Students on the Greeks - Chelsea Brock

The Odyssey and The Orestia present the culture of ancient Greece through slightly differing perspectives. While there are many similarities, an interesting thought progression is shown through the differences between the two works. One of these differences is the glorification of violent revenge in The Odyssey. When Odysseus returns home, the only logical course of action in the story is for him to avenge the wrongdoing of the suitors by murdering them all. He does this and peace is restored to his estate and family. This brutal act ends up being the resolution of the entire story and is not shown in a negative light at all; on the contrary it is glorified as an act of bravery and justice. In The Orestia, murder is also used as a way to avenge the wrong doings of others. However, the murders in this work are presented in a less glorified way. The Greeks upheld family as one of the most important things in their lives, and the only way to properly avenge the death of a family member is to kill the person who is guilty of the crime. However, Aeschylus seems to be suspicious of the never-ending cycle of violence that is mandated by the Greek culture. Rather than glorifying each murder, he shows a chaotic downward spiral that will continue forever if something doesn’t change.
Another difference between these two classic works is the faith that the characters have in the gods. In The Odyssey, each of the characters seems to be completely certain in the identity and relevance of the gods in their lives. Odysseus trusts the gods to guide him through every one of his trials and while at some points on his journey certain gods make it harder on him to return home, eventually they never fail to bring him to safety. In my opinion, here is a differing portrayal of the gods in The Orestia. There are several allusions in the work to the characters not being sure who Zeus is or if the gods are really responsible for what is happening in their lives. This shows that rather than the blind faith of the characters in Homer’s work, Aeschylus is presenting some questions concerning the gods that were most likely beginning to circulate through Greek culture.
It has been very interesting to observe ancient culture through these two classic works of Greek literature. Homer and Aeschylus have not only created exciting plot lines and complex characters; they have given the modern world an in-depth look at a major progression in thought that was occurring in their civilization.

Students on the Greeks - Jonathan Sessions

Our first book this year was Homer’s The Odyssey followed by Aeschylus’ The Oresteia which we are currently finishing up. These books are good to read because they show the progression of the Greek opinion concerning order, chaos, reason, the supernatural, etc.
In The Odyssey the Greek ideal is given form in the hero of the story, Odysseus. The hero is strong, handsome, clever, loved by the gods, and he knows what really matters: being where you belong and being with the people who you love and are loved by. His fate is to live in Ithaca with his wife and son and to rid his home of his wife’s suitors. The Odyssey is the story of how he overcomes all of the obstacles that the gods put in his way as he journeys home to his family. What The Odyssey expresses is the idea that being where you belong (i.e. your home, following your fate) and being with people that love you is the most precious thing in the world. The view of the gods in The Odyssey is that the immortals are more like super men than divinities. They hold grudges, they are prone to violent reaction when angered (i.e. typhoons, earthquakes, etc.), and do not seem to be very concerned about the ordering of the world, which is what they are supposed to do.
The Oresteia shows the Greek mind taking another step forward. The story depicts the victorious return of king Agamemnon from the Trojan War to his home in Argos where he is received by his treacherous wife Clytemnestra, who has been secretly plotting his death; once she has him washed and bathed and seated at a “welcome home” feast, she kills him. The story is also of Orestes who is the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Orestes avenges his father by killing his mother and is then chased by the Furies, who are the goddesses that avenge “inter-family” killing, until Apollo (god of Reason) and Athena (goddess of Wisdom) have to intervene to save the young man’s life. The two gods demand that Orestes be tried in a court of law and end up saving the day using the combination of Wisdom and Reason, which is Rhetoric. What this story depicts is the movement of Greece into an age where its people begin to question barbaric tradition and replace it with well ordered and well reasoned ideals. The story shows the first court of law and how Reason and Wisdom overcome the bloodlust of barbarism. At one point in the book Zeus himself is questioned and the speaker wonders if Zeus is really what the people have always thought him to be. The speaker wonders if Zeus is even the god’s correct name. The amazing thing about this view of the gods is that it does not negate the idea that there is a supernatural being ordering the cosmos, it just questions whether the gods are really what they have always been taken as, which are super men, or whether the gods are much more than man had ever thought them to be; more omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
These two stories show the state of man where he simply believes in what he has been told exists and does not question it, but also the state of man where he begins to wonder about absolute truth and question what he has been told is true. The remarkable thing about ancient civilizations similar to the Greeks is how they assumed that there must be a god who orchestrates the universe. This and the fact that the Greeks took it a step further by searching for absolute truth, and determining that it must be with god(s) is astounding. The culmination of this search for absolute truth came through Plato. As a Greek he knew the ancient stories, and reasoned that for the gods to be the ordering principles of the universe, they must be perfect. The gods must know or be absolute truth. Eventually he deduced that there must only be one god who is absolute truth, goodness, and beauty. This is an astounding insight, since Plato came to this conclusion without the specific revelation of the bible. Plato’s reasoning only furthers the glory that is the Christian God’s alone. The Triune God is a god of order and even a pagan, like Plato, can pick up on that. The Odyssey and the Oresteia show the transition from barbarism to order and Plato lays a foundation that thinkers like Aristotle, the Romans, the medieval Christians, and our modern philosophers have built upon as they have continued to ask the question, what is the truth?

Student's on the Greeks - Mason Hodges

Studying Greek culture so far has, in many ways, given context to the world in which I live day to day. Essentially starting from a philosophical scratch the Greeks began to touch on the fundamental principles of what it meant to be a human being. They developed the concept of being self aware, a response to an innate sense of morality and the distant, yet distinct, relationship between man and the supernatural. Inspiring? I am continually intrigued how much the Greek mind progressed in almost naturally Christian ways without the benefit of Scripture and, conversely, that many Christians have stunted their intellect by studying only the Bible. Part of our responsibilities as followers of Christ is engaging and relating to the culture we have been placed in; being “in the world, but not of it.” What I have learned from being apart of the Center for Western Studies so far is that all aspects of God’s creation are worthy of our intellectual pursuit and the Word of God provides the framework in which to do so. Whether it is history or math or philosophy or science, the Greeks understood that being a human meant pursuing every one of the different aspects of creation to find and develop the deeper, transcendent meanings within them. I believe the underlying support of the vast influence Greek culture has had throughout the history of western civilization is the purpose found in developing the mind. We are creatures, made to bear the image of God who reveals himself through His creation. No one found more purpose in living as a Christian should live (intellectually) than the Greeks. I have begun to have immense respect for studying the history, literature and art of these cultures because of the context in which it places my everyday life and the glory of God that is revealed through studying His creation.