With all of reality a unity much of the lessons passed down from the Greeks take on a different tenor. Kitto tells us that, in the early days of Classical Greece, it was thought that one could literally know all that was needed from Homer. This is not because the Greeks simply strove to blindly ape some elusive Homeric ideal. Rather, it is the belief that Homer spoke to unalterable universals in the human condition, and gave example of how to meaningfully address them, that his influence was so broad and deep. The Illiad, Kitto writes, is not simply the story of a ten-year battle by King Agamemnon and his allies to overthrow Prium's city and stronghold - if it were, there would be little insight to be gained more broadly. What is crucial about Homer's work is that it demonstrates how the willfulness, stubbornness and arrogance of men can bring about the downfall of thousands and transform the world. It is the quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon which gives the work its most moral thrust. It is from the resulting fallout of this exchange that men were meant to learn what it means to live in this world.
The delicate balance of the particular and the universal was first achieved in the West by the Greeks (at least in the literate sphere). Their impact on Western society, and indeed, the World, can never be measured or fully fathomed. What occured in the Peloponnese from 480bce-340bce rings throughout history. For better or worse we are all children of the Greeks.
