In his book sailing the Dark wine sea, Thomas Cahill tries to give the reader an insight into Greek society and civilization through the lives and words of politicians, playwrights, poets, philosophers and artistes through an immaculate narrative. The book sailing the dark wine sea tells of some of the significant Greeks inventions such as the western warfare, mystical prayer, logic and statecraft. In this book, therefore, Thomas Cahill evaluates the Greek legacy through the good and the bad. He explores the origins of the Greek culture, the formation of the city states, the birth if western literature, poetry, drama, philosophy, art and architecture. Through this book Cahill tires to bring out the fact that Greek culture was first and foremost significant to western civilization and remains relevant to the present.
To him the Greek culture gave us the foundation for our intellectual lives. It is the Greeks who are responsible for our vocabulary, logic and system of categorization. The Greeks have also contributed greatly to philosophy, mathematics, medicine, physics through the intellectual tools used in these fields of study. The Greeks also shaped the Christian outlook, created western militarism and through making the warrior the epitome of the ideal human being, influenced the assumption that only males should have the right to citizenship. Their segregation and discrimination of women is still felt in today's societies. It is these aspects of the Greek culture and the Greeks in general and their relevance to society today that Cahill tries to bring out in sailing the dark wine sea through vivid, intellectual and insightful depiction of Greek personalities, deities, systems among others.
This is evident in his introduction of his books known as the hinges of history by informing the reader that the story is on the evolution of western sensibility, a narration of how we have become who we are and why we think and feel the way we do. He goes ahead to recognize the Greeks as having left us with a world more varied and complex, more awesome and delightful , more beautiful and strong than we found emphasizing the significant roles of the Greeks played in providing us with the world we currently live in (Cahill 4). This is one of the major arguments that guides the, depiction and narration of events in sailing the dark wine sea. Just as the name suggests, "Why the Greek matter" the basic theme is to how the Greeks have influenced and remain relevant to the present and the future.
[...] The transition was however not smooth, it was marred by memories and longing for the old system which the Greeks were more accustomed to. Cahill supports this view with the example of the Irish lyric called hag of beare” in which an old woman who became nun nostalgically remembers the old days when she was not a Christian. The old woman longs for her past life, but is conflicted as her past does not consistent with her current Christian beliefs . [...]
[...] To Cahill, there is nothing that the present society can attempt to discover that the Greeks have not already discovered. Cahill attributes our present feelings, desires, hopes to learn and experiences to the Greeks, “whatever we set to find, we see that the Greeks have been there before us, and we meet them on our way back” (Cahill 264). References: Cahill, Thomas. Sailing the dark wine sea: why the Greeks matter. Knopf doublesday publishing group, 2010. [...]
[...] Now that you are you are faded ghost as hell . The Greeks can thus be argued to be responsible for inspiring our great regard for music, the high esteem by which we place our musicians, the celebrity status we accord them and our disdain for people who have no appreciation for good music or an ear for the same (Cahill 88). The Greeks also played a significant role in religion in particular Christianity .The Greeks though eventually embracing Christianity were initially opposed to it and found Christianity to be rather illogical. [...]
[...] He goes ahead to recognize the Greeks as having left us with a world more varied and complex, more awesome and delightful , more beautiful and strong than we found emphasizing the significant roles of the Greeks played in providing us with the world we currently live in (Cahill 4). This is one of the major arguments that guides the, depiction and narration of events in sailing the dark wine sea. Just as the name suggests, the Greek matter” the basic theme is to how the Greeks have influenced and remain relevant to the present and the future Cahill argues that the influence of the Greeks is through Greek poems and books. Greek literature began with homer. [...]
[...] That in the journey of life the end is just as important as the beginning. Cahill also evaluates Homers poems in terms of his views towards militarism and personal feeling which is the ability of one to sympathize, mourn, and cherish family relationships. This ability at the time was a reserve of women. Cahill emphasizes that though the militarism of the Greeks was brutal it is not entirely a thing of the past. This he does through quoting Simon Weil in 1939 (WW II) who observed that that dreamed that force . [...]
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