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Language, literature, art,
philosophy, politics,

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architecture, sport, culture -

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the very bones, sinews, muscles,
and life blood of our modern world

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are often said to be indebted
to the Ancient Greeks.

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But scratch the surface
of that culture

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and you find, amidst the democracy,
the philosophy and the literature,

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what can seem to us
a seething tornado

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of alien,

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unsettling

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and sometimes downright outrageous
customs and beliefs.

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I'm Dr Michael Scott.

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As an Assistant Professor
of Classics and Ancient History,

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I study the strange world
of the Ancient Greeks.

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In these two programmes,
I'll be asking two big questions.

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How did they live?

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And what have they given us?

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HE SPEAKS IN ANCIENT GREEK

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In this programme, I'll be finding
out who these people were.

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The Ancient Greeks
who invented democracy

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but who engaged in wrestling matches
sometimes to the death.

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What were their lives like?

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They came up with the Olympics

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but dined on a filthy mix
of vinegar and blood soup.

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A tough food for tough men.

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They gave us philosophy

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but were happy to abandon newborn
babies outside their city walls.

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How did this mix of the bizarre
and the familiar

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create such an impressive
civilisation?

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I want to find out,
who were the Greeks?

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I'm in the hills above a place
that changed the world.

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It doesn't look
that impressive today,

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scattered with modern houses
and beach hotels.

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But down there on that very shore,
one of the most important

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battles in history was fought
and won by the Ancient Greeks.

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In 490 BC,
a relatively small Greek force,

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took position down there
on the plain of Marathon to face up

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against a vast
invading Persian army.

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There were around 10,000 Greeks and
probably 25,000 to 30,000 Persians,

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although some of the sources
talk about hundreds of thousands.

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The Greeks were outnumbered...

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..and supposedly totally outmatched.

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But they were
fighting for their freedom.

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By 490 BC, when the Greeks were
facing the Persians at Marathon,

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they had already invented
the world's first democracy.

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Greek architecture, art, philosophy
and medicine were flourishing too.

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But all of this
could have been wiped out

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with a sweep of the Persian sword.

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There was a huge amount at stake.

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But at Marathon, the Greeks
broke all the rules of battle

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in order to win.

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They ran at the Persian line,
taking them by surprise.

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The Greeks did not normally
run into battle in those days.

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It was an extraordinary thing
for them to do.

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After the Battle of Marathon,
Miltiades, the Athenian general,

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travelled to the sacred site of
Olympia to make offerings of thanks

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to the gods for their miraculous
victory against the Persians.

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And in the Sanctuary of Zeus,

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he dedicated possibly the very
helmet he wore in battle to the god.

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This is Miltiades' helmet.

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And we know this because the helmet
is inscribed

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"Miltiades anetheken to Dii",

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"Miltiades dedicated this
to the god Zeus".

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For me, there's no better way
of getting up close and personal

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with history
two and a half thousand years ago

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than standing in front
of this incredible object.

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But this object right next to it
tells a very different story.

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It's a helmet, but you can see
the difference in styles.

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This is a Persian helmet.

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And what it's doing here,
well, again,

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an inscription tells us the story.
Here it is.

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"Di", to the gods,
"athenioa", the Athenians,

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"medon", the Persians,
"labontes", took it.

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The Athenians took this helmet,
probably off a dead Persian,

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and dedicated it to their gods.

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So what does this tell us?

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There was more to Ancient Greece
than the traditional image

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we might have in our minds
of philosophy, politics and art.

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The Greeks were ferocious warriors,
they took battle trophies,

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and were quite happy
to put thousands of their enemies

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to the sword.

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The political philosopher,
John Stuart Mill,

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once claimed Marathon
was more important

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in the story of English history
than the Battle of Hastings.

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If the Greeks had not won that day,

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our world would be
unrecognisably different.

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Who were these people

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who accomplished
such an extraordinary victory?

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In the fifth century BC,
when the Greeks fought at Marathon,

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Greece's political organisation
was very unusual.

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Its population was divided
by mountain ranges

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and dotted across myriad islands.

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It was a patchwork of thousands
of small territories

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rather than anything
resembling a nation.

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Ancient Greece was composed
of a huge number of tribes,

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monarchies and city-states,
called "polis".

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Now these weren't anything
like our modern cities today.

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They were much more country towns
or villages

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surrounded by an amount of territory
that provided the community

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with, by and large, everything they
needed - olives, grain, animals.

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And most of them were fairly small.

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One area of Ancient Greece, Boeotia,

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which is a bit smaller
than our Kent,

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there were 12 of these independent
city states sitting side-by-side

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but every one of them, whatever
size, had their own traditions,

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their own laws, their own ideas
about how things should be done.

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Every one of them
had their own unique identity.

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More often than not,

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the Ancient Greeks referred to
the Athenians,

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the Spartans or the Corinthians,

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rather than talking about
Athens, Sparta or Corinth.

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They spoke of communities
made up of people

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rather than cities
made up of buildings.

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How did this mosaic of independent
communities link together?

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Well, one of the ways
they did it was through alliances.

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This is a copy of a bronze tablet

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that was originally discovered
in 1813

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and it would have been
fixed to a wall.

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These are nail holes here and here.

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And it details an alliance, a treaty
alliance between two city states.

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That of Elis in the Peloponnese
and Haria in Arcadia.

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But the terms of the alliance
are fascinating.

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It's a treaty for 100 years
and it works like this -

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if one city goes to war,
the other city state will join in.

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If someone makes war on one
of the city states,

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the other will come to its aid.

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And there was a fine

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if one of the city states doesn't
live up to its obligations.

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A talent - 6,000 days' pay which had
to be paid over to Olympian Zeus.

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The truth was that each independent
polis needed treaties and alliances

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because the city states
of Ancient Greece

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were almost constantly
at war with one another.

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They fought over land,
they had long-running feuds

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and bitter rivalries for power.

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Every man grew up
knowing how to fight

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and was instilled with a deep desire
to win, no matter what the cost.

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At the Battle of Marathon, the
reality was that only the Athenians

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and their allies, the Plataeans,
turned up to fight the Persians.

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It was one loose alliance
that saved the whole of Greece.

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Winning was everything in Ancient
Greece, second place meant nothing.

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Pindar who wrote victory odes
for Olympic winners wrote one

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in which he gloats about how a loser
will be shunned by their mother

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and have to creep around
in the back streets,

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"Nor returning to their mothers

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"did sweet laughter
arouse joy around them,

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"but down the alleys they slunk,

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"keeping aloof from their enemies,
bitten by defeat."

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Success was everything.

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In a world in which only wealth,
breeding or achievement

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could really distinguish you,

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the thing you could do most about
was achievement.

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You had to fight and you had to win.

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Within the city states
of Ancient Greece,

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if you were a man and a citizen, you
had a great deal of responsibility.

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All citizens had to serve
as soldiers

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because there was no
professional army.

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Because all citizens
had to be battle-ready,

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a good deal of any spare time was
spent keeping fit in Ancient Greece.

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And the Greeks were extremely
competitive about it.

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Today, at the Olympic Centre
in Athens,

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there is still a legacy

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of one of the most brutal forms
of Ancient Greek combat sport.

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The no-holds barred Pankration
is still practised here.

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Pankration was a sport
in the ancient Olympics,

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but it was also used in battle.

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When the Greeks were disarmed,
when they lost their weapons,

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they could still fight
to the death using this sport.

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Competition was at the core
of the Greek psyche.

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The Greek word for "competition"
is "agon" - our "agony".

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A Syrian writer named Lucian

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wrote a guide to Greece for
foreigners in the second century AD,

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and he said that the Greek obsession
with competition

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bordered on insanity.

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'Pankration still looks
pretty dangerous today,

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'but I'm here to give it a try.'

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I understand Pankration
as part of the ancient world.

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What does it mean to you?

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We are very proud to do this sport.

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We love it, we do it every day.

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So it's a part of our life.

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In the ancient world Pankration
was thought of

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as the most difficult sport,
the toughest,

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almost no rules whatsoever.

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Is it like that today?

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No, today we have rules.

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Would you show me some moves?
You will be gentle?

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Yes, of course. Don't be afraid. OK.

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You can do this move.

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OK, yeah. It's impossible to move.

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You cannot move
when you're down here.

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It's very difficult.

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'All the throws and moves
in modern Pankration

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'come from the ancient sport.

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'It's an incredibly effective
martial art.'

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Wow.

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So you can throw someone
of any weight? Yes.

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It doesn't matter how heavy
or tall they are?

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00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:17,680
No, it's about technique. Amazing.

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'The fact that the Greeks developed
and competed in sports

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'that doubled as battle tactics,

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'marked out the militaristic nature
of their society.

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'Yet there were some
in Ancient Greece

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'who took the idea of military
training and combat to the extreme.'

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If you want to know how tough
life could be in Ancient Greece,

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you have to look at Sparta - a place
of wild mountains and deep forests.

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In Ancient Greece, nobody was
tougher than the famous Spartans.

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We still use their name today in our
word "spartan"

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meaning simple, austere, frugal.

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00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:59,320
But Spartan society went
a lot further than just austerity,

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it was a society where you had to
survive in the wild

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and fight for life
from the moment you were born.

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00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:09,120
Sparta was essentially
a military society.

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00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:11,520
Boys were taken away
from their families aged six,

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00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:12,960
and taught in packs.

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00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:15,000
They were subjected
to rigorous training,

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00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,640
to make them soldiers and also
punished with things like whipping

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00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:20,360
for even minor offences,

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00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:24,840
and there they became used to the
incredible intensity of observation

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00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:26,800
that defined Spartan society.

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00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:28,400
One source tells us that

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00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:32,360
a Spartan's body was checked for
physical perfection every ten days.

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00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:35,920
The Spartans strove
to be perfect warriors,

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00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:39,800
they sought glory in battle and
to instil fear in their enemies.

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They were a ruthless fighting force.

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Spartan warriors, when going
into battle, wore a red cloak,

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much like this one.

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Now, you might think it's a bit
luxurious for those hardy Spartans

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to have a nice red cloak but,
the way they explained it was that,

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the red colour covered up
the sight of their blood

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if they were bleeding
on the battlefield.

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If you saw these,
you knew you were facing Spartans.

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00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:09,360
You knew you were facing soldiers
trained within a society

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that was tuned to the highest
pitch of competition, obedience

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and self mastery.

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'Tough Spartan training

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'and the Spartan way of life
is still admired today.

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'I've arranged to meet some
modern-day Spartan re-enactors,

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00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:28,920
'who have agreed not to beat me or
check me for physical perfection,

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00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:32,400
'but they have cooked up an ancient
Spartan recipe for me to try.'

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00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:36,640
So, Spiro, what are we making here?

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OK, this is the black broth.

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It's the typical food
for the Spartan fighter.

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00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:51,680
It is a food that is adapted to
the military lifestyle of the time.

243
00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:53,680
Does that mean
it doesn't taste very nice?

244
00:13:53,680 --> 00:13:55,120
It tastes horrible.

245
00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:58,880
The main reason
because it's called black broth

246
00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:04,280
is that it has a lot of pig blood.

247
00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:07,920
OK, so what else?

248
00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:13,920
It has barley flour, it has salt, it
has vinegar, it also has pork meat.

249
00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:17,920
OK, I've heard a story
about this food

250
00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:24,440
that a man from Sybaris, a man
from Sybaris in southern Italy,

251
00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:27,240
said that once he'd tried this

252
00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:31,680
he understood why Spartans were so
willing to die on the battlefield.

253
00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:33,720
That is correct, that it correct.

254
00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:36,520
Because it tasted so horrible.
Yes. Right.

255
00:14:36,520 --> 00:14:38,640
THEY LAUGH

256
00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:51,720
I think I might be
with Sybaris on this.

257
00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:57,160
You can taste the vinegar,
that's really strong.

258
00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:59,040
And the thickness of the barley.

259
00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,080
But you can taste the blood as well.

260
00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:04,120
Yes, there is a small taste of blood.

261
00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:09,400
This is a, you can say,
a tough food for tough men.

262
00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:12,880
It strengthens the mentality
of those people

263
00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:16,200
and it makes them feel
they were strong.

264
00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:22,440
Spartans had to compete constantly,
carry out orders,

265
00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,400
test themselves to the limits
of their endurance.

266
00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:29,200
And it wasn't just the men,
it was also the women.

267
00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:32,840
This is a replica of an ancient
bronze statuette of a Spartan girl.

268
00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:36,720
And it sums up everything you need
to know about the women of Sparta.

269
00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:37,920
The key detail is here.

270
00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:39,440
Look at her pulling up her skirt

271
00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:42,160
to reveal her thigh
so that she can run faster.

272
00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:44,760
That's exactly
what the ancient Athenians

273
00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:47,600
labelled Spartan women as -
thigh-flashers.

274
00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:51,520
They talked about their intolerable,
unrespectable behaviour,

275
00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,560
not least because Spartan women
were out there as young girls

276
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:57,960
training, wrestling with one another
in order to become as fit

277
00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:00,480
as they possibly could
to be the perfect mother.

278
00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:05,560
But what the Spartans thought
was a perfect mother,

279
00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:08,200
would not be a perfect mother
to us today.

280
00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:12,440
Spartan mothers had to be prepared
to give up their babies

281
00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:16,280
for examination by the Spartan
council of elders.

282
00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:19,360
And if the elders thought the child
was imperfect,

283
00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:21,160
it would not be allowed to live.

284
00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:26,280
Here in Sparta, if a child was
judged weak or unhealthy in any way,

285
00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:29,440
then its father was ordered to carry
it to the slopes of Mount Taygetos

286
00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:31,760
and leave it to die.

287
00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:34,000
Because as the ancient sources say,

288
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,000
"The life which nature has not
provided with health and strength

289
00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:41,880
"can be of no use to itself
or to the state."

290
00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:47,360
This practice of infant exposure,

291
00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:50,760
leaving babies to die if they
weren't considered strong enough,

292
00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:53,320
didn't just happen in Sparta either.

293
00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:58,440
It was allegedly practised all over
Ancient Greece, even in Athens,

294
00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:03,000
the birthplace of our modern
sense of democracy and freedom.

295
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:06,680
It's estimated that the rate
of female exposure was perhaps

296
00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:08,080
as high as 10% in Athens.

297
00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:13,000
Baby girls were certainly abandoned
more frequently than boys.

298
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:15,120
Sons could grow up
to become citizens,

299
00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:17,000
they could fight for their polis

300
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,440
and did not need
to be provided with a dowry.

301
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:21,720
A comic writer of
the third century BC wrote,

302
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:25,960
"If you have a son you bring him
up, even if you're poor,

303
00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:29,600
"but if you have a daughter, you
abandon her, even if you're rich."

304
00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:39,080
It seems shocking that a culture
that we so much admire

305
00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:43,560
practised what we would now call
infanticide and eugenics.

306
00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:47,120
But in the Athenian agora,
the ancient city centre,

307
00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:49,880
a startling discovery
was made in the 1930s

308
00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:53,600
that helps us put these practices
into context.

309
00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:57,040
An ancient well full of baby bones
was uncovered.

310
00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:00,640
Today, archaeologists

311
00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:03,400
at the American School of Classical
Studies at Athens

312
00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,080
have analysed
the entire contents of the well.

313
00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:10,080
'Osteologist, Dr Sherry Fox,

314
00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:13,440
'has agreed to share
some of their findings with me.'

315
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,760
How common is it to find a well
full of bones in the ancient city?

316
00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:22,920
This is a unique burial in that
we have only the remains on infants,

317
00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:26,080
for the most part, around 450.

318
00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:28,960
It dates to the second century BC,

319
00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:33,080
and from a fairly narrow window,
we think around 15 years.

320
00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:37,480
What sense can we get
of what killed these children?

321
00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:42,680
Well, prematurity for certain,
I believe it's 15%.

322
00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:47,600
We have also some other defects
that we're not so certain about

323
00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:52,280
and we found a number of cases
of cleft palate.

324
00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:55,760
We also have infection

325
00:18:55,760 --> 00:19:01,440
and here we have an example of
infection on the back of the head.

326
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:03,040
This is the occipital bone.

327
00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:05,200
It's the same bone that I have here

328
00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:10,000
and often times we will see
pitting within this area.

329
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,240
And what kind of infection creates
this pitting on the skull?

330
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:18,360
Well, one of the more
common infections is meningitis,

331
00:19:18,360 --> 00:19:20,920
and it's a problem today.

332
00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:24,640
And was anything else found
alongside the infants in the well?

333
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:31,200
Absolutely. In addition to those
infants, we have about 150 dogs.

334
00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:36,200
Yeah, those definitely
aren't children's.

335
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:41,280
Dog burials are often associated
with human burials

336
00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:43,400
in many different cultures.

337
00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:46,320
They look green,
and the reason for that is,

338
00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:48,680
in addition to the infants
and the dogs,

339
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:54,120
about 18 kilograms of bronze
were recovered from the well.

340
00:19:54,120 --> 00:19:57,520
Right, so this is the staining
of the dog bones from the bronze.

341
00:19:57,520 --> 00:19:58,520
It is.

342
00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:00,560
So, what are we dealing with here?

343
00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:03,240
Is it the family dog
being thrown down the well

344
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:04,800
after the child has died?

345
00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:06,520
It may be a sacrifice.

346
00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:09,320
It's possible
that it could be a sacrifice.

347
00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:13,480
'In Ancient Greece, sacrifices
were payments, almost bribes,

348
00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:15,560
'to accompany your prayers
to the gods

349
00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:17,520
'if you wanted something to go well

350
00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,040
'or if you wanted to rid yourself
of bad luck.'

351
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:25,640
Socrates recorded that the people
of Argos sacrificed female dogs

352
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:28,120
to ensure successful childbirth.

353
00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:32,440
Dogs were also sacrificed to Hecate,
a goddess of the underworld,

354
00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:36,120
who was accompanied by the souls
of those who had died prematurely.

355
00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:40,760
The dogs in the agora well
may have been sacrificed

356
00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:43,920
to accompany the babies
to the underworld.

357
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:46,000
Or they might have been sacrifices

358
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,200
simply to help rid the midwives
and families of the bad luck

359
00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:53,160
associated with death
and childbirth. We just don't know.

360
00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:56,400
This extraordinary archaeological
discovery, for me,

361
00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,040
I think, focuses two
absolutely crucial things.

362
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,080
The first is that
in trying to understand

363
00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:03,920
why you would throw dogs
down a well after dead babies,

364
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:07,160
it really brings home to us just how
different a world Ancient Greece

365
00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:11,600
was to our own - how weird, alien
and strange it should seem to us.

366
00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:13,240
But the second is this,

367
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,320
those 450-odd babies
were part of a bigger picture,

368
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,440
we estimate that something like
25% of babies

369
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,480
died in their first year
in Ancient Greece.

370
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:25,680
And in that context, it can seem
an anathema that the Greeks

371
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:27,680
would have wanted
to add to that number

372
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:29,640
with the intentional exposure,

373
00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:32,360
the intentional killing
of more imperfect children.

374
00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:35,960
But I think the reality was
very simple,

375
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,680
this was a harsh world in which
only the fittest could survive

376
00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:42,200
and anything or anyone else
was a burden.

377
00:21:43,360 --> 00:21:47,000
The Greeks had to fight to survive
from the day they were born.

378
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:54,880
You needed all the help you could
get to survive in Ancient Greece

379
00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:58,920
and that was why the Greeks
constantly appealed to their gods,

380
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:02,640
many of them still famous today,
like Zeus, god of thunder,

381
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:05,120
and Aphrodite, goddess of love.

382
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:09,040
The Greeks believed that the gods

383
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:11,320
were involved in every aspect
of their lives.

384
00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:14,040
Land, sea, harvest, love,
wine-making, weaving -

385
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,840
you name it, and there was
a Greek god behind it.

386
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:19,480
The best way I've heard
of describing it is like this,

387
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:23,360
"The Greek gods spilled like clothes
from an over-filled drawer

388
00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:25,880
"that no-one felt obliged to tidy."

389
00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:27,640
And yet, at the same time,

390
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:31,080
those gods could be actively for you
or against you.

391
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:34,120
And you had to do everything in your
power to keep them on your side,

392
00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:37,440
to keep them well disposed
towards you, to keep them happy.

393
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:40,840
There wasn't even a word
for religion in Ancient Greece.

394
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:43,840
Worshipping the gods
was so much a part of life

395
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,880
that it could not be considered
separately.

396
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:48,760
But here's the paradox,

397
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:52,840
because alongside believing
in a vast array of gods, the Greeks

398
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:57,720
were also fundamentally interested
in scientific thought and medicine.

399
00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:01,840
They were, in a way, rational
and irrational all at the same time.

400
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:07,440
I'm on my way to Epidaurus,
across the sea from Athens,

401
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:09,480
in the Peloponnese.

402
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:13,960
Epidaurus was a medical sanctuary
where the Greeks came to be healed,

403
00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:17,160
and it was a place
where Greek religion and medicine

404
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:18,880
were perfectly combined.

405
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:23,680
There's no better symbol
of the very curious,

406
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:28,160
but ultimately very successful,
interweaving, of what are to us,

407
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:32,280
rational and irrational approaches
to medicine, here at Epidaurus,

408
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:33,640
than these things.

409
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,520
These stelae that were put
up right by the abaton.

410
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:40,600
The top line of the inscription here
tells us what they are.

411
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:44,360
"Mata to Apollonos..."

412
00:23:44,360 --> 00:23:48,920
"The cures of the god Apollo
and the god Asclepius."

413
00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:51,520
And what follows
are success stories, testimonials,

414
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:53,120
stelae of them.

415
00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:56,600
And on the one hand, some of them
are absolutely fantastical.

416
00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:01,360
The very first one - "Cleo,
who was pregnant for five years,

417
00:24:01,360 --> 00:24:03,400
"came here and gave birth."

418
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:05,320
And it gets better because then,
apparently,

419
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:08,280
her son got up immediately
and washed himself in the fountain.

420
00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:10,560
But on the other hand,
some of them feel very real.

421
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:13,440
A man who had an arrow in his lung,

422
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:19,320
that had seeped 67 bowlfuls of pus
before he got here, was cured.

423
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,560
And even those who came here
disbelieving in the god Apollo

424
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:25,400
had their ailments cured.

425
00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:33,760
'Here at Epidaurus, I've arranged
to meet Dr Stefanos Geroulanos,

426
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:37,320
'a professor of surgery and
a scholar of Ancient Greek medicine,

427
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:40,040
'to find out exactly
how this sanctuary,

428
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,080
'with its gods and doctors,
actually worked.'

429
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:45,120
They were offering to the gods,

430
00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:50,200
they were bringing some presents
to ask to be cured.

431
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,440
And what sort of things
would they offer?

432
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:53,440
Mainly food.

433
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:58,080
If there was something
more important,

434
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,840
they would bring an animal
and eventually sacrifice.

435
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:05,880
And this is the altar of Asclepius
here, this is where they came to?

436
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:08,880
Definitely, it is the main altar
and it is here

437
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,640
where they would offer
what they had brought from home.

438
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,760
What would happen in the days
after they had arrived

439
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:17,960
and made their initial sacrifices?

440
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,880
The physicians would
take the history,

441
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:24,960
they would examine the patient
and come to a diagnosis.

442
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:31,640
Then they would ask the patient
that he has to sleep in the abaton.

443
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:36,920
In the night, the god would come
with all his followers

444
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:40,600
and tell to the patient
what he had to do to be cured.

445
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:42,000
It seems a little like

446
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,800
we've stepped over here
from medicine into hallucination.

447
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:49,520
Do you think there were some
kind of tricks that these people,

448
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:51,280
when they came to sleep
in the abaton,

449
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,120
encouraged them to have
these sorts of dreams?

450
00:25:54,120 --> 00:25:56,040
Definitely.

451
00:25:56,040 --> 00:26:00,000
They were giving them drinks,
not with hallucination drugs,

452
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,520
but definitely to make them sleep.

453
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,560
The second thing that was
extremely important, I think,

454
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:10,440
is that if the treatment,
the first treatment, wouldn't work,

455
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:13,080
so what should we do?

456
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:17,680
God could not make a mistake.
You didn't hear very well.

457
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:22,000
Go sleep again and then they
could give the second treatment.

458
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,440
'It wasn't simply faith healing
in the sanctuary at Epidaurus,

459
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,120
'Ancient Greek physicians
administered cures

460
00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:30,120
'and even performed
operations here.

461
00:26:31,360 --> 00:26:35,200
'And in his own private collection
now on exhibition, Dr Geroulanos

462
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:39,360
'has examples of the tools
which the ancient surgeons used.

463
00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:41,800
'I'm about to see
an Ancient Greek medical kit.'

464
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:46,160
Stefanos, tell me
about this array

465
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:49,400
of rather nasty-looking
pieces of equipment here?

466
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:53,080
Let's start from the top,
there are some knives and scalpels.

467
00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:56,760
This one is to open up a small vein

468
00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,200
to have blood letting out

469
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:04,880
and it was the only way
to put your blood pressure down.

470
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:09,360
That one looks a little bit more
than a small vein opener?

471
00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:14,120
It is there for a small amputation,
it was very suitable.

472
00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:18,000
There's an incredible variety,
of specialisation, of tool here.

473
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:19,320
Absolutely. Absolutely.

474
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:23,960
How would you judge this
in terms of the sophistication

475
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:28,040
of the ancient surgery kit
compared to the modern?

476
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:32,360
For example, the curettes are exactly
the same today as they were before.

477
00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:37,560
The same is this spoon
sort of a curette, exactly the same.

478
00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:43,040
The hooks, and especially
the sharp ones, are identical.

479
00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:46,920
Really, obviously, we've advanced in
terms of knowledge and technology,

480
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:50,240
but the bones of the kit are here.

481
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:53,040
It is like all tools.

482
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:58,480
When the tools reach a certain
standard, they stay for ever.

483
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:00,320
I mean, think of the hammer.

484
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:01,960
And what are these?

485
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,600
These are cupping glasses.

486
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,240
I was going to say, I've never
heard of a cupping glass,

487
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:09,000
I don't know
what a cupping glass is.

488
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:10,920
You are too young.

489
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:14,120
I had them when I was a young boy,
I had them on my back

490
00:28:14,120 --> 00:28:15,960
when I had a flu.

491
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:21,120
It was one of the best therapies
at the time

492
00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:26,400
because it makes
your immune response better.

493
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:31,600
You put some fire in, up to the end
that the fire disappears,

494
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:35,080
so it has taken all the oxygen away.

495
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,760
And then you put it on the skin.

496
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:42,160
Now, having a vacuum,
the skin goes up

497
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,400
and creates under the skin...

498
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:47,760
..a dome.

499
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:53,040
The effect is that the body
needs much more white blood cells

500
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:56,920
and it creates more, that they are
not going only there,

501
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:58,800
but they go to your pri-monia,

502
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,880
or to another place
where there is an infection.

503
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:05,560
So this is a device which
sort of encourages the body

504
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:09,000
to go into overdrive and to get
the immune system in overdrive.

505
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:13,000
Exactly, and they were used
up to the 1960s.

506
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,920
'After their treatment
in medical sanctuaries,

507
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:19,200
'the Greeks would also leave
replicas

508
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:20,960
'of whatever parts of their body

509
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,400
'had been cured
as offerings to the gods.

510
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:27,080
'And it would seem from the objects
found that then, just as now,

511
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:30,520
'there was a fair degree of concern
about a whole range of body parts.

512
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:34,560
'It might seem strange to make
a public display

513
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,800
'of a part of your anatomy
that had been afflicted.

514
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:41,000
'But the healing sanctuaries weren't
the only places in Ancient Greece

515
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,120
'where your body could be seen.

516
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:45,360
'In the gym, nobody
had a stitch on.'

517
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,960
Now our word "gymnasium"
comes from the Greek word "gymnos"

518
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:51,600
which effectively means "naked".

519
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:52,640
So, in a sense,

520
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,320
to get the proper understanding
of the word "gymnasium"

521
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:57,520
we should really be saying
"nuditorium".

522
00:29:57,520 --> 00:29:59,080
And that's the crucial point.

523
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:01,400
Here, in these spaces,
Greek men were naked,

524
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:03,720
wrestling, exercising
with one another.

525
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:06,480
And it will come as no surprise,
that in such spaces,

526
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,800
given such nudity,
given such close physical contact,

527
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,520
gymnasia were centres of sexual
attraction in Ancient Greece.

528
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:16,400
And they were part of a much wider
sexual landscape

529
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:18,240
which was very different to our own.

530
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:22,720
Looking around the Athens
tourist market today,

531
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,480
it would seem that
from the replicas on sale,

532
00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:29,120
sex was the only thing
on Ancient Greek minds.

533
00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:33,480
And a lot of what they thought about
sex seems to us very strange indeed.

534
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:36,760
The Greeks believed that sex
was good for women

535
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,760
because it kept their wombs
from drying out

536
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:40,560
and wandering around the body.

537
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:42,560
And, of course,
from a male perspective,

538
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:45,080
it also supposedly kept them
under better control.

539
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:48,320
So, according to the laws of Athens,
Athenian men were supposed

540
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:50,840
to have sex with their wives
at least three times a month.

541
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:52,760
And from
the male perspective, though,

542
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:54,840
there were also
lots of other options.

543
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:57,280
They could go with
a high-class geisha girl prostitute

544
00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:58,480
called a "hetaerae",

545
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,240
they could have a live-in lover
mistress, a "palleacae",

546
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:05,400
or they could go to a brothel for
a street prostitute, a "pornai".

547
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:07,000
Anal sex with their wives
was repugnant

548
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:09,440
but with any of the other three,
absolutely fine.

549
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:11,800
It really was an unfair
state of affairs

550
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:15,120
because, for women, adultery
was a much worse crime than rape.

551
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,200
In addition to having
carnal relations

552
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,400
with their wives or prostitutes,
in Ancient Greece,

553
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:26,640
it was also expected that young men
would court adolescent boys.

554
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:29,880
The beauty of youth was celebrated
and much sought-after,

555
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:33,800
and pederastic relationships
were seen as very much the norm.

556
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:36,640
Girls were married off
when they were 13 or 14,

557
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:37,880
at the same stage,

558
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:41,440
boys would attract the attention
of older male lovers.

559
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:44,640
Something that today
would be labelled as pederasty,

560
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:48,920
or even perhaps paedophilia,
was considered by the Ancient Greeks

561
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,120
an exalted and important
form of love.

562
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,960
The relationship between
the "erastes", the older man,

563
00:31:55,960 --> 00:32:00,120
and the "eromenos", the younger boy,
was governed by strict rules.

564
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:03,200
The older man had to be in his 20s
but not yet married,

565
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:07,720
and his role was to protect, to
love, to educate the younger boy.

566
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:09,320
And he had to win his affection.

567
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,880
He had to sleep on his doorstep,
he had to shower him with gifts

568
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,280
and the younger boy
had to agree to the match.

569
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:19,600
Although it was said
that many fathers were furious

570
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,560
when they heard that their sons
had male admirers,

571
00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:25,440
fathers would also wish
for their sons to be beautiful

572
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:27,440
so as to attract the best lover.

573
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:31,760
These relationships were almost
a final stage of a boy's education,

574
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,560
an exchange of wisdom and youth.

575
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:38,200
The images on Greek vases offer us
sometimes a suggestive

576
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:40,840
and sometimes
a fairly graphic picture

577
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,080
of the erastes/eromenos
relationship.

578
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:48,160
So, this one here shows an older
man, a suitor, offering a cockerel,

579
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:51,680
a gift, towards the youth,
the potential eromenos.

580
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:53,440
And just in case
there's any doubt

581
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:55,040
about how to interpret this image,

582
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:57,920
the inscription around the edge
reads

583
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,960
"hoptite kalos" -
"the beautiful boy".

584
00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:03,120
But this one over here,
on the other hand,

585
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:05,880
is a little bit
more vivid an image, perhaps,

586
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:09,480
of the erastes/eromenos relationship
later on in the evening.

587
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:11,520
Here, both are naked

588
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:15,800
and the youth stretches out with his
arm to cradle the older man's head.

589
00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:17,720
The older man, clearly excited,

590
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:21,680
reaches out with his own hand
towards the youth's genitalia.

591
00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:25,120
The images give us
a picture of everything

592
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,600
the erastes/eromenos image
could be -

593
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:31,360
affection, love and lust.

594
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:36,080
Older man/younger boy relationships
were celebrated in Ancient Greece.

595
00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:39,480
There were even famous
eromenos and erastes couples.

596
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,800
These relationships weren't hidden
in the backstreets,

597
00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:45,440
they were front and centre
in Greek society.

598
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:49,480
There were also strict rules

599
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,960
about when the erastes/eromenos
relationship should be over.

600
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:57,440
In an ideal world, the man should be
married by the time he was 35,

601
00:33:57,440 --> 00:33:58,840
otherwise he faced a fine.

602
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:01,880
And the young boy's days
as an eromenos were said to be over

603
00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:05,720
when he had "hair on thigh
and down on cheek".

604
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:07,360
And if the relationship carried on,

605
00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:09,800
well, the younger boy
was subject to shame

606
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:11,640
and the older man to ridicule.

607
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:15,280
So we shouldn't think about sexual
orientation as something

608
00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:17,760
that was set for life
in Ancient Greece,

609
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,520
much rather, it was that there
were different sexual relationships

610
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:23,280
appropriate at different ages.

611
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:29,080
The admiration of youth,
the cult of admiring the physique

612
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:32,480
and promise of adolescent boys
on the brink of manhood

613
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:34,960
was a huge part
of Ancient Greek culture.

614
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:39,040
'Professor Olga Palagia,
of Athens University,

615
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:41,120
'is an expert in classical
sculpture,

616
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:44,360
'and has studied the hundreds
of statues of perfect young males

617
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:46,800
'known as kouros figures.

618
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,040
'And Olga believes that these
statues give us a real sense

619
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:53,680
'of how the Greeks thought
about young men and young women.'

620
00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,080
So, Olga, where are you taking me?

621
00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:58,320
I'm taking you to the statue
of the kouros

622
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:03,040
that was standing on his grave
in Attica outside of Athens,

623
00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:07,880
probably with his sister,
who is the next statue over there.

624
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,160
And what strikes you
immediately

625
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,200
about so many of the statues
from Ancient Greece,

626
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:15,760
the male statues,
is the nudity, isn't it?

627
00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:17,680
What did the nudity say?

628
00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:22,160
What would a viewer have thought
when they saw this kind of statue?

629
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:23,960
I think, first, they would think

630
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:26,200
that this is an aristocratic
young man

631
00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:29,280
because he had the leisure
to exercise.

632
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:32,200
We know that the sons
of good families

633
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:36,960
could go to the gym
every day and exercise

634
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:42,080
and they were really obsessed
with athletics and exercise,

635
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,080
very much like we are.

636
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:48,720
When we see nudity today,
we think sexuality, we think lust,

637
00:35:48,720 --> 00:35:52,680
we think attraction. Is there
that element to it as well?

638
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:55,600
Yes. If we're men, we're
supposed to be attracted,

639
00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:59,880
because in ancient Athens, older men
would be attracted by young boys.

640
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:04,040
Because they wouldn't have a chance
to look at young girls.

641
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:06,400
Young girls were confined at home.

642
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,960
And in statues, they are
very different, aren't they?

643
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:12,320
They are, of course, always dressed,
heavily dressed.

644
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:16,160
There was a lot of emphasis
on virginity

645
00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:19,200
because young women
were going to get married

646
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:23,360
and have the heir to the family, so
they weren't supposed to see anyone.

647
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:26,520
And the difference is key, you can't
see, really, any features

648
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:30,560
of her body underneath at all,
compared to our gentleman over here.

649
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:31,680
That's right.

650
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,120
If you had that perfect
physical body,

651
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,760
what did it say
about your character?

652
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:38,720
It had no implications at all.

653
00:36:38,720 --> 00:36:42,520
So it really is body beautiful
and it doesn't matter

654
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:45,040
what their brain is like
or what their character is like

655
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,680
or what their soul is like,
but it is the body above all.

656
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:51,960
Well, the brain was a challenge
for the mature lover

657
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:55,960
who would like to teach
the young boy various things,

658
00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:58,280
so he would be very happy
to take him on

659
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,000
and teach him all sorts of things...

660
00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:04,080
..and, you know, develop his mind.

661
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:11,240
Ancient Greece
was awash with images,

662
00:37:11,240 --> 00:37:14,440
many of them sculptures of people
with perfect physiques.

663
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:17,480
Indeed, more often than not,
uber-perfect physiques.

664
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:20,960
And that cacophony of perfection
set the bar high

665
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:25,200
when it came to expectations of what
people looked like in real life.

666
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:28,720
And more than that it fed into
a wider set of expectations

667
00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:31,960
about how what you looked like
said something about who you were

668
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:35,960
and how who you spent time with
said something about who you were.

669
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,160
Plutarch put it like this -

670
00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:42,560
"If you live with a lame man,
you'll start to limp."

671
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:46,560
So, the ideal in Ancient Greece
was to look good,

672
00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:50,840
spend your time with good-looking
people avoiding the ugly

673
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:54,040
and anyone who didn't match
up to the ideal.

674
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:59,160
The Ancient Greeks enjoyed spending
a great deal of their time

675
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:02,400
drinking, discussing and carousing
with good-looking people

676
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:04,040
and those with great minds.

677
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:09,360
And much of this appreciation
of the good-looking and good-minded,

678
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:12,600
fuelled by good wine,
took place in "symposia",

679
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:16,120
which were drinking parties
held behind closed doors.

680
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:21,080
But even these Ancient Greek parties
were not what you might think,

681
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:23,000
they weren't relaxed events,

682
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,560
rather they were a series of tests
on how to conduct yourself.

683
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:32,240
The male guests at the symposium
were asked to recline on benches,

684
00:38:32,240 --> 00:38:34,920
to take up positions
something like this.

685
00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:37,520
And to assume this position
was to prove yourself

686
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:39,840
a fully-fledged member
of Greek society.

687
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:43,680
Youngsters, for instance, weren't
allowed to recline, they had to sit.

688
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:47,480
But even when you'd obtained
this privileged position and place,

689
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:49,920
that was only the beginning
because the symposium

690
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,360
was a continual series of tests
on how to behave -

691
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:55,800
one of which was
how to drink your wine.

692
00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:59,240
Now this is a kylix,
an Ancient Greek drinking cup,

693
00:38:59,240 --> 00:39:02,720
and it's a lot harder to drink
out of than you might first imagine,

694
00:39:02,720 --> 00:39:05,360
not least because of the wide brim

695
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:06,760
and the shallow nature
of the vessel,

696
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:10,280
but also because I'm reclining
so I can only drink with one hand.

697
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,080
As you tip it towards you,
the wine comes forward

698
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,320
and makes the whole thing very
unbalanced.

699
00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:17,760
It's easy for a novice,
particularly like me,

700
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:18,960
to make a complete mess of it.

701
00:39:23,240 --> 00:39:25,440
A bit of an epic fail on my part.

702
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:30,600
But what this shows is what the
symposium did in the Greek world.

703
00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:32,560
It proved who was in
and who was out.

704
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:34,200
But then proved whether or not

705
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:36,640
you knew how to behave
within Greek society.

706
00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:40,200
It wasn't, like down the pub today,
how many pints can you drink?

707
00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:42,240
It was do you know how to drink?

708
00:39:43,720 --> 00:39:45,640
And that's why I think that,

709
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,880
on so many of the vessels that were
used in the symposium,

710
00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:53,240
you see this, you see an eye,
a reminder to all the guests

711
00:39:53,240 --> 00:39:55,920
that society
was looking right back at them.

712
00:40:00,320 --> 00:40:04,840
There's an impression that symposia
were wild orgies with drinking,

713
00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:08,960
high-class prostitutes,
dancing girls and flautists,

714
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,880
young men and older men enjoying
the pleasure of close contact,

715
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:15,040
reclining two to a couch.

716
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:16,800
Everyone getting drunk,

717
00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:20,680
well, maybe that's a taste of what
happened when they got out of hand,

718
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:25,120
but symposia were also governed
by exact social etiquette.

719
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:27,240
There was a master of ceremonies

720
00:40:27,240 --> 00:40:30,560
who decided how strong
the wine for the evening would be

721
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:33,120
and oversaw what happened when.

722
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:36,280
There were cleansing rituals
and libations to the gods,

723
00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:37,960
which had to take place.

724
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:41,640
Wine was mixed with water
in great jars known as kraters.

725
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:45,440
Everything would start off
in a very civilised manner.

726
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:48,440
Now, of course, some symposia
went much further than that

727
00:40:48,440 --> 00:40:51,600
and the playwright Eubulus tells us
about what each krater,

728
00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:53,400
each bowl of mixed wine,

729
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:56,120
means, when drunk, for how
the evening will continue.

730
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:57,680
He puts it like this,

731
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:01,160
"For sensible men,
I prepare only three kraters -

732
00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:03,360
one for health, the second
for love and pleasure,

733
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:04,600
and the third for sleep.

734
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:08,040
And after that
the sensible man goes home.

735
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:12,120
But if you stay, well, the fourth
krater belongs to hubris,

736
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:16,360
the fifth is for shouting, the
sixth is for rudeness and insults,

737
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:18,360
the seventh is for fighting,

738
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:20,440
the eighth is for
breaking the furniture,

739
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:22,600
the ninth is for depression,

740
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:26,200
and the tenth, well, that's for
madness and unconsciousness.

741
00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:30,800
It does sound to me exactly how
a ten-pint evening might pan out.

742
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:36,560
The symposium was not just about
drinking and having a good time,

743
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:38,680
it was really supposed to be a place

744
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:41,320
for intellectual discussion
and debate.

745
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:44,720
And as for what was discussed
before the shouting, rudeness

746
00:41:44,720 --> 00:41:46,800
and unconsciousness ensued,

747
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,880
the philosopher Plato wrote
a whole philosophical discourse

748
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:53,760
about one famous symposium party
that took place one night in Athens.

749
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:58,000
In Plato's Symposium,
all the guests are invited

750
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:00,960
to debate and discuss
about the nature of love.

751
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,840
That is until
Socrates' on-off lover, Alcibiades,

752
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:07,640
turns up half drunk
to ruin the party.

753
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:10,520
But in that story
of a symposium gone wrong,

754
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:14,160
Plato underlines
what a symposium should be about -

755
00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:18,240
debate, discussion,
investigation, argument,

756
00:42:18,240 --> 00:42:22,400
all the hallmarks of what made
the Greek psyche so unique

757
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:24,840
are on display in the symposium.

758
00:42:26,240 --> 00:42:29,080
It wasn't mindless drinking, then,
in Ancient Greece,

759
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:30,320
quite the opposite.

760
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:33,880
Wine was crucial to the symposium
because it facilitated

761
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:37,000
exactly what the event
was intended for - talking.

762
00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:52,600
It was expected that you had to lead
a public life in Ancient Greece

763
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:56,240
just as you had to display your body
in the gymnasium,

764
00:42:56,240 --> 00:42:59,360
you had to display your mind
in the symposium.

765
00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:05,280
In Greek, the word for a "private
person" is "idiotes" - our "idiot".

766
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:09,080
Opting out of society
was really not an option.

767
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:11,960
The Ancient Greeks
were very different to us today.

768
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:14,920
They lived in a world
of exorbitantly high expectations

769
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:17,040
in almost every aspect
of their lives.

770
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:19,760
And they had to debate
and discuss and argue

771
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:21,680
and to do it all publicly

772
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:25,560
without any real value
attached to a private life.

773
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:29,240
They weren't slaves to conformity
but they were driven

774
00:43:29,240 --> 00:43:34,400
by an internal anxiety and need
to meet those expectations

775
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:37,960
and to prove themselves
publicly - a good sportsman,

776
00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:40,600
a good soldier, a good citizen,
a good Greek.

777
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:46,160
All these pressures
to prove oneself worthy,

778
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:48,920
were part of what the Athenians felt
they were protecting

779
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:52,160
more than anything else
on the battlefield at Marathon -

780
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:53,320
their democracy,

781
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:57,160
the biggest talking shop
and opt-in system of them all.

782
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:00,480
This rather unprepossessing place

783
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:02,600
on one of the hills
above central Athens

784
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:05,760
is, in fact, the beating heart
of the ancient Athenian democracy.

785
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:07,600
This is the assembly.

786
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:10,240
Now today we are used to electing
representatives

787
00:44:10,240 --> 00:44:12,880
who will meet to take decisions
on our behalf.

788
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:15,120
But in ancient Athens,
it was very different.

789
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:19,400
Every single citizen had the right
to come here to the assembly

790
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:21,840
to listen to the debates
about all sorts of issues

791
00:44:21,840 --> 00:44:24,440
from what to do with
the financial surplus

792
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:25,880
to whether or not to go to war.

793
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:30,200
6,000 or so people and every one of
them had the right to step up there,

794
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:33,600
to the speakers' platform,
and to make their opinion known.

795
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:37,160
And then a vote was taken,
probably just with a show of hands.

796
00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:40,920
The direct nature
of the democracy in ancient Athens

797
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:42,960
is unlike anything we know today.

798
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,040
Life could be brutish
and short here in Athens,

799
00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:49,640
but if you did survive childhood
and adolescence,

800
00:44:49,640 --> 00:44:51,280
you would, at some point,

801
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:53,920
be directly involved
in governing your city.

802
00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:57,360
It was also a hands-on world.

803
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,000
In the law courts,
there were no lawyers

804
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,720
and no Criminal Prosecution Service.

805
00:45:02,720 --> 00:45:05,080
If you wanted to try a case,
you had to bring it

806
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:06,840
and you had to speak to the jury.

807
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:10,080
But it was not all fair and ideal.

808
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:13,120
There were still dirty politics.

809
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:15,480
These pieces of pottery
are called "ostraca"

810
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:18,000
and they've given us our word
"ostracism" today

811
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:21,400
because they were used
in a particularly important vote

812
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:22,560
in ancient Athens.

813
00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:25,200
The way it worked was this,
you took your piece of pottery

814
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:26,560
like our replica here,

815
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:29,040
and you wrote on it
the name of an Athenian

816
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:31,480
who you wanted to expel
from the city

817
00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:33,520
for a period of up to ten years,

818
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:36,040
a person you wanted to ostracise.

819
00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:39,200
Now, all of these pieces here,
like our replica,

820
00:45:39,200 --> 00:45:42,480
have the same name on it
and it's Themistocles.

821
00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:45,920
Themistocles was an incredibly
important politician in Athens

822
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:48,040
in the years
after the battle of Marathon.

823
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:51,560
But it seems like he might have
got a bit too big for his boots

824
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:56,320
because these pieces are part of
a larger collection of 190 ostraca

825
00:45:56,320 --> 00:45:58,040
all with his name on it.

826
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:00,560
But here's the rub -

827
00:46:00,560 --> 00:46:04,000
because when these pieces
were analysed by archaeologists

828
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:09,280
it was discovered that all 190 were
written by just 14 different people.

829
00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:11,080
And that can be for one
of two reasons.

830
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:13,520
Firstly, that there were some
enterprising people

831
00:46:13,520 --> 00:46:16,200
pre-writing these
to sell them to citizens

832
00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:19,680
who perhaps couldn't write
so well for themselves

833
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:23,800
or else, that there was some pretty
extensive vote-rigging going on.

834
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:33,240
Democracy in Athens meant complete
citizen participation.

835
00:46:33,240 --> 00:46:37,120
If you were a man and a citizen,
you were part of the process.

836
00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:40,160
But along with all these
participatory politics

837
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:43,600
came something we probably wouldn't
want to thank the Greeks for -

838
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:45,280
bureaucracy.

839
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:49,880
The Athenians, it seems, were in
love with it, and the city was awash

840
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:53,800
with countless inscriptions holding
anyone and everyone accountable.

841
00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:57,600
Here at the Epigraphic Museum
in Athens,

842
00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:00,480
many of these inscriptions
can be found on display.

843
00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:03,800
The Athenians published in profusion

844
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:06,360
every aspect of the workings
of their democracy.

845
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:10,120
We have laws, decrees,
honours, contracts,

846
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:13,880
registers, scrutiny lists,
calendars, the list goes on.

847
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:17,320
What we get is a sense
of the incredible accountability

848
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:21,560
and transparency that defined
the ancient Athenian democracy.

849
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:24,640
And this stelae symbolises
that above all it's,

850
00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:26,640
as the first line tells us,

851
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:28,880
"a summ grafai",
a set of building specs

852
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:32,480
for what is effectively a bit of
a storeroom down in the Piraeus,

853
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:34,160
the ancient port of Athens.

854
00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:36,640
And what follows is an incredibly
detailed description

855
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:38,360
of what the building
should look like.

856
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:41,080
This tells us, not just the general
outline of the building,

857
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:42,720
but where the windows should be,

858
00:47:42,720 --> 00:47:44,960
how deep the foundations should be,
every detail.

859
00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:48,640
But the best bit is the final clause
because this is the penalty clause

860
00:47:48,640 --> 00:47:51,240
and it tells us
that the building contractors

861
00:47:51,240 --> 00:47:55,520
must finish everything
they promised "en teus cronos" -

862
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:57,560
"in the specified time".

863
00:47:57,560 --> 00:47:59,960
So builders back then,
just like builders now,

864
00:47:59,960 --> 00:48:03,120
had to be pushed
to finish the job on time.

865
00:48:03,120 --> 00:48:04,880
Some things never change!

866
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:11,960
But how did the Greeks afford
all their monumental building,

867
00:48:11,960 --> 00:48:15,440
their drinking parties, sculpture,
art and architecture?

868
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:18,680
Citizens would not work for free,
there were rates of pay

869
00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:20,880
and civic duties to attend to.

870
00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:24,360
The uncomfortable truth is
that Ancient Greece

871
00:48:24,360 --> 00:48:27,400
was a civilisation
built on the backs of slaves.

872
00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:33,080
Slavery was a fact of life
in Ancient Greece.

873
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:36,240
Slaves were captured in war
or bought from overseas.

874
00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:40,400
One census states
that in fourth century BC Athens,

875
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:43,440
there were 400,000 slaves

876
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:47,280
to a citizen population
of around just 35,000.

877
00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:50,680
Not all Greeks were free,

878
00:48:50,680 --> 00:48:53,960
but even those that were
knew what slavery meant.

879
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:55,960
And the prospect of becoming
a slave,

880
00:48:55,960 --> 00:48:58,680
or of your wife and children
being forced into slavery,

881
00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:00,200
would have terrified them,

882
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:04,520
mainly because Greece and even the
fabled democracy of ancient Athens

883
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:06,720
ran on slave labour.

884
00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:12,280
Ancient Athens ran on slaves
and silver.

885
00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:15,520
At Laurion, just 40 miles
southeast of Athens,

886
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:19,600
were the silver mines which provided
Athens with much of its wealth.

887
00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:22,840
And they were mines
worked by thousands of slaves.

888
00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:28,120
Off the beaten track today,
you can still find the galleries

889
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:31,120
and tunnels of these ancient
silver mines.

890
00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:35,040
This is not a place
you often get the chance to explore.

891
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:37,520
The silver from the mines
here at Laurion

892
00:49:37,520 --> 00:49:40,520
in part went to making Athens'
famous coinage,

893
00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:41,960
the Attic silver owl.

894
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:44,800
Each one of these is worth
about four days' wage

895
00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:47,040
for a skilled worker
in ancient Athens.

896
00:49:47,040 --> 00:49:49,960
And the slaves that worked here
came from, amongst other places,

897
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:51,840
Thrace and Paphlagonia.

898
00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:55,000
That's modern day Northern Greece,
Bulgaria and Turkey.

899
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:58,560
And in these dark
and cramped conditions,

900
00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:01,080
they must have felt a long,
long way from home.

901
00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:06,320
Oil lamps, like this replica here,
have been found in the mines.

902
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:08,600
And from the amount of oil
that they contained,

903
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:10,800
we can estimate that a shift

904
00:50:10,800 --> 00:50:13,640
might have lasted something like
ten hours.

905
00:50:13,640 --> 00:50:16,160
That's a long time
to be down these tunnels

906
00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:18,320
with just this kind of light.

907
00:50:18,320 --> 00:50:21,640
Of all the types of slave you
could be in Ancient Greece,

908
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:25,720
being a silver mine slave
was considered to be the worst.

909
00:50:25,720 --> 00:50:29,240
Plato talked about these places
as being, in Greek, "vari"

910
00:50:29,240 --> 00:50:32,480
which means
"dark, heavy, depressing".

911
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:35,320
And I can see what he meant.

912
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:43,640
Unsurprisingly, the life expectancy
of a Laurion slave was short.

913
00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:46,120
But what is surprising
in Ancient Greece

914
00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:48,720
is that not all slaves
were treated badly.

915
00:50:48,720 --> 00:50:51,400
Many led quite comfortable lives.

916
00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:54,640
Slaves could be well cared for
by their masters,

917
00:50:54,640 --> 00:50:56,120
they could be well educated

918
00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:58,400
and some had important
administrative positions

919
00:50:58,400 --> 00:50:59,920
in Greek cities.

920
00:50:59,920 --> 00:51:03,920
Indeed, Plutarch tells us that
he would rather be a slave in Athens

921
00:51:03,920 --> 00:51:07,000
than the king
of some poxy little island.

922
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:09,840
And other sources talk about the way
that in Athens

923
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:12,720
you couldn't tell between
a slave and a non-slave

924
00:51:12,720 --> 00:51:15,360
because everyone
wore the same clothes.

925
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:17,400
House slaves served as cooks,

926
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:20,200
cleaners, porters, tutors
as "pedagogues",

927
00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:23,080
escorting their master's sons
to school,

928
00:51:23,080 --> 00:51:26,200
watching over them to make sure
they completed their lessons.

929
00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:29,720
Slaves were messengers,
nurses and companions.

930
00:51:29,720 --> 00:51:33,560
Some were even buried alongside
their masters and mistresses

931
00:51:33,560 --> 00:51:36,520
in the family burial plot
at the end of their lives.

932
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:40,320
Let's not get too carried away,
though, with this idea

933
00:51:40,320 --> 00:51:43,000
of a cosy slave-master relationship.

934
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:46,360
Slaves were essentially seen
as subhuman.

935
00:51:46,360 --> 00:51:49,320
Slave testimony in Ancient Greek
courts, for example,

936
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:53,320
was only allowed if it had been
extracted under torture

937
00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:56,400
because slaves were seen
as natural liars.

938
00:51:56,400 --> 00:51:58,840
Starvation and flogging
were common punishments.

939
00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:01,240
And, of course,
if your master wanted sex,

940
00:52:01,240 --> 00:52:03,000
you had no business refusing.

941
00:52:06,720 --> 00:52:10,480
As offensive as it is
to our modern concepts of liberty,

942
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:13,640
slavery didn't really bother
the Ancient Greeks.

943
00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:16,080
Slaves could be seen
as the working class,

944
00:52:16,080 --> 00:52:18,320
the people
who kept the cogs turning.

945
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:23,400
But there were ways to work your way
out of slavery in Ancient Greece.

946
00:52:23,400 --> 00:52:27,480
You could be granted your freedom.
You could even make a lot of money.

947
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:28,880
There was one slave

948
00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:32,600
who actually became
one of the richest men in Greece.

949
00:52:32,600 --> 00:52:37,000
His name was Pasion and he had
the ultimate rags-to-riches story.

950
00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:42,880
'To learn more about Pasion, I've
come to the ancient port of Athens,

951
00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:46,360
'the Piraeus, where Pasion
first worked as a slave.

952
00:52:47,720 --> 00:52:51,520
'And I'm hoping Dr Paul Millett,
an expert on Ancient Greek slavery,

953
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:55,080
'can tell me more about
Pasion's extraordinary story.'

954
00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:57,400
So, Paul, tell me about
this character, Pasion.

955
00:52:57,400 --> 00:52:59,320
What do we know about him?

956
00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:01,720
So he was born, we think,
some time around 430

957
00:53:01,720 --> 00:53:05,960
and he came to Athens
as an outsider, a non-Greek,

958
00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:09,920
and almost certainly also would
have been landed here at the Piraeus

959
00:53:09,920 --> 00:53:12,040
before being taken
to the slave market,

960
00:53:12,040 --> 00:53:14,800
and we think being bought
by a couple of Athenian bankers.

961
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:17,320
What happened next
in Pasion's story?

962
00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:20,280
He was a great success
as their assistant, one presumes,

963
00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:23,760
because they gave him his freedom

964
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:28,080
and he continued to manage the bank.

965
00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:31,280
And somehow, we don't know quite
how it came about,

966
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:33,360
he ended up owning this bank.

967
00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:37,080
The idea that you could rise up
from being a slave to be freed,

968
00:53:37,080 --> 00:53:39,600
that was fairly
typical in Ancient Greece?

969
00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:41,640
Well, my view is absolutely not.

970
00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:45,280
I see this career path
as being one pursued

971
00:53:45,280 --> 00:53:48,760
by a tiny minority of slaves.

972
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:51,560
So Pasion, I see, as being
very much the exception.

973
00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:54,440
Once he becomes free,
what happens next?

974
00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:57,520
I mean, does he continue
to work in the same business?

975
00:53:57,520 --> 00:54:02,160
He became a successful, what we might
say, businessman in his own right,

976
00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:04,520
with other interests
apart from banking

977
00:54:04,520 --> 00:54:09,680
and was able to be sufficiently
generous to the Athenian state.

978
00:54:09,680 --> 00:54:12,520
One donation, we know about,
was in the shield factory.

979
00:54:12,520 --> 00:54:14,000
He gave a thousand shields.

980
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:19,000
He provided a number of "triremes",
"warships" for the Athenian navy,

981
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:20,840
a very expensive thing to do.

982
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:24,680
And was, in the end, rewarded
with citizenship,

983
00:54:24,680 --> 00:54:28,360
which is very, very rare indeed
for a slave.

984
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:32,560
And can we get any sense
of just how rich Pasion was

985
00:54:32,560 --> 00:54:35,680
as an individual
by the time he died?

986
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:38,920
Well, we think he may have been
the wealthiest man in Athens.

987
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:43,800
'Many slaves would have dreamed
of gaining their freedom

988
00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:47,640
'and becoming a citizen, having
a say in the Athenian democracy

989
00:54:47,640 --> 00:54:50,080
'which Pasion became a part of.

990
00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:53,840
'But the equality that was
the hallmark of democracy in Athens

991
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:56,200
'also demanded crushing conformity.

992
00:54:56,200 --> 00:54:59,280
'Every citizen was supposed
to have a modest house,

993
00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:02,680
'obey the rules and even
wear the same clothes.

994
00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:04,920
'But as always with the Greeks,

995
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:08,840
'things weren't quite
as straightforward as they may seem,

996
00:55:08,840 --> 00:55:12,240
'not even when it came
to your funeral.'

997
00:55:12,240 --> 00:55:15,280
The Athenians tried to enforce
equality amongst their citizens

998
00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:17,160
even in death.

999
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:18,360
So there were rules about

1000
00:55:18,360 --> 00:55:20,560
the maximum size of funerary mat
you could have,

1001
00:55:20,560 --> 00:55:23,200
the number of garments
that could be put in your grave,

1002
00:55:23,200 --> 00:55:25,440
the extent
of your funeral procession,

1003
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:29,040
and even in relation
to the size of your grave monument.

1004
00:55:29,040 --> 00:55:31,880
The idea was
that no-one should stand out

1005
00:55:31,880 --> 00:55:34,480
as being more worthy
than anyone else.

1006
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:38,240
But, of course, this didn't work.

1007
00:55:38,240 --> 00:55:42,480
The Ancient Greeks, as ever,
found a way around the rules.

1008
00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:45,680
These are some of the gravestones
from Athens' Cemetery

1009
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:48,400
and while they are all
fairly similar in type,

1010
00:55:48,400 --> 00:55:52,240
you can immediately see
there are vast differences in size,

1011
00:55:52,240 --> 00:55:55,840
in the quality of the sculpture and,
of course, as a result in the cost.

1012
00:55:55,840 --> 00:55:57,520
So what I think this room shows is

1013
00:55:57,520 --> 00:55:59,760
that despite all the laws that
Athens put in place

1014
00:55:59,760 --> 00:56:02,200
to try and ensure
that everyone looked equal,

1015
00:56:02,200 --> 00:56:05,040
actually the desire
for individualisation,

1016
00:56:05,040 --> 00:56:07,880
the desire to be different,
to demonstrate your wealth,

1017
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:10,480
your birth,
the desire to be remembered,

1018
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:12,360
just kept breaking through.

1019
00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:14,400
And this is one of my favourites.

1020
00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:16,160
This is Hergesso.

1021
00:56:17,440 --> 00:56:20,240
Hergesso, the daughter of Proximos.

1022
00:56:20,240 --> 00:56:23,320
She's beautifully carved
and out of her jewellery box,

1023
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:25,760
she's picking her favourite piece
of jewellery

1024
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:27,960
that would have been put in
in paint or precious metal.

1025
00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:33,480
There's no way, when walking past
this in Athens Cemetery,

1026
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:37,520
that you would have thought Hergesso
was the equal of everyone else.

1027
00:56:37,520 --> 00:56:41,360
She was, and she would be remembered
as being, quite rightly,

1028
00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:42,680
something special.

1029
00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:50,760
The Ancient Greeks
were full of contradictions.

1030
00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:53,480
They lived in an incredibly
tough environment

1031
00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:56,400
but they created magnificent art
and architecture.

1032
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:04,040
They invented democracy
but their world ran on slave labour.

1033
00:57:04,040 --> 00:57:05,760
They had philosophy and logic

1034
00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:08,520
but they would bend over backwards
to please the gods.

1035
00:57:08,520 --> 00:57:12,280
It was a society that can seem
like a vicious free-for-all,

1036
00:57:12,280 --> 00:57:15,280
but actually followed strict,
if slightly odd, rules.

1037
00:57:17,520 --> 00:57:20,000
And it was that explosive mix

1038
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:24,040
that propelled the Greeks to
extraordinary creations, discoveries

1039
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:27,680
and achievements in almost
every aspect of human society,

1040
00:57:27,680 --> 00:57:31,480
including victory over the Persians
at the Battle of Marathon.

1041
00:57:33,120 --> 00:57:36,640
Ancient Greece is probably not
a place that any of us today

1042
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:39,280
would want to find ourselves in.

1043
00:57:39,280 --> 00:57:41,360
But it is also a place,
I would argue,

1044
00:57:41,360 --> 00:57:43,560
that we would never
want to be without.

1045
00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:49,760
Next week, I'll be exploring
the great legacies

1046
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:54,120
of the Ancient Greeks and asking,
"Why are they so enduring?"

1047
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:56,080
I'll travel across the Greek world

1048
00:57:56,080 --> 00:58:00,200
to reveal the extent of their
creative and scientific genius

1049
00:58:00,200 --> 00:58:02,840
and I'll uncover
the strange realities

1050
00:58:02,840 --> 00:58:05,720
of the Olympic Games
and ancient theatre...

1051
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:08,760
You've got a golden heterae
or prostitute,

1052
00:58:08,760 --> 00:58:12,000
so she turns out
to have a heart of gold.

1053
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:15,400
..and I'll find out how modern
science is enlivening our quest

1054
00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:18,040
to discover who were the Greeks?
How amazing.

1055
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:47,760
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