The Golden Thread

The classics in today’s labyrinth.

We live in turbulent times, amid pandemics, social and commercial conflicts, nationalism and migrations that have especially destabilized Europe and the Americas -what used to be known as the West-, where traditional security and certainties are coming to an end. If we look back to the origins of the Western world in classical times, we will discover that, surprising as it may seem, the ancients had to face very similar problems, which they dealt with more or less successfully. So what can the Greeks and Romans teach us regarding our world today?

This book starts from the paradoxical realization of the relevance of the classics and examines, in nine chapters, the major issues of international and national politics, the main metaphors with which the social and political thought we have inherited from the ancients are expressed, and some figures, problems or emblematic issues of our time that can be better understood if we pay attention to what the Greeks and Romans said in similar cases.

The aim of this work is to provide an alternative vision to the present day, which involves recognizing the ancientness of our problems and the importance of looking at them from a historical and humanistic perspective. A surprising update of our current experience based on the relevance of classical literature and history.