religion and personal values.

Brilliant!:
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.

Accessible, insightful intellectual history of the Greeks:
Thomas Cahill's "Hinges of History" series has emerged as one of the most popular series of intellectual histories ever written, and also the most important. Intellectual history is often written by historians for historians, and you need at least a Master's degree to get past Chapter One. Cahill is among the most accessible intellectual historians writing today, but he cannot be accused of dumbing things down for his audience. Cahill's take on the Greeks is that they have laid the foundation for virtually all of Western Civilization - for both good and bad. For Cahill, being relatively pacifist, has strong reservations about the Greek worship of the cult of the warrior, as exemplified by Achilles and Homer's Iliad. But Cahill also acknowledges that the "Greeks" created archetypes of artists, philosophers, governors, and playwrights that serve our modern world quite well. (I use "Greeks" because, as Cahill rightly points out, the Greeks were hardly a unified group and often the word "Greeks" is used as a synonym for "Athenians.") This is a relatively short work - Cahill has the confidence to make his point succinctly and then move on. Do not pick up this book if you're looking for a comprehensive history of the ancient Greeks or the Hellenic world. He also has the confidence to quote the ancient sources at length, including Pericles' entire funeral oration from the war against the Spartans. Cahill uses Pericles' speech (as well as other quotations) to gain insight into the Greek mind and how the Greeks thoughts in many ways parallel our own. This is a fascinating work. While anyone can benefit from reading all of the books from the Hinges of History series, the series does not have to be read in order. So if you're looking to give Cahill a try and already are a bit familiar with the ancient Greeks, this book is a fine place to start.

A history of us:
Fourth in the Hinges of History series, following up on the Jews (The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Hinges of History)) the Irish (How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)) and Jesus (Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus (Hinges of History)) Cahill wraps up his typically short but powerful summary and popularization (in the best sense of the word) by showing how these disparate influences created our modern world. Cahill has a gift of pulling in seemingly disconnected, trivial and fascinating facts and weaving them into a history of us with insights you will find nowhere else stated so simply and well. For example, here we learn about the Greek way of thinking about life--the ephemeral trumps the material, life persists through reincarnation--how that contrasts with the Hebrew way of thinking--physical life is all there is, the finite soul dies with the body--and how out of these threads we have the Judeo-Christian ethic we call our own today.

A Great Ride:
Again, Mr. Cahill makes ancient times come to life and gives his readers a fresh, organized, and insightful view. Many of the modern era analogies he attempts to establish are biased and clumsy, at best, and have a "tacked-on" feel. This is a minor distraction from a terrific work and I feel as though I have sailed the wine-dark sea.