When Culture Began

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28980, 22 August 1959, Page 3

When Culture Began

Greek Art and Literature 700-530 B.C. The Beginnings of Modern Civilization. By T. B. L. Webster. University of Otago Press. 125 pp. Index.

The classical scholar has an advantage in the woHd of’modern learning in that his speciality is one of period only. Within his period he can be philosopher, linguist, literary critic, art critic, scientist and historian and not appear to be a dilettante in any of these fields. Not all classicists have made such good use of this opportunity as Professor Webster has done in this book, for this chapter in the history of ideas not only illuminates Greek art, literature and philosophy but emphasises their interconnexion. Purely geometric designs in pottery give way to increasingly realistic and individual figures. A new kind of literature, the drama, is concerned with the idea of individual responsibility. Philosophers begin to produce arguments based on the authority of the seer or prophet but on observations any individual can understand and check. In all these Professor Webster sees the common theme of the individual, the beginnings of democratic man and it is in this sense that this period shows the beginnings of modern civilization. This book is an important link between Professor Webster’s studies of the Homeric period and the classical period of Greece. It is of considerable interest to us that a work of this importance .should have been produced in New. Zealand and that we have a feeling of participation in it. Though it is the work of a visiting scholar and based mainly on overseas resources three of the illustrations are of art works in the Otago Museum and a vase in Christchurch is discussed in the text. Though it is simultaneously published in London, it appears with the University of Otago imprint, attractively produced and without misprints. (It is a pity, though, that the binding is not a little stronger. At the end of each chapter ample notes direct the scholar to sources of the argument and amplification of it Though these are designed for the specialist and the text is complete without them, the general reader might find them of some interest as they show how a work of this kind develops and how much it depends on detailed scholarship. It will indicate the sort of materials we must have if our own scholars are to produce works of similar depth and importance and make our own contribution to an understanding of the origins and nature of the civiliszation which we also have inherited.

PENGUIN LIBRARY

“The Jewish War” by Josephus has been added to the Penguin Classics in a new translation by G. A. Williamson (411 pp. maps.). This history is a tale of horror in which such classical catch phrases as “those who survived wished only for death” are no mere figures of speech. Essentially a history of the four years’ war leading to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. (which Josephus witnessed) the book is expanded by the addition of the earlier history of Jerusalem and digressions which are often the most precious things in the book. Josephus thus describes from another point of view the background to the events of the New Testament. A substantial introduction gives a brief account of Josephus and his writings and the (very sensible) principles which have guided the translation. A new Pelican. “The Idea of the Holy” by Rudolf Otto (2Q5 pp. Index) first appeared in English translation in 1923. Otto introduced the term "numinous” to religious discussion, a term denoting the non-rational component of religious feeling, the part of the meaning of “holy” which is not merely ethical. “Holiness” is “goodness” and something more, the something more being called “numinous.” The numinous cannot by its nature be exactly described as it is not a concept but a feeling. The purpose of this book is to analyse the feeling and introduce terminology not less precise for having to use symbols. It is thus an attempt to combat extravagant “irrationalism” with a serious attempt to ground conviction on a basis of coherent thought.