Greek

After finishing watching 300 last night, and with still reading The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, I came to the conclusion that until now I had an innaccurate understanding of ancient Greece. I used to think of ancient Greece as a more or less unified nation, with power shifting from one city state to another throughout history. I think now, though, some research and reading may be in order. I'm currently revising my understanding, realizing that Greece wasn't so much a place as Greek was a culture shared by different people throughout what we now know as Greece, people of similar ethnic background and with similar religious and philosophical views. The aforementioned movie is probably not a good history lesson, nor is the distorted mythical interpretations of still older events presented in the Greek myths collected in the aforementioned book. Nonetheless, it does show that I have a lot to learn about the people that shaped civilization and perhaps formed one of the first bridges between Asian and European cultures.

Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Ray Charles: "Ring of Fire"