“Who killed Homer?”
By
V. D. Hanson and J Heath
Reviewed by Peter Maniatis
Henson’s and Heath’s work is about the erosion of Classical Studies in the universities of America and the consequences this demise would have on western civilization. It is an extended investigation into the causes of the downgrading of Classical Studies, especially Classical Greek Studies. It is also an important exposition of Ancient Greek literature and its historical impact on western thought. Finally it is a guide to rescue the Greeks from the attack of metamodernistic intellectuals who despise the wisdom and art of those 'White Europeans of the Male Sex Who no Longer Exist "- the ancient Greeks – prefer the subjectivity of the new worldview.
The authors teach classics at American universities -the first is a Hellenist and the second a Latinist. Both are concerned with the erosion of the Classics, especially of Ancient Greek, in schools and colleges of America and to make this demise known to the general public, wrote the book "Who Killed Homer?".
Concerned about the rampant materialism that characterizes our era and for the multicultural slant of contemporary American society, they develop the belief that the study of the ancient Greeks would create first, a critical logic to control the rampant materialism and secondly, give dominance to Greek culture over all other world cultures.
To bring back interest for the Greeks, the authors recommend the separation of the universities from the technical colleges and the establishment of new learning methods that will recruit all three natural human capacities, logic, passion and the senses (mind, will (anger), desire, as Plato would say).
It must be noted that:
1. Both authors are not of Hellenic origin, so they write from an American perspective.
2. When they are writing about Ancient Greek Culture they mean both the material and the ethical.
3. When they are writing about the Greeks, they mean all these people, modern and ancient, who’s education is based on Ancient Greek Thought.
The authors claim that for at least the last two hundred years, the Ancient Greeks were the intellectual force behind the culture of America. The American children were enlightened by Greek wisdom. Important elements of the American Constitution, such as free speech, individual rights, control of the military by the people, separation of religious and political power, equality and enhancement of middle-class, private property, freedom of scientific research and the like, come only from the ancient Greeks (73).
Among millions of students graduating each year from American Colleges and Universities, only 600 have majored in Classical Greek or Latin studies. But even those graduates know less about the Greeks themselves and more about the relationship between the Greeks and contemporary politics and racial differences.
The postmodern worldview, the authors say, undermines the Greeks. It ranks Greek civilization on par with African, Middle Eastern, Asian and other Mediterranean cultures, new or old. So now Classical Greek literature has no more interest or luster than any other.
For this state of affairs the authors blame the classicists themselves. Who not only do not react against the new worldview, but they have surrendered to it so that they can advance their own material interests with the result in undermining their own institutions.
(p. 56-7).
So why learn about the Greeks and thus save them from destruction?
Hanson and Heath will answer, what they want to save is a special and difficult way of viewing the world.
Homer then, the name in the book’s title, is the ancient Greek view of life.
To give some understanding of this kind of view of life, a brief summary is needed for both theories, Hellenism and Postmodernism, the current world view that seems most intellectuals of the world have accepted.
In the history of the Western world, people seeking to support new ideas have turned to Ancient Greece for inspiration. They have used the Ancient Greeks paradigmatically. So historically, the inspiration of the western world comes from wise men like Plato, Aristotle, Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Homer and others.
From about 350 to 1500 AD the power on all facets of human life, whether religious or other, can only be found in religious scriptures, the Holy Scriptures, the Gospel. The explanation of the existence of God and of the laws of nature can only be found in these Holly writings. Science, as we know it today, or like the ancient Greeks knew it, did not exist.
With the renaissance the attention turned to the Ancient Greeks. This gave rise to the enlightenment, the French and the American revolution Democratic governance and other such changes came directly from Ancient Greece. This evolution fueled by Greek thought lasted until recently.
This kind of worldview is encompassed in:
1. Free speech
2. Civil Rights
3. Control of the military by the citizens
4. Separation of religious and political power
5. Equality of the middle class
6. Private property
7. Freedom of scientific research
8. and all such things with absolute values that are vital in the Western world society(18).
The current worldview of postmodernism can not be easily defined, but a few points can give a rough understanding of the difference between it and the Ancient Greek one.
1. In the 1970s and later, with the emergence of feminism, in order to overcome the prejudices concerning women, it was necessary to change the way we view society, or the world in general.
2. This change begets other changes.
3. Truth now is not absolute. Truth depends on the situation, place and time.
4. So to find the truth in various cases, or to find what is truly meant by an author in a particular literary work, we ought to deconstruct the work and look at it from various perspectives. This scrutiny may turn out to establish a truth that may even be different from what the author himself indented to be .
5. Homer's Odyssey (for example) viewed from the perspectives, of women, man, race, social policy, economic policy, and so on, will give us different understandings that are all valid. In other words, knowledge of Homer is no longer objective. Reading his works by two different people, does not give us the same meaning. Each meaning is true to each reader, even though one is different from the other. All interpretations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are true.
Such worldview promotes relativism. Your own opinion on any issue, is as good as mine, even though it is different. Any culture is not better than any another and so on.
With the Hellenic world view, although everything is in flux, there is also reason (logos), the rational element that stabilizes all, as Heraclitus would say. The Hellenic worldview finds in justice, democracy, free speech, and philosophy, absolute ideas and values that are not exchanged for anything.
This worldview, Hanson and Heath do not want to let it disappear.
Now, what does the western civilization have in common with the Ancient Greek one? Hanson’s and Heath’s answer is, Western Civilization is Greek based.
Three main common features that characterize the Western and Ancient cultures is abundance in resources, freedom and security (17) -modern western concepts of a coordinate state, which are vital for all people and are sought by most people of the world.
The similarities are then:
1. Free speech
2. Civil Rights
3. Control of the military by the citizens,
4. Separation of religious and political power,
5. Equality in the middle classes
6. Private property,
7. Freedom of scientific research
8. Free market
9. Democracy
11. Technology - to name just a few
But one would ask what is the problem? We in the West still have all of the above. Hanson and Heath tell us that material culture is spreading rapidly almost worldwide (126). They are also telling us that most people in the world seek and want this material culture. But, they claim, the ethical culture at the same time is eroded.
The westerners no longer feel disgraced or ashamed for their bad acts. The ethos or character or virtue of a man or a woman is no longer pursued above all as it was with Aristotle and Plato, but it has become relevant. And so:
1. Happiness is poorly defined
1. The conservation of the environment has a lot to be desired.
2. There are no viable solutions to the devastating wars.
3. We have no success in education
4. There is little rational debate in our negotiations
And other such things that only the Greeks can enlighten us to look for solutions.
This new worldview enabled multicultural trends in America, which the authors criticize. Those who support a multicultural society, talk about accepting different cultures to coexist in the same state. But they also talk about one culture is no better than another but only just different.
For Hanson and Heath and for the Greeks, is not race but culture that separates people. They are critical of the multicultural trends but they do not object to a multiracial society (97). One society that endorses many races with one culture. And that is the Western civilization that naturally springs from the Ancient Greeks. So not a multicultural society, but a multi-racial state.
The writers in order to justify the above contention, place the Hellenic culture in the highest position among all other cultures, ancient and modern and they support this claim by the following:
1. The Ancient Greek civilization is not just different but it is totally opposed to any culture of its time and its geographical place.
2. The Polis State of the ancients is not of an African or an Asian inspiration, but it is an institution that deliberately contrasts the eastern approaches to governance, literature, religion, war, civil rights, citizenship and science.
3. Ancient Greek Wisdom is not Mediterranean but Anti-Mediterranean (57)
And so we see Herodotus is not some writer in the courtyard of the royal palaces of Egypt or Persia. The Persian encomiast courtiers are not in the caliber of Homer. The Persian Court Sycophants are not a parliament, the tenants of land and serfs are not landowners and other such practices place the Greeks in opposition to the other peoples of Middle East and Africa. And so we cannot place Greek civilization at the same level as the others. The Greeks were not imitating the others as some commentators have us believe.
The list of contradictions continues with parallels of the ancient world with the world of our times.
1. The parliament of the Athenians is not a Pharaoh dominated gathering or a religious Synod. In the Athenian Parliament free citizen members debate, offer advice and make decisions. In other systems a single person or a group of conspirators or a theocracy, decide and give orders.
2. In the Hellenic Polis State there are three classes, not two. There are the rich and the poor, but there are also the middle class that lifts the poor upwards towards the rich and at the same time checks the rich to a downwards movement - a natural phenomenon for mankind (59).
3. In the Hellenic or Western state, in a state of free thinking one can be critical of the elite without fear of hearing a knock on his/her door at midnight. One can claim that Zeus does not exist anymore, and not be afraid that he may lose his head.
4. Religion is separate from civil authority and subordinate to it, not the other way around.
5. Military power functions under political control and supervised by it and not vice versa.
Hanson and Heath tell us everyone desires abundance of necessary goods, liberty and security. But only the Western culture can provide all three.
The list of ideas that the Western world has inherited from the Greeks continue:
In Politics:
1. The ideal of justice
2. Freedom to dissent.
3. Free economy
4. Private ownership of property
5. The idea of three social classes
In religion:
1. Dualism: body - soul, used in Christianity to the idea of eternity.
2. Rituals that now serving One God
In Wisdom
1. Absolute values in a world full of uncertainties.
2. Liability greater than rights.
3. Shame more powerful than private guilt.
4. The man must love truth just for the sake of truth, etc.
Since Hellenic culture is preferable, multiculturalism has no place in a western state. So to progress towards abundance, freedom and security in every nation the globalization of Hellenic culture is necessary. For this to happen a drastic change in the way of doing classical studies at universities is required.
Hanson and Heath suggest, first, the separation of universities from the technical colleges and secondly modify the teaching of classics so as to be made more accessible and attractive to students.
The collapse of education in American universities the authors say, has started since the technical studies took priority and technological schools were merged with universities.
From the 1960s onward, graduates with degrees in technology, sociology and psychology were sought after and were well paid. This is the consequence of a world where materialism and maximizing profits is the incentive for success. Choosing courses in these disciplines will certainly be preferable. And so fewer students choose to study the classics.
The authors, however, say that the mentality 'winner takes all "of Americans is wrong. The study of classical studies can play an important role in the materialistic culture that develops so fast in today's world. Hellenic material culture needs to be accompanied by the ethical part of Hellenic culture. The general education and training of the young western citizen is not complete if his/her ethical education is incomplete.
According to Henson and Heath, only the study of the Ancient Greeks can achieve a western ethos, character, which will enable us to solve the problems of our time. By studying the Greeks every man finds truth and then lives accordingly and not just advocating it.
Relativism, multiculturalism and deconstruction that characterizes our time, needs Hellenic culture with its absolute values to create harmony. Harmony between people, nature and human life that only rational thought can bring about.
I found that Hanson and Heath are defending the Greeks with vigor and wide knowledge that is unprecedented in our times to restore absolute values that are not measured in monetary terms.
So the authors of "Who Killed Homer" want to attract the attention of ordinary citizens in the west what they will lose if the classics are not revived in the schools and universities in America. The responsibility of the demise of Homer, who in fact represents the entire Hellenic literature lies with the classicists themselves. With their inertia and lack of courage they did not live up to the challenge of postmodernism, but instead they retreated for personal gain. They believe, however, that the resurrection of Homer is possible when dedicated and brave teachers once again take positions in education so that the interest in the classics becomes popular.
Peter Maniatis
