There is no denying the generosity with which early commentators treated the ancient Greeks. No other people received more praise for their courage, their curiosity, and their genius. Too often, though, these adulations were excessive and operated in neglect of accuracy. Accordingly, more recent scholars are to be commended for having tempered our enthusiasms for the Greek Miracle; for reminding us that far from being a race of demi-gods, the Hellenes were in many respects “all too human.”

Today there is a new challenge. We no longer need concern ourselves with retrieving the Greeks from some Olympian height – quite the contrary. The present task is to remedy a distortion born of neglect and misrendering that has minimalized much of the Hellenic legacy. This book seeks, therefore, to remind its readers that there is more to the Greek patrimony than a handful of sculptures and a collection of polytheistic folktales. Specifically, it attempts to trace the journey of an audacious little people who forever altered the course of world history by daring to unleash the energies of the human spirit.