Book contents
4 - Thucydides and civilization
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Summary
Zeus shows man the way to think,
Setting understanding securely in the midst of suffering.
In the heart there drips instead of sleep
A labor of sorrowing memory;
And there comes to us all
Unwilling prudent measured thought;
The grace of gods who sit on holy thrones
Somehow comes with force and violence.
AeschylusThis chapter examines the consequences of the Peloponnesian War for Athens and Greece. In the course of this analysis I develop the outline for a “quasi-unitarian” reading of Thucydides. I describe four levels to the history, each of whose questions and answers move readers to the next level. To access the deeper levels of the text we must go beyond the explicit and implicit arguments of the narrative, speeches and dialogues to “signs” (sēmata) embedded in their language and structure. Thucydides must also be read against the Greek oral tradition and fifth-century writings, including Herodotus' history, the Hippocratic corpus and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
The first level of the text is about interest, justice and their relationship. The analysis of the origins of war in Book I introduces a tension between interest and justice that becomes increasingly pronounced as the war unfolds.
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- The Tragic Vision of PoliticsEthics, Interests and Orders, pp. 115 - 167Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003