Who were the Ancient Greeks, or Why should we study them?
One might wonder why we should even be talking about an ancient culture in the 21st century. With global problems stemming from possible nuclear war, international terrorism, disintegration of the economy, all of which would seem to demand more of our attention than a bunch of dead people, the remains of which are scattered and few. Who are these ancient Greeks, and why should we even bother to have a class devoted to their literature? I would like to pose this question and hope throughout the course of this semester, we will be able to have some intelligent answer as a response to it. For the present, I would also like to point out that there is another seeming paradox concerning these ancient people. A recent book on the ancient Greek language contains the following sentence “an introduction to the language of the people who began Western Civilization.” This is a striking claim. This claim suggests that these Greeks, perhaps self-consciously, laid the foundations of the very civiliza
