Kim Gentes

There are few cultures which ring as much interest to the historian as the Ancient Greeks. As part of his "Hinges of History" series, Thomas Cahill endeavors to appropriate history, archeology, legends and song into a unique narrative of the Greek origins, expanse, collapse and ending. In "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter" Cahill leans so prominently on the texts of Greek lore, one is scarcely able to sift between myth and matter. This frustrated me at first, since he seemed to imply that the Greek psyche was built (along with the language) as an indistinguishable amalgam of story and reality. A story of Zeus would give way to information about archeology; quotes of Iliad and Odyssey fade into history about Plato and Socrates. This was the first of a series of pains you must endure to get to the point of enjoying this book. Let's get those out of the way before we move on to the admirable qualities of this volume.

For the person looking for scholarly insight into Ancient Greek culture, they may come away saddened by Cahill's narrative here. Only a few pages are given to some very important subjects, such as the development of pre-historic Greek culture (and what is told leans strongly on the questionable sources of Heinrich Schliemann- though he admits this). Even more strange is the almost complete absence of any telling of the story of Alexander the Great, who would seem to be one of the most prominent figures in the history of the world, let alone the Greek narrative. In just 3 sentences, Cahill introduces, explains and kills off Alexander. This seems like a vast exclusion to me.

In addition, Cahill seems to be overly assertive that classical historians of academic stripes should be the final authority on theories of sociological progress and development. He takes swipes at Jared Diamond's efforts as a scientist/historian, when he says :

Nor can we legitimately trace some single simple element—say, the way microbes worked in our favor or our strategic geographical position—as giving the West its superiority. Hanson takes to task the popular biohistorian Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) on just this point: “The efforts of those who seek to reduce history to biology and geography deprecate the power and mystery of culture, and so often turn desperate.… Land, climate, weather, natural resources, fate, luck, a few rare individuals of brilliance, natural disaster, and more—all these play their role in the formation of a distinct culture, but it is impossible to determine exactly whether man, nature, or chance is the initial catalyst for the origins of Western civilization [emphasis mine].”[1]

If his jealous jab of calling Diamond a "popular biohistorian" doesn't seem overt enough (Cahill would seem to be the last person who should be snubbing people for writing for the masses on scholarly subjects) his self-serving intentions manifest full force in his next paragraph, when he says :

To inquire into the ways in which an unpredictable historical combination—in this case, the combination of dogged military practicality with unprecedented citizen responsibility—may generate a new cultural force that has tremendous impact on the world over many centuries brings us as close as we are likely to come to the deep mysteries of the historical process.[2]

Apparently for Cahill, the only thing that can "bring us as close as we are likely to come" is to use the study of the "historical process" (IE. the kind of process that apparently only a historian as Cahill can use), and ignore biological science, linguistics, anthropology and archeology that don't support his own theories. It feels more than a bit childish to begin a book by slapping all the other kids on the playground, but hey, it's Cahill.

Finally, the last angst that is embedded in this book is the author's unceasing use of the f-word. Presumably sex is a topic of great interest to the Greeks, and therefore makes it a point for much writing. But his colloquialisms assumed in translation are added to by his backhanded writing style that leans into the cursing mode whenever he gets the chance. And he gets a lot of them.

But with those slights taken care of, the story told in "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea" is both lush and human, grand and yet debasing. Cahill isn't shy about his goal, as he states:

"For me, the historian’s principal task should be to raise the dead to life." [3]

This is precisely what this book does. Cahill weaves a story that one can imagine a 5th century BC Greek telling. The figures of Agammemnon, Achilles and Hector seem as real as the the scientific progression of Aristotle. Even more so. The book focuses on the chronological progression of Greek language, culture, art and thought.

Because Greek becomes the lingua franca of the ancient world, and (along with latin) essential to a large portion of remaining historical documents, Cahill reminds you throughout the book of the concepts and words that continue to impact our own world to this day (as well as important ways it has impacted it historically). Probably here is an area where even more time could have been taken to draw the link between Greek conquest of the ancient world (via Alexandar) and the language and trade routes created by the same, and how those essentially "paved the way" for Roman domination of the ancient world. But again, since Alexander recieves no space, those points are left untouched.

Culturally, as I mentioned Cahill discusses varying degrees of detail on areas including womens roles/rights, government, sexuality and politics. Art becomes a main point for the book particularly around the depiction of humanity as epitomised through the statues of kouros - the ancient Greek classical renditions of the young male, traditionally nude. You learn much about how the depiction of humanity from Cahill's understanding here. How the Kritian boy (a famous example of a kouros) came to be, how this art form was aided by (and helped develop) out understanding of both anatomical structure of the human body and would later color our psychology of how we see ourselves. The book explores even the impact of the kouros model into the 20th century when Nasa represented human beings in a similar fashion the first discs that were sent deep into space on early Pioneer space craft (particularly the figures of the man and woman, where you see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque#Figures_of_a_man_and_a_woman that NASA themselves recognize the rendition as being tied to Greek antiquity). Cahill belabors the point of kouros to the point that he states, without reservation, that it may have been the most impactive single concept the Greeks passed down to the rest of civilization. 

Of course, there is a sea of regular characters that aren't forgotten, such as Socrates, Plato, Pythagorus, Artistotle, Hypocrates and more. The roots of such foundational thinkers that are located in ancient Greek world come alive in this book. But again, much less is made of the details of scientific weight of these people or their theories than could be.

In the end, one feels as though they have experienced ancient Greek life more than taken a well structured series of lessons on Greek accomplishments. You understand the nuances Cahill is attempting (and succeeding) at making related to this ancient culture, and he is careful to point out that it is those nuances of thought that penetrate such vast areas of science, philosophy, language and art even today.

Having read all of the books in Cahill's "Hinges of History" (many of them multiple times), I needed two complete passes at this book to feel like I "got" enough out of it to both write a cogent review and digest the narrative. To be honest, this book seems the weakest of the "Hinges" series. Cahill does so much effusing on sexuality as to make it seem more his obsession than part of his investigation. The volume is certainly worth reading, but not as a matter of technical or scientific history or accomplishment. He does give you the sense of weight of Greek thought on world history, but does that without largely tracing extensive details in mathematics, science or philosophy other than list names and categories.

If you are thinking of reading it to cover the entire "Hinges" series, it is definitely a "must read". If you want to "get into the head" of an ancient Greek, this is about as close as possible as you will get. But if you are looking for a particularly strong historical reference for ancient Greek culture, thought and people, this isn't the right book.

Amazon Book Link: http://amzn.to/PHrJOD

Review by Kim Gentes

[1] Cahill, Thomas (2010-04-21). Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Kindle Location 912-917). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. 

[2] Ibid., Kindle Location 918

[3]  Ibid., Kindle Location 117