Golden Ages Then and Now

Are We In A Golden Age?

A golden age is usually imagined to be something in the distant past or distant future. But what if we went back to these golden ages ourselves? Would we really know we were in a golden age?

We can easily read the writings of the greatest classical minds and find more than enough criticisms of the customs, people, leaders and faux intellectuals in any said golden age. Political leaders were corrupt; the masses were debased; philosophy was ignored and rejected.

Sound familiar?

Here’s Francesco Petrarch, the father of Renaissance Humanism, often referred to as the first “modern man.”

Sonnet VII

Sheer gluttony and sleep and idle couches  
have, from the world, now banished every virtue; 
whence, from the Way, it’s almost lost to purview  
our nature, overborne by custom’s slouches. 
And so’s extinguished every light that’s bounteous  
from Heaven, through which life more human’s nurtured,  
that as a thing miraculous is then viewed  
one who would lead from Helicon one fountain.  
What longing for the laurel? What for myrtle? 
“Naked and poor, Philosophy goes, rather,” 
says that vile crowd to vilest gain conditioned. 
You’ve little company on ways quite other; 
so much the more I pray you, soul most gentle: 
greathearted, not to turn from your ambition. 

Translation by John H. B. Martin

Petrarch wrote this sonnet during the period now generally known as the Italian “Golden Renaissance”.

Countless examples can be found when reading the works of the great classical thinkers. For instance, in “The Legislation of Lycurgus and Solon,” the poet-historian Friedrich Schiller wrote the following about the famous “Age of Pericles,” often referred to as the “Golden Age of Athens.”

The love of fame and the thirst for novelty controlled them to the point of debauchery; the Athenian often staked his fortune, his life and, not infrequently, his virtue on fame. A crown of olive branches, an inscription on a pillar proclaiming his merit, was to him a more ardent spur to great deeds than all the treasures of the great king were to the Persian.

In this latest Rising Tide Foundation presentation, we explore the question of golden ages. We take a look at various historical examples and works of art from the Golden Renaissance, disabusing people from some sacred cows and misleading historical narratives. Finally, we conclude with reflections on what these past golden ages mean for us and the prospects of a new Renaissance today.

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