Athens and Sparta Reinterpreted

Nice piece on a book out by scholar, Donald Kagan on Thucidides and how Kagan thinks the ancient writer clouded or spun the facts regarding the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704597704574485770661846940.html.

I've read stuff about the hoplites and their way of war, and though "300" was an entertaining take on the Spartans versus the hordes of Xerxes, it's far different than what the hoplites looked like and how they fought. If you're ever in Houston, stop by the Museum of Art: they have a pretty good display of hoplite helmets and other accouterments--I have no idea how they got them or how they really fit into the overall theme of an art museum, but there they are.

Some people are greatly enchanted by the whole ancient Greece thing--the mythology, the surviving plays, the battles and city states and all. I've got a daughter who knows a lot about the stuff from her middle school Latin classes and can give you the goods on the whys and why not's of every Greek god. Not so much for me. I've sat through a couple of Greek tragedies and that's the most turgid shit ever concocted: I congratulate Xerxes and anyone else who had a part in putting a stop to it and I'm sorry that any of the wretched lot survived. Really, anytime some thespian blabs about the glory of the Greek stage or something equally insipid, I think of calling in an air strike on the stage actors guild or cabal or nest of snakes or whatever it's called. Hideous to experience and worse than a cancelled flight at the Green Bay airport.