Posted by
Bert Chapman on Saturday, August 28, 2010 5:51:03 PM
I've always been an assiduous reader of history encompassing many corners of the globe. As an avid book reader and collector, I have read and collected extensively in U.S. national, regional, and state history; the histories of many countries with a current emphasis on Australia following a trip to Sydney earlier this year; and political, diplomatic, and military history. Two years ago, my wife and I visited the Getty Villa in Malibu, CA. Inspired by its architecture and landscape patterned after a Pompeian villa, I have begun to read classical literature again. I started by reading Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and am now reading Virgil's Aeneid. Despite being written more than two thousand years ago, the classics have much to tell us today. They profile the highest attributes of human behavior such as courage, fidelity, honor, and virtue and the lowest such as evil, greed, promiscuity, and vengeance. Although they were not written with the wisdom provided by Judeo-Christian values, they contain much insights that we can apply to the proliferation of folly and sometimes wisdom which we see today. The ancients struggled with fiscal recklessness, questions of war and peace, and numerous ethical dilemmas such as the difference between right and wrong in many life circumstances. Sometimes they succeeded, sometimes they failed, and many times they managed to muddle through.
Seeing classical stories portrayed in art is also provides aesthetic inspiration and moral instructive. Practically any art museum will have depictions of scenes from Greco-Roman mythology in their collections done by artists from many countries and representing many time periods and perspectives. One of my favorite examples of this is Thomas Cole's the Course of Empire series which describes the inevitable rise and fall of all human civilizations. Cole (1801-1848) was concerned with the direction America was taking under Andrew Jackson's presidency and the emergence of industrialization in national economic life. Today, many of us of conservative political and intellectual viewpoints are troubled by the direction America seems to be taking toward greater collectivization under Barack Obama's presidency. Classical literature and art can help us gain valuable historical perspective and moral insight on contemporary trends and developments and help us develop a more long-term and even eternal perspective on contemporary developments. We will survive Barack Obama's folly and become recommitted to a financially and morally conservative ethos if we carefully study the classics and historical experience and apply these lessons within the parameters of a Judeo-Christian worldview that recognizes our need to depend on divine providence and take individual responsibility for our actions instead of expecting any level of government to meet all of our needs.
Many book publishers including Penguin and Harvard University Press' Loeb Classical Library provide affordable book versions of classical literature and Internet resources such as Project Gutenberg and the HathiTrust Catalog also provide ready access to these resources. I encourage you to take advantage of them.