The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics (review)

Reviews 275 Bernard Knox, The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics. New York: W. W. Norton. 1993. Pp. 144. $16.95. Composed of three elegantly written essays originally delivered as lectures by their esteemed audior (Robert Fagles calls him "the finest classicist of our time"), diis book is an antidote to the Afrocentrists, militant feminists, and rabid multiculturalists who have recently tried to speak of the ancient Greeks as irrelevant and overrated—as "old dead European males" whose "otherness" should disqualify diem as the educational base for Western societies. The volume's ironic, provocative tide should hint at die author's allegiance . There is notiiing "dead," Knox asserts, about diese European males. He acknowledges their faults, of course, but goes on to remind us diat the barbarians have pounded on the gates before widiout much success. The ancient Greeks have always triumphed by virtue of their intellectual and creative power. Knox addresses the issues of slavery and the inferior position of women in ancient Greece (issues constantly raised by detractors), explaining them in a judicious, rational fashion. The adoring Victorians, he points out, were indeed evasive about the topic of slavery and about male domination, but to diose of us who are more conscious of such situations, the author has this to say: "When we diink of die two great flaws in Athenian democracy that recent scholarship has explored and emphasized, we ought to remember not only that slavery and male dominance were characteristic of all ancient societies but also diat we, of all people, have no right to cast die first stone. Pericles' proud claim for Athenian democracy—power in die hands of the people, equality before die law—does not mention die slaves, but our Declaration of Independence—'diat all men are created equal'—does not mention them eidier, although the men who drafted it and many of those who signed it were owners of African slaves. ... As for the odier flaw, die exclusion of women from Athenian public life, we should not forget that women in these United States had to struggle for more than half a century before die Nineteendi Amendment to die Constitution gave them full voting rights in 1920; that Great Britain reluctantiy made die same concession in 1928; and that the French took die last word of die revolutionary slogan liberté, egaUté, fraternité so literally diat French women were not given tile right to vote until 1945" (65-66). It is also pertinent to add here that the societies given credit by a number of revisionists for having originated many of the Greek achievements have been blatant practitioners of slavery over die centuries and to the present day consider the male as the dominant gender of the species. Knox is, in fact, too much the gentleman to be ungracious or pugnacious witii these politically motivated revisionists. He is content to present his arguments by virtue of brilliant examples from die literature and thought of die Greeks, based on the deep knowledge he has acquired from fifty years of dedicated learning. He summons the myths and diought of the "old European males" by emphasizing their enduring value, the depth of dieir collective consciousness, ideas, and complexities that still inform and inspire die heart and intellect. 276 Reviews The last essay in mis volume is entitled "The Continuity of Greek Culture." With typical conviction and humor, the author here reminds us that the physical Greece of the ancients, like their thought, did not "die." He points out, for example, that the "language inscribed on the fire-baked clay tablets found at Pylos, on the mainland, and at Knossos, on Crete, dating from 1600 B.C., is recognizably a primitive form of the language in which the newspapers in Athens are written today. Of course, in this immense stretch of time, the language has undergone many changes, but no other European language even comes close to claiming such longevity; the only real parallel, in fact, is Chinese" (108-109). In this last and, in my view, most interesting and personal essay, Knox conveys an affection for present-day Greece resulting from his many visits there. With telling reminiscences, amusing anecdotes, and...