The Echo of Greece [Paperback]

Edith Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1964

Fourth-century Athens has a special claim on our attention, apart from the great men it produced, for it is the prelude to the end of Greece.

The kind of events that took place in the great free government of the ancient world may, by reason of unchanging human nature, be repeated in the modern world. The course that Athens followed can be to us not only a record of distant and forgotten events, but a blueprint of what may happen again.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Edith Hamilton won the National Achievement Award in 1950, received honorary degrees of Doctor of Letters from Yale University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Pennsylvania, and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1957 she was many an honorary citizen of Athens and was decorated with the Golden Cross of the Order of Benefaction by King Paul of Greece.

From AudioFile

Edith Hamilton, preeminent scholar of the classical world, interprets Greek life and thought in the period following the Periclean Age. She brings to life Athens and the great men it produced in the fourth century B.C. Nadia May reads with a pleasant, clearly understandable British accent to convey the author's admiration for Aristotle, Demosthenes, Menander and Plutarch. The narrator's sincerity and expressiveness greatly enhance the author's characterizations and conclusions, and draw the listener in. E.P.M. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (February 17, 1964)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393002314
• ISBN-13: 978-0393002317
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #336,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Introduction to the Spirit of Greece, March 7, 2002

By 

Marco J. Jimenez (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Echo of Greece (Paperback)

Edith Hamilton did it again with the Echo of Greece. This book looks at and explains, in a colloquial manner, the rise, apex, and decline of Greece during their golden age (from the beginning of the 5th century B.C. to the end of the 4th century B.C.). After finishing this book, the reader comes away not only with a better understanding of the Greek ethos, but also with an explanation of why things happened the way that they did. It is the latter accomplishment, I think, that readers will most appreciate.

Hamilton's book is divided into 10 chapters: I. Freedom, II. Athens' Failure, III. The School of Athens, IV. The School Teachers, V. Demosthenes, VI. Alexander the Great, VII. Menander, VIII. The Stoics, IX. Plutarch, and X. The Greek Way and the Roman Way.

The organization is brilliant, and leads the reader by their hand through the intellectual and artistic accomplishments of Greece not only during her height, but as you can see from chapters VI.-X., examines her influece on the world she helped create.

There are, however, a couple of frustrating parts about Hamilton's book as well. She provides excellent quotes throughout, but never explains where the reader can find them. A typical example appears on page 157, where she states that Aristotle said "The true nature of anything is what it becomes at its highest." But in which of Aristotle's myriad books should the reader begin to look to find this quote? Sometimes, even worse, Hamilton will just say "And a Stoic said that ..." Which Stoic?

A second complaint I have is that Hamilton spends a good deal of time talking about Greece's political, philosophical, and artistic achievements, but never really delves into Greece's artistic accomplishments. If she would have done so, it would have greatly improved an already great book.

But in comparison to the strengths of this book, these complaints are minor. Overall, I highly recommend this book both to the novice and expert alike. I couldn't put it down.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The glory that was Greece, August 25, 2000

By 

W.Khan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Echo of Greece (Paperback)

Few writers have captured the miracle and magic that was ancient Greece as compellingly as Edith Hamilton.Classical Greece (appx 450-325BC) can safely be viewed as the crucible in which modern thought & sensibility were wrought .The "modern" values we take for granted____democracy,freedom,human dignity,resisting tyranny,free speech & the Promethean quest for knowledge___all trace their umbilical cord to that fleeting,lifegiving period in human history when Man became HUMAN for the first time .Whether it is the sublime majesty of the Parthenon or the heartrending pathos of Euripedes___humanity pervades every word & stone. Hamilton's love for classical Greece shines forth through each page of this delightful book .After a brief introduction in which she contrasts the achivements of Classical Greece with the preceding civilisations in Egypt and Babylonia ,she touches upon some of the characters in this extraordinary period____the soaring mysticism of Plato, the oratory of Demosthenes ,the scientific rigor of Aristotle,the "Academy" at Athens and a brief chapter on the poet Menander .Alexander's enigmatic character is touched upon ("he set out to Hellenise the whole world but ended up dying an oriental despot " etc) followed by chapters on the Stoics and Plutarch.Ms.Hamilton's prose itself is almost Hellenic in its simplicity ,elegance and directness.In a word___SUPERLATIVE.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Scholars & Lay Readers Alike, May 23, 2007

By 

N. Peter Kostopulos (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Echo of Greece (Paperback)

Edith Hamilton, known best for her anthology of ancient Greek mythology, describes brilliantly the origins of democracy and political freedom in Western civilization. Building on her vast knowledge of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, she explains the miraculous emergence and practice of these concepts in a small country, sparsely populated, and surrounded by hostile despotic civilizations from the East. Her simple but hardly superficial account of about 300 years of intellectual history helps both historians and weekend-readers to understand why these and other ideas, such as the sacred relationship between man and the divine, were so strong then and have endured for 2,500 years, despite the destruction of most of the ancient writings and the brief period of their expression, roughly 200 years, known as the Golden Age of Greece, a half century before the life of Jesus. Edith Hamilton's description of the heroic victories of Athens and other Greek city-states reads like an exciting novel and will make readers appreciate the vital yet fragile nature of our freedoms and our responsibility for practicing them as caretakers, not only beneficiaries, of a precious history.