The Greek Conservative Mind

For over ten years I am have been working, intermittently, on a course of lectures and/or written chapters on aspects of Ancient Greek morality, social and political institutions, civilization, literature, and philosophy, that would present the ancient Greeks from a rather different perspective than either the current Marxist-feminist attack on ancient racist patriarchs or the old Liberal defense of the founders of democracy, secular reason, and progress.  Some of the work on this was presented in early courses on ancient history and Greek thought, but this new course is substantially different and in much greater depth.

I have considered first an audio course with additional materials—maps, chronology, bibliography, photos—in a devoted section of the website.  Then I thought it might be done in an audio-visual format, which seemed likely to interest more people.  Unfortunately, we lack the resources we should need to make this happen in any effective way.  It also has occurred to me time after time that whatever small contribution I have ever been able to make has been through the written word.

After much—indeed, far too much—reflection, here is what I have decided.  The primary vehicle should be written and posted, subject, of course, to further revision, in regular installments as a series of “volumes” divided into chapters on our website.  We can think some day, if we like, about a printed version but not just yet.  There will also be the dedicated section containing illustrations, maps, chronology, bibliography, and notes.  Simultaneously, however, I want to do the text of these volumes and chapters as a series of audio lectures, which many people find useful, but those who listen will still be able to look up the printed text and of course the supplementary materials.

The chapters will be both chronological and by topic.  Thus the first chapter, consisting of a series of lectures/sections, will be Early Greece, concentrating on Homer.  One of the themes is to show both how the rather different Greek ethnicities gradually converged into a common Hellenism and also how slow this process was.  Despite all that has been written in denial, much of the Greek conflicts of the sixth and fifth century pitted Ionians against Dorians.

Subsequent Chapters will, therefore,  take up the Ionian Greeks, the Aeolians, and the Dorians with some very specific local history of the great city-cultures of these peoples—Miletus, Thebes and Boeotia, Corinth and Sparta.  Then we move forward to a chapter on Athens.  Along the way there will be various excursus—purely historical narratives but also taking up topics like the Greek concept of reality, man, nature, etc.  Although there will be some detailed and technical material, the emphasis will be on a coherent and entertaining presentation.

I have pretty much done the first three chapters and have a good deal of written material for several more.  As for a schedule, I think I should always have at least one more chapter finished than the one we are posting.  Each chapter will be presented as a series of sections/lectures (about 35 minutes each?).  We can and probably schedule in breaks between chapters.  In the end of course, a reader will be able to do the whole thing at his own rate.

This all requires a great deal of work and we should charge a modest  fee--initially per chapter-- for all but Platinum subscribers.  Gold and Silver subscribers would of course receive a discount from the price to the general public.

I invite your response.  I'll do it, even if no one shows any interest, but it would be useful to receive opinions and criticism.