My Take: Big Read and big reflections on Greek history and culture

Recently, the Big Read Lakeshore hosted Madeline Miller, the author of this year’s Big Read book "Circe." In her talk, Miller mentioned how Greek mythology and history inform our society today. As a classical studies major at Hope College, I couldn’t agree more.

In the history and classics courses I’ve taken at Hope, I’ve learned how the Greek democratic system has influenced our current understandings of government and civic responsibility in both helpful and problematic ways. If you needed yet another reason to participate in our Big Read program this year, this is it!

Without a doubt, Ancient Athens and Greece provided a template for modern government, but we have to recognize it came at a price: the dignity and freedom of those subservient to citizens.

Because of this, it is important to acknowledge the lasting legacy the Greeks have left, including the shortcomings while also addressing some of our own current shortcomings. History shows us what happens to societies that ignore their problems: the system eventually collapses. Instead of following the fate of the Greeks, we should acknowledge and address the problems in our own society so we do not make the same mistakes.

So, what can we learn from Greek history? The U.S. government system is often described as a republic or indirect democracy; this means elected officials represent the people. In Greece, the government was a direct democracy where the people voted and participated in every aspect, the first of its kind to include civilians in politics. It is because of the Greeks that we have certain rights and freedoms in American democracy — the privilege to vote is a part of the Greek legacy.

One of the biggest shortcomings from Greek history is the attitude toward women and slaves. Only a small percentage of the Athenian population were actual citizens: native-born free Athenian men over the age of twenty. In modern society, we acknowledge that minority groups need to be represented in government to truly understand “the people” and their opinions. Not only were these groups not represented, but they were also marginalized. Women and slaves were viewed, and therefore treated, as inferior beings that only served a particular purpose, determined by the citizens (men).

The image of the unseen, silent, doting and waiting wife comes from ancient Greece. Athenian women from citizen families were viewed as a way to continue the family legacy by producing legitimate heirs. Non-Athenian women were either prostitutes or concubines, and much like the wives, were defined by their relationship to men. Even the myth surrounding the creation of women reflects the male attitude towards the female race. Zeus creates women as a punishment from men because Prometheus gave them the gift of fire. Women, therefore, are man’s affliction.

A slave was a body, not a mind, and therefore could be punished and treated accordingly. Physical torture was permitted because slaves were viewed as less than human, and therefore could not rely on their intellect — they either had none or they forfeited it when they became a slave. This is the clearest reflection of the power dynamics in Athenian society.

In contrast to American slavery, the Greeks did not determine status on skin color but rather on Greek and non-Greek. This started towards the end of Persian Wars when the Greeks portrayed their enemy, the Persians, as weak in body, mind, and spirit, and this idea then spread to other cultures and peoples until “non-Greek” or “others” were viewed as inferior to the Greek male ideal.

The only reason we have the Greek legacy of high culture thought and reason is due to slavery. The majority of agricultural workers in Attica were slaves. Therefore, Greek men were able to engage in subjects such as philosophy, poetry, and other high culture pursuits because slaves were doing all the menial labor that would have distracted from such leisures.  Madeline Miller addresses some of society’s shortcomings in her book "Circe" through the lens of Greek mythology; other books like Matt de la Peña’s "Last Stop on Market Street" do the same through other lenses.

Our Big Read Lakeshore program encourages coming together around a common book so that we can learn more about ourselves, others, and the world. Our deep dive into Greek mythology this year helps us become more aware of some of the shortcomings in our own society and community as we learn more about Greek history and culture. Hopefully, this awareness will propel us to action and to more nuanced views of civic responsibility, government and what it means for all of us to flourish.

— Addie Wilcox is a student at Hope College majoring in secondary English education, creative writing and classical studies.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: My Take: Big Read and big reflections on Greek history and culture