The Greek Way

By: Edith Hamilton

Narrated by: Nadia May

Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

"What the Greeks discovered, how they brought a new world to birth out of the dark confusions of an old world that had crumbled away, is full of meaning for us today who have seen an old world swept away."

Based on a thorough study of Greek life and civilization, of Greek literature, philosophy, and art, The Greek Way interprets their meaning and brings a realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Miss Hamilton's book must take its place with the few interpretative volumes which are permanently rooted and profoundly alive in our literature.

©1958 Edith Hamilton (P)1994 Blackstone Audiobooks

Engaging Narration & Fantastic Content

The narrator, Nadia May, did a fantastic job speaking clearly and poignantly to engage the listener in this audiobook, which could otherwise be a difficult listen.

May’s talent as a narrator shines forth most clearly when she must read poetry or theatrical dialog. These passages would entangle most readers of the printed book. With May’s narration, however, these passages come to life with vigor.

This classic work published in 1930 by Edith Hamilton is still worth reading. The only parts that aged, I feel, are the first chapters which contrast Greek civilization with Eastern and Egyptian civilization, and Hamilton puts down the foreigners so as to build up the Greeks. That didn’t hold up for me in the 21st century. But after those passages, once she gets into the historians and tragedians of classical Greece, this book delivers a lyrical and profound synthesis of this civilization. The result of reading this is that it makes you reflect on yourself, your own heroism, tragedy and pursuit of arete. This book of history is, in the end, a book of philosophy and self-improvement. It’s a classic that still delivers a punch!

Always liked Edith Hamilton

Book is beautifully read. The audio has some slight recording issues (nothing substantial). Overall a great read.

The Greek Way - The Ancient Greek Mind

This is a must buy for study the Golden Age of Greece. As with all study or simple enjoyment of history, context is important. This book provides a good insight to the ancient Greek mindset and then an understanding how / why they reacted.

Interesting as a product of its time

Edith Hamilton was born in the Victorian Era and published this book in 1930—and it shows. The field of history no longer accepts the Ancient Greeks as an unbiased source on themselves. And we’re also more wary of using the past as either a mirror in which to see our own (supposed) comparable excellence or as imagined past ideal we believe we’ve fallen short of.
The book is brimming with one scholar’s deep love of her field and as such will always be worth reading. Hamilton is also frankly brilliant. Much of what she theorises is thought-provoking even now.
But this isn’t a good intro to Greece anymore. Without more modern scholarship to compare to (including histories of Persia or other civilisations of what’s called the “Axial Age”), this book would only set someone up to have profoundly outdated ideas that current research has generally debunked.
Listen to appreciate her profound love for her subject and its place in the history of the field, but don’t accept anything she says as authoritative unless you can verify it against modern sources. The narrator is wonderful and makes the book a treat to listen to.

Good reader

It was a fine book with a good reader. She does talk a little slow for my taste. I just had to put the speed up to 2.5

A great sampler of Hellenic thought

This work stands together with “Greek as a Treat” by Peter French as sampler boxes of Hellenic thought. Both serve as a broad overview of the wellspring of western thought. From here you can deepen and broaden your appreciation of Greek authors beginning with the introduction that sparks your interest and moving outward with more and varied reading. This can start you along a lifetime of enrichment that has been eclipsed and neglected in modern college education. Either or both of these books will be the first among many others in a growing library of entertaining, enlightening and enriching books. Bon voyage!

Greatest and Most Important Book in my life

Like Robert Kennedy after the death of JFK, I found this book in a time of suffering and was introduced to the Classical Athens. This book has soul.

Awesome

Wonderful exploration of classical Greek culture, mindset, art and literature compared to modern European/ British culture, art and literature. I thought it was excellent and very entertaining

Wild Assertions but Still a Fun Listen

Where does The Greek Way rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I like to read Edith Hamilton. However, if your annoyed by the "compare and contrast" method of scholarship (I think its very outdated myself) you wont like this. Mrs Hamilton has a strong need to compare cultures and thus extract the truth shes looking for from the contrasts. The problem is that the generalizations she must inevitably make for this type of approach can be wide sweeping and fairly wild, and thus the conclusions she reaches based on these generalizations become merely subjective. Often you may find yourself disagreeing with her.
One area in particular I disagree with is Hamilton's conclusions regarding Ancient Egypt. Explaining the Egyptians preoccupation with death (as she puts it), she attributes this to the fact that Egypt was mostly a place of misery and toil, thus producing in the culure a certain yearning for the next life and a certain salvation in death. Whereas, on the other hand, you have Hamilton's Greeks, portrayed here as a youthful, playful and life affirming culture, centered on the here and now.
This is wildly inaccurate. The Greeks themselves -Solon, Euclid, Pythagoras, Plato, Herodotus-who traveled there at different times, and acknowledged Egypt as the richer, deeper and more profound culture in every case. The Greeks who made their way to Egypt returned to "revolutionize" their respective fields of science. However, they were merely translating the knowledge of the Egyptians. The Greeks saw themselves more as children when they compared themselves to the Egyptians. All of her sciences had their origins in Egypt, the Greek Gods themselves had their origin in Egypt. Egypt was several thousand years old by the time the Greeks came into their ascendancy. Far from misery and toil, the Egyptian land was abundant, the society was rich and vibrant. Why do you thing Egypt was the breadbasket for the entire Mediterranean even into Roman times? She was the hub of Mediterranean trade. The view of slaves toiling to build the pyramids is so outdated to be comical now days. Egyptian concepts around death were not the attempts of a desperate people to escape the chains of misery, but a highly developed science of the soul which revealed a deep understanding of the nature and immortality of the soul and the possibility for perfection in this life and the next.
Anyway, sorry for the rant, but that's one example that I can provide to show the dangers of this type of compare and contrast history. Still, its a fun listen. Nadia May is great, the book is immersive, and there is still a lot of great info in here.

What about Nadia May’s performance did you like?

Shes great always

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

One reaction, see above

Awesome

Super insightful, interesting, and informative, Edith did a wonderful job, felt like she was forcing 2 or 3 additional chapters in the end but it concluded nicely.