2-1-Q for The Swerve by Greenblatt Chp. 3
2 interesting
- On page 59, we get an interesting look into the the history of Greece becoming Roman. At first, their relationship is seen as “not always comfortably intertwined,” and the Greeks thought of the Romans as mere “Refined barbarians.” Roman’s themselves had their own interpretation of the Greeks, believing more in the idea of a strong military and nation than of “flowery words, intellectual speculation, and books.” However, as Rome took over Greece, Greek culture also took hold of most of the Roman world. Despite their outwardly disdain for Greek culture, often times it was encouraged by the Roman upper class to send their children to Greek schools to learn of their ideals and philosophies. It was interesting to learn of the intertwined history of Greece and Romans.
- On page 73, it talks about the multitude of ideas that competed with the idea of atoms that Democritus had created back in the fifth century BCE. Some of these ideas consisted of the elements of the world, “they argued, was fire or water or air or earth, or some combination of these.” Another one would suggest that everything has small entities of itself inside of itself in the smallest particles it has, such as “an infinitesimally tiny man,” that sort of runs the body. It’s very telling how intellectual the Greeks truly were, having this capacity to develop and discuss multiple different ideas and be able to articulate different ideas without the modern day technology.
1 connection
I think the fact that all of the modern day cultures have mixed relates to the ways in which Greek and Roman civilizations mixed together. For instance, despite the UK “owning” both Wales and Scotland, both of these places have created a mix of their own cultures with the English. This idea that ideologies are not destroyed by conquerors but rather transfused into the conquerors own culture is fascinating.
Question
Why did the man who was an expert on the use of the magical formula “Abracadabra” have so many volumes in his library?
