Chapter 2, Mind and Spirit Summary and Analysis

Mind and Spirit is the second dichotomy Hamilton emphasizes to explain the uniqueness of the Athenian cultural achievement in the ancient world. The particular achievement of Athenian life and thought was, for Hamilton, the ability to achieve perfect balance and integration of mind and spirit in human life. Perhaps it would be better to think of mind and spirit as antithetical and of the Athenian achievement as the discovery of the resolution of the antithesis.

What these Greeks discovered in the fifth century was recognition of beauty in the world and joy in life. Indeed, Hamilton points out, they were (as far as we know) the first people in the world to play. They discovered a new way to look at life and a new way to live. "To rejoice in life, to find the...