A brief observation. And an even briefer snidey aside
I am re-reading Victor Davis Hanson's peerless 'Why the West has Won - Carnage and Culture from Salamis to Vietnam' for the umpteenth time, and fancied that this quote merited a narrower audience:
"Later the Greeks even had their triremes named Demokratia, Eleutheria and Parrhesia".
Which one might render as 'Democracy', 'Freedom' and 'Freedom of Speech'. Which I think are rather better names than HMS Ark Royal, USS Nimitz or, come to that, the Charles de Gaulle.
"Arnold Toynbee (guess whose grandfather he is)..in one of his more foolish asides suggested that a Greek loss to Xerxes might have been good for Hellenic civilization".
"Later the Greeks even had their triremes named Demokratia, Eleutheria and Parrhesia".
Which one might render as 'Democracy', 'Freedom' and 'Freedom of Speech'. Which I think are rather better names than HMS Ark Royal, USS Nimitz or, come to that, the Charles de Gaulle.
"Arnold Toynbee (guess whose grandfather he is)..in one of his more foolish asides suggested that a Greek loss to Xerxes might have been good for Hellenic civilization".
Labels: arms and the man, books, brief observations, Toynbee
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on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 2:51 pm.
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Freema speech = parrhesia. We are indebted to our learned friend.
Surely warships - er - peace promotion ships - shd be named Billie Jean - Thriller - etc.
I cannot claim to be a master of classical Greek, and the translations were in VDH's book.
Sticking with Jackson songs, 'Bad' might work. 'Smooth Criminal' would be a little creepy I think.
oH yeah - this is a really Baad destroyer. Whereupon we surrender to the Persians (as I still call them).
All too likely...
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