The Life and Death of Greece: Thucydides on the Hellenic Way of Life

• In Event: Political Philosophy and How One Ought to Live

Abstract

In his War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, Thucydides gives special consideration to what he calls the “Hellenic way of life,” as distinguished from the “barbarian way of life.” I argue that, for Thucydides, the Hellenic way of life shows us the peak of human achievement, or what is best in human nature: the love of beauty and wisdom in a self-governing republic. But this achievement is not a stable thing: it comes into being and it passes away; it has done so and will do again, according to Thucydides, as long as there are human beings. This transience is due to the fact that the Hellenic way of life originates in the use of speech, or logos, in republican self-government, which in turn leads to the development of reason and the refinement or elevation of our love of beauty. But the same developments lead also to the growth of our longing for more—and that longing is, for Thucydides, the cause of both our greatest moments and our self-destruction.

Author

• Matthew Berry, University of Dallas