Perhaps the most characteristic element of ancient Greek history is
the little progress made in science and technology, a progress that
we should expect if the ancient Greeks were as forcefully oriented
towards the rationalization that they invented. But they were not.
Their heart was after Helen, after Beauty, after God, and inside
this primary interest of theirs, they developed and spontaneously
measured rationalization.
What we owe to them is their love for knowledge, which was that great,
that they developed even a rational dimension in order to approach
the truth. They did even that, this was not the primary or
peak-point of their mind, and they did not give to that a special
importance, because they soon realised this newly developed power to
be of very limited abilities. Guthrie’s history suffers all the
misinterpretations of the ancient Greeks that the western mind
suffers, yet from the information-aspect is the most complete
history we have so far. If you use it as an elaborate encyclopedia,
not trying by it to be ‘initiated’ to the ancient Greeks, but just
to find some information that might be useful in your overall study,
then it can prove useful.