threaten the use of nuclear weapons onlynwith o//r permission: “At least this is truenfor the democracies. We do not knownwhat the peoples of the totalitariannstates, including the people of the SovietnUnion, may want. They are locked innsilence by their government. In these circumstances,npublic opinion in the freencountries would have to represent publicnopinion in all countries, and would havento, bring its pressure to bear, as best itncould, on all governments.” Schell’snThe Visions Forever GreennArnold Toynbee: The Greeks and TheirnHeritages; Oxford University Press;nNew York.nMary Renault: Funeral Games; PantheonnBooks; New York.nby Thomas Flemingnjyiodern man seems haunted by thenspecter of Greece. Like memories ofnchildhood, the visions of ancient Athensnand Sparta hold a place in our minds,nforever green. It does not matter how wenfirst formed the image—a translation ofnHomer, the illustrations in Bullfinch,nthe tales we had to translate in first-yearnLatin. However we were struck, thenGreeks inevitably become and remainnone of a civilized man’s most splendidnprivate possessions.nIt is a rare body of literature—for thatnis what “Greece” really comes down to,nliterature—that can inspire such variegatednpoets as Chapman and Pope, Jonsonnand Shelley. It is small wonder, then,nthat so many literary and political ideologuesnhave claimed the Greeks as theirnprecursors and—by adoption—thenchampions of their causes. The citizensnof Athens have been invoked as thenpatrons of liberal democracy, deism, freenverse, and pederasty—not the best argu-nMr. Fleming is editor o/The SouthernnPartisan.nrecommended course of action, obviously,nwould simply undercut the moralenand position of the democratic world,nand there is not a single reason to believenthat it would bring about disarmamentnand peace. From an inadequate analysisnof the problem, Schell thus arrives at annonsolution, while telling us how bad itnall is. But we already know how badnthings are, even though most of usnrepress that knowledge most of the time.nThankyou fornothing, Mr. Schell. Dnments for a classical curriculum. ThenGreek legacy, pulled and tugged in sonmany directions, has begun to resemblenthe corpse of Sarpedon over which sonmany Greeks and Trojans lost their lives,nand, like Sarpedon—whom his father,nZeus, kept inviolate even in death—thenlegacy of Greece remains untarnished bynits despoilers.nArnold Toynbee, in his posthumouslynpublished The Greeks and Their Heritages,nset out to explore the impact ofnGreek heritage upon the Greeks themselves.nIn only 270 pages, he managednto survey nearly four millennia of culturalnhistory. Only Toynbee, even in his decline,ncould combine the necessary learningnand audacity for such an undertaking.nThe Hellenic Greeks—from Homer tonPlato—were not unduly burdened bynnnthe past. They revered and sometimesnworshiped the heroes of the Bronze Age:nAchilles, Heracles, and Odysseus, whosenmemories were embedded in songs andnrituals. But Hellenic cultural and socialninstitutions were influenced very little bynthe civilization that collapsed soon afternthe Trojan War (after 1200 B.C.). So decisivenwas the “cultural discontinuity” innthis so-called Dark Age that Greeks ofnsucceeding generations, unable even tondecipher the ancient scripts, were free tonbuild their own civilization without theninterference of their ancestors:nThe Mycenaeans did not dominatenthe Hellenes posthumously. So farnfrom that, the Hellenes dohiinatednMycenaeans retrospectively. Theynreshaped, to their own liking, the imagenof the Mycenaean world.nSubsequent generations were, innToynbee’s opinion, not so fortunate.nThe achievements of Homer, Sophocles,nand Demosthenes had, he suggests, anstultifying influence on Hellenisticnliterature by forcing upon it an artificialndialect (Attic) and antiquated literarynmodels:nAthens was now replaced by Alexandrianas the Hellenic world’s literaryncentre, but this transplantation wasnfatal to the creative power of thenHellenic Greeks’ poetic genius. . . .nAnd academic Ersatz for genuinenpoetic inspiration was provided by annAlexandrian scholar, Apollonius.nToynbee apparently regarded all Hellenisticnliterature—apart from Theocritus—nas stale and unoriginal. If anything, thenreverse was true. Poets like Callimachus,nwho made a rare synthesis of emditionnand colloquialism, accomplished a revolutionnmore thorough (and far more successful)nthan the similar experiment ofnPound and Ehot. If all Greek literaturenwere represented only by Hellenisticnwriters like the authors included in thenGreek Anthology—Polybius, Plutarch,nand Lucian—it would still be a force withnwhich to reckon.nH^iSHImi^nDecember 198Sn