cover image The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics: And Other Reflections on the Classics

The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics: And Other Reflections on the Classics

Bernard MacGregor Walke Knox. W. W. Norton & Company, $15.95 (144pp) ISBN 978-0-393-03492-9

In three erudite essays originally delivered as lectures, Knox stresses the relevance of the ancient Greeks (the ``dead white males'' of the title) to the modern world. Former director of Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies, Knox ( The Norton Book of Classical Literature ) defends the modern teaching of the humanities as ``an education for democracy.'' While acknowledging the inferior status of women in ancient Greek society, he argues that women were a formidable presence in the household, and he finds in Greek epics, poetry and drama a wealth of assertive, active females. Knox portrays the Sophists, who taught rhetoric and poetry, as ``the first professors of the humanities.'' It was the Sophists, not Socrates, who ``brought theory down from the skies,'' he insists. He closes with an account of his year-long stay in Greece, where he found living ties between the country's ancient and contemporary language and culture. (Apr.)