A Gift from the Gods: What Ancient Greece Gave Us

What have we learned this semester? Skipping the pathos, we have learned that Lord Elgin went on his own accord to Greece in 1801 and relocated the Parthenon Marbles back to his native land of Great Britain. Today, there is a huge debate whether or not the marbles should return to their native land of Greece. That is where we left off. But what have we missed in this class? The background. Why is Greece important? What have they contributed to the world in terms of culture and knowledge? Ancient Greece is more than togas. Gus Portokalos, the father in My Big Fat Greek believed that everything in the world today derives from some sort of Greek heritage; he was also a firm believer that Windex could fix anything, so he must be a credible source. When you finish this post, it will be hard to discredit him. This is what the Greeks have bestowed upon us—

1. We would not know any of this if it weren’t for the man who invented the method of recording the past. Herodotus, the father of history, gave us the opportunity to be able to gain knowledge from the past and build upon it.

2. The Parthenon (of course). The subject of our class. The central reason of why we are traveling to Europe. The Parthenon, not only an icon for Greece, gives us Neoclassical architecture–that architecture that makes any building look important as soon as pillars and a pediment are added to the exterior.

3. Speaking of Neoclassicism, the Greeks are the inspiration for that fabulous visual aesthetic in the late to early 18th and 19th century where men finally got rid of those anachronistic powdered wigs and frills. Just imagine Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the film version with Kiera Knightly, when referring to this style.

4. The ideal of beauty. Greek art rid the world of stoicism in art and brought emotion and movement to the piece called contrapposto, or the “S” curve. Introduced by Polykleitos in his Spear Bearer, this artistic and technical development added naturalness to art and made it more beautiful and more relatable. Polykleitos also defined a perfect human body as being 7 heads tall, another canon of beauty.

5. Math would not be real if Greek geniuses had not discovered mathematical theorems, such as Pythagoras, who defined the iconic Pythagorean Theorem: a2+b2=c2.

6. The good ole’ American political system, Democracy, is based on the Greek Demokratia; the initial form of democracy created in 7th century BC Athens.

7. Drama. The beginnings of the theater were born the Greek Amphitheater in Epidaurus. Where would we be without Tragedy and Comedy?

8. Mythology. The sacred stories of the Greek gods. From these fables comes inspiration, creativity, and the origin of the epic—Homer's The Odyssey. Mythology also brought us Disney's Hercules, a less serious and more feel-good derivative.

9. The genesis of die-hard athleticism: the Olympic Games. The first modern Games took place in Athens in 1896. Without them, what would we look forward to every 4 years (besides presidential elections, of course)?

10. Philosophy. Greece gave us Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. Without those men, why would we think the way we think? Is there life after death? Is this real or is it only an illusion? Let’s ponder…

11. Last but not least, John Stamos.

Thank you Greece. See you soon.