The Great Conversation

I came across an online reading group that interested me, so I joined it. The purpose of the group is to follow a ten year reading plan that covers all 52 volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica's Great Books collection. It sounded like just the accountability that I needed to get through reading or re-reading the great foundational classics of our civilization. It fits right in with my goals of being a life-long learner.

The Yahoo group started in January 2005. I just joined in March 2006, so I missed the first year's reading but, since it's a ten-year plan I figured I could catch up eventually. The reading for March was from Herodotus' The Histories.
The Great Books Reading Group





The Histories


The reading for April includes selections from Plato, Aristotle, and Nichomachus (who?). I'm not sure who he is either, but I'll let you know after I read what he has to say about Ethics.

Here is part of my post to the group on Herodotus:

First of all, I loved reading Herodotus. I am so impressed that after approximately two and a half millennia his personality still comes through. I would compare him to a present day travel blogger. He seems to be a very likeable person. I also have to say that I enjoyed him much more after I switched editions (about half-way through the reading) from the Great Book translation to the Penguin version that I had from college.

I want to mention one topic that most interested me from the many that I noted. This is the racial make-up of the ancient Egyptians. I had the privilege of viewing the King Tut exhibit this past Fall in Los Angeles. There was a rather large controversy over the computer reconstructed busts of King Tut displayed at the exhibit, especially regarding the pigment of his skin.

The images portrayed King Tut as white. It was interesting that Herodotus mentions twice in his remarks about Egypt that they were black.

The first mention is:
“As to the bird being black, they merely signify by this that the woman was an Egyptian.”

“…but it is undoubtably a fact that the Colchians are of Egyptian descent. I noticed this myself before I heard anyone else mention it…
The Egyptians did, however, say that they thought the original Colchians were men from Sesostris’ army. My own idea on the subject was based first on the fact that they have black skins and woolly hair (not that that amounts to much, as other nations have the same),