"But neither approach seems to lead to the kind of answer which those who ask the question are seeking. What they seem to want to know is—Are the Modern Greeks the same as the Ancient Greeks? Are their racial and national characteristics the same? Do the Modern Greeks behave in the same kind of way as the Ancient Athenians, Spartans, and Corinthians behaved? If one looks among the Modem Greeks will one find the equivalents of Pericles and Sophocles and Plato? By their nature such questions are vague and contain within them a host of assumptions—about human nature, genetics and race, the influence of environment on behaviour, and the reliability of our knowledge of ancient history—all of which are questionable and some of which are simply unfounded."
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Academics from the United KingdomHistorians from the United KingdomFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureAnthropologists from the United KingdomFellows of the British Academy
Original Language: English
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p. 15-16.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_St_Clair
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William St Clair
William St Clair (7 December 1937 – 30 June 2021) was a British anthropologist and author, whose research interests lay in the history of books and reading, ancient Greece and biography.
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