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The Greeks
“The best introduction I have ever read to Ancient Greece. The author’s liveliness of mind and style has enabled him to make a mass of information appetizing and digestible” –Ray Mortimer in the Sunday Times
The Greeks were extraordinary not least because they evolved "a totally new conception of what human life was for." Justifying and elaborating on that claim, H.D.F. Kitto explores the life, culture and history of classical Greece, bringing to his subject the passion, wit and insight that have made this brief introduction a world-famous classic.
“Professor Kitto is a model historian – lively, accurate, and fully acquainted with the latest developments in the subject . . . never vague . . . often witty and always full of vigour.”— The Times Educational Supplement
The Greeks were extraordinary not least because they evolved "a totally new conception of what human life was for." Justifying and elaborating on that claim, H.D.F. Kitto explores the life, culture and history of classical Greece, bringing to his subject the passion, wit and insight that have made this brief introduction a world-famous classic.
“Professor Kitto is a model historian – lively, accurate, and fully acquainted with the latest developments in the subject . . . never vague . . . often witty and always full of vigour.”— The Times Educational Supplement
256 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
193 people are currently reading
2518 people want to read
About the author
H.D.F. Kitto
21 books23 followersHumphrey Davy Findley Kitto, FBA was a British classical scholar of Cornish ancestry.
He was educated at The Crypt School, Gloucester, and St. John's College, Cambridge. He wrote his doctorate in 1920 at the University of Bristol. He became a lecturer in Greek at the University of Glasgow from 1920 to 1944. On that year, he returned to the University of Bristol where he became Professor of Greek and emeritus in 1962. He concentrated on studies of Greek tragedy, especially translations of the works of Sophocles.
After his retirement, he taught at College Year in Athens (CYA), a study abroad program for foreign students in Athens, Greece.
He was educated at The Crypt School, Gloucester, and St. John's College, Cambridge. He wrote his doctorate in 1920 at the University of Bristol. He became a lecturer in Greek at the University of Glasgow from 1920 to 1944. On that year, he returned to the University of Bristol where he became Professor of Greek and emeritus in 1962. He concentrated on studies of Greek tragedy, especially translations of the works of Sophocles.
After his retirement, he taught at College Year in Athens (CYA), a study abroad program for foreign students in Athens, Greece.
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May 10, 2019Hmm. What is there to say about a 1950's book that deals with the ancient Athenians and a few other related peoples?
The first thing to note is that it is outdated, it doesn't even take account of The Decipherment of Linear B which was I suppose breaking news as Kitto was writing. Well he has a good guess that those Mycenaean tablets would be administrative documents so perhaps his preference to abide with Homer is understandable, but a comparison with Oswyn Murray's slightly more recent Early Greece brings out some more substantive differences; much less archaeology, no anthropological perspectives, a tendency to take the sources at face value - even in the case of Thucydides who was good enough to tell us that he made up at least some of the speeches in his history.
Like Murray's book it is mostly a book about Athens, and in places both are largely rephrasing Herodotus. Not that either is a bad thing, it's just what is possible to discuss. Kitto goes a little further chronologically - down to the advent of the Macedonians compared to the beginning of the the Persian Wars in Murray.
What caught my eye was Kitto's comparison of Athens with the Britain of the 1950s, something that seemed particularly marked in the middle of the book. Kitto doesn't like mowing the lawn, shaving, or wearing a suit, envious of the bearded Athenian donning the blanket he slept under as a garment. This struck me as odd. Surely if anyone could get away with wearing a blanket in 1950s Britain it would be an elderly Professor of Cornish extraction in the Classics department of a University. Evidently Kitto didn't feel quite the same way about things. I don't personally feel there is much to be gained for berating 1950s Britain for not being fourth century BC Athens, but reading you do feel Kitto's passion for his subject.
Some of his comparisons struck me as false- Athenian theatre with modern cinema for one, perhaps once cinema has been winnowed by two thousand years and more and we are left with the wheat of the few dozen films that survive, the two can be fairly contrasted. Naturally if you put some sequel made for accountancy reasons in the ring together with something by Sophocles you can imagine which will be soonest up against the ropes.
Another curiosity is his view of ancient Tyrants as gentlemen, which lives me wondering how in a couple of thousand years time the tyrants of our own time will be seen. While the two groups are not direct comparable I am sure that those who survived under the earlier group greatly appreciated their gentlemanly conduct.
At one point his Philoathenianism went too far when he cited an incident early in the Peloponnesian War from Thucydides. The Spartans busy ravaging Attica and the Athenians crazy with rage, eager to grab their spears and inquire of any passing Spartan if, perchance, he felt fortunate that day. However Pericles prevented an assembly from being called, giving time for tempers to cool. This Kitto finds as evidence of Greek Common Sense. Evidence of Pericles' wisdom, yes, but the Athenian common sense on that occasion was to rush out to battle. Likewise he complains about the want of Demosthenes in 1930s Britain. Then again I suppose had Demosthenes been an active politician in 1930s Britain rather than in Ancient Athens things might have worked out better all round, but given he reached the wrong conclusion in his own time, he's a role model to be wary of.
For the rest he does make clear that this book is a personal opinion. He is surprisingly comfortable with slavery in Athens, for him it was a social acceptable sacrifice much like road deaths in our own times, and he has an interesting defence of the position of, presumably largely upper class, women in Athens . Then again, he describes the then Orthodox view that Athenian women lived in 'oriental seclusion', but the point about seclusion is that we don't know what happens behind closed doors, or quite what the gender dynamic is. Nor am I sure that a comparison with late Victorian Britain suggests that Athenian women were much better off than whatever 'oriental seclusion' is meant to imply. In any case I'm also interested in the girls from the market hired out as chaperones to wealthier women, their status apparently didn't require their seclusion.
Still it is witty, readable, and interesting. Not a bad introductory book, but it is clearly showing it's age .
The first thing to note is that it is outdated, it doesn't even take account of The Decipherment of Linear B which was I suppose breaking news as Kitto was writing. Well he has a good guess that those Mycenaean tablets would be administrative documents so perhaps his preference to abide with Homer is understandable, but a comparison with Oswyn Murray's slightly more recent Early Greece brings out some more substantive differences; much less archaeology, no anthropological perspectives, a tendency to take the sources at face value - even in the case of Thucydides who was good enough to tell us that he made up at least some of the speeches in his history.
Like Murray's book it is mostly a book about Athens, and in places both are largely rephrasing Herodotus. Not that either is a bad thing, it's just what is possible to discuss. Kitto goes a little further chronologically - down to the advent of the Macedonians compared to the beginning of the the Persian Wars in Murray.
What caught my eye was Kitto's comparison of Athens with the Britain of the 1950s, something that seemed particularly marked in the middle of the book. Kitto doesn't like mowing the lawn, shaving, or wearing a suit, envious of the bearded Athenian donning the blanket he slept under as a garment. This struck me as odd. Surely if anyone could get away with wearing a blanket in 1950s Britain it would be an elderly Professor of Cornish extraction in the Classics department of a University. Evidently Kitto didn't feel quite the same way about things. I don't personally feel there is much to be gained for berating 1950s Britain for not being fourth century BC Athens, but reading you do feel Kitto's passion for his subject.
Some of his comparisons struck me as false- Athenian theatre with modern cinema for one, perhaps once cinema has been winnowed by two thousand years and more and we are left with the wheat of the few dozen films that survive, the two can be fairly contrasted. Naturally if you put some sequel made for accountancy reasons in the ring together with something by Sophocles you can imagine which will be soonest up against the ropes.
Another curiosity is his view of ancient Tyrants as gentlemen, which lives me wondering how in a couple of thousand years time the tyrants of our own time will be seen. While the two groups are not direct comparable I am sure that those who survived under the earlier group greatly appreciated their gentlemanly conduct.
At one point his Philoathenianism went too far when he cited an incident early in the Peloponnesian War from Thucydides. The Spartans busy ravaging Attica and the Athenians crazy with rage, eager to grab their spears and inquire of any passing Spartan if, perchance, he felt fortunate that day. However Pericles prevented an assembly from being called, giving time for tempers to cool. This Kitto finds as evidence of Greek Common Sense. Evidence of Pericles' wisdom, yes, but the Athenian common sense on that occasion was to rush out to battle. Likewise he complains about the want of Demosthenes in 1930s Britain. Then again I suppose had Demosthenes been an active politician in 1930s Britain rather than in Ancient Athens things might have worked out better all round, but given he reached the wrong conclusion in his own time, he's a role model to be wary of.
For the rest he does make clear that this book is a personal opinion. He is surprisingly comfortable with slavery in Athens, for him it was a social acceptable sacrifice much like road deaths in our own times, and he has an interesting defence of the position of, presumably largely upper class, women in Athens . Then again, he describes the then Orthodox view that Athenian women lived in 'oriental seclusion', but the point about seclusion is that we don't know what happens behind closed doors, or quite what the gender dynamic is. Nor am I sure that a comparison with late Victorian Britain suggests that Athenian women were much better off than whatever 'oriental seclusion' is meant to imply. In any case I'm also interested in the girls from the market hired out as chaperones to wealthier women, their status apparently didn't require their seclusion.
Still it is witty, readable, and interesting. Not a bad introductory book, but it is clearly showing it's age .
October 9, 2022
I unhesitatingly give this book 4 stars, but not 5. As this book was published in 1951, there are parts of it that are (not surprisingly) out-of-date, such as the part about the origins of the Greek people, in particular, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans. However, overall, this is an excellent introduction to the Ancient Greeks, from their beginnings to Alexander the Great. I like the writing style of the author, Professor Kitto (1897-1982), who was a Professor of Greek at the University of Bristol in England. He concentrated on studies of Greek drama, especially the works of Sophocles. In his discussing "the Greek Mind," the thinking of the Greeks and their overall life, character, and religion, he draws a lot on examples from Greek theater, their tragedies and comedies. While you get a good brief history of the Greeks, Kitto is most concerned with Greek culture, their philosophy and so on. I found most of what he was writing about fascinating, particularly as I traveled to Greece--and returned to see the Acropolis-and the beautiful Greek islands-- once again. Greek civilization was a stunning human achievement, particularly during the Age of Pericles, the Golden Age of Athens in the 5th Century B.C.E. While admiring the Ancient Greeks, Kitto does point out the flaws and failures of these people. After all, the Golden Age ended with the Peloponnesian War, the savage war of Greek vs. Greek, which saw militaristic Sparta defeat Athens,"the cradle of democracy." In the end, the Northern country bumpkins (to the Greeks)--the Macedonians--conquered and unified the Greeks--and spread Greek culture into the world with Alexander the Great's campaigns. Aren't we all the richer for that?
I'd like to ask any Goodreads readers if they have any recommendations for good books covering Greek history, especially more recent than the 1950s?
I'd like to ask any Goodreads readers if they have any recommendations for good books covering Greek history, especially more recent than the 1950s?
January 25, 2021
4.75 Stars — A no-frills, tight and expertly written book that I devoured in 5-6 longs sittings.
The Greeks were just a such a beautiful contradiction of a powerhouse, one can’t be helped but become enveloped in the lore & whimsical history of the mighty civilisation that is often not accredited the credit it surely warrants.
The most enjoyable part of this book for me was the amount I was corrected on what I thought I knew but also the pace of the prose, an excellent craftsmen.
The Greeks were just a such a beautiful contradiction of a powerhouse, one can’t be helped but become enveloped in the lore & whimsical history of the mighty civilisation that is often not accredited the credit it surely warrants.
The most enjoyable part of this book for me was the amount I was corrected on what I thought I knew but also the pace of the prose, an excellent craftsmen.
July 11, 2009
This book is the one that really caught my imagination and fired me up about the Greeks. Kitto has a truly infectious love of the era and the people to whom we owe so much of what we now call our civilization. Always interesting, at times he takes my breath away and brings tears to my eyes. How I would have loved to have him as a teacher! To him I trace my passion for The Iliad and my love for Homer in general. I also gained an appreciation for how terse an expressive languages can be which have many cases. Word order becomes quite free and allows emphasis to be placed easily, since the place of subject, object, direct object etc. are noted by these declensions.
An example in English might be the line...
"They run from me that sometime did me seek"
It's quite expressive to end with and emphasize the word "seek" here, which is only possible because "me" is automatically the object being sought. In English we retain a few of these cases in pronouns only. Languages like Greek (and Russian, I just discovered) have them on many more words including nouns, adjectives, etc. It gives them the ability to express things very powerfully and concisely.
Anyway, this is one of my favorite books of all time, and I'm so grateful to Kitto for introducing me to and infecting me with his love of the Hellenic world.
An example in English might be the line...
"They run from me that sometime did me seek"
It's quite expressive to end with and emphasize the word "seek" here, which is only possible because "me" is automatically the object being sought. In English we retain a few of these cases in pronouns only. Languages like Greek (and Russian, I just discovered) have them on many more words including nouns, adjectives, etc. It gives them the ability to express things very powerfully and concisely.
Anyway, this is one of my favorite books of all time, and I'm so grateful to Kitto for introducing me to and infecting me with his love of the Hellenic world.
January 16, 2025
More problems with the peak end rule - this book fizzles out, which may make my rating unduly harsh. It certainly was a compelling read in the early chapters. I read this as an antidote to A History of Greece. I hoped there would be less military and diplomatic history, and more on philosophy, literature, economy, technology and the arts. There certainly was less military history, his chapters summarising the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars are an excellent sufficiency (as my grandmother used to say after enjoying a meal).
I enjoyed the geographical grounding he gives the whole enterprise by describing how the polis system developed in a particular geographical environment, valleys with fertile plains. But he doesn't really explain how naval and industrial technology eventually overcame those geographical borders. He's a tremendous enthusiast for the polis and for Athens, but doesn't really see that Athens' development made it both a very atypical polis, and the chief factor in the decline of the polis system. He wants to argue that the polis system gave rise to the literary and philosophical achievements of Greek culture, but the atypicality of Athens, where those achievements are centered, argues against this.
A bigger problem for me was the relatively little time that is spent on other city states. It's Athens pretty much all the way - even the great early chapter on Homer is there because of the influence he had over Athenian culture. So once Athens runs out of steam so does the book. The last chapter is a quixotic attempt to mitigate criticism of Athenian culture on grounds of sexism and slavery. I suppose these were more contentious issues in the 50s when this was written. I think he should have accepted that Athens was a sexist and slave owning society with all the horrors that implies for modern sensibilities. It would have been more interesting to see how these insitutions varied across the Greek world.
There's not much on the Greek economy or the technology that drove it. Probably the archeological and other evidence didn't exist when the book was written, so it would be unfair to compare this with for example Ælfred’s Britain: War and Peace in the Viking Age where these topics are excellently covered. There is little on the arts apart from pottery, though his interpretation of the significance of decorated pots seems very up to date. In many ways his openness to different sorts of evidence about the past seems much better than Bury and Meiggs, but this is a much smaller book.
The great strength of the book is its focus on literature, both the aforementioned Homer and the playwrights of classical Greece. He makes very solid use of the texts to elucidate Greek (mostly Athenian) life and because of that I'm adding his Greek Tragedy to my might-buy list.
I enjoyed the geographical grounding he gives the whole enterprise by describing how the polis system developed in a particular geographical environment, valleys with fertile plains. But he doesn't really explain how naval and industrial technology eventually overcame those geographical borders. He's a tremendous enthusiast for the polis and for Athens, but doesn't really see that Athens' development made it both a very atypical polis, and the chief factor in the decline of the polis system. He wants to argue that the polis system gave rise to the literary and philosophical achievements of Greek culture, but the atypicality of Athens, where those achievements are centered, argues against this.
A bigger problem for me was the relatively little time that is spent on other city states. It's Athens pretty much all the way - even the great early chapter on Homer is there because of the influence he had over Athenian culture. So once Athens runs out of steam so does the book. The last chapter is a quixotic attempt to mitigate criticism of Athenian culture on grounds of sexism and slavery. I suppose these were more contentious issues in the 50s when this was written. I think he should have accepted that Athens was a sexist and slave owning society with all the horrors that implies for modern sensibilities. It would have been more interesting to see how these insitutions varied across the Greek world.
There's not much on the Greek economy or the technology that drove it. Probably the archeological and other evidence didn't exist when the book was written, so it would be unfair to compare this with for example Ælfred’s Britain: War and Peace in the Viking Age where these topics are excellently covered. There is little on the arts apart from pottery, though his interpretation of the significance of decorated pots seems very up to date. In many ways his openness to different sorts of evidence about the past seems much better than Bury and Meiggs, but this is a much smaller book.
The great strength of the book is its focus on literature, both the aforementioned Homer and the playwrights of classical Greece. He makes very solid use of the texts to elucidate Greek (mostly Athenian) life and because of that I'm adding his Greek Tragedy to my might-buy list.
May 30, 2019
A great short book on Ancient Greece,
Though the Mycenae section is obsolete,
And the waffling on the status of women should cease
After two paragraphs, not twenty leafs.
But the general tenor of Kitto’s piece
Shines strongly, like the Golden Fleece;
It may just set your soul at peace;
A minor historical masterpiece.
Though the Mycenae section is obsolete,
And the waffling on the status of women should cease
After two paragraphs, not twenty leafs.
But the general tenor of Kitto’s piece
Shines strongly, like the Golden Fleece;
It may just set your soul at peace;
A minor historical masterpiece.
January 29, 2019
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
This book is kind of outdated in its information and definitely so in many of its attitudes, but nonetheless it remains a bit of a classic. I think that’s mostly because of the author’s sheer enthusiasm for the people about whom he writes, their land and their customs. I studied Athenian democracy in excruciating detail for a Classics A Level, but Kitto manages to actually get excited about it, to show all the best things about it and the way the Greeks behaved and thought. It’s mostly about the Athenians, honestly; you can consider the two basically synonymous in this book — Kitto does talk about the Spartans, for instance, but with significantly less approval and interest.
Kitto’s style is mostly engaging due to his enthusiasm, but I do warn that he quotes extensively from various sources (rather than summarising them, he lets them stand for themselves to illustrate his points; this can get tiresome).
Just as a warning, though, if you were thinking of picking this up: though I do think there’s something charming about Kitto’s complete adoration of the Athenian people, he definitely held some less than charming opinions about the place of women and the treatment of slaves — he thought that most things were justified because it allowed the Athenians to have their genuine democracy (which just so happened to exclude much of the population).
This book is kind of outdated in its information and definitely so in many of its attitudes, but nonetheless it remains a bit of a classic. I think that’s mostly because of the author’s sheer enthusiasm for the people about whom he writes, their land and their customs. I studied Athenian democracy in excruciating detail for a Classics A Level, but Kitto manages to actually get excited about it, to show all the best things about it and the way the Greeks behaved and thought. It’s mostly about the Athenians, honestly; you can consider the two basically synonymous in this book — Kitto does talk about the Spartans, for instance, but with significantly less approval and interest.
Kitto’s style is mostly engaging due to his enthusiasm, but I do warn that he quotes extensively from various sources (rather than summarising them, he lets them stand for themselves to illustrate his points; this can get tiresome).
Just as a warning, though, if you were thinking of picking this up: though I do think there’s something charming about Kitto’s complete adoration of the Athenian people, he definitely held some less than charming opinions about the place of women and the treatment of slaves — he thought that most things were justified because it allowed the Athenians to have their genuine democracy (which just so happened to exclude much of the population).
November 20, 2013
If you're going to read one book about Classical Greece then this is it.
It's lively writing by a sassy Englishman. Kitto makes every aspect of Greek culture accessible and relevant. The Greeks were obsessed with the idea of natural unity and wholeness. It was the duty of every Athenian to be soldier, politician, family member, and stock holder. A Greek man was not a man at all if he neglected any aspect of his physical, mental, spiritual, or moral being. Everything he does strives for virtue and honour for the greater good of the polis. This is not to say that the Greeks celebrated excess. There is a beauty is how they focus and control their energy, as evidenced in their strong yet minimal architecture and bare bones conception of drama.
Starting with the Dorian Invasion and covering the Trojan (Homeric), Persian (All of Greece on the Defensive), and Peloponnesian Wars (Athens v. Sparta) up until the eventual conquests of Alexander, it's actually a quick read. It's more of a thematic collection of essays that roughly corresponds to the timeline of three main wars. The meat of the classical history is presented in an excellent adaption of the Greek historians in Chapters 7-9, The Fifth Century, The Greeks At War, and The Decline of the Polis, respectively. All three Chapters taken together show nearly the full arc of Athenian Democracy--its rise to a free and prosperous society of modern proportions and subsequent decay--in only one sitting.
Chapter 10 on the Greek Mind presents a fantastic picture of the rationality and passion present in all aspects of Greek life. From war, civil life, and politics, to art, science, and philosophy, the Greeks reinvented it all through careful balance. They fostered a sense of unity in themselves and evolved "a totally new conception of what human life was for". Likewise, Kitto produced a self-contained and vibrant history. The book functions as a unified whole on every level. Its very essence is Greek.
It's lively writing by a sassy Englishman. Kitto makes every aspect of Greek culture accessible and relevant. The Greeks were obsessed with the idea of natural unity and wholeness. It was the duty of every Athenian to be soldier, politician, family member, and stock holder. A Greek man was not a man at all if he neglected any aspect of his physical, mental, spiritual, or moral being. Everything he does strives for virtue and honour for the greater good of the polis. This is not to say that the Greeks celebrated excess. There is a beauty is how they focus and control their energy, as evidenced in their strong yet minimal architecture and bare bones conception of drama.
Starting with the Dorian Invasion and covering the Trojan (Homeric), Persian (All of Greece on the Defensive), and Peloponnesian Wars (Athens v. Sparta) up until the eventual conquests of Alexander, it's actually a quick read. It's more of a thematic collection of essays that roughly corresponds to the timeline of three main wars. The meat of the classical history is presented in an excellent adaption of the Greek historians in Chapters 7-9, The Fifth Century, The Greeks At War, and The Decline of the Polis, respectively. All three Chapters taken together show nearly the full arc of Athenian Democracy--its rise to a free and prosperous society of modern proportions and subsequent decay--in only one sitting.
Chapter 10 on the Greek Mind presents a fantastic picture of the rationality and passion present in all aspects of Greek life. From war, civil life, and politics, to art, science, and philosophy, the Greeks reinvented it all through careful balance. They fostered a sense of unity in themselves and evolved "a totally new conception of what human life was for". Likewise, Kitto produced a self-contained and vibrant history. The book functions as a unified whole on every level. Its very essence is Greek.
July 31, 2015
This book is a lovely throwback to how general history used to be written, with humor, with rambling asides, with acknowledgements of personal bias, and with an utter devotion and passion for the subject at hand. Contrast this to modern scholarship, in which subject matter is often written about in a manner that is clinically dry at best and utterly disdainful of both the topic and its context at worse.
This isn't a book written by scholars for scholars. It's pretty much a generalist's overview of Classical Greece and its culture written for the educated layman. There's a lot of editorializing that goes on, but fortunately, it adds to the charm, and to be honest, he actually repeats what a lot more modern cultural critics have noticed about the movement towards Imperial and expansionist ambitions being the downfall of a flourishing culture.
Some may grouse about old-fashioned Kitto's style is and how willing he is to explain away the flaws of ancient Greece, completely missing out on his opening note that the ancient Greek would have found himself, the modern, to be uncivilized due to his own personal physical softness compared the Greek ideal of citizen being a well-rounded person, as able to march 20 miles across rough country in war and plow his stead in peace as to recite from Homer and debate in the agora. In short context always matters, then as in the present.
The only real flaw is that the book can ramble on odd tangents for quite a bit before it gets back to the meat of things; that and the fact that as a book from the 50s, some of its understandings about things such as the Dorian invasions and the Greek "Dark Ages" are a bit dated in the light of newer archeological evidence. Certainly if he were alive today, Kitto would be in awe of the new scientific methods that have brought to us long lost manuscripts and means of analysis. It's rather sad that historians and educators of his caliber are very thin on the ground now.
4.5 out of 5 stars
This isn't a book written by scholars for scholars. It's pretty much a generalist's overview of Classical Greece and its culture written for the educated layman. There's a lot of editorializing that goes on, but fortunately, it adds to the charm, and to be honest, he actually repeats what a lot more modern cultural critics have noticed about the movement towards Imperial and expansionist ambitions being the downfall of a flourishing culture.
Some may grouse about old-fashioned Kitto's style is and how willing he is to explain away the flaws of ancient Greece, completely missing out on his opening note that the ancient Greek would have found himself, the modern, to be uncivilized due to his own personal physical softness compared the Greek ideal of citizen being a well-rounded person, as able to march 20 miles across rough country in war and plow his stead in peace as to recite from Homer and debate in the agora. In short context always matters, then as in the present.
The only real flaw is that the book can ramble on odd tangents for quite a bit before it gets back to the meat of things; that and the fact that as a book from the 50s, some of its understandings about things such as the Dorian invasions and the Greek "Dark Ages" are a bit dated in the light of newer archeological evidence. Certainly if he were alive today, Kitto would be in awe of the new scientific methods that have brought to us long lost manuscripts and means of analysis. It's rather sad that historians and educators of his caliber are very thin on the ground now.
4.5 out of 5 stars
February 17, 2022
La obra del profesor Kitto debe ser leída por todos los curiosos, profanos y fanáticos de la Grecia antigua por una simple y poderosa razón: porque de ella brota, como una llama arcaica que se ha negado a morir, el espíritu del hombre griego. Kitto no nos presenta una historia llana y apagada, enciclopédica y aséptica, de lo que fue la pólis griega, sino la historia viva y portentosa que se concentra en su literatura y su filosofía. Él ha dejado que sea el griego el que hable, no sus ruinas, ni la imagen que la modernidad ha manchado con sus métodos y prejuicios. Y es que la modernidad suele rebuscar demasiado con su ansia arqueológica. Uno de las principales cualidades de este helenista inglés es que, sin lugar a dudas, se trata de un lector excepcional cuya agudeza, sobriedad y jocosidad recuerdan a aquel otro singular y también excepcional compatriota suyo llamado G.K. Chesterton. Esto es quizás apreciación y necedad mía, pero la exposición del profesor parece muy chestertoniana. Y tal vez querría decir: lo que no tenemos claro del hombre griego busquémoslo dentro de nosotros, en nuestro propio ser, pues ¿no es Grecia la raíz del pensamiento occidental? Algo griego debe haber en nosotros, y algo de nosotros debieron tener los griegos.
Este libro es una cátedra de exploración apasionada, clara y libre de pretensiones. Kitto es tan gran lector que se deja leer. Pueden conversar borrachos con él, y siempre será condescendiente.
Este libro es una cátedra de exploración apasionada, clara y libre de pretensiones. Kitto es tan gran lector que se deja leer. Pueden conversar borrachos con él, y siempre será condescendiente.
January 25, 2021
Read this in the 80s either high school or college. Solid intro to classical Greece. I don't have episodic memory of the book that said I read so many non-fiction books on the Ancient Mediterranean that I am not sure that if I reread it would make much of an impression now than it did at the time, it would have been fresh new stuff then now I that I have seen so much on this topic it probably takes more to wow me these days. Jaded AF 2021
April 12, 2020
Extremely biased and includes a heavy dose of misogyny
January 29, 2023
This is most interesting book I’ve read in a while. This is what history textbooks should be like!
Read
December 3, 2021i zoned out for half of this (don't tell my history professor please)
February 25, 2011
Kitto covers the history of the Greeks up to the time of Phillip and Alexander. The books' focus is on 5th and 4th century BCE.
The author has a point of view. Greece's golden period was the 5th century when the polis shined. Kitto is impressed with the organic nature of the polis. Everyone took responsibility for the welfare of the whole. Rule was the responsibility of amateurs who lived in accord with the earlier Homeric ideal of "arete" (all-around excellence). This idea stands in contrast to the 4th century where Greece became a victim of progress. Amateurs gave way to specialists like, Kitto goes on to say, the "misguided" people "among us" who "devote their lives" to government and administration. That gratuitous comment about modern government hints that Kitto is stuck on the "classic" Greece of the fifth century. This perspective is reinforced by Kitto's response to criticism that Athens was not really a democracy because it excluded women, resident aliens and slaves from having a voice. To this, Kitto responds, if Athens is no democracy because its many adults are excluded, then no modern state can be democratic because its powers must be delegated "to representative and professional administrators, and this is a form of oligarchy."
Kitto writes that slavery in Greece as not as bad as Rome, and goes on to argue that such slavery helped to promote "civilization, just as the servants we used to have enabled middle-class women to play bridge in the afternoons, and professors to write books." He acknowledges that treatment of slaves used in mines "was callous in the extreme." But even this is not so bad, Kitto writes, as "Most civilizations have their private horrors: we kill 4,000 citizens annually on the roads because our present way of life could not otherwise continue." Women were not regarded much better. Kitto quotes without judgment Greek literature that advocates the husband keeping the wife ignorant so he might teach her "what he wishes her to know." Elsewhere, he quotes Pericles who says that "'The best reputation a woman can have is not to be spoken of among men either for good or evil'" and quotes Aristotle who believes women are inferior to men and must be ruled by them. Kitto references Plato's "fine passages describing the beauty and the modesty of young lads and the tenderness and respect with which the men treated them" but says nothing about the pros and cons of pederasty in Greek life.
For Kitto, Plato was emblematic of Greece's decline. Plato's Republic was the antithesis of the self-rule by amateurs. It was the Republic of Professionals. Before Plato, body and soul were united in an organic whole. Plato separated them to accommodate his need for an eternal order that would live beyond change and death. Polytheism was a "'natural'" religion, close to the social group and nature, and many gods and spirits were united in a "coherent system." Plato moved Greek thought away from that model. He attacked poets who didn't buy into his view of the world, Kitto says, particularly those who had "unworthy ideas of the Deity" and at odds with "Plato's conception of the absolute, eternal deity, which prepared the world for the reception of a universal religion" (The "Greek element in Christianity is considerable, and it derives from Plato."). In summary on this point, Kitto calls Plato's views as those of a philosopher "who will not admit that there is any other road to the truth but his own."
In discussing Greek character, Kitto says that the Greek was very sensitive to his standing. Fame and recognition were important, including making "'a name for all succeeding ages.'" The Greek will not speak "evil of others...except for the express purpose of insulting them" and that a man owes it to himself to be revenged, for, "to put up with an injury would imply that the other man was 'better' than you are." This sounds like fairly common ape-man stuff. Kitto also closes his book by claiming that the doctrine of the mean was "characteristically" Greek, but says nothing about the doctrine's presence in India, China and, likely, elsewhere. Kitto believes classical Greece was special, yet in the end his book makes it seem that this civilization in so many ways is essentially similar to the other civilizations of that era.
While Kitto is clearly a scholar, his dated attitude is distracting. The book suffers from a single inadequate map in the front. As a final note, it was difficult to determine who exactly "the Greeks" were in Kitto's book given the presence of the many independent and culturally different city states that shared a common geography.
The author has a point of view. Greece's golden period was the 5th century when the polis shined. Kitto is impressed with the organic nature of the polis. Everyone took responsibility for the welfare of the whole. Rule was the responsibility of amateurs who lived in accord with the earlier Homeric ideal of "arete" (all-around excellence). This idea stands in contrast to the 4th century where Greece became a victim of progress. Amateurs gave way to specialists like, Kitto goes on to say, the "misguided" people "among us" who "devote their lives" to government and administration. That gratuitous comment about modern government hints that Kitto is stuck on the "classic" Greece of the fifth century. This perspective is reinforced by Kitto's response to criticism that Athens was not really a democracy because it excluded women, resident aliens and slaves from having a voice. To this, Kitto responds, if Athens is no democracy because its many adults are excluded, then no modern state can be democratic because its powers must be delegated "to representative and professional administrators, and this is a form of oligarchy."
Kitto writes that slavery in Greece as not as bad as Rome, and goes on to argue that such slavery helped to promote "civilization, just as the servants we used to have enabled middle-class women to play bridge in the afternoons, and professors to write books." He acknowledges that treatment of slaves used in mines "was callous in the extreme." But even this is not so bad, Kitto writes, as "Most civilizations have their private horrors: we kill 4,000 citizens annually on the roads because our present way of life could not otherwise continue." Women were not regarded much better. Kitto quotes without judgment Greek literature that advocates the husband keeping the wife ignorant so he might teach her "what he wishes her to know." Elsewhere, he quotes Pericles who says that "'The best reputation a woman can have is not to be spoken of among men either for good or evil'" and quotes Aristotle who believes women are inferior to men and must be ruled by them. Kitto references Plato's "fine passages describing the beauty and the modesty of young lads and the tenderness and respect with which the men treated them" but says nothing about the pros and cons of pederasty in Greek life.
For Kitto, Plato was emblematic of Greece's decline. Plato's Republic was the antithesis of the self-rule by amateurs. It was the Republic of Professionals. Before Plato, body and soul were united in an organic whole. Plato separated them to accommodate his need for an eternal order that would live beyond change and death. Polytheism was a "'natural'" religion, close to the social group and nature, and many gods and spirits were united in a "coherent system." Plato moved Greek thought away from that model. He attacked poets who didn't buy into his view of the world, Kitto says, particularly those who had "unworthy ideas of the Deity" and at odds with "Plato's conception of the absolute, eternal deity, which prepared the world for the reception of a universal religion" (The "Greek element in Christianity is considerable, and it derives from Plato."). In summary on this point, Kitto calls Plato's views as those of a philosopher "who will not admit that there is any other road to the truth but his own."
In discussing Greek character, Kitto says that the Greek was very sensitive to his standing. Fame and recognition were important, including making "'a name for all succeeding ages.'" The Greek will not speak "evil of others...except for the express purpose of insulting them" and that a man owes it to himself to be revenged, for, "to put up with an injury would imply that the other man was 'better' than you are." This sounds like fairly common ape-man stuff. Kitto also closes his book by claiming that the doctrine of the mean was "characteristically" Greek, but says nothing about the doctrine's presence in India, China and, likely, elsewhere. Kitto believes classical Greece was special, yet in the end his book makes it seem that this civilization in so many ways is essentially similar to the other civilizations of that era.
While Kitto is clearly a scholar, his dated attitude is distracting. The book suffers from a single inadequate map in the front. As a final note, it was difficult to determine who exactly "the Greeks" were in Kitto's book given the presence of the many independent and culturally different city states that shared a common geography.
May 22, 2012
Originally published on my blog here
The Greeks has long been touted as the best basic introduction to the culture of ancient Greece, where the foundations for much of the way we think and live today were laid but which still can seem strangely alien from a viewpoint two and a half millennia years later. Now over sixty years old, is it still worth reading?
Clearly, the book itself has not changed in any way (especially as mine is quite an elderly copy). It remains an excellent basic description of ancient Greece, concentrating on the aspects of the culture which are especially influential. Kitto is occasionally self-indulgent, getting carried away by his love of the literature, as when he translates large portions of the first book of the Iliad which are not directly relevant to the aims of the book (though it does illuminate aspects of the culture almost in the way that a lengthy Bible quote would shed light on Western culture, or a section from the Koran would on Arab thought). My background (growing up with a parent who had not just studied classics, but who wrote books about Greece and Rome alongside translations of ancient texts) does not make me an ideal test for the use of The Greeks as an introduction, but from what I can see it does seem to do the job it sets out to do.
One thing which has certainly changed is the correctness of the assumptions Kitto makes about how much of Greek culture is already known to the general reader. Kitto assumes a certain amount of knowledge in his readers, and in the 1950s he would have been able to assume more than would be the case today; after all, most British schools still taught at least Latin in those days, and hardly any do so today. This has two consequences: the number of people who have any idea that the book might be interesting to them is smaller, and the likelihood is that they will find it far harder to understand. On the other hand, web sites like Wikipedia will fulfil many of the needs which The Greeks was intended to, so it is not as useful as it once was.
The Greeks has long been touted as the best basic introduction to the culture of ancient Greece, where the foundations for much of the way we think and live today were laid but which still can seem strangely alien from a viewpoint two and a half millennia years later. Now over sixty years old, is it still worth reading?
Clearly, the book itself has not changed in any way (especially as mine is quite an elderly copy). It remains an excellent basic description of ancient Greece, concentrating on the aspects of the culture which are especially influential. Kitto is occasionally self-indulgent, getting carried away by his love of the literature, as when he translates large portions of the first book of the Iliad which are not directly relevant to the aims of the book (though it does illuminate aspects of the culture almost in the way that a lengthy Bible quote would shed light on Western culture, or a section from the Koran would on Arab thought). My background (growing up with a parent who had not just studied classics, but who wrote books about Greece and Rome alongside translations of ancient texts) does not make me an ideal test for the use of The Greeks as an introduction, but from what I can see it does seem to do the job it sets out to do.
One thing which has certainly changed is the correctness of the assumptions Kitto makes about how much of Greek culture is already known to the general reader. Kitto assumes a certain amount of knowledge in his readers, and in the 1950s he would have been able to assume more than would be the case today; after all, most British schools still taught at least Latin in those days, and hardly any do so today. This has two consequences: the number of people who have any idea that the book might be interesting to them is smaller, and the likelihood is that they will find it far harder to understand. On the other hand, web sites like Wikipedia will fulfil many of the needs which The Greeks was intended to, so it is not as useful as it once was.
March 19, 2013
Marvelous, brief, witty but serious introduction to ancient Greece. Kitto is obviously in love with his subject and his enthusiasm carries his readers with him. The author is an old fashioned, no-nonsense cultivated man who leavens the book with waspish asides and donnish humour. He isn't afraid of expounding partisan views or to argue against what seems to be more widely accepted points of view. He argues that the notion that the slavery that existed in Greece resembled our modern idea of slavery is nonsense, that the idea Greeks disdained all manual occupations is false, as was the idea that Greek women were kept in a state of 'Oriental seclusion' and were treated contemptuously by the men. He covers much of the history and culture of ancient Greece from the possible origins of where and when they arrived, presenting a theory that the Ionians and the Dorics arrived at different times and superseded the native people. He discusses the alternative political systems in operation from King Minos to Alexander, the nature of their religion, character, language, arts and crafts. His discussion on the tragic dramatists makes me want to read them soon. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a greater understanding of ancient Greece.
January 5, 2020
A fantastic capsule history of ancient Greece, written with the sort of style and wit one often found in the better works of history written in the late 18th to mid 19th century. While I imagine that modern scholarship has surpassed Professor Kitto, I don't expect that any more recent work on the Greeks could be more enjoyable.
March 28, 2025
One of the best gateways to Classical zealotry :D
February 12, 2018
Very dated - not recommended
August 9, 2019
This is an excellent book. I am very glad that somehow i have stumbled on it on my way exploring through books this imaginative and fantastic civilization.
June 25, 2021
Written in the 1950s by an expert on Greek Literature, The Greeks by Kitto is a very cursory overview of the ancient Greeks. The macro overview does put the timelines into perspective. Of course, many gaps in the Dark Ages of ancient Greece have since been brought into the light, the speed at which Kitto moves the narrative along is disorienting. Each chapter is supported by literary excerpts, although at time he offers contradictions, effectively saying 'who knows?' The book ends with an unusually long rambling chapter on 'life.'
It is interesting to consider that the Dorian and Ionian invasions at the end of the Bronze Age and the rise of Alexander the Great lasted roughly 2,000 years. Then, there was barely 100 years between the Golden Age of Athens under Pericles, and the fall of Athens under Demosthenes. The era of Classical Greece was a blimp in history. The fact that so much happened in so little time inspires many commentators to find out the formula for success. Kitto is no exception.
Kitto concludes that civic engagement and a vision of the rugged individual man led to the golden era. These two aspects could not happen without the other. The emphasis on the success of the individual had to be in place before a group of such manly men could then be cooperative enough to create a magnificent civilization or concept of the polis could be possible. It was the cooperation of such men that allowed for the experimentation in politics, war, art, and economics.
That theory is classic arm chair scholarship. In his final chapter he comments that he wrote the book beside his fireplace. He can pull quotes from any number of sources attributing the success of Greece to the Greek's civic engagement in the polis. He acknowledges that there were different interpretations of society, economics, and politics in different city-states. His focus is overwhelmingly on Athens. His evidence is overwhelmingly Athenian Literature. It is difficult to make such sweeping generalizations with a limited and biased group of sources.
Kitto's overview of the Dark Ages is interesting, but he skips around too much. It is hard to pin down any chronology. This may be due to him writing by the fireplace instead of a library or office. He may be writing on simple memory instead of direct evidence. He documents everything with Homer and Hesiod. Again, their accuracy is conjecture. He waves that aside saying, Schlieman found Troy and Mycenae using only Homer. That does not mean they are accurate or inaccurate. Homer was writing long after the destruction of Troy VI, so his dialogue (or even key characters may by fictional).
Kitto goes further in weakening his own evidence when he discusses the Greek religion. He passes along the basic idea that the religion(s) of the area occupied by Greece underwent multiple versions with multiple happenings. It may be due to usurping religions over the Dorian and Ionian Invasions. It could be a displacement or incorporation of pantheons by conquest or peaceful coexistence. And whatever is taking root will sprout its own additional stories and characters. Consequently, Greek religion continued to grow in terms of gods and goddesses and lesser magical creatures.
Kitto wrestles with the question of why did Classical Greece (Athens) fall? He acknowledges some military disasters. He acknowledges some diplomatic problems. But Athens had manly men and rugged individualism. The decline of the polis must have been due to capitalism and the rise of specialization. After all, the Greek archetype was brilliant at everything. Once you begin to specialize in industry or culture, you lose some of that perfection. Consequently, manly men like Pericles, lose out to illiterate buffoons like Cleon; and simple leather workers like Demosthenes become the sole voice against Philip of Macedon. Note that Kitto minimizes Demosthenes labeling him a leather worker, as though he is less of a man because of his specialized profession.
My rating weighs low because of the last chapter. The conclusion was unusually long and rambling. The idea was to look at 'daily life.' Literature offers a lot of that. Again, Kitto plays both sides. Yes, Euripides could by a feminist; or he could be a misogynist. Who knows? Dramatists exaggerated their stories for audience effect. How accurate were they? Kitto grapples with the role of women dismissing the basic flaw in his research in that he is using Athenian sources to describe Greek culture. He finds examples in the literature where women are strong, weak, cloistered, active, and everything in-between. Who knows?
Overall, it is an interesting read, in parts. The opening chapters are too out-dated because new research and discoveries have revealed more about Mycenean and Cretan Civilizations. The middle chapters can pull some generalizations. But there are biases and weak arguments holding up an over-simplified version of history and society. The last chapter is a catch-all that rambles in and around different topics. In sum, I do not recommend this book for those casually interested in ancient Greece.
It is interesting to consider that the Dorian and Ionian invasions at the end of the Bronze Age and the rise of Alexander the Great lasted roughly 2,000 years. Then, there was barely 100 years between the Golden Age of Athens under Pericles, and the fall of Athens under Demosthenes. The era of Classical Greece was a blimp in history. The fact that so much happened in so little time inspires many commentators to find out the formula for success. Kitto is no exception.
Kitto concludes that civic engagement and a vision of the rugged individual man led to the golden era. These two aspects could not happen without the other. The emphasis on the success of the individual had to be in place before a group of such manly men could then be cooperative enough to create a magnificent civilization or concept of the polis could be possible. It was the cooperation of such men that allowed for the experimentation in politics, war, art, and economics.
That theory is classic arm chair scholarship. In his final chapter he comments that he wrote the book beside his fireplace. He can pull quotes from any number of sources attributing the success of Greece to the Greek's civic engagement in the polis. He acknowledges that there were different interpretations of society, economics, and politics in different city-states. His focus is overwhelmingly on Athens. His evidence is overwhelmingly Athenian Literature. It is difficult to make such sweeping generalizations with a limited and biased group of sources.
Kitto's overview of the Dark Ages is interesting, but he skips around too much. It is hard to pin down any chronology. This may be due to him writing by the fireplace instead of a library or office. He may be writing on simple memory instead of direct evidence. He documents everything with Homer and Hesiod. Again, their accuracy is conjecture. He waves that aside saying, Schlieman found Troy and Mycenae using only Homer. That does not mean they are accurate or inaccurate. Homer was writing long after the destruction of Troy VI, so his dialogue (or even key characters may by fictional).
Kitto goes further in weakening his own evidence when he discusses the Greek religion. He passes along the basic idea that the religion(s) of the area occupied by Greece underwent multiple versions with multiple happenings. It may be due to usurping religions over the Dorian and Ionian Invasions. It could be a displacement or incorporation of pantheons by conquest or peaceful coexistence. And whatever is taking root will sprout its own additional stories and characters. Consequently, Greek religion continued to grow in terms of gods and goddesses and lesser magical creatures.
Kitto wrestles with the question of why did Classical Greece (Athens) fall? He acknowledges some military disasters. He acknowledges some diplomatic problems. But Athens had manly men and rugged individualism. The decline of the polis must have been due to capitalism and the rise of specialization. After all, the Greek archetype was brilliant at everything. Once you begin to specialize in industry or culture, you lose some of that perfection. Consequently, manly men like Pericles, lose out to illiterate buffoons like Cleon; and simple leather workers like Demosthenes become the sole voice against Philip of Macedon. Note that Kitto minimizes Demosthenes labeling him a leather worker, as though he is less of a man because of his specialized profession.
My rating weighs low because of the last chapter. The conclusion was unusually long and rambling. The idea was to look at 'daily life.' Literature offers a lot of that. Again, Kitto plays both sides. Yes, Euripides could by a feminist; or he could be a misogynist. Who knows? Dramatists exaggerated their stories for audience effect. How accurate were they? Kitto grapples with the role of women dismissing the basic flaw in his research in that he is using Athenian sources to describe Greek culture. He finds examples in the literature where women are strong, weak, cloistered, active, and everything in-between. Who knows?
Overall, it is an interesting read, in parts. The opening chapters are too out-dated because new research and discoveries have revealed more about Mycenean and Cretan Civilizations. The middle chapters can pull some generalizations. But there are biases and weak arguments holding up an over-simplified version of history and society. The last chapter is a catch-all that rambles in and around different topics. In sum, I do not recommend this book for those casually interested in ancient Greece.
March 15, 2023
Una buena forma de introducirse al mundo helénico. Kitto nos acerca una gran cantidad de aspectos de la vida de los griegos: la formación de las poleis, la geografía, las artes, la política, la guerra, el pensamiento, el mito y la religión e, incluso, la vida cotidiana y el carácter de este pueblo. Y, por si fueran pocos tópicos, lo aborda en menos de cuatrocientas páginas. Se nota que el escritor conoce del tema, a veces haciendo alarde de su erudición. Sin embargo, creo que no pudo mantener un buen ritmo durante el libro. Por momentos se explaya demasiado en unos temas, con un número excesivo de citas (que, en otros casos, resultan agradables) y divaga mucho; en otros capítulos resulta muy sucinto y breve, al punto de que no llega a ser sustancioso, es decir, en sí no dice mucho; —esto me pareció, justamente, en los capítulos que más me interesaban—. Fue algo así como un camino bastante llano con algunos picos interesantes. Por otro lado, me generó una sensación de fanatismo helénico por parte de Kitto, una intención de ensalzar a los griegos y defenderlos ante cualquier idea negativa que se pueda tener sobre ellos. Por lo demás, una lectura recomendada (hasta ahí nomás).
August 2, 2021
There is no doubt that Kitto's book is dated, and as a result there are numerous questions and issues over the text. Preceding reviews have pointed some of these out, so I may be repeating myself in the following critique, however I will also endeavour to present some positive observations on 'The Greeks'.
First off, this is NOT a generic history of the ancient Greeks, but more a discussion and analysis of the ideas and constructs that formed historic and contemporary ideas about them. Yes, Kitto does write in some degree of chronological order outlining key events and people, and looks for historical understanding of causality and effect through some consideration of the relationships between these elements. However what Kitto is really trying to do with this text is to reconstruct how he believes an ancient Greek persona was formulated through examining particular themes. Perhaps the most overriding one of these themes is that between the ancient Greek as posited by Kitto with his interpretation or construct of the polis. There is a lot to be said in favour of how he makes clear the centrality and the alien aspects of this construct in the social, political, cultural, economic and familial life of ancient Greeks. This includes some valid arguments regarding how we as modern peoples will be confronted and perhaps confused by such a framework for the people who identified as Hellenes during the middle centuries of the first millennium B.C.E. Kitto makes it clear that how we interpret the experiences of those living in ancient Greece must be conditioned and informed by an understanding of the multifarious aspects of the polis.
Another avenue through which Kitto tries to establish his historic understanding of the ancient Greeks is via the language used by the composers of his literary sources. It is most commendable that the author makes so many consistent attempts at deconstructing and reconstructing the historical conceptualisation of the ancient Greeks through closely analysing meaning and context as original posited in their language, then (possibly) misinterpreted or misconstrued by more recent historians. Arete, Theos and Kalons are just three of these prime ancient Greek constructs that are pulled apart and given a far more nuanced historically apt reading by Kitto might be expected. It is an important reminder to anyone attempting to study a foreign, possibly ancient, society that translation and interpretation have to be front and centre in any initial considerations.
I have endeavoured so far to posit two influential and positive aspects of 'The Greeks'. There are others that I could mention in great detail, however I think it is now appropriate to switch to the less adequate aspects of Kitto's work.
There is no doubt the age of the book is a problem, and as there are literally hundreds of later texts or other explorations of ancient Greece that have been published since this title was first released, it will not reflect the most modern scholarship on the subject. Ancient historians in the early 21st century have an amazing range of texts they can call on with a vast and disparate intellectual range of historiographies embedded in said books. Kitto's approach to his subject is not wrong per se however it is restricted because of its timing and the context of the author's composition.
This can be seen most clearly in his use of evidence, and his efforts at trying to present an idea of an ancient Greece that is mostly patriarchal, economically advantaged and focused on the social elites. It could be argued that the former issue creates the latter, in that because Kitto's arguments are almost entirely developed through his reading of literary evidence, he is drawing on the very social, political, gender and economic bias of those who wrote his sources. There are times he makes some interesting and valid arguments about what is said in his sources, and compares and contrasts them effectively where appropriate. However Kitto is an admirer of Pindar, Sophocles, Thucydides, Demosthenes etc, and he is not always able to disassociate his love for their work from more evolved historical analysis. He's perfectly right when he notes that our sources are disparate in range, context, authorship, etc, however I don't believe he does enough source analysis to ensure the reader is given a less biased understanding of Kitto's arguments. It's rather disappointing that epigraphic, archaeological and numismatic evidence is given far less prominence when in fact these avenues would have helped widen his historical theories, and made them more valid for the reader.
Stemming from this set of issues with 'The Greeks' is that Kitto does not address a broader construct of 'who' the ancient Greeks were, with a subsequent facile discussion of those who sat outside his focus. In a book that is approximately 250 pages long, there is only about 20 pages maximum allocated to trying to unravel the historical issues related to how ancient Greek women lived, their role in society etc, as well as slaves. Some of his points in these areas aren't bad, however it is a seriously jarring note to see such a text that aims to explain how ancient Greek society, politics, literature, culture represented and related to itself be so limited in its awareness of gender and class.
Before I close this review, a couple of points re Kitto's prose. It's at times a little dense and rather too self-involved, and I was also not happy with the reliance on sizeable chunks of translated source quotes (especially in the chapter on Homer). This is not a book for the layman; Kitto expects more scholarly capability from his reader than what may be suggested by the description of the book. The lack of a relevant and comprehensive bibliography is also to be regretted.
In summary, this isn't a bad book, however Kitto's dated history of the constructs of ancient Greece is limited. I am sure there are better books out there on the subject.
First off, this is NOT a generic history of the ancient Greeks, but more a discussion and analysis of the ideas and constructs that formed historic and contemporary ideas about them. Yes, Kitto does write in some degree of chronological order outlining key events and people, and looks for historical understanding of causality and effect through some consideration of the relationships between these elements. However what Kitto is really trying to do with this text is to reconstruct how he believes an ancient Greek persona was formulated through examining particular themes. Perhaps the most overriding one of these themes is that between the ancient Greek as posited by Kitto with his interpretation or construct of the polis. There is a lot to be said in favour of how he makes clear the centrality and the alien aspects of this construct in the social, political, cultural, economic and familial life of ancient Greeks. This includes some valid arguments regarding how we as modern peoples will be confronted and perhaps confused by such a framework for the people who identified as Hellenes during the middle centuries of the first millennium B.C.E. Kitto makes it clear that how we interpret the experiences of those living in ancient Greece must be conditioned and informed by an understanding of the multifarious aspects of the polis.
Another avenue through which Kitto tries to establish his historic understanding of the ancient Greeks is via the language used by the composers of his literary sources. It is most commendable that the author makes so many consistent attempts at deconstructing and reconstructing the historical conceptualisation of the ancient Greeks through closely analysing meaning and context as original posited in their language, then (possibly) misinterpreted or misconstrued by more recent historians. Arete, Theos and Kalons are just three of these prime ancient Greek constructs that are pulled apart and given a far more nuanced historically apt reading by Kitto might be expected. It is an important reminder to anyone attempting to study a foreign, possibly ancient, society that translation and interpretation have to be front and centre in any initial considerations.
I have endeavoured so far to posit two influential and positive aspects of 'The Greeks'. There are others that I could mention in great detail, however I think it is now appropriate to switch to the less adequate aspects of Kitto's work.
There is no doubt the age of the book is a problem, and as there are literally hundreds of later texts or other explorations of ancient Greece that have been published since this title was first released, it will not reflect the most modern scholarship on the subject. Ancient historians in the early 21st century have an amazing range of texts they can call on with a vast and disparate intellectual range of historiographies embedded in said books. Kitto's approach to his subject is not wrong per se however it is restricted because of its timing and the context of the author's composition.
This can be seen most clearly in his use of evidence, and his efforts at trying to present an idea of an ancient Greece that is mostly patriarchal, economically advantaged and focused on the social elites. It could be argued that the former issue creates the latter, in that because Kitto's arguments are almost entirely developed through his reading of literary evidence, he is drawing on the very social, political, gender and economic bias of those who wrote his sources. There are times he makes some interesting and valid arguments about what is said in his sources, and compares and contrasts them effectively where appropriate. However Kitto is an admirer of Pindar, Sophocles, Thucydides, Demosthenes etc, and he is not always able to disassociate his love for their work from more evolved historical analysis. He's perfectly right when he notes that our sources are disparate in range, context, authorship, etc, however I don't believe he does enough source analysis to ensure the reader is given a less biased understanding of Kitto's arguments. It's rather disappointing that epigraphic, archaeological and numismatic evidence is given far less prominence when in fact these avenues would have helped widen his historical theories, and made them more valid for the reader.
Stemming from this set of issues with 'The Greeks' is that Kitto does not address a broader construct of 'who' the ancient Greeks were, with a subsequent facile discussion of those who sat outside his focus. In a book that is approximately 250 pages long, there is only about 20 pages maximum allocated to trying to unravel the historical issues related to how ancient Greek women lived, their role in society etc, as well as slaves. Some of his points in these areas aren't bad, however it is a seriously jarring note to see such a text that aims to explain how ancient Greek society, politics, literature, culture represented and related to itself be so limited in its awareness of gender and class.
Before I close this review, a couple of points re Kitto's prose. It's at times a little dense and rather too self-involved, and I was also not happy with the reliance on sizeable chunks of translated source quotes (especially in the chapter on Homer). This is not a book for the layman; Kitto expects more scholarly capability from his reader than what may be suggested by the description of the book. The lack of a relevant and comprehensive bibliography is also to be regretted.
In summary, this isn't a bad book, however Kitto's dated history of the constructs of ancient Greece is limited. I am sure there are better books out there on the subject.
January 31, 2021
Good summary of Greek history.
Enjoyed learning some of the great legends.
Some, of which, I already knew though!
Would recommend Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold instead.
3.1/5
Enjoyed learning some of the great legends.
Some, of which, I already knew though!
Would recommend Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold instead.
3.1/5
July 27, 2020
برای به دست دادن تصویری کلی از یونان باستان کتاب خوبیه. دید موشکافانه و تحلیلی نویسنده ستودنیه گرچه رد پای انگلیسی مآبی زیاد در کتاب دیده میشه که ممکنه به مذاق خوانندهی فارسی زبان چندان خوش نیاد. اما به طور کلی کتاب بسیار جالبیه.
July 19, 2025
The best possible introduction to the Ancient Greeks. Accessible and succinct. Kitto's wit and humour are also a great bonus and never a diversion.
June 3, 2018
I was positively impressed by this book. It's such a condensed journey to the Greek mind and lifestyle. It seems well researched, balanced and full of anecdotes. I liked that it does not try to portrait the ancients and the Athenian democracy as a an unrepeatable ideal state. It focuses on the Athenians though, for example it only has a couple of references to Aristotle. The book is fun to read (even if you're not that much into history) and serves as an exploration on why classical Greece is the cradle of western civilisation.
August 18, 2025
surprisingly readable for being written in 1951!
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