[lit-ideas] Re: Saving Western Civilization?
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:23:32 EST
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING DORIAN
>the Greek contribution to the Western heritage is almost >entirely
>Athenian. Art, architecture, drama, philosophy, >and 'democracy' >came from
>Athens,
not Sparta.
------ Not to change the subject,
but I'd disagree with the _spirit_ if not the word of R. Paul's message.
I would think that there *was* something like a Dorian, Spartan, or
Lacedaemonian warrior-code that _was_ considered pretty valid -- even if
derogated as
archaic --
by the Athenians.
The history of Sparta is an interesting one, and should not be dismissed.
It's closer to ARCADIA than Athens, and most of what we today as "Greek" has
much more affinity with Peloponnesian things than Attic.
"Sparta" is indeed I hear something of a matronymic (from this woman called
"Sparte"), since it's Lacedaimonian that would be the coorect term.
Peloponnese is said to derive from "Pelops", the sexually dissident character.
And
they claim "Dorian" blood -- the more militaristic and parvenus of the Greeks,
who maintained a hero code till a later age.
Spartan philosophy there _was_ one. Just because the Athenians were into
this "Orientalistic" idea of the psykhe and the soma as being sema (the grave)
of the soul, doesn't mean that a civilisation based on the gymnasium (as the
Spartan was) is "no philosophy" or the wrong philosophy. Actually, it's pretty
much a Good philosophy for people like me who are not necessarily DUALISTS
and believe that "mens sana in corpore sano" is a joke (and meant as such,
originally) for those who take the mens as a 'function' of the body (as
Aristotle will when developing his theory from the overdualistic Plato).
The problem with Western civilisation is that we know of the Greeks through,
basically, what the Romans wanted to know about the Greeks. They did embrace
the Athenian values, but also the Spartans -- what's more Spartan that
Spartacus who is said to have been a gladiator? What's more Roman than a
gladiator? Who kills not for 'glory' but to save his life?
If one studies Graeco-Roman in a holistic perspective, I don't think we can
distinguish between Athens and Sparta so clearly. There were probably
underlying strands more than divisive lines.
H. P. Grice liked to joke that "Oxford in the heyday of ordinary language
philosophy" -- and the focus on "ta legomena" by the "hoi polloi" -- was the
rebirth of ATHENS.
And I've read in the NYT Harvard compared to ATHENS.
But then, in consideration to R. Paul, so was ITHACA, NY. and ... REED
college, the Athens of the West.
Whereas it's West Point and the place where L. K. Helm got the education
that we call 'Spartan'.
If the Germans exceeded in Civilisation it was, I believe for one main
thing: the creation of the GYMNASIUM. I just love the idea that something as
trite
as a common high school is called "The Place to Be Naked" -- The Gymnasium.
And the fun of it is that they Study PHILOSOPHY! THERE!
--- Yesterday I was reading Sextus Empiricus -- I received yesterday his
Loeb No. 1 -- and he said that the GERMANS were the inventors of homosexuality.
The Greek is "germani". But there is a footnote -- by the translator, someone
I cannot connect with, a Reverend called BURY -- which reads: "These Germani
were possibly Persians, not Germans", which confused me.
Yesterday, I also received my Plotinus Loeb 1, and has some good
mistranslations. At one point Plotinus is described with his eromenos. "He
loved him so
much that he would listen him recite the lesson one and again". The footnote
reads, "or perhaps listen him recite the multiplication table"!
SPARTACUS is the rather inappropriate name for these ugly pro-imperialistic
gay guides to the world (The Spartacus Guide to Argentina _sucks_). And it's
also the name of this brothel where this judge, Oyarbide, got caught having
sex with, yes, a gladiator -- it's all taped.
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza
Buenos Aires,
"SPARTACUS: And How To Find Him"
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