Bernard Knox

Bernard MacGregor Walker Knox (November 24, 1914 – July 22, 2010) was an English classicist, author, and critic who became an American citizen. He was the first director of the Center for Hellenic Studies. In 1992 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Knox for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Quotes The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics (1993) New York: W. W. Norton When we think of the 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 that 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 the slaves, but our Declaration of Independence—'that all men are created equal'—does not mention them either, although the men who drafted it and many of those who signed it were owners of African slaves. ... As for the other flaw, the 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 Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution gave them full voting rights in 1920; that Great Britain reluctantly made the same concession in 1928; and that the French took die last word of the revolutionary slogan liberté, égalité, fraternité so literally that French women were not given the right to vote until 1945. pp. 65-66 They invented democracy more than two thousand years before any modern Western nation took the first steps toward it; they invented not only philosophy and the theater but also the model of a national literature, with its canon of great writers, its critics and commentators, its libraries; they invented organized competitive athletics...; they invented political theory, rhetoric, biology, zoology, the atomic theory—one could go on. Above all, in startling contrast to the magnificent but static civilizations of the great Eastern river valleys—Tigris, Euphrates, and Nile—they created in the restless turbulence of their tiny city-states that impatient rhythm of competition and innovation that has been the distinguishing characteristic of Western civilization ever since. pp. 66-67 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. "The Continuity of Greek Culture", pp. 108-109 What modern Greece offers the student of classical literature is just as great as what it offers the archaeologist, if not greater. p. 130 External links Category:1914 births Category:2010 deaths Category:Non-fiction authors from the United States Category:Academics from the United States Category:Classical scholars Category:University of Cambridge alumni Category:Yale University alumni Category:Yale University faculty