0:00:02 > 0:00:04Language, literature, art, philosophy, politics,
0:00:04 > 0:00:05architecture, sport, culture -
0:00:05 > 0:00:10the very bones, sinews, muscles, and lifeblood of our modern world
0:00:10 > 0:00:13are often said to be indebted to the Ancient Greeks.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16But scratch the surface of that culture
0:00:16 > 0:00:20and you find, amidst the democracy, the philosophy and the literature,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23what can seem to us a seething tornado
0:00:23 > 0:00:24of alien,
0:00:24 > 0:00:25unsettling
0:00:25 > 0:00:30and sometimes downright outrageous customs and beliefs.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32I'm Dr Michael Scott.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35As an Assistant Professor of Classics and Ancient History,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38I study the strange world of the Ancient Greeks.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43In these two programmes, I'll be asking two big questions.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45How did they live?
0:00:45 > 0:00:47And what have they given us?
0:00:47 > 0:00:50HE SPEAKS IN ANCIENT GREEK
0:00:55 > 0:00:58In this programme, I'll be finding out who these people were.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01The Ancient Greeks who invented democracy
0:01:01 > 0:01:04but who engaged in wrestling matches sometimes to the death.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06What were their lives like?
0:01:08 > 0:01:10They came up with the Olympics
0:01:10 > 0:01:13but dined on a filthy mix of vinegar and blood soup.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15A tough food for tough men.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18They gave us philosophy
0:01:18 > 0:01:22but were happy to abandon newborn babies outside their city walls.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25How did this mix of the bizarre and the familiar
0:01:25 > 0:01:28create such an impressive civilisation?
0:01:29 > 0:01:31I want to find out, who were the Greeks?
0:01:48 > 0:01:51I'm in the hills above a place that changed the world.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54It doesn't look that impressive today,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57scattered with modern houses and beach hotels.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01But down there on that very shore, one of the most important
0:02:01 > 0:02:05battles in history was fought and won by the Ancient Greeks.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09In 490 BC, a relatively small Greek force
0:02:09 > 0:02:13took position down there on the plain of Marathon to face up
0:02:13 > 0:02:16against a vast invading Persian army.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21There were around 10,000 Greeks and probably 25,000 to 30,000 Persians,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24although some of the sources talk about hundreds of thousands.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29The Greeks were outnumbered...
0:02:31 > 0:02:33..and supposedly totally outmatched.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38But they were fighting for their freedom.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42By 490 BC, when the Greeks were facing the Persians at Marathon,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46they had already invented the world's first democracy.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50Greek architecture, art, philosophy and medicine were flourishing too.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52But all of this could have been wiped out
0:02:52 > 0:02:55with a sweep of the Persian sword.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57There was a huge amount at stake.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02But at Marathon, the Greeks broke all the rules of battle
0:03:02 > 0:03:03in order to win.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07They ran at the Persian line, taking them by surprise.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11The Greeks did not normally run into battle in those days.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13It was an extraordinary thing for them to do.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22After the Battle of Marathon, Miltiades, the Athenian general,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26travelled to the sacred site of Olympia to make offerings of thanks
0:03:26 > 0:03:30to the gods for their miraculous victory against the Persians.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32And in the Sanctuary of Zeus,
0:03:32 > 0:03:37he dedicated possibly the very helmet he wore in battle to the god.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40This is Miltiades' helmet.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43And we know this because the helmet is inscribed
0:03:43 > 0:03:47"Miltiades anetheken to Dii,"
0:03:47 > 0:03:51"Miltiades dedicated this to the god Zeus."
0:03:51 > 0:03:55For me, there's no better way of getting up close and personal
0:03:55 > 0:03:58with history two and a half thousand years ago
0:03:58 > 0:04:02than standing in front of this incredible object.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06But this object right next to it tells a very different story.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09It's a helmet, but you can see the difference in styles.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11This is a Persian helmet.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13And what it's doing here, well, again,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16an inscription tells us the story. Here it is.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21"Di," to the gods, "athenioa," the Athenians,
0:04:21 > 0:04:26"medon," the Persians, "labontes," took it.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30The Athenians took this helmet, probably off a dead Persian,
0:04:30 > 0:04:32and dedicated it to their gods.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35So what does this tell us?
0:04:35 > 0:04:38There was more to Ancient Greece than the traditional image
0:04:38 > 0:04:42we might have in our minds of philosophy, politics and art.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47The Greeks were ferocious warriors, they took battle trophies,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50and were quite happy to put thousands of their enemies
0:04:50 > 0:04:51to the sword.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57The political philosopher, John Stuart Mill,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00once claimed Marathon was more important
0:05:00 > 0:05:04in the story of English history than the Battle of Hastings.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07If the Greeks had not won that day,
0:05:07 > 0:05:11our world would be unrecognisably different.
0:05:11 > 0:05:12Who were these people
0:05:12 > 0:05:15who accomplished such an extraordinary victory?
0:05:22 > 0:05:26In the fifth century BC, when the Greeks fought at Marathon,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29Greece's political organisation was very unusual.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34Its population was divided by mountain ranges
0:05:34 > 0:05:36and dotted across myriad islands.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40It was a patchwork of thousands of small territories
0:05:40 > 0:05:42rather than anything resembling a nation.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Ancient Greece was composed of a huge number of tribes,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51monarchies and city-states, called "polis".
0:05:51 > 0:05:54Now these weren't anything like our modern cities today.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56They were much more country towns or villages
0:05:56 > 0:06:00surrounded by an amount of territory that provided the community
0:06:00 > 0:06:04with, by and large, everything they needed - olives, grain, animals.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06And most of them were fairly small.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07One area of Ancient Greece, Boeotia,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09which is a bit smaller than our Kent,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13there were 12 of these independent city states sitting side-by-side
0:06:13 > 0:06:17but every one of them, whatever size, had their own traditions,
0:06:17 > 0:06:21their own laws, their own ideas about how things should be done.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Every one of them had their own unique identity.
0:06:27 > 0:06:28More often than not,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31the Ancient Greeks referred to the Athenians,
0:06:31 > 0:06:33the Spartans or the Corinthians,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37rather than talking about Athens, Sparta or Corinth.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39They spoke of communities made up of people
0:06:39 > 0:06:42rather than cities made up of buildings.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47How did this mosaic of independent communities link together?
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Well, one of the ways they did it was through alliances.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52This is a copy of a bronze tablet
0:06:52 > 0:06:54that was originally discovered in 1813
0:06:54 > 0:06:56and it would have been fixed to a wall.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58These are nail holes here and here.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02And it details an alliance, a treaty alliance between two city states.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05That of Elis in the Peloponnese and Haria in Arcadia.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08But the terms of the alliance are fascinating.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11It's a treaty for 100 years and it works like this -
0:07:11 > 0:07:15if one city goes to war, the other city state will join in.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17If someone makes war on one of the city states,
0:07:17 > 0:07:19the other will come to its aid.
0:07:19 > 0:07:20And there's a fine
0:07:20 > 0:07:23if one of the city states doesn't live up to its obligations.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28A talent - 6,000 days' pay which had to be paid over to Olympian Zeus.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33The truth was that each independent polis needed treaties and alliances
0:07:33 > 0:07:35because the city states of Ancient Greece
0:07:35 > 0:07:39were almost constantly at war with one another.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41They fought over land, they had long-running feuds
0:07:41 > 0:07:43and bitter rivalries for power.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46Every man grew up knowing how to fight
0:07:46 > 0:07:50and was instilled with a deep desire to win, no matter what the cost.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55At the Battle of Marathon, the reality was that only the Athenians
0:07:55 > 0:07:58and their allies, the Plataeans, turned up to fight the Persians.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02It was one loose alliance that saved the whole of Greece.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Winning was everything in Ancient Greece, second place meant nothing.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12Pindar, who wrote victory odes for Olympic winners, wrote one
0:08:12 > 0:08:16in which he gloats about how a loser will be shunned by their mother
0:08:16 > 0:08:19and have to creep around in the back streets,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22"Nor returning to their mothers
0:08:22 > 0:08:24"did sweet laughter arouse joy around them,
0:08:24 > 0:08:26"but down the alleys they slunk,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30"keeping aloof from their enemies, bitten by defeat."
0:08:31 > 0:08:32Success was everything.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36In a world in which only wealth, breeding or achievement
0:08:36 > 0:08:37could really distinguish you,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40the thing you could do most about was achievement.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42You had to fight and you had to win.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Within the city states of Ancient Greece,
0:08:47 > 0:08:51if you were a man and a citizen, you had a great deal of responsibility.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55All citizens had to serve as soldiers
0:08:55 > 0:08:58because there was no professional army.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01Because all citizens had to be battle-ready,
0:09:01 > 0:09:06a good deal of any spare time was spent keeping fit in Ancient Greece.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10And the Greeks were extremely competitive about it.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Today, at the Olympic Centre in Athens,
0:09:12 > 0:09:13there is still a legacy
0:09:13 > 0:09:17of one of the most brutal forms of Ancient Greek combat sport.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23The no-holds barred Pankration is still practised here.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Pankration was a sport in the ancient Olympics,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29but it was also used in battle.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32When the Greeks were disarmed, when they lost their weapons,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35they could still fight to the death using this sport.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Competition was at the core of the Greek psyche.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44The Greek word for "competition" is "agon" - our "agony".
0:09:46 > 0:09:48A Syrian writer named Lucian
0:09:48 > 0:09:52wrote a guide to Greece for foreigners in the second century AD,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55and he said that the Greek obsession with competition
0:09:55 > 0:09:57bordered on insanity.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01'Pankration still looks pretty dangerous today,
0:10:01 > 0:10:02'but I'm here to give it a try.'
0:10:04 > 0:10:07I understand Pankration as part of the ancient world.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09What does it mean to you?
0:10:09 > 0:10:11We are very proud to do this sport.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13We love it, we do it every day.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16So it's a part of our life.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19In the ancient world Pankration was thought of
0:10:19 > 0:10:22as the most difficult sport, the toughest,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24almost no rules whatsoever.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26Is it like that today?
0:10:26 > 0:10:28No, today we have rules.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31Would you show me some moves? You will be gentle?
0:10:31 > 0:10:35- Yes, of course. Don't be afraid.- OK.
0:10:35 > 0:10:36You can do this move.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50OK, yeah. It's impossible to move.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52You cannot move when you're down here.
0:10:52 > 0:10:53It's very difficult.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56'All the throws and moves in modern Pankration
0:10:56 > 0:10:58'come from the ancient sport.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02'It's an incredibly effective martial art.'
0:11:05 > 0:11:06Wow.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11- So you can throw someone of any weight?- Yes.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14It doesn't matter how heavy or tall they are?
0:11:14 > 0:11:17- No, it's about technique.- Amazing.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22'The fact that the Greeks developed and competed in sports
0:11:22 > 0:11:24'that doubled as battle tactics,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28'marked out the militaristic nature of their society.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30'Yet there were some in Ancient Greece
0:11:30 > 0:11:34'who took the idea of military training and combat to the extreme.'
0:11:36 > 0:11:39If you want to know how tough life could be in Ancient Greece,
0:11:39 > 0:11:44you have to look at Sparta - a place of wild mountains and deep forests.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49In Ancient Greece, nobody was tougher than the famous Spartans.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52We still use their name today in our word "spartan"
0:11:52 > 0:11:55meaning simple, austere, frugal.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59But Spartan society went a lot further than just austerity,
0:11:59 > 0:12:02it was a society where you had to survive in the wild
0:12:02 > 0:12:06and fight for life from the moment you were born.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Sparta was essentially a military society.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11Boys were taken away from their families aged six,
0:12:11 > 0:12:12and taught in packs.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14They were subjected to rigorous training
0:12:14 > 0:12:18to make them soldiers and also punished with things like whipping
0:12:18 > 0:12:20for even minor offences,
0:12:20 > 0:12:24and there they became used to the incredible intensity of observation
0:12:24 > 0:12:26that defined Spartan society.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28One source tells us that
0:12:28 > 0:12:32a Spartan's body was checked for physical perfection every ten days.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35The Spartans strove to be perfect warriors,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39they sought glory in battle and to instil fear in their enemies.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42They were a ruthless fighting force.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46Spartan warriors, when going into battle, wore a red cloak,
0:12:46 > 0:12:48much like this one.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52Now, you might think it's a bit luxurious for those hardy Spartans
0:12:52 > 0:12:55to have a nice red cloak but, the way they explained it was that,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58the red colour covered up the sight of their blood
0:12:58 > 0:13:01if they were bleeding on the battlefield.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06If you saw these, you knew you were facing Spartans.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09You knew you were facing soldiers trained within a society
0:13:09 > 0:13:14that was tuned to the highest pitch of competition, obedience
0:13:14 > 0:13:15and self-mastery.
0:13:17 > 0:13:18'Tough Spartan training
0:13:18 > 0:13:21'and the Spartan way of life is still admired today.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25'I've arranged to meet some modern-day Spartan re-enactors,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28'who have agreed not to beat me or check me for physical perfection,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32'but they have cooked up an ancient Spartan recipe for me to try.'
0:13:33 > 0:13:36So, Spiro, what are we making here?
0:13:36 > 0:13:39OK, this is the black broth.
0:13:39 > 0:13:45It's the typical food for the Spartan fighter.
0:13:45 > 0:13:51It is a food that is adapted to the military lifestyle of the time.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53Does that mean it doesn't taste very nice?
0:13:53 > 0:13:55It tastes horrible.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58The main reason because it's called black broth
0:13:58 > 0:14:04is that it has a lot of pig blood.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07OK, so what else?
0:14:07 > 0:14:13It has barley flour, it has salt, it has vinegar, it also has pork meat.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17OK, I've heard a story about this food
0:14:17 > 0:14:24that a man from Sybaris, a man from Sybaris in southern Italy,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27said that once he'd tried this
0:14:27 > 0:14:31he understood why Spartans were so willing to die on the battlefield.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33That is correct, that's correct.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36- Because it tasted so horrible. - Yes.- Right.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38THEY LAUGH
0:14:49 > 0:14:51I think I might be with Sybaris on this.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57You can taste the vinegar, that's really strong.
0:14:57 > 0:14:58And the thickness of the barley.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01But you can taste the blood as well.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03Yes, there is a small taste of blood.
0:15:03 > 0:15:09This is a, you can say, a tough food for tough men.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12It strengthens the mentality of those people
0:15:12 > 0:15:16and it makes them feel they were strong.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Spartans had to compete constantly, carry out orders,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25test themselves to the limits of their endurance.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29And it wasn't just the men, it was also the women.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32This is a replica of an ancient bronze statuette of a Spartan girl.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36And it sums up everything you need to know about the women of Sparta.
0:15:36 > 0:15:37The key detail is here.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39Look at her pulling up her skirt
0:15:39 > 0:15:42to reveal her thigh so that she can run faster.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44That's exactly what the ancient Athenians
0:15:44 > 0:15:47labelled Spartan women as - thigh-flashers.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51They talked about their intolerable, unrespectable behaviour,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54not least because Spartan women were out there as young girls,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57training, wrestling with one another in order to become as fit
0:15:57 > 0:16:00as they possibly could to be the perfect mother.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05But what the Spartans thought was a perfect mother,
0:16:05 > 0:16:08would not be a perfect mother to us today.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Spartan mothers had to be prepared to give up their babies
0:16:12 > 0:16:16for examination by the Spartan council of elders.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19And if the elders thought the child was imperfect,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21it would not be allowed to live.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26Here in Sparta, if a child was judged weak or unhealthy in any way,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29then its father was ordered to carry it to the slopes of Mount Taygetos
0:16:29 > 0:16:31and leave it to die
0:16:31 > 0:16:33because, as the ancient sources say,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37"The life which nature has not provided with health and strength
0:16:37 > 0:16:41"can be of no use to itself or to the state."
0:16:44 > 0:16:47This practice of infant exposure,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50leaving babies to die if they weren't considered strong enough,
0:16:50 > 0:16:53didn't just happen in Sparta either.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58It was allegedly practised all over Ancient Greece, even in Athens,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02the birthplace of our modern sense of democracy and freedom.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06It's estimated that the rate of female exposure was perhaps
0:17:06 > 0:17:08as high as 10% in Athens.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Baby girls were certainly abandoned more frequently than boys.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15Sons could grow up to become citizens,
0:17:15 > 0:17:16they could fight for their polis
0:17:16 > 0:17:19and did not need to be provided with a dowry.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21A comic writer of the third century BC wrote,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25"If you have a son you bring him up, even if you're poor,
0:17:25 > 0:17:29"but if you have a daughter, you abandon her, even if you're rich."
0:17:34 > 0:17:38It seems shocking that a culture that we so much admire
0:17:38 > 0:17:43practised what we would now call infanticide and eugenics.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46But in the Athenian agora, the ancient city centre,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49a startling discovery was made in the 1930s
0:17:49 > 0:17:53that helps us put these practices into context.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57An ancient well full of baby bones was uncovered.
0:17:59 > 0:18:00Today, archaeologists
0:18:00 > 0:18:03at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
0:18:03 > 0:18:06have analysed the entire contents of the well.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09'Osteologist, Dr Sherry Fox,
0:18:09 > 0:18:13'has agreed to share some of their findings with me.'
0:18:13 > 0:18:17How common is it to find a well full of bones in the ancient city?
0:18:17 > 0:18:22This is a unique burial in that we have only the remains of infants,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25for the most part, around 450.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28It dates to the second century BC,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32and from a fairly narrow window, we think around 15 years.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37What sense can we get of what killed these children?
0:18:37 > 0:18:42Well, prematurity for certain, I believe it's 15%.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47We have also some other defects that we're not so certain about
0:18:47 > 0:18:52and we found a number of cases of cleft palate.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55We also have infection
0:18:55 > 0:19:01and here we have an example of infection on the back of the head.
0:19:01 > 0:19:02This is the occipital bone.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05It's the same bone that I have here
0:19:05 > 0:19:09and oftentimes we will see pitting within this area.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14And what kind of infection creates this pitting on the skull?
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Well, one of the more common infections is meningitis,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20and it's a problem today.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24And was anything else found alongside the infants in the well?
0:19:24 > 0:19:31Absolutely. In addition to those infants, we have about 150 dogs.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36Yeah, those definitely aren't children's.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41Dog burials are often associated with human burials
0:19:41 > 0:19:43in many different cultures.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46They look green, and the reason for that is,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48in addition to the infants and the dogs,
0:19:48 > 0:19:54about 18 kilograms of bronze were recovered from the well.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57Right, so this is the staining of the dog bones from the bronze.
0:19:57 > 0:19:58It is.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00So, what are we dealing with here?
0:20:00 > 0:20:03Is it the family dog being thrown down the well
0:20:03 > 0:20:04after the child has died?
0:20:04 > 0:20:06It may be a sacrifice.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09It's possible that it could be a sacrifice.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13'In Ancient Greece, sacrifices were payments, almost bribes,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15'to accompany your prayers to the gods
0:20:15 > 0:20:17'if you wanted something to go well
0:20:17 > 0:20:19'or if you wanted to rid yourself of bad luck.'
0:20:21 > 0:20:25Socrates recorded that the people of Argos sacrificed female dogs
0:20:25 > 0:20:28to ensure successful childbirth.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Dogs were also sacrificed to Hecate, a goddess of the underworld,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36who was accompanied by the souls of those who had died prematurely.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40The dogs in the agora well may have been sacrificed
0:20:40 > 0:20:43to accompany the babies to the underworld.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45Or they might have been sacrifices
0:20:45 > 0:20:49simply to help rid the midwives and families of the bad luck
0:20:49 > 0:20:53associated with death and childbirth. We just don't know.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56This extraordinary archaeological discovery, for me,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58I think, focuses two absolutely crucial things.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01The first is that in trying to understand
0:21:01 > 0:21:03why you would throw dogs down a well after dead babies,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07it really brings home to us just how different a world Ancient Greece
0:21:07 > 0:21:11was to our own - how weird, alien and strange it should seem to us.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13But the second is this,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16those 450-odd babies were part of a bigger picture.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19We estimate that something like 25% of babies
0:21:19 > 0:21:22died in their first year in Ancient Greece.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25And in that context, it can seem an anathema that the Greeks
0:21:25 > 0:21:27would have wanted to add to that number
0:21:27 > 0:21:29with the intentional exposure,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32the intentional killing of more imperfect children.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35But I think the reality was very simple,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39this was a harsh world in which only the fittest could survive
0:21:39 > 0:21:42and anything or anyone else was a burden.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46The Greeks had to fight to survive from the day they were born.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54You needed all the help you could get to survive in Ancient Greece
0:21:54 > 0:21:58and that was why the Greeks constantly appealed to their gods,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02many of them still famous today, like Zeus, god of thunder,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05and Aphrodite, goddess of love.
0:22:07 > 0:22:08The Greeks believed that the gods
0:22:08 > 0:22:11were involved in every aspect of their lives.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13Land, sea, harvest, love, wine-making, weaving -
0:22:13 > 0:22:16you name it, and there was a Greek god behind it.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19The best way I've heard of describing it is like this,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23"The Greek gods spilled like clothes from an over-filled drawer
0:22:23 > 0:22:25"that no-one felt obliged to tidy."
0:22:25 > 0:22:27And yet, at the same time,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30those gods could be actively for you or against you
0:22:30 > 0:22:34and you had to do everything in your power to keep them on your side,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37to keep them well disposed towards you, to keep them happy.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40There wasn't even a word for religion in Ancient Greece.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Worshipping the gods was so much a part of life
0:22:43 > 0:22:46that it could not be considered separately.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48But here's the paradox,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52because alongside believing in a vast array of gods, the Greeks
0:22:52 > 0:22:57were also fundamentally interested in scientific thought and medicine.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01They were, in a way, rational and irrational all at the same time.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07I'm on my way to Epidaurus, across the sea from Athens,
0:23:07 > 0:23:09in the Peloponnese.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13Epidaurus was a medical sanctuary where the Greeks came to be healed,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17and it was a place where Greek religion and medicine
0:23:17 > 0:23:18were perfectly combined.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23There's no better symbol of the very curious,
0:23:23 > 0:23:28but ultimately very successful, interweaving, of what are to us,
0:23:28 > 0:23:32rational and irrational approaches to medicine, here at Epidaurus,
0:23:32 > 0:23:33than these things -
0:23:33 > 0:23:37these stelae that were put up right by the abaton.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40The top line of the inscription here tells us what they are.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44"Mata to Apollonos..."
0:23:44 > 0:23:48"The cures of the god Apollo and the god Asclepius."
0:23:48 > 0:23:51And what follows are success stories, testimonials,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53stelae of them.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56And on the one hand, some of them are absolutely fantastical.
0:23:56 > 0:24:01The very first one - "Cleo, who was pregnant for five years,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03"came here and gave birth."
0:24:03 > 0:24:05And it gets better because then, apparently,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08her son got up immediately and washed himself in the fountain.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10But on the other hand, some of them feel very real.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13A man who had an arrow in his lung,
0:24:13 > 0:24:19that had seeped 67 bowlfuls of pus before he got here, was cured.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23And even those who came here disbelieving in the god Apollo
0:24:23 > 0:24:25had their ailments cured.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33'Here at Epidaurus, I've arranged to meet Dr Stefanos Geroulanos,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37'a professor of surgery and a scholar of Ancient Greek medicine,
0:24:37 > 0:24:39'to find out exactly how this sanctuary,
0:24:39 > 0:24:43'with its gods and doctors, actually worked.'
0:24:43 > 0:24:44They were offering to the gods,
0:24:44 > 0:24:50they were bringing some presents to ask to be cured.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52And what sort of things would they offer?
0:24:52 > 0:24:53Mainly food.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57If there was something more important,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01they would bring an animal and eventually sacrifice.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05And this is the altar of Asclepius here, this is where they came to?
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Definitely, it is the main altar and it is here
0:25:08 > 0:25:12where they would offer what they had brought from home.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15What would happen in the days after they had arrived
0:25:15 > 0:25:17and made their initial sacrifices?
0:25:17 > 0:25:20The physicians would take the history,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24they would examine the patient and come to a diagnosis.
0:25:24 > 0:25:31Then they would ask the patient that he has to sleep in the abaton.
0:25:31 > 0:25:36In the night, the god would come with all his followers
0:25:36 > 0:25:40and tell to the patient what he had to do to be cured.
0:25:40 > 0:25:41It seems a little like
0:25:41 > 0:25:45we've stepped over here from medicine into hallucination.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49Do you think there were some kind of tricks that these people,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51when they came to sleep in the abaton,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54encouraged them to have these sorts of dreams?
0:25:54 > 0:25:55Definitely.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59They were giving them drinks, not with hallucination drugs,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02but definitely to make them sleep.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05The second thing that was extremely important, I think,
0:26:05 > 0:26:10is that if the treatment, the first treatment, wouldn't work,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12so what should we do?
0:26:12 > 0:26:17God could not make a mistake. You didn't hear very well.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21Go sleep again and then they could give the second treatment.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25'It wasn't simply faith healing in the sanctuary at Epidaurus.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27'Ancient Greek physicians administered cures
0:26:27 > 0:26:30'and even performed operations here.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35'And in his own private collection now on exhibition, Dr Geroulanos
0:26:35 > 0:26:39'has examples of the tools which the ancient surgeons used.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41'I'm about to see an Ancient Greek medical kit.'
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Stefanos, tell me about this array
0:26:46 > 0:26:49of rather nasty-looking pieces of equipment here?
0:26:49 > 0:26:53Let's start from the top, there are some knives and scalpels.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56This one is to open up a small vein
0:26:56 > 0:26:59to have blood letting out
0:26:59 > 0:27:04and it was the only way to put your blood pressure down.
0:27:04 > 0:27:09That one looks a little bit more than a small vein opener?
0:27:09 > 0:27:14It is there for a small amputation, it was very suitable.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17There's an incredible variety, of specialisation, of tool here.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19Absolutely. Absolutely.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23How would you judge this in terms of the sophistication
0:27:23 > 0:27:27of the ancient surgery kit compared to the modern?
0:27:27 > 0:27:32For example, the curettes are exactly the same today as they were before.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37The same is this spoon sort of a curette, exactly the same.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42The hooks, and especially the sharp ones, are identical.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46Really, obviously, we've advanced in terms of knowledge and technology,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50but the bones of the kit are here.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52It is like all tools.
0:27:52 > 0:27:58When the tools reach a certain standard, they stay for ever.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00I mean, think of the hammer.
0:28:00 > 0:28:01And what are these?
0:28:01 > 0:28:04These are cupping glasses.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07I was going to say, I've never heard of a cupping glass,
0:28:07 > 0:28:08I don't know what a cupping glass is.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10You are too young.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14I had them when I was a young boy, I had them on my back
0:28:14 > 0:28:15when I had a flu.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20It was one of the best therapies at the time
0:28:20 > 0:28:26because it makes your immune response better.
0:28:26 > 0:28:31You put some fire in, up to the end that the fire disappears,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34so it has taken all the oxygen away.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37And then you put it on the skin.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Now, having a vacuum, the skin goes up
0:28:42 > 0:28:44and creates under the skin...
0:28:46 > 0:28:47..a dome.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52The effect is that the body needs much more white blood cells
0:28:52 > 0:28:56and it creates more, that they are not going only there,
0:28:56 > 0:28:58but they go to your pri-monia,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01or to another place where there is an infection.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05So this is a device which sort of encourages the body
0:29:05 > 0:29:08to go into overdrive and to get the immune system in overdrive.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Exactly, and they were used up to the 1960s.
0:29:14 > 0:29:16'After their treatment in medical sanctuaries,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19'the Greeks would also leave replicas
0:29:19 > 0:29:20'of whatever parts of their body
0:29:20 > 0:29:23'had been cured as offerings to the gods.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26'And it would seem from the objects found that then, just as now,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30'there was a fair degree of concern about a whole range of body parts.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34'It might seem strange to make a public display
0:29:34 > 0:29:37'of a part of your anatomy that had been afflicted.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40'But the healing sanctuaries weren't the only places in Ancient Greece
0:29:40 > 0:29:43'where your body could be seen.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45'In the gym, nobody had a stitch on.'
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Now our word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek word "gymnos"
0:29:49 > 0:29:51which effectively means "naked".
0:29:51 > 0:29:52So, in a sense,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55to get the proper understanding of the word "gymnasium"
0:29:55 > 0:29:57we should really be saying "nuditorium".
0:29:57 > 0:29:58And that's the crucial point.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01Here, in these spaces, Greek men were naked,
0:30:01 > 0:30:03wrestling, exercising with one another.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06And it will come as no surprise, that in such spaces,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09given such nudity, given such close physical contact,
0:30:09 > 0:30:13gymnasia were centres of sexual attraction in Ancient Greece.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16And they were part of a much wider sexual landscape
0:30:16 > 0:30:18which was very different to our own.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22Looking around the Athens tourist market today,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25it would seem that from the replicas on sale,
0:30:25 > 0:30:29sex was the only thing on Ancient Greek minds.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33And a lot of what they thought about sex seems to us very strange indeed.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36The Greeks believed that sex was good for women
0:30:36 > 0:30:38because it kept their wombs from drying out
0:30:38 > 0:30:40and wandering around the body.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42And, of course, from a male perspective,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45it also supposedly kept them under better control.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48So, according to the laws of Athens, Athenian men were supposed
0:30:48 > 0:30:50to have sex with their wives at least three times a month.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52And from the male perspective, though,
0:30:52 > 0:30:54there were also lots of other options.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57They could go with a high-class geisha girl prostitute
0:30:57 > 0:30:58called a "hetaerae",
0:30:58 > 0:31:01they could have a live-in lover-mistress, a "palleacae",
0:31:01 > 0:31:05or they could go to a brothel for a street prostitute, a "pornai".
0:31:05 > 0:31:06Anal sex with their wives was repugnant
0:31:06 > 0:31:09but with any of the other three, absolutely fine.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11It really was an unfair state of affairs
0:31:11 > 0:31:15because, for women, adultery was a much worse crime than rape.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19In addition to having carnal relations
0:31:19 > 0:31:22with their wives or prostitutes, in Ancient Greece,
0:31:22 > 0:31:26it was also expected that young men would court adolescent boys.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29The beauty of youth was celebrated and much sought-after,
0:31:29 > 0:31:33and pederastic relationships were seen as very much the norm.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Girls were married off when they were 13 or 14,
0:31:36 > 0:31:37at the same stage,
0:31:37 > 0:31:41boys would attract the attention of older male lovers.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44Something that today would be labelled as pederasty,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48or even perhaps paedophilia, was considered by the Ancient Greeks
0:31:48 > 0:31:52an exalted and important form of love.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55The relationship between the "erastes", the older man,
0:31:55 > 0:32:00and the "eromenos", the younger boy, was governed by strict rules.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03The older man had to be in his 20s but not yet married,
0:32:03 > 0:32:07and his role was to protect, to love, to educate the younger boy.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09And he had to win his affection.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12He had to sleep on his doorstep, he had to shower him with gifts
0:32:12 > 0:32:15and the younger boy had to agree to the match.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Although it was said that many fathers were furious
0:32:19 > 0:32:22when they heard that their sons had male admirers,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25fathers would also wish for their sons to be beautiful
0:32:25 > 0:32:27so as to attract the best lover.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31These relationships were almost a final stage of a boy's education,
0:32:31 > 0:32:34an exchange of wisdom and youth.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38The images on Greek vases offer us sometimes a suggestive
0:32:38 > 0:32:40and sometimes a fairly graphic picture
0:32:40 > 0:32:43of the erastes/eromenos relationship.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48So, this one here shows an older man, a suitor, offering a cockerel,
0:32:48 > 0:32:51a gift, towards the youth, the potential eromenos.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53And just in case there's any doubt
0:32:53 > 0:32:54about how to interpret this image,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57the inscription around the edge reads
0:32:57 > 0:33:00"hoptite kalos" - "the beautiful boy".
0:33:00 > 0:33:03But this one over here, on the other hand,
0:33:03 > 0:33:05is a little bit more vivid an image, perhaps,
0:33:05 > 0:33:09of the erastes/eromenos relationship later on in the evening.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11Here, both are naked
0:33:11 > 0:33:15and the youth stretches out with his arm to cradle the older man's head.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17The older man, clearly excited,
0:33:17 > 0:33:21reaches out with his own hand towards the youth's genitalia.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25The images give us a picture of everything
0:33:25 > 0:33:27the erastes/eromenos image could be -
0:33:27 > 0:33:31affection, love and lust.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35Older man/younger boy relationships were celebrated in Ancient Greece.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39There were even famous eromenos and erastes couples.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42These relationships weren't hidden in the backstreets,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45they were front and centre in Greek society.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49There were also strict rules
0:33:49 > 0:33:52about when the erastes/eromenos relationship should be over.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57In an ideal world, the man should be married by the time he was 35,
0:33:57 > 0:33:58otherwise he faced a fine.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01And the young boy's days as an eromenos were said to be over
0:34:01 > 0:34:05when he had "hair on thigh and down on cheek".
0:34:05 > 0:34:07And if the relationship carried on,
0:34:07 > 0:34:09well, the younger boy was subject to shame
0:34:09 > 0:34:11and the older man to ridicule.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15So we shouldn't think about sexual orientation as something
0:34:15 > 0:34:17that was set for life in Ancient Greece,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21much rather, it was that there were different sexual relationships
0:34:21 > 0:34:23appropriate at different ages.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28The admiration of youth, the cult of admiring the physique
0:34:28 > 0:34:32and promise of adolescent boys on the brink of manhood
0:34:32 > 0:34:34was a huge part of Ancient Greek culture.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39'Professor Olga Palagia, of Athens University,
0:34:39 > 0:34:41'is an expert in classical sculpture,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44'and has studied the hundreds of statues of perfect young males
0:34:44 > 0:34:46'known as kouros figures.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49'And Olga believes that these statues give us a real sense
0:34:49 > 0:34:53'of how the Greeks thought about young men and young women.'
0:34:53 > 0:34:55So, Olga, where are you taking me?
0:34:55 > 0:34:58I'm taking you to the statue of the kouros
0:34:58 > 0:35:02that was standing on his grave in Attica outside of Athens,
0:35:02 > 0:35:07probably with his sister, who is the next statue over there.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10And what strikes you immediately
0:35:10 > 0:35:13about so many of the statues from Ancient Greece,
0:35:13 > 0:35:15the male statues, is the nudity, isn't it?
0:35:15 > 0:35:17What did the nudity say?
0:35:17 > 0:35:22What would a viewer have thought when they saw this kind of statue?
0:35:22 > 0:35:23I think, first, they would think
0:35:23 > 0:35:26that this is an aristocratic young man
0:35:26 > 0:35:29because he had the leisure to exercise.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32We know that the sons of good families
0:35:32 > 0:35:36could go to the gym every day and exercise
0:35:36 > 0:35:42and they were really obsessed with athletics and exercise,
0:35:42 > 0:35:43very much like we are.
0:35:43 > 0:35:48When we see nudity today, we think sexuality, we think lust,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52we think attraction. Is there that element to it as well?
0:35:52 > 0:35:55Yes. If we're men, we're supposed to be attracted,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59because in ancient Athens, older men would be attracted by young boys.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04Because they wouldn't have a chance to look at young girls.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Young girls were confined at home.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08And in statues, they are very different, aren't they?
0:36:08 > 0:36:12They are, of course, always dressed, heavily dressed.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16There was a lot of emphasis on virginity
0:36:16 > 0:36:19because young women were going to get married
0:36:19 > 0:36:23and have the heir to the family, so they weren't supposed to see anyone.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26And the difference is key, you can't see, really, any features
0:36:26 > 0:36:30of her body underneath at all, compared to our gentleman over here.
0:36:30 > 0:36:31That's right.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34If you had that perfect physical body,
0:36:34 > 0:36:36what did it say about your character?
0:36:36 > 0:36:38It had no implications at all.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42So it really is body beautiful and it doesn't matter
0:36:42 > 0:36:44what their brain is like or what their character is like
0:36:44 > 0:36:48or what their soul is like, but it is the body above all.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Well, the brain was a challenge for the mature lover
0:36:51 > 0:36:55who would like to teach the young boy various things,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58so he would be very happy to take him on
0:36:58 > 0:37:00and teach him all sorts of things...
0:37:02 > 0:37:04..and, you know, develop his mind.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11Ancient Greece was awash with images,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14many of them sculptures of people with perfect physiques.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17Indeed, more often than not, uber-perfect physiques.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20And that cacophony of perfection set the bar high
0:37:20 > 0:37:25when it came to expectations of what people looked like in real life.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28And more than that it fed into a wider set of expectations
0:37:28 > 0:37:31about how what you looked like said something about who you were
0:37:31 > 0:37:35and how who you spent time with said something about who you were.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37Plutarch put it like this -
0:37:37 > 0:37:42"If you live with a lame man, you'll start to limp."
0:37:42 > 0:37:46So, the ideal in Ancient Greece was to look good,
0:37:46 > 0:37:50spend your time with good-looking people, avoiding the ugly
0:37:50 > 0:37:54and anyone who didn't match up to the ideal.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59The Ancient Greeks enjoyed spending a great deal of their time
0:37:59 > 0:38:02drinking, discussing and carousing with good-looking people
0:38:02 > 0:38:04and those with great minds.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09And much of this appreciation of the good-looking and good-minded,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12fuelled by good wine, took place in "symposia",
0:38:12 > 0:38:16which were drinking parties held behind closed doors.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21But even these Ancient Greek parties were not what you might think,
0:38:21 > 0:38:22they weren't relaxed events,
0:38:22 > 0:38:26rather they were a series of tests on how to conduct yourself.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32The male guests at the symposium were asked to recline on benches,
0:38:32 > 0:38:34to take up positions something like this.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37And to assume this position was to prove yourself
0:38:37 > 0:38:39a fully-fledged member of Greek society.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43Youngsters, for instance, weren't allowed to recline, they had to sit.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47But even when you'd obtained this privileged position and place,
0:38:47 > 0:38:49that was only the beginning because the symposium
0:38:49 > 0:38:53was a continual series of tests on how to behave -
0:38:53 > 0:38:55one of which was how to drink your wine.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59Now this is a kylix, an Ancient Greek drinking cup,
0:38:59 > 0:39:02and it's a lot harder to drink out of than you might first imagine,
0:39:02 > 0:39:05not least because of the wide brim
0:39:05 > 0:39:06and the shallow nature of the vessel,
0:39:06 > 0:39:10but also because I'm reclining so I can only drink with one hand.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12As you tip it towards you, the wine comes forward
0:39:12 > 0:39:15and makes the whole thing very unbalanced.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17It's easy for a novice, particularly like me,
0:39:17 > 0:39:19to make a complete mess of it.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25A bit of an epic fail on my part.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30But what this shows is what the symposium did in the Greek world.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32It proved who was in and who was out,
0:39:32 > 0:39:34but then proved whether or not
0:39:34 > 0:39:36you knew how to behave within Greek society.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40It wasn't, like down the pub today, how many pints can you drink?
0:39:40 > 0:39:42It was do you know how to drink?
0:39:43 > 0:39:45And that's why I think that,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48on so many of the vessels that were used in the symposium,
0:39:48 > 0:39:53you see this, you see an eye, a reminder to all the guests
0:39:53 > 0:39:55that society was looking right back at them.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04There's an impression that symposia were wild orgies with drinking,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08high-class prostitutes, dancing girls and flautists,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12young men and older men enjoying the pleasure of close contact,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14reclining two to a couch,
0:40:14 > 0:40:16everyone getting drunk.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20Well, maybe that's a taste of what happened when they got out of hand,
0:40:20 > 0:40:25but symposia were also governed by exact social etiquette.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27There was a master of ceremonies
0:40:27 > 0:40:30who decided how strong the wine for the evening would be
0:40:30 > 0:40:33and oversaw what happened when.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36There were cleansing rituals and libations to the gods,
0:40:36 > 0:40:37which had to take place.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41Wine was mixed with water in great jars known as kraters.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45Everything would start off in a very civilised manner.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48Now, of course, some symposia went much further than that
0:40:48 > 0:40:51and the playwright Eubulus tells us about what each krater,
0:40:51 > 0:40:53each bowl of mixed wine,
0:40:53 > 0:40:56means, when drunk, for how the evening will continue.
0:40:56 > 0:40:57He puts it like this,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01"For sensible men, I prepare only three kraters -
0:41:01 > 0:41:03"one for health, the second for love and pleasure,
0:41:03 > 0:41:04"and the third for sleep.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07"And after that the sensible man goes home.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11"But if you stay, well, the fourth krater belongs to hubris,
0:41:11 > 0:41:16"the fifth is for shouting, the sixth is for rudeness and insults,
0:41:16 > 0:41:18"the seventh is for fighting,
0:41:18 > 0:41:20"the eighth is for breaking the furniture,
0:41:20 > 0:41:22"the ninth is for depression,
0:41:22 > 0:41:26"and the tenth, well, that's for madness and unconsciousness."
0:41:27 > 0:41:30It does sound to me exactly how a ten-pint evening might pan out.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36The symposium was not just about drinking and having a good time,
0:41:36 > 0:41:38it was really supposed to be a place
0:41:38 > 0:41:41for intellectual discussion and debate.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44And as for what was discussed before the shouting, rudeness
0:41:44 > 0:41:46and unconsciousness ensued,
0:41:46 > 0:41:49the philosopher Plato wrote a whole philosophical discourse
0:41:49 > 0:41:53about one famous symposium party that took place one night in Athens.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57In Plato's Symposium, all the guests are invited
0:41:57 > 0:42:00to debate and discuss about the nature of love.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04That is until Socrates' on-off lover, Alcibiades,
0:42:04 > 0:42:07turns up half drunk to ruin the party.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10But in that story of a symposium gone wrong,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14Plato underlines what a symposium should be about -
0:42:14 > 0:42:18debate, discussion, investigation, argument,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22all the hallmarks of what made the Greek psyche so unique
0:42:22 > 0:42:24are on display in the symposium.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28It wasn't mindless drinking, then, in Ancient Greece,
0:42:28 > 0:42:30quite the opposite.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33Wine was crucial to the symposium because it facilitated
0:42:33 > 0:42:36exactly what the event was intended for - talking.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52It was expected that you had to lead a public life in Ancient Greece
0:42:52 > 0:42:56just as you had to display your body in the gymnasium,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59you had to display your mind in the symposium.
0:42:59 > 0:43:05In Greek, the word for a "private person" is "idiotes" - our "idiot".
0:43:05 > 0:43:08Opting out of society was really not an option.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11The Ancient Greeks were very different to us today.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14They lived in a world of exorbitantly high expectations
0:43:14 > 0:43:17in almost every aspect of their lives.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19And they had to debate and discuss and argue
0:43:19 > 0:43:21and to do it all publicly
0:43:21 > 0:43:25without any real value attached to a private life.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29They weren't slaves to conformity but they were driven
0:43:29 > 0:43:34by an internal anxiety and need to meet those expectations
0:43:34 > 0:43:37and to prove themselves publicly - a good sportsman,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40a good soldier, a good citizen, a good Greek.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46All these pressures to prove oneself worthy,
0:43:46 > 0:43:48were part of what the Athenians felt they were protecting
0:43:48 > 0:43:51more than anything else on the battlefield at Marathon -
0:43:51 > 0:43:53their democracy,
0:43:53 > 0:43:57the biggest talking shop and opt-in system of them all.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00This rather unprepossessing place
0:44:00 > 0:44:02on one of the hills above central Athens
0:44:02 > 0:44:05is, in fact, the beating heart of the ancient Athenian democracy.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07This is the assembly.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10Now, today we are used to electing representatives
0:44:10 > 0:44:12who will meet to take decisions on our behalf.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15But in ancient Athens, it was very different.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19Every single citizen had the right to come here to the assembly
0:44:19 > 0:44:21to listen to the debates about all sorts of issues
0:44:21 > 0:44:24from what to do with the financial surplus
0:44:24 > 0:44:25to whether or not to go to war.
0:44:25 > 0:44:306,000 or so people and every one of them had the right to step up there,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33to the speakers' platform, and to make their opinion known.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37And then a vote was taken, probably just with a show of hands.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40The direct nature of the democracy in ancient Athens
0:44:40 > 0:44:42is unlike anything we know today.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46Life could be brutish and short here in Athens,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49but if you did survive childhood and adolescence,
0:44:49 > 0:44:51you would, at some point,
0:44:51 > 0:44:53be directly involved in governing your city.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57It was also a hands-on world.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00In the law courts, there were no lawyers
0:45:00 > 0:45:02and no Criminal Prosecution Service.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05If you wanted to try a case, you had to bring it
0:45:05 > 0:45:06and you had to speak to the jury.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10But it was not all fair and ideal.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12There were still dirty politics.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15These pieces of pottery are called "ostraca"
0:45:15 > 0:45:17and they've given us our word "ostracism" today
0:45:17 > 0:45:21because they were used in a particularly important vote
0:45:21 > 0:45:22in ancient Athens.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25The way it worked was this, you took your piece of pottery
0:45:25 > 0:45:26like our replica here,
0:45:26 > 0:45:28and you wrote on it the name of an Athenian
0:45:28 > 0:45:31who you wanted to expel from the city
0:45:31 > 0:45:33for a period of up to ten years,
0:45:33 > 0:45:35a person you wanted to ostracise.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39Now, all of these pieces here, like our replica,
0:45:39 > 0:45:42have the same name on it and it's Themistocles.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45Themistocles was an incredibly important politician in Athens
0:45:45 > 0:45:47in the years after the battle of Marathon.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51But it seems like he might have got a bit too big for his boots
0:45:51 > 0:45:56because these pieces are part of a larger collection of 190 ostraca
0:45:56 > 0:45:57all with his name on it.
0:45:59 > 0:46:00But here's the rub -
0:46:00 > 0:46:03because when these pieces were analysed by archaeologists
0:46:03 > 0:46:09it was discovered that all 190 were written by just 14 different people.
0:46:09 > 0:46:10And that can be for one of two reasons.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13Firstly, that there were some enterprising people
0:46:13 > 0:46:16pre-writing these to sell them to citizens
0:46:16 > 0:46:19who perhaps couldn't write so well for themselves
0:46:19 > 0:46:23or else, that there was some pretty extensive vote-rigging going on.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33Democracy in Athens meant complete citizen participation.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37If you were a man and a citizen, you were part of the process.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40But along with all these participatory politics
0:46:40 > 0:46:43came something we probably wouldn't want to thank the Greeks for -
0:46:43 > 0:46:45bureaucracy.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49The Athenians, it seems, were in love with it, and the city was awash
0:46:49 > 0:46:53with countless inscriptions holding anyone and everyone accountable.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57Here at the Epigraphic Museum in Athens,
0:46:57 > 0:47:00many of these inscriptions can be found on display.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03The Athenians published in profusion
0:47:03 > 0:47:06every aspect of the workings of their democracy.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10We have laws, decrees, honours, contracts,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13registers, scrutiny lists, calendars, the list goes on.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17What we get is a sense of the incredible accountability
0:47:17 > 0:47:21and transparency that defined the ancient Athenian democracy.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24And this stelae symbolises that above all it's,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26as the first line tells us,
0:47:26 > 0:47:28"a summ grafai", a set of building specs
0:47:28 > 0:47:32for what is effectively a bit of a storeroom down in the Piraeus,
0:47:32 > 0:47:34the ancient port of Athens.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36And what follows is an incredibly detailed description
0:47:36 > 0:47:38of what the building should look like.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41This tells us, not just the general outline of the building,
0:47:41 > 0:47:42but where the windows should be,
0:47:42 > 0:47:44how deep the foundations should be, every detail.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48But the best bit is the final clause because this is the penalty clause
0:47:48 > 0:47:50and it tells us that the building contractors
0:47:50 > 0:47:55must finish everything they promised "en teus cronos" -
0:47:55 > 0:47:57"in the specified time".
0:47:57 > 0:47:59So builders back then, just like builders now,
0:47:59 > 0:48:03had to be pushed to finish the job on time.
0:48:03 > 0:48:04Some things never change!
0:48:07 > 0:48:11But how did the Greeks afford all their monumental building,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15their drinking parties, sculpture, art and architecture?
0:48:15 > 0:48:18Citizens would not work for free, there were rates of pay
0:48:18 > 0:48:20and civic duties to attend to.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24The uncomfortable truth is that Ancient Greece
0:48:24 > 0:48:27was a civilisation built on the backs of slaves.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33Slavery was a fact of life in Ancient Greece.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36Slaves were captured in war or bought from overseas.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40One census states that in fourth century BC Athens,
0:48:40 > 0:48:43there were 400,000 slaves
0:48:43 > 0:48:47to a citizen population of around just 35,000.
0:48:49 > 0:48:50Not all Greeks were free,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53but even those that were knew what slavery meant.
0:48:53 > 0:48:55And the prospect of becoming a slave,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58or of your wife and children being forced into slavery,
0:48:58 > 0:49:00would have terrified them,
0:49:00 > 0:49:04mainly because Greece and even the fabled democracy of ancient Athens
0:49:04 > 0:49:06ran on slave labour.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12Ancient Athens ran on slaves and silver.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15At Laurion, just 40 miles southeast of Athens,
0:49:15 > 0:49:19were the silver mines which provided Athens with much of its wealth.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22And they were mines worked by thousands of slaves.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28Off the beaten track today, you can still find the galleries
0:49:28 > 0:49:30and tunnels of these ancient silver mines.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34This is not a place you often get the chance to explore.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37The silver from the mines here at Laurion
0:49:37 > 0:49:40in part went to making Athens' famous coinage,
0:49:40 > 0:49:41the Attic silver owl.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44Each one of these is worth about four days' wage
0:49:44 > 0:49:46for a skilled worker in ancient Athens.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49And the slaves that worked here came from, amongst other places,
0:49:49 > 0:49:51Thrace and Paphlagonia.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54That's modern day Northern Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58And in these dark and cramped conditions,
0:49:58 > 0:50:01they must have felt a long, long way from home.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06Oil lamps, like this replica here, have been found in the mines.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08And from the amount of oil that they contained,
0:50:08 > 0:50:10we can estimate that a shift
0:50:10 > 0:50:13might have lasted something like ten hours.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16That's a long time to be down these tunnels
0:50:16 > 0:50:18with just this kind of light.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21Of all the types of slave you could be in Ancient Greece,
0:50:21 > 0:50:25being a silver mine slave was considered to be the worst.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29Plato talked about these places as being, in Greek, "vari"
0:50:29 > 0:50:32which means "dark, heavy, depressing".
0:50:33 > 0:50:35And I can see what he meant.
0:50:37 > 0:50:43Unsurprisingly, the life expectancy of a Laurion slave was short.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46But what is surprising in Ancient Greece
0:50:46 > 0:50:48is that not all slaves were treated badly.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51Many led quite comfortable lives.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54Slaves could be well cared for by their masters,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56they could be well educated
0:50:56 > 0:50:58and some had important administrative positions
0:50:58 > 0:50:59in Greek cities.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03Indeed, Plutarch tells us that he would rather be a slave in Athens
0:51:03 > 0:51:06than the king of some poxy little island.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09And other sources talk about the way that in Athens
0:51:09 > 0:51:12you couldn't tell between a slave and a non-slave
0:51:12 > 0:51:15because everyone wore the same clothes.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17House slaves served as cooks,
0:51:17 > 0:51:20cleaners, porters, tutors as "pedagogues",
0:51:20 > 0:51:22escorting their master's sons to school,
0:51:22 > 0:51:26watching over them to make sure they completed their lessons.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29Slaves were messengers, nurses and companions.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33Some were even buried alongside their masters and mistresses
0:51:33 > 0:51:36in the family burial plot at the end of their lives.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40Let's not get too carried away, though, with this idea
0:51:40 > 0:51:42of a cosy slave-master relationship.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46Slaves were essentially seen as subhuman.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49Slave testimony in Ancient Greek courts, for example,
0:51:49 > 0:51:53was only allowed if it had been extracted under torture
0:51:53 > 0:51:56because slaves were seen as natural liars.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58Starvation and flogging were common punishments.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01And, of course, if your master wanted sex,
0:52:01 > 0:52:03you had no business refusing.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10As offensive as it is to our modern concepts of liberty,
0:52:10 > 0:52:13slavery didn't really bother the Ancient Greeks.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Slaves could be seen as the working class,
0:52:16 > 0:52:18the people who kept the cogs turning.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23But there were ways to work your way out of slavery in Ancient Greece.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27You could be granted your freedom. You could even make a lot of money.
0:52:27 > 0:52:28There was one slave
0:52:28 > 0:52:32who actually became one of the richest men in Greece.
0:52:32 > 0:52:37His name was Pasion and he had the ultimate rags-to-riches story.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42'To learn more about Pasion, I've come to the ancient port of Athens,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46'the Piraeus, where Pasion first worked as a slave.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51'And I'm hoping Dr Paul Millett, an expert on Ancient Greek slavery,
0:52:51 > 0:52:55'can tell me more about Pasion's extraordinary story.'
0:52:55 > 0:52:57So, Paul, tell me about this character, Pasion.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59What do we know about him?
0:52:59 > 0:53:01So he was born, we think, some time around 430
0:53:01 > 0:53:05and he came to Athens as an outsider, a non-Greek,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09and almost certainly also would have been landed here at the Piraeus
0:53:09 > 0:53:11before being taken to the slave market,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14and we think being bought by a couple of Athenian bankers.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17What happened next in Pasion's story?
0:53:17 > 0:53:20He was a great success as their assistant, one presumes,
0:53:20 > 0:53:23because they gave him his freedom
0:53:23 > 0:53:28and he continued to manage the bank.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31And somehow, we don't know quite how it came about,
0:53:31 > 0:53:33he ended up owning this bank.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36The idea that you could rise up from being a slave to be freed,
0:53:36 > 0:53:39that was fairly typical in Ancient Greece?
0:53:39 > 0:53:41Well, my view is absolutely not.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45I see this career path as being one pursued
0:53:45 > 0:53:48by a tiny minority of slaves.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51So Pasion, I see, as being very much the exception.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54Once he becomes free, what happens next?
0:53:54 > 0:53:57I mean, does he continue to work in the same business?
0:53:57 > 0:54:02He became a successful, what we might say, businessman in his own right,
0:54:02 > 0:54:04with other interests apart from banking
0:54:04 > 0:54:09and was able to be sufficiently generous to the Athenian state.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12One donation, we know about, was in the shield factory.
0:54:12 > 0:54:13He gave a thousand shields.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18He provided a number of "triremes", "warships" for the Athenian navy,
0:54:18 > 0:54:20a very expensive thing to do,
0:54:20 > 0:54:24and was, in the end, rewarded with citizenship,
0:54:24 > 0:54:28which is very, very rare indeed for a slave.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32And can we get any sense of just how rich Pasion was
0:54:32 > 0:54:35as an individual by the time he died?
0:54:35 > 0:54:38Well, we think he may have been the wealthiest man in Athens.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43'Many slaves would have dreamed of gaining their freedom
0:54:43 > 0:54:47'and becoming a citizen, having a say in the Athenian democracy
0:54:47 > 0:54:49'which Pasion became a part of.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53'But the equality that was the hallmark of democracy in Athens
0:54:53 > 0:54:56'also demanded crushing conformity.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59'Every citizen was supposed to have a modest house,
0:54:59 > 0:55:02'obey the rules and even wear the same clothes.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04'But as always with the Greeks,
0:55:04 > 0:55:08'things weren't quite as straightforward as they may seem,
0:55:08 > 0:55:12'not even when it came to your funeral.'
0:55:12 > 0:55:15The Athenians tried to enforce equality amongst their citizens
0:55:15 > 0:55:17even in death.
0:55:17 > 0:55:18So there were rules about
0:55:18 > 0:55:20the maximum size of funerary mat you could have,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23the number of garments that could be put in your grave,
0:55:23 > 0:55:25the extent of your funeral procession,
0:55:25 > 0:55:28and even in relation to the size of your grave monument.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31The idea was that no-one should stand out
0:55:31 > 0:55:34as being more worthy than anyone else.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38But, of course, this didn't work.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42The Ancient Greeks, as ever, found a way around the rules.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45These are some of the gravestones from Athens' Cemetery
0:55:45 > 0:55:48and while they are all fairly similar in type,
0:55:48 > 0:55:52you can immediately see there are vast differences in size,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55in the quality of the sculpture and, of course, as a result in the cost.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57So what I think this room shows is
0:55:57 > 0:55:59that despite all the laws that Athens put in place
0:55:59 > 0:56:02to try and ensure that everyone looked equal,
0:56:02 > 0:56:04actually the desire for individualisation,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07the desire to be different, to demonstrate your wealth,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10your birth, the desire to be remembered,
0:56:10 > 0:56:12just kept breaking through.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14And this is one of my favourites.
0:56:14 > 0:56:15This is Hergesso.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19Hergesso, the daughter of Proximos.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23She's beautifully carved and out of her jewellery box,
0:56:23 > 0:56:25she's picking her favourite piece of jewellery
0:56:25 > 0:56:27that would have been put in in paint or precious metal.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33There's no way, when walking past this in Athens Cemetery,
0:56:33 > 0:56:37that you would have thought Hergesso was the equal of everyone else.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41She was, and she would be remembered as being, quite rightly,
0:56:41 > 0:56:42something special.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50The Ancient Greeks were full of contradictions.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53They lived in an incredibly tough environment
0:56:53 > 0:56:56but they created magnificent art and architecture.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03They invented democracy but their world ran on slave labour.
0:57:03 > 0:57:05They had philosophy and logic
0:57:05 > 0:57:08but they would bend over backwards to please the gods.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12It was a society that can seem like a vicious free-for-all,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15but actually followed strict, if slightly odd, rules.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19And it was that explosive mix
0:57:19 > 0:57:24that propelled the Greeks to extraordinary creations, discoveries
0:57:24 > 0:57:27and achievements in almost every aspect of human society,
0:57:27 > 0:57:31including victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36Ancient Greece is probably not a place that any of us today
0:57:36 > 0:57:39would want to find ourselves in.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41But it is also a place, I would argue,
0:57:41 > 0:57:43that we would never want to be without.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49Next week, I'll be exploring the great legacies
0:57:49 > 0:57:54of the Ancient Greeks and asking, "Why are they so enduring?"
0:57:54 > 0:57:55I'll travel across the Greek world
0:57:55 > 0:58:00to reveal the extent of their creative and scientific genius
0:58:00 > 0:58:02and I'll uncover the strange realities
0:58:02 > 0:58:05of the Olympic Games and ancient theatre...
0:58:05 > 0:58:08You've got a golden heterae or prostitute,
0:58:08 > 0:58:11so she turns out to have a heart of gold.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15..and I'll find out how modern science is enlivening our quest
0:58:15 > 0:58:17- to discover who were the Greeks? - How amazing.
0:58:45 > 0:58:47Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd