1 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:14,240 This great icon standing heroically on the Acropolis, 2 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:17,760 alone against the sky, dominates the city of Athens today 3 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:21,800 just as it did when it was first built over 2,000 years ago. 4 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:28,600 This is the Parthenon and today, it is the symbol of ancient Greece. 5 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:31,960 It stands for everything that that world has given us - 6 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:35,480 democracy, philosophy, literature, art, architecture, 7 00:00:35,480 --> 00:00:37,440 science and sport. 8 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:40,480 It is a beacon of culture and civilisation. 9 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:46,600 I'm Dr Michael Scott and in this series I've been finding out 10 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:50,640 more about the people who created this extraordinary monument. 11 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,000 In the last episode, I explored how the ancient Greeks lived. 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,720 I looked at their life cycle, city life, beliefs and strange 13 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:02,960 mindsets and I discovered a world of gods, myths, democrats and warriors, 14 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,720 inhabited by a people who could be as brutal as they were brilliant. 15 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,040 But in this programme I want to explore the great legacies 16 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:16,640 of the ancient Greeks and trace them back to the people who created them. 17 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,360 I want to return to the home of the Olympic Games 18 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:24,120 to reveal its harsh and strongly religious reality. 19 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,040 I want to visit Athens to find out why the city that gave us 20 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,560 philosophy also put to death one of its greatest minds. 21 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:34,160 And I want to see the Parthenon 22 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:36,280 as the Greeks themselves would have seen it. 23 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:41,240 The Greeks were so successful that their culture 24 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:45,120 and way of life ended up spreading from western Europe to Asia. 25 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:49,360 And even when the Greek golden age ended, their legacies remained. 26 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:51,800 I want to know why the Greeks were so successful, 27 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:54,480 why their legacies are so enduring, and why 28 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:59,120 they still have such a powerful hold over our imaginations today. 29 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,320 I want to find out, Who Were The Greeks? 30 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,760 The Parthenon is one of the most famous structures on the planet. 31 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:17,440 Its very creation testifies to the scientific, mathematic 32 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:21,280 and creative genius of the ancient Greek world. 33 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:23,600 One fact in particular always blows me away, 34 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:26,680 although the lines of the building appear to be perfectly straight, 35 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:29,200 this is actually an optical illusion. 36 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,240 The building is made almost entirely of curves, but these 37 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:36,360 are exactly the right arc to appear perfectly straight to the naked eye. 38 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:42,400 This foundation is actually six centimetres higher in the centre 39 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:46,040 than it is at the sides and these columns are all meticulously 40 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,960 curved to create a vision of absolute harmony and balance. 41 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:55,200 This building is a powerful insight into the mentality 42 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:57,840 of the ancient Greeks, their faultless precision, 43 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:01,040 their limitless ambition and their fastidious eye for detail. 44 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,240 And yet at the same time the people who built the Parthenon were 45 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:06,960 vastly different to us. 46 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,760 Their beliefs, their motivations, their ways of life can seem 47 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:14,160 strange, unsettling and sometimes downright alien. 48 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:17,840 So much of what we think we know about ancient Greece turns 49 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:20,440 out to be different from the reality. 50 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:24,560 Even this iconic building behind me is not quite what it seems. 51 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:37,440 To get to the bottom of the great legacies of the ancient Greeks 52 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:40,480 we have to understand the realities of their world. 53 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:52,280 2,500 years ago, there was no such thing as Greece. 54 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:55,480 Instead, the Greek world was made up of over 1,000 55 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:59,760 independent communities spread across the Mediterranean, described 56 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:04,440 by the philosopher Plato as being like "frogs around a frog pond." 57 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:06,880 These communities inhabited different landscapes, 58 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:10,240 and had distinct forms of government, different loyalties and 59 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:14,520 contradictory ideas that frequently set them against each other. 60 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,240 Yet there was something that linked all these different 61 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:19,600 communities together and distinguished them 62 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,520 from other cultures, those who the Greeks called barbarians. 63 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:28,240 It was Herodotus, the father of history, who first 64 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:32,480 put into words what made these disparate communities gel together. 65 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:34,000 He put it like this, 66 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,360 "Common blood, common language, 67 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:41,040 "common shrines and rituals and common customs." 68 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,720 That was, he said, what made up To Hellenikon - The Greek Thing. 69 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:51,800 It was these elements that allowed the Parthenon in Athens 70 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,440 and the community that surrounded it to be linked to those in Sicily, 71 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:57,800 and to Greeks in North Africa and to Asia Minor. 72 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:02,600 The ancient Greek world possessed a unique dynamic, 73 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:06,560 a winning combination of rivalry and difference on the one hand, 74 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:10,680 and shared culture, what we now call Hellenism, on the other. 75 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:12,480 The great legacies that are still with us 76 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,120 today are a product of this tension. 77 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:17,920 And there's no better place to understand this than 78 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:20,720 one of the few locations where Greeks from all over this 79 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:23,400 diverse world regularly came together. 80 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:28,920 Olympia, home of the Olympic games, 81 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:31,160 one of the greatest of Greek legacies. 82 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,160 Every four years, something like we think 40,000 Greeks 83 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:45,240 came from all over the Greek world here, to Olympia. 84 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:48,320 They came from Italy and Sicily, from Greece, from Asia Minor, 85 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:52,640 from Africa, and they sailed along rivers, crossed seas, 86 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:55,320 travelled on horseback, in chariots or even on foot. 87 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:57,160 And when they got here, there were no hotels, 88 00:05:57,160 --> 00:05:59,320 most of them just pitched tents. 89 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:02,840 This was the single biggest gathering of people 90 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:04,360 in the ancient Greek world. 91 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:08,760 It's said that by the time the sun rose on the first 92 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:11,800 day of the games, there was not a single space left. 93 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:14,560 In the words of the ancient Greek poet Pindar, 94 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:18,320 "As in the daytime, there is no star in the sky warmer 95 00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:20,160 "and brighter than the sun, 96 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:24,360 "likewise there is no competition greater than the Olympic Games." 97 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:31,560 The games lasted for five days 98 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,760 and consisted of a small selection of sports. 99 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:37,920 There were running races, the discus, the long jump - 100 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:41,240 which was performed from a standing start with the aid of stones 101 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,440 or lead jumping weights - and the javelin. 102 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:47,560 There were also horse races and chariot races. 103 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:50,480 And there was the boxing, and the pankration, 104 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:54,080 a no-holds-barred kind of martial art. 105 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:57,320 But in ancient times, these sports weren't carried out with 106 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:01,760 quite the same Olympic spirit that defines the games today. 107 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:07,880 In 484 BC, the boxer Kleomedes was disqualified for an illegal 108 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:10,360 manoeuvre that left his opponent dead. 109 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:12,960 A couple of years earlier, a wrestler had had his throat 110 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:15,240 crushed in the pankration. 111 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:18,840 And a boxer talked about how he had lost an ear in a bout, another 112 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:23,560 time an eye, and before that he had been stretchered off, presumed dead. 113 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:29,120 The ancient Olympics were violent, and fiercely competitive and many of 114 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:33,840 the athletes bore the scars of their engagements and some ended up dead. 115 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:36,720 Now, in our Olympic games, of course winning is important 116 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:40,160 but we also subscribe to the idea that it's the taking part 117 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:44,400 that counts, but in ancient Greece that would have been an anathema. 118 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:45,800 Winning was everything. 119 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:55,760 This shared belief in winning, in excellence, 120 00:07:55,760 --> 00:07:58,320 was one of the bonds of Hellenism that united 121 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:02,120 the thousands of disparate peoples who journeyed here to Olympia. 122 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:05,720 But all this striving and all this violence also had a greater, 123 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:08,480 and more surprising purpose. 124 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:10,840 Winners were seen as being touched by the gods 125 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:13,680 and were raised above the station of mere mortals. 126 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:18,120 For the ancient Greeks, competitive sport was an act of worship. 127 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:22,680 And the real focus of the games lay outside the stadium, with the Gods. 128 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:34,600 Olympia was the home of one of the Greek world's most sacred 129 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:35,840 sanctuaries. 130 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:38,480 This whole area would have been covered with monuments to the 131 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:42,840 gods, particularly to Zeus, the ruler of all the gods. 132 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:47,600 In fact, the entire Olympic games were held in his honour. 133 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:51,040 And most impressive of all the monuments here at Olympia 134 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:53,440 was the magnificent Temple of Zeus. 135 00:08:54,680 --> 00:08:57,960 This enormous block of stone gives you a great sense of just how 136 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:00,120 big the Temple of Zeus really was. 137 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:01,880 It's my height, six feet in width, 138 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:04,720 and this was just one of the column drums that made up 139 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:06,720 the columns of the Temple of Zeus. 140 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:09,160 And it was inside that temple that stood one of 141 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:13,040 the seven wonders of the ancient world, the colossal statue of Zeus 142 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:16,640 himself, made in ivory and gold by the master sculptor, Pheidias. 143 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:21,480 It's the cost, the attention, the effort paid to this temple 144 00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:24,160 and to the statue that underlines that it was religion, 145 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:26,760 not sport, that was the real focus of the games. 146 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:34,920 In fact, the climax of the Olympics was not an athletic 147 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:40,080 event at all but a great ritual procession to the altar of Zeus. 148 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:42,080 But this was no altar as we know it. 149 00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:47,480 The culmination of this religious occasion was 150 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:50,360 the sacrifice of 100 oxen. 151 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:53,800 They were led in, their throats were slit, their bodies cut up 152 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:56,280 and then their thigh bones wrapped in fat, 153 00:09:56,280 --> 00:09:59,920 deposited on Zeus's altar and burned as an offering to the god. 154 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:03,400 But this was no altar made of stone. Zeus's altar here at Olympia 155 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:08,240 was made up of the surviving ash and congealed remains from every single 156 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:12,320 one of these sacrifices, from every single Olympics in ancient history. 157 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:14,880 So we know that by the second century AD this altar was 158 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:17,560 standing over 20 feet high. 159 00:10:17,560 --> 00:10:21,640 I can imagine the blood, the smoke the smell, the ash 160 00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:25,440 settling on everyone around as they watched this incredible sight. 161 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:31,440 Today, all that remains of the altar are these votive offerings 162 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:34,560 which were once buried amongst the ash. 163 00:10:34,560 --> 00:10:37,200 Not only does this emphasis on religion 164 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:41,040 change our understanding of the Olympics, it's also something 165 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:45,840 of an earthier, grubbier view of the ancient Greeks than we're used to. 166 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,680 We think of these sites with their stunning architecture 167 00:10:48,680 --> 00:10:53,160 and sculpture as somehow elevated above worldly realities. 168 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:56,200 But the beauty of the monuments can blind us to the 169 00:10:56,200 --> 00:11:00,000 way they would have been viewed in ancient times. 170 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,080 This beautiful sculpture once stood around the Temple of Zeus 171 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:04,160 here at Olympia. 172 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:05,960 You can see her flying through the air, 173 00:11:05,960 --> 00:11:07,720 her cloak billowing out behind her. 174 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,680 Of course, at this time in Greek art, the sculptor was not allowed 175 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:16,720 to show a woman fully naked. It just wasn't done. 176 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:19,360 But here the sculptor has brilliantly got around the rules 177 00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:21,160 by having her flying though the air. 178 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:23,120 Her dress is pressed back against her. 179 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:26,040 She might as well be naked, but the crucial thing is she's not. 180 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:30,400 But this is also no ordinary woman. 181 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:33,160 This is Nike, 182 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:36,360 the Greek personification of victory itself. 183 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:42,920 We look at statues like this today and marvel at their beauty. 184 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:46,160 But to the ancient Greeks, they would also have been loaded with 185 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:48,560 a very different, very violent, symbolism. 186 00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:57,720 The inscription here reads: 187 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:02,600 HE SPEAKS GREEK 188 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:04,560 The Messenians 189 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:10,280 and the Naupactians set up to the Olympian gods, a tenth, 190 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:13,360 a tithe, from the spoils of war. 191 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:16,640 This is no victory monument to athletic success. 192 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:19,000 This is a victory monument for battle. 193 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:26,880 And not just any battle, but one of Greeks against Greeks - 194 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:30,400 the Messenians and Naupactians against the Spartans. 195 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:35,520 Olympia was a place where the brutal reality of war, 196 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:40,200 of Greeks fighting against Greeks, was inescapable. 197 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:42,600 All over this site, archaeologists have found 198 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:44,240 hundreds of pieces of armour - 199 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,520 helmets, shields and greaves - from real battles 200 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:51,360 engraved to commemorate different military victories. 201 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:54,080 These would have been displayed all over the grounds during the 202 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:58,040 games, including in the middle of the spectators in the stadium. 203 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:01,040 They would have been constant reminders of both glorious 204 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:03,200 victories and devastating defeats. 205 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:10,040 As well as bringing Greeks together through religious ritual, 206 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:13,120 Olympia reminded them of the things that split them apart. 207 00:13:14,680 --> 00:13:16,760 This is where the Nike would have been placed, 208 00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:18,360 on top of the tall, triangular column 209 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:20,320 facing off against the temple and 210 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:24,560 against a Spartan monument that had been put there some years earlier. 211 00:13:24,560 --> 00:13:27,720 And around it was a cacophony of monuments to competition, 212 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:32,880 rivalry and conflict and this was the realities of ancient Olympia. 213 00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:36,040 To get a sense of it today, I guess we have to take our Olympic games 214 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:39,320 and add in the emotional tension of a highly charged international 215 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:43,280 football match, the religious importance of an event like Easter, 216 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:47,800 and then dial in the political tension of a United Nations summit. 217 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:50,880 Take away any proper sanitation and let it 218 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:55,960 stew for a week in the Greek heat, that's the ancient Olympics. 219 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:58,200 No wonder in the ancient world they said 220 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:02,120 if you wanted to punish a slave you sent him to the Olympic Games. 221 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:07,320 For the ancient Greeks, art and architecture 222 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,400 was much more than just works of beauty to be admired. 223 00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:12,440 As well as honouring the gods, they were also 224 00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:14,480 the means by which the different cities 225 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:19,080 and individuals announced themselves to each other and to the world. 226 00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:21,520 Each monument carries a message about the person, 227 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:23,080 or people who created it. 228 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:28,480 And there is no better example of this than the Parthenon itself. 229 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:35,360 The Parthenon was born in a particular time and place, 230 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:40,240 Athens in the 5th century BC, around 30 years after the Greeks had 231 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:44,720 finally defeated the invading armies of the great Persian Empire. 232 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:47,760 This victory over the Persians was one of the finest 233 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:51,680 hours for Greece and, in particular, for Athens. 234 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:55,160 For the Athenians the victory over the Persians came at a high price. 235 00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:58,480 The invaders swarmed across the city, ransacking the buildings. 236 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:01,160 Then they moved on to the Acropolis. 237 00:15:01,160 --> 00:15:04,200 They scaled the walls, killed the defenders, 238 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:06,640 and then burnt its temples to the ground. 239 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:10,720 For the next 30 years, the Athenians left the Acropolis in ruins 240 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:15,320 as a constant memorial to the sacrilege of the barbarians. 241 00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:18,840 Standing above the city as it does, it must have been that 242 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:22,840 kind of everyday reminder of just how badly the Persians had 243 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:27,720 behaved, but also how close the Athenians had come to defeat. 244 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:31,160 That was all until just after the mid-5th century BC 245 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:34,040 when under the guidance of Pericles, 246 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:37,600 the Athenians finally decided to rebuild their monuments. 247 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:46,160 These new monuments are a record of how 5th century Athenians saw 248 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:51,320 themselves, and of how they wanted to be seen by the wider world. 249 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:53,520 The new Acropolis was built, quite literally, 250 00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:55,800 from the foundations of the old. 251 00:15:55,800 --> 00:15:57,920 These column drums, built into the wall, 252 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:02,440 are remnants of one of the old temples that the Persians destroyed. 253 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:04,840 And on top of the rock, guarding the summit, 254 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:07,120 stood the original statue of liberty. 255 00:16:09,800 --> 00:16:12,320 The first site to have greeted visitors as they emerged 256 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:15,040 on to the Acropolis was the giant statue of Athena 257 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:16,280 that stood right there. 258 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:19,560 She was bronze, about nine metres tall, 259 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:23,160 and she held a giant spear in her hand. 260 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:24,840 She had been sculpted by Pheidias, 261 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:27,880 who made the statue of Zeus at Olympia, and she was made 262 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:32,520 out of the spoils of war taken by the Athenians from the Persians. 263 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:43,920 But the crowning glory was of course the new Parthenon itself. 264 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:46,280 Standing on top of its ruined predecessor, 265 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:49,200 it rose like a phoenix from the ashes. 266 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,040 Around all four sides of the temple there were sculptures 267 00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:55,520 depicting epic battles from the world of Greek myth. 268 00:16:55,520 --> 00:17:00,000 They told a story of the struggle between civilisation and barbarism, 269 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,800 and symbolised the triumph of heroic Athenians over savage Persians. 270 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,120 These examples show Greeks fighting centaurs. 271 00:17:09,120 --> 00:17:11,320 The Greeks look noble and brave, 272 00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:15,200 whereas the centaurs look cruel and savage. 273 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:19,280 Here is a brutal centaur about to trample a fallen Greek. 274 00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:22,920 But overall it's the Greeks who have the upper hand. 275 00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:28,840 Here, a heroic Greek has grabbed the centaur and is poised to strike. 276 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:32,480 All of these images contributed to the same overall story, 277 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,000 which culminated with another amazing statue. 278 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,320 Inside this enormous temple stood a gigantic 279 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:42,040 statue of Athena in gold and ivory. 280 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:46,480 And in her hand, she held a figure of Nike, of victory. 281 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:49,120 Everything around us on the Acropolis speaks to that victory, 282 00:17:49,120 --> 00:17:54,760 from the walls to the Parthenon, of Athens' victory over the Persians. 283 00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:59,080 So in reality the Parthenon is not just a temple, 284 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:02,920 it's actually the most beautiful victory monument in the world. 285 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:11,560 Just like the monuments at Olympia, 286 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:15,520 the monuments of Athens reflected the identity of their creators. 287 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:18,760 They proclaimed to the world what it was that made Athens different 288 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:20,280 and successful. 289 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:22,880 But although they tapped into an important idea in Greek 290 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:26,480 thought of superiority over the barbarians, not everyone 291 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,720 in Greece would have agreed with the Athenians' glorious self-portrait. 292 00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:34,240 After the Persian Wars were over, Athens had established a league 293 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:38,080 of Greek states, mostly those Greeks in the Aegean and in Asia who 294 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:42,360 resided closest to Persia, in order to resist future Persian invasions. 295 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:44,960 But it was not long before Athens had turned this 296 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:47,600 league into a tax-paying empire. 297 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,920 The Parthenon was built with monies extracted from the cities 298 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:55,840 under the thumb of the Athenian Empire, 299 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:59,160 and when it was built it became the bank where the monies that 300 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:02,880 continued to be collected from the Athenian Empire were kept. 301 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,320 So while to some this was a symbol of victory and freedom, to 302 00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:09,360 others in ancient Greece it was a symbol of oppression. 303 00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:10,800 As Plutarch put it, he said, 304 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:15,280 "The Greeks must consider this an unendurable insult when Athens uses 305 00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:20,520 "these moneys to gild and beautify the city, like some vain harlot, 306 00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:25,520 "all dolled up with precious stones, statues and temples worth millions." 307 00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:31,840 Plutarch's comments about being dolled up like a harlot 308 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:33,000 make much more sense 309 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:35,680 when you realise that in ancient times, the Parthenon 310 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:37,400 would have looked very different 311 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:39,800 from the clean marble structure we admire today. 312 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:44,360 We're so used to thinking of the sculptures and buildings 313 00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:48,480 of the ancient Greek world as being clean, off-white shining marble, 314 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:53,320 stone and clay, but this sculpture paints a very different picture. 315 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:56,560 What we're looking at is surviving paint here on the cloak 316 00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:00,040 but also down here is the outline of the armour, of the greaves. 317 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:06,280 And this is the reality. The ancient Greek world wasn't monochrome. 318 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:07,640 It was technicolour. 319 00:20:11,120 --> 00:20:14,600 Many sculptures and fragments of buildings still bear traces 320 00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:18,400 of colour today, but in most cases the paintwork vanished long ago. 321 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:23,720 We know that parts of the Parthenon building were painted, 322 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:25,560 but the great mystery has always been 323 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:29,360 whether its sculptures were also once covered in glorious colour. 324 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:35,640 Today, with the help of infra-red imaging, 325 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:37,960 experts at the British Museum have discovered 326 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:43,040 traces on the Parthenon sculptures of a pigment called Egyptian Blue. 327 00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:46,840 It's having a huge impact on the way we view the ancient Greeks. 328 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:48,240 Their most iconic image, 329 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:51,560 the clean, off-white marble Parthenon, is actually 330 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:53,920 a misunderstanding of the ancient reality. 331 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:58,240 And we're looking at the figure of Iris who was 332 00:20:58,240 --> 00:20:59,640 the goddess of the rainbow. 333 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:03,680 To the naked eye there is nothing there. 334 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:05,200 Yes, yes. 335 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:09,280 But with these techniques you all of a sudden have a view that 336 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:14,480 hasn't been there for anyone for thousands of years. 337 00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:16,520 Because what happens is that Egyptian Blue 338 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:17,920 has a very special property. 339 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,040 It absorbs visible light, 340 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:24,640 holds it in and then will re-emit it as infra-red light, which will 341 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:29,120 show as a glowing white against a grey background. 342 00:21:29,120 --> 00:21:33,440 Fantastic. Well, let's take it away. How do we start the process? 343 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:39,880 OK, so this is what the sculpture looks like with no LED lights. 344 00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:44,800 If I go there and move the light, you look in the screen. 345 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:48,840 So at the moment I'm seeing exactly the same picture. 346 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:51,840 But if I turn the lamp you will see small... 347 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:55,120 It's just coming out of nowhere. 348 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:58,320 Yes, those are single particles of Egyptian Blue. 349 00:21:58,320 --> 00:21:59,840 How amazing. 350 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:03,480 So what I'm seeing there is the colour that was 351 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:07,360 originally painted onto the belt of Iris on the Parthenon? 352 00:22:07,360 --> 00:22:08,720 Yes. 353 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:13,600 But this screen is very small, we can actually look at it here. 354 00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:15,840 Yeah, that's really coming through there. 355 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:19,480 It's sparkling, almost like diamonds. 356 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:21,760 It is, it is almost like diamonds. 357 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:26,400 You can see that all these particles seem to be all merging together. 358 00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:31,440 This seems to suggest that the actual band was entirely painted 359 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:32,880 using Egyptian Blue. 360 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:37,960 And if we assume that, for example, the garment was painted 361 00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:41,440 white, it would have had like a strong contrast. 362 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:44,360 Something very visible when they were so far up above human height. 363 00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:45,560 Correct. 364 00:22:47,120 --> 00:22:53,400 I assume that as the sculptures are so well sculpted they would have 365 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:58,080 been equally well painted, so she would have been even more beautiful. 366 00:22:58,080 --> 00:22:59,040 Than she is already. 367 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:05,600 Giovanni's techniques have been a revelation. 368 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,480 As well as bands of colour like Iris's belt, 369 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:11,280 they have revealed patterns and shapes. 370 00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:14,120 When used on this relief from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, 371 00:23:14,120 --> 00:23:17,120 the imaging reveals that this soldier would once have held 372 00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:19,040 a sword in his hand. 373 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:20,840 And when shone on this horse, 374 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:24,760 we can see the decorative pattern on the saddlecloth for the first time. 375 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,480 We are so wedded to the idea of ancient Greek sculpture being 376 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,440 clean and white that this is not an easy concept for us accept. 377 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:36,720 It's even harder when you realise just how bright 378 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,200 pigments like Egyptian Blue really were. 379 00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:42,840 So can we get a sense of what this Egyptian Blue 380 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:43,960 would have looked like? 381 00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:45,960 Yes, here are two samples. 382 00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:48,600 A block of raw pigment and a bottle. 383 00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:52,880 This was scraped off an architectural block 384 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:55,360 by Charles Newton in the 1850s, 385 00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:58,760 and he feared he would be disbelieved, 386 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,120 so he took the precaution 387 00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:05,320 of bottling some blue and bringing it back with him to England. 388 00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:07,600 It really is a strong blue, isn't it? 389 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:11,000 Yes, exactly, a deep blue. 390 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:14,280 The sea in the afternoon. The sea in the afternoon. 391 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:18,000 So for how long have we known or suspected that the Parthenon 392 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,760 and other Greek buildings and sculptures were painted? 393 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:24,200 The travellers, the architects who went to Greece 394 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:28,560 and Turkey in the 18th and 19th century, they became instantly 395 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:33,920 aware of the probability that all ancient architecture was coated. 396 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,480 This is the colouring, the geometric patterning in colour 397 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,200 decorating the entablature of the Parthenon. 398 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:46,520 How shocking would that have been to people in the 18th 399 00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:49,760 and 19th century to hear that these buildings were painted? 400 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:55,880 It's the habit of every generation to corporately forget, isn't 401 00:24:55,880 --> 00:25:00,760 it, that architecture in antiquity was coloured, and sculpture too. 402 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:04,520 And it's the privilege of every generation to rediscover that, 403 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:07,480 and our own generation recently did 404 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:11,360 so in a dramatic way, with the discoveries of Giovanni Verri. 405 00:25:11,360 --> 00:25:14,640 When we imagine an ancient world full of colour, what does that 406 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:17,800 do to our understanding of what being in the ancient Greek 407 00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:19,480 world was really like? 408 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:23,480 We shouldn't think of it as a one material marble culture at all. 409 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:25,120 We should think of it as composite. 410 00:25:25,120 --> 00:25:28,760 In marble sculpture, the drill holes were to fit the bits 411 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:31,240 and harness of the horses. 412 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,520 It increases the presence of the monuments. 413 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,640 For example, cult statues were highly coloured, 414 00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:38,960 their eyes were inlaid, 415 00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:43,240 and when you approached a cult statue standing in its temple, 416 00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:47,400 you approached an impersonation of the god or goddess. 417 00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:49,920 And the great impact was overwhelming 418 00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:53,520 and the colour assisted that sense of awe. 419 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:54,800 Do you think, 420 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:58,400 given this revolutionary moment and the discovery of colour, 421 00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:00,080 do you think future generations 422 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:03,520 will again forget and re-discover for themselves? 423 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:07,200 I do hope so because, having 424 00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:11,440 participated in the rediscovery of colour, I would hope that future 425 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:15,520 generations will have the same joy of new discoveries to be made. 426 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,000 I never expected that after 200 years of searching 427 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:21,200 the Parthenon sculptures would reveal 428 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:26,080 the secret of the sparkly blue belt of the messenger goddess, Iris. 429 00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:29,120 And it enlivens our understanding, 430 00:26:29,120 --> 00:26:33,160 but also energises our quest to unravel the mystery 431 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:34,400 of the ancient world 432 00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:36,840 and to understand it better in the modern world. 433 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:40,080 We're still a long way from knowing exactly how the Parthenon 434 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:43,240 would have been coloured, but we do know that instead of looking 435 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:46,160 like this, it would have looked something like this. 436 00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:50,880 It's an amazing riot of colour, 437 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:53,280 with bronze adornments glinting in the sun. 438 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:56,320 It makes us realise that some of the most enduring 439 00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,160 legacies of the ancient Greeks, 440 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:01,440 our sense of Classical Greek architecture and sculpture, 441 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:05,360 have been shaped by our own misunderstanding of the Greek world. 442 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:09,560 But there's also something else we can learn from colour, 443 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,120 and it comes from looking at where the different pigments 444 00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:14,200 used by the ancient Greeks actually came from. 445 00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:18,680 This is gypsum, coming from Epirus in northern Greece. 446 00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:23,560 This is realgar, coming all the way from the Caucuses. 447 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:28,640 This one is called limonite, known to us as ochre, 448 00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:30,640 coming from the island of Cyprus. 449 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,960 This is chrusicalla, coming from Attica in central Greece. 450 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,360 This is haematite, coming from the island of Kea in the Aegean. 451 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,440 This is Cinabar, coming all the way from Spain. 452 00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:50,000 Lastly, my favourite, lapis lazuli all the way from Afghanistan. 453 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:53,840 What this shows us is that the temples 454 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,680 and sculptures of ancient Greece were coloured with materials 455 00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:00,280 that came not just from Greece but from across Europe and Asia. 456 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:02,160 They were the result of a network 457 00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,360 that criss-crossed the ancient world. 458 00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:10,480 But it was more than just coloured pigments. 459 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:13,080 There were all kinds of goods involved. 460 00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:16,480 And one of the biggest hubs on this entire network was Athens. 461 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:27,600 Athens was one of the most cosmopolitan 462 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:29,440 places in all of Greece. 463 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,680 Traders were drawn here from far and wide, bringing everything 464 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,480 from fish and fruit, to spices, cushions and carpets. 465 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,920 As the Athenian statesman Pericles boasted, 466 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,960 Athens was a city that threw open its doors to the world. 467 00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:46,040 And it wasn't just goods travelling on this network, 468 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,520 it was people, and with people came ideas. 469 00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:00,000 Some of the most famous Greeks to inhabit this city in antiquity 470 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,280 did not actually come from Athens, 471 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:05,960 but rather from the very boundaries of the Greek world. 472 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,640 Aristotle came from Stageira in northern Greece, 473 00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:10,040 but came here to study 474 00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:14,280 in Plato's Academy and eventually to set up his own school of philosophy. 475 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:16,760 The father of history, Herodotus was an outsider here. 476 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:20,440 He came from Halicarnassus in modern day Turkey. 477 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:22,640 And the scientist-philosopher Theophrastus 478 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:24,200 was from the island of Lesbos. 479 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,840 They were all part of a group known here as metics, 480 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:32,320 coming from the Greek metoikos which means "one who dwells among". 481 00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:35,000 They could never be Athenian citizens, 482 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:37,760 but they could live and work in Athens. 483 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,520 The result was one of the most dynamic intellectual 484 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:49,200 environments in history. 485 00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:52,280 An environment that bred something new, an intense 486 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,400 focus on what it is to be human. 487 00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:58,560 This way of exploring the world was pioneered by an Athenian 488 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:00,320 philosopher called Socrates. 489 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:03,840 He relentlessly questioned the people of Athens, 490 00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:06,880 encouraging them to investigate the great issues of life - 491 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,480 courage, justice, virtue, love and the soul. 492 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,120 He famously said that an unexamined life 493 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:15,200 is not worth living. 494 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,160 And after Socrates came his pupil, Plato. 495 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:20,920 In one of his most famous works, The Republic, 496 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:23,120 he grappled with the question of what makes 497 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:27,000 a good and just individual, and what makes an ideal state. 498 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,160 Questions that we are still struggling with today. 499 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,120 But what's most impressive about the great philosophers 500 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:35,840 is the vast range of their interests. 501 00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:39,880 The book Problems contains examples of the work of Aristotle. 502 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:42,440 It's not what he's most famous for, but for me, 503 00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:46,880 it brilliantly illustrates the unbelievable extent of the curiosity 504 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:49,080 that defined him and his successors. 505 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:54,200 Why in response to others yawning do people usually yawn in return? 506 00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:59,000 Why don't the parts of the body in hot water sweat? 507 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:02,920 Why does everything appear to be travelling in a circle 508 00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:05,400 to those who are very drunk? 509 00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:07,920 Why it is that the onion makes the eyes water 510 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:09,480 to such an excessive degree? 511 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:14,240 All these problems begin with the same word - why. 512 00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:15,480 And with this question, 513 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:20,200 the ancient thinkers probed every possible realm of knowledge. 514 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:23,440 This desire to question everything was one of the defining 515 00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:25,400 characteristics of the intellectuals 516 00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:27,920 who came together in Athens. 517 00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:31,880 And it is reflected in the meaning of the word philosophy itself. 518 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,000 First coined by the Greeks, Philosophia, our philosophy, 519 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:37,440 simply means "love of wisdom". 520 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:41,880 I asked Professor Paul Cartledge why Athens provided 521 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:45,000 the perfect climate for the pursuit of wisdom, and what it might have 522 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,600 been like to live here alongside such giants of Western thought. 523 00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:52,120 You could call Athens a city of words. 524 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,120 It really is, very importantly, a city in which 525 00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:58,400 matters are thrashed out verbally. 526 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:02,760 And it's very striking that these intellectuals couldn't have done 527 00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:07,720 what they did without the, if you like, wireless network 528 00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:12,360 that Athens provides, which dynamises, galvanises thoughts. 529 00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,840 Paint a picture for me of what it might have been like to interact 530 00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:20,560 with these people in Athens. Where would you go to find them? 531 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,720 Well, we know that they were star showmen. 532 00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,680 Some philosophers, in other words, gave display lectures 533 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,280 at which Athenians would sit for entertainment. 534 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:31,920 After all, no movies in ancient Athens. 535 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,800 And they did love talk, so they loved hearing speeches. 536 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:40,040 Athens had a big space in the middle, where people would hang out. 537 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:43,440 The Greek word is "Agora," somewhere where you gather together. 538 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:47,960 Hyde Park corner, if I can give a very English analogy. 539 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:52,720 In other words, not a formal, actual physical space - that comes later. 540 00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:55,800 And we might think our picture of ancient Greece was that they were 541 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:58,720 all sitting around doing nothing all day, discussing philosophy. 542 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:02,160 I think we should get out of the way first the idea that all Greeks, 543 00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,120 as it were, all ancient Greeks were philosophers. 544 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:10,520 Most Greeks, 90+% of them were doing something to do with agriculture 545 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,560 and that's pretty time-consuming and pretty back-breaking, 546 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,800 and actually you don't tend to want, instantly to ponder 547 00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,640 extremely difficult philosophical problems. 548 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:21,120 Another Greek word, problem. 549 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:25,040 Obviously, some of the most famous names that have come to us, 550 00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,400 Aristotle, Plato, Socrates. 551 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,640 Socrates was asking the very big questions - what is? 552 00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:33,200 And then big abstract and justice. 553 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:38,320 And his technique would be to make people realise that they knew 554 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:42,800 either nothing, or they knew very much less than they thought 555 00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:46,440 they knew, and quite often a dialogue would end 556 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,920 on what was called "Aporia," no way forward. 557 00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:53,360 Well, that's very dispiriting. Most people like to be shown 558 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:58,040 the way to go, not to be told, "You're at a dead end, mate." 559 00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:02,080 And so a lot of Socrates' lessons are questioning 560 00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:06,520 how should one think about this question - let's say justice. 561 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,440 Today we think of men like Socrates with reverence. 562 00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,680 But perhaps that's because we never had to live alongside them. 563 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:17,720 For everyday Athenians, his incessant questioning 564 00:34:17,720 --> 00:34:21,160 provoked something closer to irritation or even ridicule. 565 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:25,040 Socrates is said to have considered himself 566 00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:28,680 the gadfly of ancient Athens, there to sting the city out of its stupor, 567 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,280 to make them reject any tradition 568 00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,000 that didn't stand up to rational argument. 569 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:34,200 But the result of it was 570 00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:37,080 that he was always pointing out Athens' moral weaknesses. 571 00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,440 He was always criticising, always philosophising 572 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:41,720 and it all got rather annoying. 573 00:34:41,720 --> 00:34:43,920 The comic poet Eupolis put it like this, 574 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:47,600 "I loathe that poverty-stricken windbag Socrates, 575 00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:50,160 "who's always contemplating everything in the world, 576 00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:53,280 "and yet doesn't know where his next meal is coming from." 577 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:57,120 Even 2,000 years ago, no-one liked an insufferable know-it-all. 578 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:01,760 But what happened next to Socrates was quite shocking. 579 00:35:04,240 --> 00:35:08,320 In 399 BC, Socrates was put on trial and imprisoned. 580 00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,720 He was charged with corrupting the youth of Athens, of not believing 581 00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:15,080 in the gods of the state and of introducing his own divinities. 582 00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:17,520 It didn't help that his political affiliations 583 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:19,680 were also extremely unpopular. 584 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:23,000 He was found guilty by a jury of 501 Athenians, 585 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:25,040 who sentenced him to death. 586 00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:28,920 Athens, a city so proud of its democracy and its freedom, 587 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,280 put to death one of its brightest minds, 588 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:33,680 one of the founding fathers of philosophy. 589 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:42,400 This extraordinary explosion of philosophy in 5th century Athens 590 00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:45,720 has had an enormous influence on our thinking ever since. 591 00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:49,280 One of the reasons why we see the Greeks as our forefathers 592 00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,000 is that they were the first civilisation in Europe to ask 593 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,920 the big questions about life that we still wrestle with today. 594 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:59,440 But the case of Socrates reminds us of what we saw at Olympia, 595 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:00,840 that the Greeks were a people 596 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:03,760 who could be as ruthless as they were remarkable. 597 00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,960 Despite producing some of the greatest minds in history 598 00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,880 no-one was put on a pedestal. 599 00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:11,880 A result of this was that the ancient Greeks 600 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:13,520 could never get too comfortable. 601 00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,120 They had to keep moving, keep striving. 602 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:19,600 It was a trait of Hellenism that defined the entire Greek world. 603 00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:25,840 These are some of the most impressive Greek ruins in the world, 604 00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:28,120 but this is not Athens. It's not even Greece. 605 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:31,600 This is the ancient Greek city of Selinus, in Sicily. 606 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:33,800 Now, the ancient Greeks had been moving around 607 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:35,960 the wider Mediterranean world for centuries, 608 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:40,480 but it was in the last part of the 8th century BC that this process, 609 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,920 of not just travel but of establishing new communities, 610 00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:44,840 really took hold. 611 00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:52,960 The colonists would have brought with them the sacred flame, 612 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:56,760 the embers of the flame that burned in the heart of their home community 613 00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:59,000 to establish here in their new world. 614 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,840 And, of course, with that flame they also brought their customs, 615 00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:04,440 their cultures, their way of life. 616 00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:08,040 And in setting out that blueprint, they would have established 617 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:09,680 their new community's temples. 618 00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:13,400 This is a classic example of Doric Greek architecture, and there 619 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:17,280 would have been sculptures adorning this temple of Greek myths and gods. 620 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,680 But the architecture here was about more than merely replicating 621 00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:24,200 the culture of the mainland. 622 00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:28,760 It was also about outdoing it. This city contains the ruins of temples 623 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:32,080 that were destined to be amongst the largest in antiquity. 624 00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:35,720 Their floor plan alone gives some sense of their size and scale. 625 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:39,440 Yet the greatest of them was never completed. 626 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:48,680 In 409 BC, Selinus was invaded by the Carthaginians in North Africa. 627 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:51,640 The inhabitants of Selinus fled and their city was destroyed. 628 00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:57,640 But this terrible disaster has given us a rare insight 629 00:37:57,640 --> 00:37:59,920 into the secrets of ancient Greek construction. 630 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:04,720 An old road leads to the quarry which provided the stone 631 00:38:04,720 --> 00:38:06,280 for the city's temples. 632 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:09,920 When the invaders arrived, the stonecutters fled. 633 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:12,960 And these incomplete column drums have lain here, 634 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:15,760 as monuments to that moment, ever since. 635 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,280 The column drums of the extraordinary temple at Selinus 636 00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:26,280 began life just like this one, hewn out of the solid limestone, 637 00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:28,440 and these ones are here today because the quarry 638 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,080 was literally abandoned overnight, 639 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:33,480 the craftsmen never returning to complete their work, 640 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,520 but on the other hand, it's because of that catastrophe 641 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:40,480 that befell the city that we can today still unlock the secrets 642 00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:43,200 of how they created these incredible monuments. 643 00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,440 The shape of the column would have been drawn out 644 00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:50,120 onto the top of the rock, 645 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:52,840 before the stonecutters began carving downwards. 646 00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:57,040 These are the tell tale signs, the striations 647 00:38:57,040 --> 00:39:00,680 of all the chisel marks and tool marks as slowly, slowly 648 00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:04,840 this gap was worked down and down around what would become 649 00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:08,560 the column of the temple, until they'd finally got far enough down 650 00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:10,840 to create this extraordinary height. 651 00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,880 Then, using wooded wedges that had been soaked in water 652 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:18,000 so they expanded, or metal wedges to drive in and cut off 653 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,400 each column drum, topple it over 654 00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,800 and then start the hard business of moving it towards the temple itself. 655 00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:29,960 Wooden frames would have been constructed around the columns, 656 00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:33,120 and they were moved on wheels or carts. 657 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:35,680 These square holes were used to attach the wheels 658 00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:37,720 and wooden frameworks to the column drums. 659 00:39:39,240 --> 00:39:42,840 The fluting, or vertical grooves, common to Greek columns on temples 660 00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:45,560 were only carved once the pieces were all in place. 661 00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:48,840 This temple never reached that stage, 662 00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:52,480 but if it had been finished, it would have been enormous. 663 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,520 Each one of these column drums weighs around 100 tons, 664 00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:58,960 and the columns themselves would have been over 16 metres high. 665 00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:04,680 This incredible architectural skill produced some of the most 666 00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:08,480 colossal feats of architecture in the ancient west. 667 00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:11,200 And we may well ask why here? Why Sicily? 668 00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:14,440 In part it was because Sicily was on the edge of the ancient Greek world, 669 00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:17,680 and people at the edge of a community tend to shout louder 670 00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:19,760 to make themselves heard as part of that group. 671 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:22,960 And shout loud the Sicilians definitely did. 672 00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:25,000 But it was also to do with competition, 673 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,840 not just between the different peoples of Sicily 674 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,160 but also with entirely different parts of the ancient Greek world. 675 00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:34,960 This was keeping up with the Joneses writ large, 676 00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:37,160 and that continual process of competition 677 00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:40,040 provoked artistic innovation and perfection, 678 00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:43,880 making Sicily one of the key melting pots for the creation 679 00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:47,680 of the physical legacies that have defined the ancient Greek world. 680 00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:54,840 In ancient Greece, there was a fine line 681 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:58,280 between creative competition and violent conflict. 682 00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,840 These two forces were described brilliantly by a Greek writer 683 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,800 called Hesiod as "good strife" and "bad strife". 684 00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:09,240 He said that bad strife was destructive and led to war 685 00:41:09,240 --> 00:41:13,520 and battle, but that "agathe eris" - "good strife" - was when people 686 00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:17,000 competed creatively and pushed each other to even greater success. 687 00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:22,440 Good strife pitted potter against potter, craftsman against craftsman 688 00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:26,000 and architect against architect, inspiring an outpouring 689 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:30,600 of creativity that has only ever been equalled by the Renaissance. 690 00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:34,240 I would argue that it was this need to balance good and bad strife 691 00:41:34,240 --> 00:41:37,280 that pushed the Greeks to reach such astounding levels 692 00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:40,520 of achievement and to create such an extraordinary legacy. 693 00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:47,080 And this good strife was at the heart of another 694 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:49,200 great Greek invention - theatre. 695 00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:54,520 Theatre emerged in Athens in the form of a drama competition, 696 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:57,000 but soon spread throughout the Greek world. 697 00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,160 It was particularly popular in Sicily, 698 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:01,880 and this island is still home to some of most beautiful 699 00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:04,000 Greek theatres ever built, like this one, 700 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,280 hewn into the hillside in Segesta. 701 00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,520 The Greeks gave us the two defining dramatic genres, 702 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:12,880 tragedy and comedy. 703 00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:16,280 Without them, there would be no Shakespeare, no Oscar Wilde, 704 00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:18,920 no soap operas and no sitcom. 705 00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:22,800 And it's here, in the theatre, that the Greeks feel simultaneously 706 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,520 at their most familiar and at their most alien. 707 00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:29,280 Greek tragedy has given us some of the most strange, 708 00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:32,320 dark and brutal stories of all time. 709 00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:35,200 There are tales of murder, vengeance, and incest, 710 00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:38,040 of insanity and mutilation. 711 00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:41,520 There are men who kill their fathers and marry their mothers, 712 00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:45,840 lovers who commit suicide, and women who kill their own children. 713 00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:50,000 These are bloody and violent stories, 714 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,240 but they're much more than some sort of weird form of entertainment 715 00:42:53,240 --> 00:42:54,800 for the ancient Greeks. 716 00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:57,840 They spoke to the dark side of humanity and to the harsh 717 00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:00,640 and unpredictable nature of life itself. 718 00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:03,520 And here in the Greek theatre, these stories did something more 719 00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:07,120 than that as well. They were lessons. They were challenges. 720 00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,640 My favourite line in Greek tragedy is in Aeschylus' Libation Bearers, 721 00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:12,960 and it's when Orestes is about to get his revenge. 722 00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:15,200 He's there, knife in hand, about to kill his mother 723 00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:20,440 and he panics and asks the question "ti draso?" - "What shall I do?" 724 00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:23,120 That is the key question of tragedy. 725 00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:25,120 Tragedy didn't just tell a nasty story 726 00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,400 and let the audience walk away. No. 727 00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:31,240 It asked them to respond, it challenged them. What would they do 728 00:43:31,240 --> 00:43:33,560 if they were caught in such an impossible situation? 729 00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:37,920 The result of all this 730 00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:40,800 was something Aristotle called catharsis. 731 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:43,600 It refers to the relief and clarity that can come 732 00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:45,880 from experiencing extreme emotions 733 00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:49,040 in the controlled environment of the theatre, and which leaves 734 00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:50,360 the audience better equipped 735 00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:52,520 to deal with their problems in real life. 736 00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:57,560 Tragedy, therefore, while it seems violent and strange, 737 00:43:57,560 --> 00:43:59,720 had a real purpose in the Greek world. 738 00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:04,560 But for me, it's actually with comedy that we can see 739 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:08,640 most clearly what we have inherited from the Greek theatre. 740 00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,480 One of the most famous comic playwrights in Greece 741 00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:15,080 was an Athenian called Menander, and as with all Greek theatre, 742 00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:17,760 his plays were performed with masks. 743 00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:21,200 Comedy masks appear especially alien and strange, 744 00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:24,680 but when we look more closely at the characters that they represent, 745 00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:28,640 we find a society not that dissimilar to our own. 746 00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:32,800 In a typical plot you'd have maybe a young man falling in love 747 00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:36,280 with an experienced prostitute. 748 00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:38,920 He's going to get a clever slave who helps him along the way. 749 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:41,600 He's going to have a father who might object, and somehow, 750 00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:42,760 one way or another, 751 00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:45,600 by the end of the play, they're going to be happily married. 752 00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:49,640 And obviously we've got a collection here of masks. 753 00:44:49,640 --> 00:44:52,160 How do they relate to the comedy that we're talking about? 754 00:44:52,160 --> 00:44:53,560 For Menander, 755 00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:58,120 it was really helpful to have these masks for the stock characters. 756 00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:02,000 You could tell immediately, as the audience, that you're looking at 757 00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:04,000 the clever slave, just from the mask. 758 00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:05,560 So, who do we have here? 759 00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:08,120 Well, let's start with the lady. 760 00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:10,760 Here we have, often called the golden hetaerae, 761 00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:14,000 which is just a word for prostitute. 762 00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,040 She would be someone with a lot of front, 763 00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:19,720 someone who seems like she's disinterested maybe in the plot, 764 00:45:19,720 --> 00:45:25,120 but then turns out to have a heart of gold and get involved and help out. 765 00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:28,200 Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, right? We're hoping. 766 00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:29,920 Who else do we have down here? 767 00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:33,320 Here, we've got your standard young man. 768 00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:36,840 In many of the plots, he's going to be the one who falls in love, 769 00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:41,440 but then he may be more or less streetwise, depending on how 770 00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:45,240 he's done, so you might think about the difference 771 00:45:45,240 --> 00:45:50,120 between Tim in The Office and Simon in The Inbetweeners. 772 00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:52,200 OK! Both are young men who are in love, 773 00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:56,480 but here we have the possibility of different characterisation. 774 00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:58,920 And this is obviously your favourite down here, 775 00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:01,120 you're keeping him close to your heart. 776 00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:03,040 This is the ruler slave. 777 00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:07,640 He's cleverer than his master, and he's often quite a deceptive 778 00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:11,400 character, but really in quite a charming way at the same time. 779 00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:14,600 So I guess the modern equivalent here would be Blackadder? 780 00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:18,000 Blackadder, exactly, Jeeves in Jeeves And Wooster, 781 00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:20,840 maybe Humphrey in Yes, Minister. 782 00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:23,080 So I guess step one is to recreate the mask, 783 00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:25,120 but step two, to really understand this, 784 00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:27,120 is to put them back into performance. 785 00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:30,080 Seeing them in action is where you get to see that, really, 786 00:46:30,080 --> 00:46:34,480 they're not just static, they don't just have one fixed expression. 787 00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:37,680 That's where you see how a character can really colourfully 788 00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:39,800 be brought out by masked theatre. 789 00:46:41,720 --> 00:46:45,040 So this is giving us more of the anxious face, the anxious slave. 790 00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:48,240 Exactly. He's anxious, he's worried about something, you can 791 00:46:48,240 --> 00:46:50,480 see that by looking straight at him there. 792 00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:57,320 And then here's this transition, where, actually, maybe he's having 793 00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:03,080 an idea, and at that point you start to see the eyes more. 794 00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:06,760 And when you start to see the eyes more, you get this sense of, 795 00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:10,000 wait a minute, the cogs going round in the brain 796 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:11,720 and, yes, he's got the idea! 797 00:47:11,720 --> 00:47:14,120 And then looking up even further, you're seeing the eyes, 798 00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:15,960 the bulging eyes appearing. 799 00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:19,360 Which tell us he's got the idea but also bring out his cunning. 800 00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:24,040 You can see now those crossed eyes which make you think, 801 00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:28,600 "Wait a minute, maybe I don't really trust this guy." 802 00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:31,640 So what do you think watching this in performance does 803 00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:36,200 for our understanding of how alien ancient Greek theatre might seem? 804 00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:40,240 I think it's exactly that idea that it's alienating, but actually, when 805 00:47:40,240 --> 00:47:42,160 you start watching a performance, 806 00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:45,680 and seeing what the mask can do and the emotions it brings out, 807 00:47:45,680 --> 00:47:48,160 these characters become really familiar. 808 00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:51,640 And you realise actually this is drama that we can understand, 809 00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:53,240 this is drama we can tap into. 810 00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:02,640 Tragedy, comedy, philosophy, art, architecture and sport - 811 00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:06,280 these were some of the great innovations of the ancient Greeks. 812 00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:09,320 But their mere invention isn't enough to explain 813 00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:13,080 why they have spread so far or endured so long. 814 00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:16,520 Something else happened that spread what Herodotus called 815 00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:19,640 "the Greek Thing" as far as the Middle East and Asia. 816 00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:22,920 That something was the impact 817 00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:25,600 of a father and son from Northern Greece. 818 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:30,000 King Philip II of Macedon, and his son, Alexander the Great. 819 00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:35,040 The question of who were the Greeks cannot be answered 820 00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:38,120 without considering two of the most famous Greeks of all. 821 00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:44,640 The Kingdom of Macedon was a land of horses, huntsmen and warriors, 822 00:48:44,640 --> 00:48:48,320 and under the leadership of Alexander's father, King Philip II, 823 00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:50,480 it had become a power to rival Athens. 824 00:48:55,240 --> 00:48:58,840 These treasures testify to the wealth and artistic achievements 825 00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:02,160 of Macedon, but also reveal Philip's own ambition, 826 00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:05,360 which was to become the single leader of all the Greeks. 827 00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:10,880 This silver banqueting set belonged to Philip. 828 00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:15,560 It features a representation of the hero Heracles from Greek mythology. 829 00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:18,800 The Macedonians emphasised their Greekness by tracing 830 00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:21,320 their royal line back to Heracles himself. 831 00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:26,880 This gold oak crown is one of the most impressive artefacts 832 00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:28,600 in all of Greece. 833 00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:32,400 It has 313 leaves, 68 acorns and would have been made 834 00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:35,360 by some of the most skilled craftsmen in the Greek world. 835 00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:39,480 Philip was drawing the best artists in Greece away 836 00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:41,120 from Athens to Macedon. 837 00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:45,680 This suit of armour was found in Philip's tomb. 838 00:49:45,680 --> 00:49:48,680 The ivory design on the shield shows a classic scene 839 00:49:48,680 --> 00:49:51,880 from Greek myth of the Greeks defeating the Amazons, 840 00:49:51,880 --> 00:49:56,960 and the armour itself includes this - Athena, the symbol of Athens. 841 00:49:58,720 --> 00:50:02,480 By becoming a patron of all that the Greeks excelled in creating, 842 00:50:02,480 --> 00:50:06,520 and by engaging with Greeks myths and traditions, Philip preserved 843 00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:09,560 and augmented the legacies of the ancient Greek world. 844 00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:15,760 With a combination of military might and diplomacy, Philip brought 845 00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:18,960 the independent cities of mainland Greece under his leadership. 846 00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:23,720 He prepared to embark on a war of revenge 847 00:50:23,720 --> 00:50:26,320 against Greece's age-old enemy, Persia. 848 00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:29,080 But before he could begin, he was assassinated, 849 00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:31,800 and the leadership of Greece passed to Alexander. 850 00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:38,000 Alexander pursued his father's campaign, 851 00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:40,840 and in the process, conquered a vast empire 852 00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:44,040 that stretched from Europe to the shores of India. 853 00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:46,880 And it's the way in which he secured his empire 854 00:50:46,880 --> 00:50:50,160 that helps to explain the lasting endurance of Greekness. 855 00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:54,600 These are the ruins of Priene, 856 00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:57,080 a small Greek city near the Turkish coast. 857 00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:01,600 And in ancient times, this city had one great claim to fame. 858 00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:07,280 In the fourth century BC, the citizens of Priene decided 859 00:51:07,280 --> 00:51:10,520 to rebuild their city in this extraordinary location, 860 00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:13,920 and at its heart would be the Temple of Athena Polias, 861 00:51:13,920 --> 00:51:16,280 the temple to the city's main deity. 862 00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:20,040 It was designed by one of ancient Greece's master architects, and its 863 00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:24,320 architecture came to be seen as a perfect example of the Greek style. 864 00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:27,560 But what's really fascinating about this temple is an inscription 865 00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:29,640 that once stood on the south wall of the temple, 866 00:51:29,640 --> 00:51:31,640 facing out over the plain below. 867 00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:33,480 And it read like this, 868 00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:38,120 "King Alexander dedicated this temple to Athena Polias." 869 00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:42,000 Alexander the Great came here and paid for this temple 870 00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:44,360 as part of his conquests heading east. 871 00:51:52,040 --> 00:51:55,400 Alexander spread Greek culture across his empire. 872 00:51:55,400 --> 00:51:59,680 He founded new Greek-style cities, sponsored temples to the Greek gods, 873 00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:02,720 and got his generals to stage Greek plays. 874 00:52:02,720 --> 00:52:06,120 But he also realised that he could not secure his power and position 875 00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:07,480 through force alone. 876 00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:10,760 He had to work with local inhabitants. 877 00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:13,280 Alexander took Greek culture further east, 878 00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:16,240 but he also mixed it as he went with local traditions, 879 00:52:16,240 --> 00:52:19,000 so he used Persian officials and systems of government. 880 00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:23,440 He wore Persian dress, he and his officers married Persian wives. 881 00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:27,080 And what he created as a result was a much bigger but also much 882 00:52:27,080 --> 00:52:32,280 more mixed, cosmopolitan world and there's no better example 883 00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:37,000 of how that cosmopolitanness defined that world than this. 884 00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:41,120 This is a replica of a coin minted by one of Alexander's successors, 885 00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:47,600 and it shows Alexander wearing the ram's horns of the god Zeus Ammon, 886 00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:50,800 a god that was itself the creation of a mix of Greek culture 887 00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:52,080 and Egyptian culture - 888 00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:54,720 the Greek god Zeus and the Egyptian god Ammon. 889 00:52:54,720 --> 00:52:58,160 It was a god that Alexander claimed to be a descendent of, 890 00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:02,920 and the fact that his successors have chosen this hybrid image 891 00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:07,040 shows that it was a powerful symbol in a world in which Greek culture 892 00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:11,280 mixed with local traditions from the Nile all the way to the Himalayas. 893 00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:19,000 This mixing of cultures is one of the things that allowed 894 00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:21,080 the great legacies of ancient Greece to take hold 895 00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:22,760 across Alexander's empire, 896 00:53:22,760 --> 00:53:26,560 and to be woven into the fabric of the civilisations that followed. 897 00:53:28,840 --> 00:53:30,840 But that isn't the end of the story. 898 00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:35,960 Alexander the Great soon left Priene to continue his conquests 899 00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:41,440 further east, but this temple wasn't completed for another 300 years, 900 00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:45,680 and it's this inscription that tells us who was finally responsible. 901 00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:47,040 It reads like this, 902 00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:51,520 "Demos" - the people, "Athenai Poliadi" - to Athena Polias, 903 00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:52,560 and - "kai". 904 00:53:55,240 --> 00:54:00,680 "Autokratori kaisari, theowhoyoui theoi, sebastoi anatheykin." 905 00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:05,880 The people erected this temple to Athena Polias 906 00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:12,320 and to the emperor, Caesar, son of a god, god, Sebastos - 907 00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:14,800 the Greek for the Roman Emperor Augustus. 908 00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:18,280 In the second century BC, 909 00:54:18,280 --> 00:54:22,480 Greece was conquered by the expanding Roman Empire. 910 00:54:22,480 --> 00:54:26,040 It was Augustus, who came to power in the late first century BC, 911 00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:29,800 who oversaw the completion of this Greek temple. 912 00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:32,480 But he chose to keep the original Greek design. 913 00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:43,760 The Romans saw the Greeks as military weak, 914 00:54:43,760 --> 00:54:46,120 but artistically supreme. 915 00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:49,680 They adopted and promoted Greek cultural achievements so much 916 00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:52,040 that one writer quipped that, in effect, 917 00:54:52,040 --> 00:54:54,720 though Greece had lost the battle, it had won the war. 918 00:54:56,280 --> 00:55:00,320 To understand the power and tenacity of the Greek legacies, 919 00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:04,520 we need to realise that the Romans were fundamentally involved 920 00:55:04,520 --> 00:55:07,080 in shaping what we see as ancient Greece today. 921 00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:12,440 One of Augustus's successors was the emperor Hadrian, 922 00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:15,880 who was a lover of Greek culture. In fact, it's in part thanks to 923 00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:19,800 Hadrian that the city of Athens was transformed into a beacon 924 00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:23,200 for the greatness of Greece in the Roman world. 925 00:55:23,200 --> 00:55:25,640 And there's no better example of that transition 926 00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:29,640 than the extraordinary temple of Olympian Zeus. 927 00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:33,160 The Greeks failed to finish it, whereas Hadrian completed it. 928 00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:37,840 And in that process of not just the preservation but the augmentation 929 00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:41,960 of the realities of ancient Greece, Hadrian was part of the way Rome 930 00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:47,400 stage-managed Greece's transition into the icon that it is today. 931 00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:59,160 The Romans were just the first of many cultures who have, 932 00:55:59,160 --> 00:56:03,800 in admiring and learning from the Greeks, also shaped their legacy. 933 00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:06,280 It's a process that continues to this day. 934 00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:11,360 There's no better symbol of the ways in which the wonders 935 00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:15,080 of ancient Greece have been reshaped and reworked over time 936 00:56:15,080 --> 00:56:16,080 than the Parthenon. 937 00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:18,440 It began as a symbol of victory and freedom, 938 00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:21,560 but became the place from which the Greeks honoured the Roman emperors, 939 00:56:21,560 --> 00:56:24,840 and since then it's been a Christian church, a mosque, 940 00:56:24,840 --> 00:56:28,000 even a gunpowder store, amongst other things. 941 00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:32,000 And today it is being restored to one moment in that story, 942 00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:36,080 to the golden age of ancient Greece, but without the paint, 943 00:56:36,080 --> 00:56:38,520 because we're still not ready to accept 944 00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:40,800 that version of ancient Greece. 945 00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:43,440 We are still absolutely implicit 946 00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:46,280 in shaping the answer to the question, who were the Greeks? 947 00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:56,080 The Greeks gave us some amazing legacies, 948 00:56:56,080 --> 00:56:59,160 things we can't imagine living without today. 949 00:56:59,160 --> 00:57:02,320 Because of their brilliance and appeal to societies ever since, 950 00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:05,120 their genius is still all around us. 951 00:57:05,120 --> 00:57:10,320 Their legacy is so strong that, in a way, I believe we are all Greeks. 952 00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:14,520 And when we trace these legacies back to the people who created them, 953 00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:19,800 we find an unexpectedly large, diverse and interconnected world. 954 00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:22,680 We find a people propelled by good strife, 955 00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:25,920 to reach ever-greater creative achievements. 956 00:57:25,920 --> 00:57:29,320 A people who never stopped asking why. 957 00:57:29,320 --> 00:57:32,800 But they also challenge some of our strongest preconceptions 958 00:57:32,800 --> 00:57:35,240 about their world and our own. 959 00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:37,840 They painted their sculptures in vibrant colours, 960 00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:40,120 they could be violent and cruel 961 00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:42,720 and they refused to put anyone on a pedestal. 962 00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:48,840 Without doubt, the ancient Greek world has had a major impact 963 00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:52,320 on our own, but its legacy has also been a movable feast, 964 00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:54,480 because of the way that every generation 965 00:57:54,480 --> 00:57:57,120 has reformulated and recast it. 966 00:57:57,120 --> 00:57:59,000 And that makes ancient Greece 967 00:57:59,000 --> 00:58:02,440 the perfect combination of icon and enigma. 968 00:58:02,440 --> 00:58:06,080 And that, for me, is what's so unique about their legacy. 969 00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:08,960 Asking who were the Greeks means asking who we are, 970 00:58:08,960 --> 00:58:13,760 and stops us from becoming too comfortable in the answer, 971 00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:15,600 and that can only be a good thing. 972 00:58:43,720 --> 00:58:46,880 Subtitles by Red Bee Media