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| Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Hinges of History) | 
 enlarge | Author: Thomas Cahill
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $4.22
You Save: $10.73 (72%)
New (47) Used (54) from $1.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 16875
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0385495544
Dewey Decimal Number: 909.09
EAN: 9780385495547
ASIN: 0385495544
Publication Date: July 27, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: In stock - Sent fast from British booksellers.
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| Customer Reviews:
 What's Not To Like? October 29, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The other customers who rate Wine-Dark Sea poorly seem prejudiced by having read other books by Cahill, and find this title wanting by comparison. But I carry no such baggage. I haven't read anything else by Cahill. Provides an amphora's worth of insight to the Zeitgeist and culture of Ancient Greece. I found Wine-Dark Sea fascinating and absorbing. My only quibble is that it isn't long enough. If you're only going to read one book about Ancient Greece this is the one.
Cahill's Erudition is a Pleasure October 9, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Most educated people have some idea about the important contributions the Greeks have made to Western Civilization. We usually learn of their deeds in a hodge podge fashion. We learn about Pythagoras in Geometry Class or Socrates or Plato in an Introduction to Philosophy class. We know the Greeks are important but most of us know this in a scattered sort of way.
The beauty of this book is that Thomas Cahill gathers all their many varied contributions and distills them into one very well written single volume. I am sure there are other books that do the same thing. I would also doubt if there are any great scholarly breakthroughs in this book. However, what makes this book special is Cahill's talent as a writer. He has all the erudition and confidence that one associates with an Oxford or Cambridge don. It is good to know that the United States can produce such a well rounded and talented generalist. This book was a great pleasure to read. Highly recommended.
 Disappointing and Unconvincing September 4, 2006
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed the author's earlier work on how the Irish saved civilization. But this book was a disappointing compendium of Greek myths, legends and history that never reveals a plan behind the book. Taken in its subparts, many sections are engagingly informative in an elegant if sometimes pretentious prose. Yet the author ambles from here to there in a disjointed narrative with interesting nuggets but little insight. Where's the big picture? The author attempts to wrap it up at the end with a sentence about the Greeks' "variety of human response, lightening quick transmutations, resourcefulness, and inexhaustible creativity."
A subtitle like "A Greek Treasury of Personal Vignettes" might have been more descriptive and merited another star. But it falls short as a "hinge of history" with impoverished and even maladaptive connections (FDR as Solon - really?) to the modern world. I am sorry to not recommend it.
 A Good Read, but... July 10, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Not as concise and tightly written as Cahill's other works on Judaism, Christianity and the Irish. Not a bad starting point on the Greeks, yet seemed confused and disorganized at times. Still, many bright spots and certainly worth a look and 4 stars.
Incredibly Disappointing May 27, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I had read Cahill's other three "Hinges of History" titles before I read this one. In comparison with the other three books, "Sailing the Wine Dark Seas" seems less planned and less insightful. Cahill never really establishes a solid link between the Greek world and our own. This is not to say that he does not explain Greek contributions to art, theater, and philosophy. However, at the end of the reading Cahill left me unconvinced that the Greeks were that important in the shaping of the modern world. Of course, the Greeks did make significant, lasting contributions. Cahill simply does a poor job of making the connections seem important.
If you are going to read a Cahill book, I recommend "How the Irish Saved Civilization."
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