Great Ancient Greeks

Homer wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad. One of the things many of us didn’t know was Homer was probably blind. This is indicated by his name which means he who cannot see. It would be like a person today who couldn’t see being named blind man. It is incredible to think the two poems I mentioned are still famous today when we consider he wrote them in the 8th century B.C. It just goes to show you the power of the words he wrote. Another reason it is believed he was blind was the fact he never wrote down his poems, he would narrate them and others recorded them. He had to rank as one of the most famous poets of all time. He understood what moved us and his poems reflect this fact. If he was alive today he would be astounded at how his work has not only survived, but has been rewritten so many times. I think the movies which have been made from it would particularly tickle him.

Alexander the Great understood people better than he was ever given credit for. He knew their breaking point and in the great battles he fought, even when he was greatly outnumbered, he knew what scared his enemies and this led him to always going for their jugular. He knew the sight of armed men and men on horseback breaking through the middle of an enemy’s forces and heading directly for their king was one of the most frightening sights the enemy king could see and thus he used this battle plan many times. Another thing he used was his ability to make what seemed like a safe fortified position look unsafe. His abilities were incredible and he was perhaps the best general who ever lived even though he had become king at only 20 years old. When he defeated the Persian empire, it was a shock to all, especially the Persians who greatly outnumbered his forces.

Speaking of Alexander the Great, one might wonder where he got his great wisdom and the ability to win just about every battle. If we look into his upbringing we find he was instructed in his studies by the great Aristotle. Phillip of Macedon the father of Alexander hired Aristotle to teach his son and one couldn’t have had a better teacher in those days. Aristotle was a great philosopher and imbued his views on Alexander, teaching him not only philosophy, but the ways of the world and he seemed to have learned well. Aristotle had studied under Plato in the Platonic Academy one of the first universities in the world. Later in his career he founded Lyceum a school which taught philosophy and science. Aristotle was a genius and left quite an influence on our culture.

Speaking about Plato, we might have to say this man was even a greater genius than Aristotle. It makes one wonder how this tiny country could have produced so many of these types of men. There was a problem with Plato however. The politicians of his day felt threatened by him. Perhaps they felt he was too smart for comfort. Plato managed to live to be 80 years old, but at times it was not an easy life. He was a philosopher and many believe the greatest one who ever lived. He also was a true genius. It has been said he believed philosophers should rule the country. You can imagine how the politicians felt about that. He felt only people of wisdom should rule and of course this would have killed democracy. He wrote some memorable works such as Apology, Phaedo, Symposium and Republic. Plato was the first person to mention Atlantis.

Another great Greek thinker was Socrates. He is credited as being the first philosopher of morals and ethics. There is nothing known about anything he had ever written in his own hand. All we know about him comes from the classical writers of the time. Plato was a student of Socrates. We learned more about Socrates from Plato’s accounts than anywhere else. Historians have found that different classical writers have written different accounts about facts in the life of Socrates. Socrates was prosecuted and convicted, yet there is no written account of this happening by them. Plato tells us Socrates was convicted as a heretic and forced to drink hemlock which is a deadly poison. Apparently, the political powers of the day were not fond of his teachings.

The last ancient Greek I want to mention is Aesop. The man was also a genius, and the fact his fables are still known today proves his abilities. He is yet another person who’s original writings we can’t find. We are not even sure everyone of his fables were written by him since they were all put together over many centuries as Aesop’s Fables. It does seem to be clear he probably did write many of them since others had written them down.

It is incredible how many ancient Greeks were great thinkers. If they could have put their differences aside and actually became one country under one rule there may have been no stopping them from becoming what Rome had become.