The Iliad vs. Beowulf

The Greek heroic poem the Iliad, that tells the story of Achaean ships raiding the capital city of Troy can be compared to the saga of the North Germanic peoples sailing and raiding two thousand years later. The Iliad takes a picture of one day of fighting on the shores of Troy, it is well organized and deep, while Beowulf deals with family feuds and individual battle against underground monsters. No doubt, as a literary/intellectual achievement, Beowulf is inferior. Yet, both Greeks and Germans took over the world of their times some 500 years later, and both developed wonderful civilizations.

The Greek civilization was defeated by its own success, Alexander extended it all over the East, creating administrative and teaching jobs for Greek speaking persons in the colonies, and the whole structure was bastardized into a Hellenistic universal mixture and never again reached Plato's heights. The Germanic (English) civilization also colonized the world, and is being dissolved and diluted into a pidgin blend. In its success, it is dying before our eyes. The cause of the death of our  civilization, like heart disease in Jewish families of the Old Country, cannot be said out loudly. Death was too horrible to contemplate, and/or saying the word too loudly may cause Death itself to show up.