The Greeks and Greek Civilization

494 Pages·1999·16.575 MB·English

by  Jacob Burckhardt, Oswyn Murray, Sheila Stern

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THE GREEKS
AND
GREEK CIVILIZATION
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Burckhardt's lecture notes: the start of his discussion of the polis
(c.f. Griechische Kulturgeschichte (Darmstadt 1962) vol. I, p. 53, p. 37 in this translation).
THE GREEKS
AND
GREEK CIVILIZATION
JACOB BURCKHARDT
Translated by
SHEILA STERN
Edited, with an Introduction by
OSWYN MURRAY
St. Martin’s Griffin
New York
Edited, with an Introduction by Oswyn
the GREEKS AND GREEK civilization.
Murray copyright © 1998.Translation by Sheila Stern copyright © 1998. All rights
reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used
or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information,
address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Frontispiece © Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt. Reproduced with permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burckhardt, Jacob.
[Griechische Kulturgeschichte. English. Selections.]
The Greeks and Greek civilization / Jacob Burckhardt; translated
by Sheila Stern ; edited with an introduction by Oswyn Murray,
p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-19276-2 (hc)
ISBN 0-312-24447-9 (pbk)
1. Greece—Civilization—To 146 B.C. 2. Burckhardt, Jacob,
1818—1897—Contributions in Greek history. I. Murray, Oswyn.
II. Title.
DF77.B94213 1998
938—dc21 98-30107
CIP
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers
First St. Martin’s Griffin Edition: October 1999
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
IN MEMORY OF
MOSES FINLEY (1912-1986)
J. P. STERN (1920-1991)

CONTENTS
PREFACE BY OSWYN MURRAY ix
INTRODUCTION BY OSWYN MURRAY xi
THE GREEKS
I Introduction 3
II The Greeks and their Mythology 13
III The Polis 37
IV General Characteristics of Greek Life 63
GREEK CIVILIZATION
I Introductory Remarks 127
II The Heroic Age 135
III The Agonal Age 160
IV The Fifth Century 214
V The Fourth Century to the Age of Alexander 282
VI The Hellenistic Age 346
Postscript: The Intellectual Necessity of Studying
Ancient History 364
notes 367
CORRESPONDING PAGE NUMBERS OF THE GERMAN
EDITION AND THE ENGLISHT RANSLATION 429
BIBLIOGRAPHY 431
index 433

PREFACE
In 1965 I published my first review; it was of an ignorant and badly chosen
translation of selections from Jacob Burckhardt’s lectures on Greek culture.
Moses Finley wrote to congratulate me, and to reveal that he and Sheila
Stem were preparing a quite different selection for publication. It was
indeed Burckhardt who inaugurated for me twenty years of friendship with
one of the three great historians of that age who dominated studies of the
ancient world in the English language - Finley the American, Syme the
New Zealander and Momigliano the Italian.
When Moses died in 1986, the half-completed translation had lan-
guished for many years. No trace of his own work on the project was found
in his papers. But in 1989 I was delighted to receive a letter from Sheila
Stern revealing that she had recently discovered her manuscript of the
early sections, which she was retyping and wished to continue: would I be
interested in reviving the long-delayed project, and taking over the task of
editing the volume? Since I had just been rereading Burckhardt in the
course of using his conception of the development of ‘Greek man’, I replied
that nothing would give me greater pleasure than to help edit a version of
that masterpiece. We revised and improved the selection that Moses had
made, and began work on the translation in earnest. So it is that finally,
on the centenary of Burckhardt’s death, and also a hundred years after the
first publication of his lectures (1898-1902), we present Burckhardt’s ideas
on Greek cultural history to readers of English. In this translation we have
collaborated closely, but I am primarily responsible for the selection of
material and for the introduction, while Sheila Stem is primarily responsible
for the translation.
We would like to thank our publishers Stuart Proffitt and Toby Mundy
for the enthusiasm with which they have welcomed and encouraged the
project. We would also like to thank David McLintock for helping to revise
IX