0:00:10 > 0:00:14This great icon standing heroically on the Acropolis,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17alone against the sky, dominates the city of Athens today
0:00:17 > 0:00:21just as it did when it was first built over 2,000 years ago.
0:00:23 > 0:00:28This is the Parthenon and today, it is the symbol of ancient Greece.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31It stands for everything that that world has given us -
0:00:31 > 0:00:35democracy, philosophy, literature, art, architecture,
0:00:35 > 0:00:37science and sport.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40It is a beacon of culture and civilisation.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46I'm Dr Michael Scott and in this series I've been finding out
0:00:46 > 0:00:50more about the people who created this extraordinary monument.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53In the last episode, I explored how the ancient Greeks lived.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57I looked at their life cycle, city life, beliefs and strange
0:00:57 > 0:01:02mindsets and I discovered a world of gods, myths, democrats and warriors,
0:01:02 > 0:01:06inhabited by a people who could be as brutal as they were brilliant.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12But in this programme I want to explore the great legacies
0:01:12 > 0:01:16of the ancient Greeks and trace them back to the people who created them.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21I want to return to the home of the Olympic Games
0:01:21 > 0:01:24to reveal its harsh and strongly religious reality.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27I want to visit Athens to find out why the city that gave us
0:01:27 > 0:01:31philosophy also put to death one of its greatest minds.
0:01:32 > 0:01:33And I want to see the Parthenon
0:01:33 > 0:01:36as the Greeks themselves would have seen it.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41The Greeks were so successful that their culture
0:01:41 > 0:01:45and way of life ended up spreading from western Europe to Asia.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49And even when the Greek golden age ended, their legacies remained.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51I want to know why the Greeks were so successful,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54why their legacies are so enduring, and why
0:01:54 > 0:01:59they still have such a powerful hold over our imaginations today.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01I want to find out, Who Were The Greeks?
0:02:09 > 0:02:13The Parthenon is one of the most famous structures on the planet.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17Its very creation testifies to the scientific, mathematic
0:02:17 > 0:02:21and creative genius of the ancient Greek world.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23One fact in particular always blows me away,
0:02:23 > 0:02:26although the lines of the building appear to be perfectly straight,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29this is actually an optical illusion.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32The building is made almost entirely of curves, but these
0:02:32 > 0:02:36are exactly the right arc to appear perfectly straight to the naked eye.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42This foundation is actually six centimetres higher in the centre
0:02:42 > 0:02:45than it is at the sides and these columns are all meticulously
0:02:45 > 0:02:49curved to create a vision of absolute harmony and balance.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55This building is a powerful insight into the mentality
0:02:55 > 0:02:57of the ancient Greeks, their faultless precision,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01their limitless ambition and their fastidious eye for detail.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05And yet at the same time the people who built the Parthenon were
0:03:05 > 0:03:06vastly different to us.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09Their beliefs, their motivations, their ways of life can seem
0:03:09 > 0:03:14strange, unsettling and sometimes downright alien.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17So much of what we think we know about ancient Greece turns
0:03:17 > 0:03:20out to be different from the reality.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24Even this iconic building behind me is not quite what it seems.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37To get to the bottom of the great legacies of the ancient Greeks
0:03:37 > 0:03:40we have to understand the realities of their world.
0:03:48 > 0:03:522,500 years ago, there was no such thing as Greece.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55Instead, the Greek world was made up of over 1,000
0:03:55 > 0:03:59independent communities spread across the Mediterranean, described
0:03:59 > 0:04:04by the philosopher Plato as being like "frogs around a frog pond."
0:04:04 > 0:04:06These communities inhabited different landscapes,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10and had distinct forms of government, different loyalties and
0:04:10 > 0:04:14contradictory ideas that frequently set them against each other.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17Yet there was something that linked all these different
0:04:17 > 0:04:19communities together and distinguished them
0:04:19 > 0:04:22from other cultures, those who the Greeks called barbarians.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28It was Herodotus, the father of history, who first
0:04:28 > 0:04:32put into words what made these disparate communities gel together.
0:04:32 > 0:04:33He put it like this,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37"Common blood, common language,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41"common shrines and rituals and common customs."
0:04:43 > 0:04:48That was, he said, what made up To Hellenikon - The Greek Thing.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51It was these elements that allowed the Parthenon in Athens
0:04:51 > 0:04:55and the community that surrounded it to be linked to those in Sicily,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57and to Greeks in North Africa and to Asia Minor.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02The ancient Greek world possessed a unique dynamic,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06a winning combination of rivalry and difference on the one hand,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10and shared culture, what we now call Hellenism, on the other.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12The great legacies that are still with us
0:05:12 > 0:05:14today are a product of this tension.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17And there's no better place to understand this than
0:05:17 > 0:05:20one of the few locations where Greeks from all over this
0:05:20 > 0:05:23diverse world regularly came together.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28Olympia, home of the Olympic games,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31one of the greatest of Greek legacies.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Every four years, something like we think 40,000 Greeks
0:05:42 > 0:05:45came from all over the Greek world here, to Olympia.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48They came from Italy and Sicily, from Greece, from Asia Minor,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52from Africa, and they sailed along rivers, crossed seas,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55travelled on horseback, in chariots or even on foot.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57And when they got here, there were no hotels,
0:05:57 > 0:05:59most of them just pitched tents.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02This was the single biggest gathering of people
0:06:02 > 0:06:04in the ancient Greek world.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08It's said that by the time the sun rose on the first
0:06:08 > 0:06:11day of the games, there was not a single space left.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14In the words of the ancient Greek poet Pindar,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18"As in the daytime, there is no star in the sky warmer
0:06:18 > 0:06:20"and brighter than the sun,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24"likewise there is no competition greater than the Olympic Games."
0:06:29 > 0:06:31The games lasted for five days
0:06:31 > 0:06:34and consisted of a small selection of sports.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37There were running races, the discus, the long jump -
0:06:37 > 0:06:41which was performed from a standing start with the aid of stones
0:06:41 > 0:06:43or lead jumping weights - and the javelin.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47There were also horse races and chariot races.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50And there was the boxing, and the pankration,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54a no-holds-barred kind of martial art.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57But in ancient times, these sports weren't carried out with
0:06:57 > 0:07:01quite the same Olympic spirit that defines the games today.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07In 484 BC, the boxer Kleomedes was disqualified for an illegal
0:07:07 > 0:07:10manoeuvre that left his opponent dead.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12A couple of years earlier, a wrestler had had his throat
0:07:12 > 0:07:15crushed in the pankration.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18And a boxer talked about how he had lost an ear in a bout, another
0:07:18 > 0:07:23time an eye, and before that he had been stretchered off, presumed dead.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28The ancient Olympics were violent, and fiercely competitive and many of
0:07:28 > 0:07:33the athletes bore the scars of their engagements and some ended up dead.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Now, in our Olympic games, of course winning is important
0:07:36 > 0:07:40but we also subscribe to the idea that it's the taking part
0:07:40 > 0:07:44that counts, but in ancient Greece that would have been an anathema.
0:07:44 > 0:07:45Winning was everything.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55This shared belief in winning, in excellence,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58was one of the bonds of Hellenism that united
0:07:58 > 0:08:01the thousands of disparate peoples who journeyed here to Olympia.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05But all this striving and all this violence also had a greater,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08and more surprising purpose.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10Winners were seen as being touched by the gods
0:08:10 > 0:08:13and were raised above the station of mere mortals.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17For the ancient Greeks, competitive sport was an act of worship.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22And the real focus of the games lay outside the stadium, with the Gods.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Olympia was the home of one of the Greek world's most sacred
0:08:34 > 0:08:35sanctuaries.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38This whole area would have been covered with monuments to the
0:08:38 > 0:08:42gods, particularly to Zeus, the ruler of all the gods.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47In fact, the entire Olympic games were held in his honour.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50And most impressive of all the monuments here at Olympia
0:08:50 > 0:08:53was the magnificent Temple of Zeus.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57This enormous block of stone gives you a great sense of just how
0:08:57 > 0:09:00big the Temple of Zeus really was.
0:09:00 > 0:09:01It's my height, six feet in width,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04and this was just one of the column drums that made up
0:09:04 > 0:09:06the columns of the Temple of Zeus.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09And it was inside that temple that stood one of
0:09:09 > 0:09:12the seven wonders of the ancient world, the colossal statue of Zeus
0:09:12 > 0:09:16himself, made in ivory and gold by the master sculptor, Pheidias.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21It's the cost, the attention, the effort paid to this temple
0:09:21 > 0:09:24and to the statue that underlines that it was religion,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26not sport, that was the real focus of the games.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34In fact, the climax of the Olympics was not an athletic
0:09:34 > 0:09:39event at all but a great ritual procession to the altar of Zeus.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41But this was no altar as we know it.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47The culmination of this religious occasion was
0:09:47 > 0:09:50the sacrifice of 100 oxen.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53They were led in, their throats were slit, their bodies cut up
0:09:53 > 0:09:56and then their thigh bones wrapped in fat,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59deposited on Zeus's altar and burned as an offering to the god.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03But this was no altar made of stone. Zeus's altar here at Olympia
0:10:03 > 0:10:08was made up of the surviving ash and congealed remains from every single
0:10:08 > 0:10:12one of these sacrifices, from every single Olympics in ancient history.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14So we know that by the second century AD this altar was
0:10:14 > 0:10:17standing over 20 feet high.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21I can imagine the blood, the smoke the smell, the ash
0:10:21 > 0:10:25settling on everyone around as they watched this incredible sight.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31Today, all that remains of the altar are these votive offerings
0:10:31 > 0:10:34which were once buried amongst the ash.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Not only does this emphasis on religion
0:10:37 > 0:10:40change our understanding of the Olympics, it's also something
0:10:40 > 0:10:45of an earthier, grubbier view of the ancient Greeks than we're used to.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48We think of these sites with their stunning architecture
0:10:48 > 0:10:53and sculpture as somehow elevated above worldly realities.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56But the beauty of the monuments can blind us to the
0:10:56 > 0:10:59way they would have been viewed in ancient times.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02This beautiful sculpture once stood around the Temple of Zeus
0:11:02 > 0:11:04here at Olympia.
0:11:04 > 0:11:05You can see her flying through the air,
0:11:05 > 0:11:07her cloak billowing out behind her.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13Of course, at this time in Greek art, the sculptor was not allowed
0:11:13 > 0:11:16to show a woman fully naked. It just wasn't done.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19But here the sculptor has brilliantly got around the rules
0:11:19 > 0:11:21by having her flying though the air.
0:11:21 > 0:11:22Her dress is pressed back against her.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26She might as well be naked, but the crucial thing is she's not.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30But this is also no ordinary woman.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33This is Nike,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36the Greek personification of victory itself.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42We look at statues like this today and marvel at their beauty.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45But to the ancient Greeks, they would also have been loaded with
0:11:45 > 0:11:48a very different, very violent, symbolism.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57The inscription here reads:
0:11:57 > 0:12:02HE SPEAKS GREEK
0:12:02 > 0:12:04The Messenians
0:12:04 > 0:12:10and the Naupactians set up to the Olympian gods, a tenth,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13a tithe, from the spoils of war.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16This is no victory monument to athletic success.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19This is a victory monument for battle.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26And not just any battle, but one of Greeks against Greeks -
0:12:26 > 0:12:30the Messenians and Naupactians against the Spartans.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35Olympia was a place where the brutal reality of war,
0:12:35 > 0:12:40of Greeks fighting against Greeks, was inescapable.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42All over this site, archaeologists have found
0:12:42 > 0:12:44hundreds of pieces of armour -
0:12:44 > 0:12:47helmets, shields and greaves - from real battles
0:12:47 > 0:12:51engraved to commemorate different military victories.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53These would have been displayed all over the grounds during the
0:12:53 > 0:12:57games, including in the middle of the spectators in the stadium.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00They would have been constant reminders of both glorious
0:13:00 > 0:13:03victories and devastating defeats.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09As well as bringing Greeks together through religious ritual,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13Olympia reminded them of the things that split them apart.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16This is where the Nike would have been placed,
0:13:16 > 0:13:18on top of the tall, triangular column
0:13:18 > 0:13:20facing off against the temple and
0:13:20 > 0:13:24against a Spartan monument that had been put there some years earlier.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27And around it was a cacophony of monuments to competition,
0:13:27 > 0:13:32rivalry and conflict and this was the realities of ancient Olympia.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35To get a sense of it today, I guess we have to take our Olympic games
0:13:35 > 0:13:39and add in the emotional tension of a highly charged international
0:13:39 > 0:13:43football match, the religious importance of an event like Easter,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47and then dial in the political tension of a United Nations summit.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50Take away any proper sanitation and let it
0:13:50 > 0:13:55stew for a week in the Greek heat, that's the ancient Olympics.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58No wonder in the ancient world they said
0:13:58 > 0:14:02if you wanted to punish a slave you sent him to the Olympic Games.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07For the ancient Greeks, art and architecture
0:14:07 > 0:14:10was much more than just works of beauty to be admired.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12As well as honouring the gods, they were also
0:14:12 > 0:14:14the means by which the different cities
0:14:14 > 0:14:18and individuals announced themselves to each other and to the world.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Each monument carries a message about the person,
0:14:21 > 0:14:23or people who created it.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28And there is no better example of this than the Parthenon itself.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35The Parthenon was born in a particular time and place,
0:14:35 > 0:14:40Athens in the 5th century BC, around 30 years after the Greeks had
0:14:40 > 0:14:44finally defeated the invading armies of the great Persian Empire.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47This victory over the Persians was one of the finest
0:14:47 > 0:14:51hours for Greece and, in particular, for Athens.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55For the Athenians the victory over the Persians came at a high price.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58The invaders swarmed across the city, ransacking the buildings.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01Then they moved on to the Acropolis.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03They scaled the walls, killed the defenders,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06and then burnt its temples to the ground.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10For the next 30 years, the Athenians left the Acropolis in ruins
0:15:10 > 0:15:15as a constant memorial to the sacrilege of the barbarians.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18Standing above the city as it does, it must have been that
0:15:18 > 0:15:22kind of everyday reminder of just how badly the Persians had
0:15:22 > 0:15:27behaved, but also how close the Athenians had come to defeat.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30That was all until just after the mid-5th century BC
0:15:30 > 0:15:33when under the guidance of Pericles,
0:15:33 > 0:15:37the Athenians finally decided to rebuild their monuments.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46These new monuments are a record of how 5th century Athenians saw
0:15:46 > 0:15:51themselves, and of how they wanted to be seen by the wider world.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53The new Acropolis was built, quite literally,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55from the foundations of the old.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57These column drums, built into the wall,
0:15:57 > 0:16:02are remnants of one of the old temples that the Persians destroyed.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04And on top of the rock, guarding the summit,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07stood the original statue of liberty.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12The first site to have greeted visitors as they emerged
0:16:12 > 0:16:14on to the Acropolis was the giant statue of Athena
0:16:14 > 0:16:16that stood right there.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19She was bronze, about nine metres tall,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22and she held a giant spear in her hand.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24She had been sculpted by Pheidias,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27who made the statue of Zeus at Olympia, and she was made
0:16:27 > 0:16:32out of the spoils of war taken by the Athenians from the Persians.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43But the crowning glory was of course the new Parthenon itself.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Standing on top of its ruined predecessor,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49it rose like a phoenix from the ashes.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51Around all four sides of the temple there were sculptures
0:16:51 > 0:16:55depicting epic battles from the world of Greek myth.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59They told a story of the struggle between civilisation and barbarism,
0:16:59 > 0:17:04and symbolised the triumph of heroic Athenians over savage Persians.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09These examples show Greeks fighting centaurs.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11The Greeks look noble and brave,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14whereas the centaurs look cruel and savage.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18Here is a brutal centaur about to trample a fallen Greek.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22But overall it's the Greeks who have the upper hand.
0:17:22 > 0:17:28Here, a heroic Greek has grabbed the centaur and is poised to strike.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32All of these images contributed to the same overall story,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35which culminated with another amazing statue.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Inside this enormous temple stood a gigantic
0:17:38 > 0:17:41statue of Athena in gold and ivory.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46And in her hand, she held a figure of Nike, of victory.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Everything around us on the Acropolis speaks to that victory,
0:17:49 > 0:17:54from the walls to the Parthenon, of Athens' victory over the Persians.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58So in reality the Parthenon is not just a temple,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02it's actually the most beautiful victory monument in the world.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11Just like the monuments at Olympia,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15the monuments of Athens reflected the identity of their creators.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18They proclaimed to the world what it was that made Athens different
0:18:18 > 0:18:20and successful.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22But although they tapped into an important idea in Greek
0:18:22 > 0:18:26thought of superiority over the barbarians, not everyone
0:18:26 > 0:18:30in Greece would have agreed with the Athenians' glorious self-portrait.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34After the Persian Wars were over, Athens had established a league
0:18:34 > 0:18:37of Greek states, mostly those Greeks in the Aegean and in Asia who
0:18:37 > 0:18:42resided closest to Persia, in order to resist future Persian invasions.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44But it was not long before Athens had turned this
0:18:44 > 0:18:47league into a tax-paying empire.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53The Parthenon was built with monies extracted from the cities
0:18:53 > 0:18:55under the thumb of the Athenian Empire,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59and when it was built it became the bank where the monies that
0:18:59 > 0:19:02continued to be collected from the Athenian Empire were kept.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06So while to some this was a symbol of victory and freedom, to
0:19:06 > 0:19:09others in ancient Greece it was a symbol of oppression.
0:19:09 > 0:19:10As Plutarch put it, he said,
0:19:10 > 0:19:15"The Greeks must consider this an unendurable insult when Athens uses
0:19:15 > 0:19:20"these moneys to gild and beautify the city, like some vain harlot,
0:19:20 > 0:19:25"all dolled up with precious stones, statues and temples worth millions."
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Plutarch's comments about being dolled up like a harlot
0:19:31 > 0:19:32make much more sense
0:19:32 > 0:19:35when you realise that in ancient times, the Parthenon
0:19:35 > 0:19:37would have looked very different
0:19:37 > 0:19:39from the clean marble structure we admire today.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44We're so used to thinking of the sculptures and buildings
0:19:44 > 0:19:48of the ancient Greek world as being clean, off-white shining marble,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53stone and clay, but this sculpture paints a very different picture.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56What we're looking at is surviving paint here on the cloak
0:19:56 > 0:20:00but also down here is the outline of the armour, of the greaves.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06And this is the reality. The ancient Greek world wasn't monochrome.
0:20:06 > 0:20:07It was technicolour.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14Many sculptures and fragments of buildings still bear traces
0:20:14 > 0:20:18of colour today, but in most cases the paintwork vanished long ago.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23We know that parts of the Parthenon building were painted,
0:20:23 > 0:20:25but the great mystery has always been
0:20:25 > 0:20:29whether its sculptures were also once covered in glorious colour.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Today, with the help of infra-red imaging,
0:20:35 > 0:20:37experts at the British Museum have discovered
0:20:37 > 0:20:42traces on the Parthenon sculptures of a pigment called Egyptian Blue.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46It's having a huge impact on the way we view the ancient Greeks.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48Their most iconic image,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51the clean, off-white marble Parthenon, is actually
0:20:51 > 0:20:53a misunderstanding of the ancient reality.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58And we're looking at the figure of Iris who was
0:20:58 > 0:20:59the goddess of the rainbow.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03To the naked eye there is nothing there.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05Yes, yes.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09But with these techniques you all of a sudden have a view that
0:21:09 > 0:21:14hasn't been there for anyone for thousands of years.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16Because what happens is that Egyptian Blue
0:21:16 > 0:21:17has a very special property.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19It absorbs visible light,
0:21:19 > 0:21:24holds it in and then will re-emit it as infra-red light, which will
0:21:24 > 0:21:29show as a glowing white against a grey background.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33Fantastic. Well, let's take it away. How do we start the process?
0:21:33 > 0:21:39OK, so this is what the sculpture looks like with no LED lights.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44If I go there and move the light, you look in the screen.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48So at the moment I'm seeing exactly the same picture.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51But if I turn the lamp you will see small...
0:21:53 > 0:21:55It's just coming out of nowhere.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58Yes, those are single particles of Egyptian Blue.
0:21:58 > 0:21:59How amazing.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03So what I'm seeing there is the colour that was
0:22:03 > 0:22:07originally painted onto the belt of Iris on the Parthenon?
0:22:07 > 0:22:08Yes.
0:22:08 > 0:22:13But this screen is very small, we can actually look at it here.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15Yeah, that's really coming through there.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19It's sparkling, almost like diamonds.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21It is, it is almost like diamonds.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26You can see that all these particles seem to be all merging together.
0:22:26 > 0:22:31This seems to suggest that the actual band was entirely painted
0:22:31 > 0:22:32using Egyptian Blue.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37And if we assume that, for example, the garment was painted
0:22:37 > 0:22:41white, it would have had like a strong contrast.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44Something very visible when they were so far up above human height.
0:22:44 > 0:22:45Correct.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53I assume that as the sculptures are so well sculpted they would have
0:22:53 > 0:22:57been equally well painted, so she would have been even more beautiful.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59Than she is already.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05Giovanni's techniques have been a revelation.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08As well as bands of colour like Iris's belt,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11they have revealed patterns and shapes.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14When used on this relief from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17the imaging reveals that this soldier would once have held
0:23:17 > 0:23:18a sword in his hand.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20And when shone on this horse,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24we can see the decorative pattern on the saddlecloth for the first time.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30We are so wedded to the idea of ancient Greek sculpture being
0:23:30 > 0:23:34clean and white that this is not an easy concept for us accept.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36It's even harder when you realise just how bright
0:23:36 > 0:23:39pigments like Egyptian Blue really were.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42So can we get a sense of what this Egyptian Blue
0:23:42 > 0:23:43would have looked like?
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Yes, here are two samples.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48A block of raw pigment and a bottle.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52This was scraped off an architectural block
0:23:52 > 0:23:55by Charles Newton in the 1850s,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58and he feared he would be disbelieved,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01so he took the precaution
0:24:01 > 0:24:05of bottling some blue and bringing it back with him to England.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07It really is a strong blue, isn't it?
0:24:07 > 0:24:10Yes, exactly, a deep blue.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14- The sea in the afternoon. - The sea in the afternoon.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17So for how long have we known or suspected that the Parthenon
0:24:17 > 0:24:21and other Greek buildings and sculptures were painted?
0:24:21 > 0:24:24The travellers, the architects who went to Greece
0:24:24 > 0:24:28and Turkey in the 18th and 19th century, they became instantly
0:24:28 > 0:24:33aware of the probability that all ancient architecture was coated.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40This is the colouring, the geometric patterning in colour
0:24:40 > 0:24:43decorating the entablature of the Parthenon.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46How shocking would that have been to people in the 18th
0:24:46 > 0:24:49and 19th century to hear that these buildings were painted?
0:24:50 > 0:24:55It's the habit of every generation to corporately forget, isn't
0:24:55 > 0:25:00it, that architecture in antiquity was coloured, and sculpture too.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04And it's the privilege of every generation to rediscover that,
0:25:04 > 0:25:07and our own generation recently did
0:25:07 > 0:25:11so in a dramatic way, with the discoveries of Giovanni Verri.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14When we imagine an ancient world full of colour, what does that
0:25:14 > 0:25:17do to our understanding of what being in the ancient Greek
0:25:17 > 0:25:19world was really like?
0:25:19 > 0:25:23We shouldn't think of it as a one material marble culture at all.
0:25:23 > 0:25:24We should think of it as composite.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28In marble sculpture, the drill holes were to fit the bits
0:25:28 > 0:25:31and harness of the horses.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34It increases the presence of the monuments.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37For example, cult statues were highly coloured,
0:25:37 > 0:25:38their eyes were inlaid,
0:25:38 > 0:25:43and when you approached a cult statue standing in its temple,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47you approached an impersonation of the god or goddess.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49And the great impact was overwhelming
0:25:49 > 0:25:53and the colour assisted that sense of awe.
0:25:53 > 0:25:54Do you think,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58given this revolutionary moment and the discovery of colour,
0:25:58 > 0:25:59do you think future generations
0:25:59 > 0:26:03will again forget and re-discover for themselves?
0:26:03 > 0:26:06I do hope so because, having
0:26:06 > 0:26:11participated in the rediscovery of colour, I would hope that future
0:26:11 > 0:26:15generations will have the same joy of new discoveries to be made.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18I never expected that after 200 years of searching
0:26:18 > 0:26:21the Parthenon sculptures would reveal
0:26:21 > 0:26:26the secret of the sparkly blue belt of the messenger goddess, Iris.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28And it enlivens our understanding,
0:26:28 > 0:26:33but also energises our quest to unravel the mystery
0:26:33 > 0:26:34of the ancient world
0:26:34 > 0:26:36and to understand it better in the modern world.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39We're still a long way from knowing exactly how the Parthenon
0:26:39 > 0:26:43would have been coloured, but we do know that instead of looking
0:26:43 > 0:26:46like this, it would have looked something like this.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50It's an amazing riot of colour,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53with bronze adornments glinting in the sun.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56It makes us realise that some of the most enduring
0:26:56 > 0:26:58legacies of the ancient Greeks,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01our sense of Classical Greek architecture and sculpture,
0:27:01 > 0:27:05have been shaped by our own misunderstanding of the Greek world.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09But there's also something else we can learn from colour,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12and it comes from looking at where the different pigments
0:27:12 > 0:27:14used by the ancient Greeks actually came from.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18This is gypsum, coming from Epirus in northern Greece.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23This is realgar, coming all the way from the Caucuses.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28This one is called limonite, known to us as ochre,
0:27:28 > 0:27:30coming from the island of Cyprus.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34This is chrusicalla, coming from Attica in central Greece.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40This is haematite, coming from the island of Kea in the Aegean.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44This is Cinabar, coming all the way from Spain.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Lastly, my favourite, lapis lazuli all the way from Afghanistan.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53What this shows us is that the temples
0:27:53 > 0:27:56and sculptures of ancient Greece were coloured with materials
0:27:56 > 0:28:00that came not just from Greece but from across Europe and Asia.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02They were the result of a network
0:28:02 > 0:28:04that criss-crossed the ancient world.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10But it was more than just coloured pigments.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12There were all kinds of goods involved.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16And one of the biggest hubs on this entire network was Athens.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27Athens was one of the most cosmopolitan
0:28:27 > 0:28:29places in all of Greece.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32Traders were drawn here from far and wide, bringing everything
0:28:32 > 0:28:36from fish and fruit, to spices, cushions and carpets.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38As the Athenian statesman Pericles boasted,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41Athens was a city that threw open its doors to the world.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45And it wasn't just goods travelling on this network,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48it was people, and with people came ideas.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59Some of the most famous Greeks to inhabit this city in antiquity
0:28:59 > 0:29:02did not actually come from Athens,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05but rather from the very boundaries of the Greek world.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Aristotle came from Stageira in northern Greece,
0:29:08 > 0:29:09but came here to study
0:29:09 > 0:29:13in Plato's Academy and eventually to set up his own school of philosophy.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16The father of history, Herodotus was an outsider here.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20He came from Halicarnassus in modern day Turkey.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22And the scientist-philosopher Theophrastus
0:29:22 > 0:29:24was from the island of Lesbos.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27They were all part of a group known here as metics,
0:29:27 > 0:29:32coming from the Greek metoikos which means "one who dwells among".
0:29:32 > 0:29:34They could never be Athenian citizens,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37but they could live and work in Athens.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47The result was one of the most dynamic intellectual
0:29:47 > 0:29:49environments in history.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52An environment that bred something new, an intense
0:29:52 > 0:29:54focus on what it is to be human.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58This way of exploring the world was pioneered by an Athenian
0:29:58 > 0:30:00philosopher called Socrates.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03He relentlessly questioned the people of Athens,
0:30:03 > 0:30:06encouraging them to investigate the great issues of life -
0:30:06 > 0:30:10courage, justice, virtue, love and the soul.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13He famously said that an unexamined life
0:30:13 > 0:30:15is not worth living.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18And after Socrates came his pupil, Plato.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20In one of his most famous works, The Republic,
0:30:20 > 0:30:23he grappled with the question of what makes
0:30:23 > 0:30:26a good and just individual, and what makes an ideal state.
0:30:26 > 0:30:30Questions that we are still struggling with today.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32But what's most impressive about the great philosophers
0:30:32 > 0:30:35is the vast range of their interests.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39The book Problems contains examples of the work of Aristotle.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42It's not what he's most famous for, but for me,
0:30:42 > 0:30:46it brilliantly illustrates the unbelievable extent of the curiosity
0:30:46 > 0:30:49that defined him and his successors.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54Why in response to others yawning do people usually yawn in return?
0:30:56 > 0:30:58Why don't the parts of the body in hot water sweat?
0:31:00 > 0:31:02Why does everything appear to be travelling in a circle
0:31:02 > 0:31:05to those who are very drunk?
0:31:05 > 0:31:07Why it is that the onion makes the eyes water
0:31:07 > 0:31:09to such an excessive degree?
0:31:10 > 0:31:14All these problems begin with the same word - why.
0:31:14 > 0:31:15And with this question,
0:31:15 > 0:31:20the ancient thinkers probed every possible realm of knowledge.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23This desire to question everything was one of the defining
0:31:23 > 0:31:25characteristics of the intellectuals
0:31:25 > 0:31:27who came together in Athens.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31And it is reflected in the meaning of the word philosophy itself.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34First coined by the Greeks, Philosophia, our philosophy,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37simply means "love of wisdom".
0:31:38 > 0:31:41I asked Professor Paul Cartledge why Athens provided
0:31:41 > 0:31:44the perfect climate for the pursuit of wisdom, and what it might have
0:31:44 > 0:31:49been like to live here alongside such giants of Western thought.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51You could call Athens a city of words.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55It really is, very importantly, a city in which
0:31:55 > 0:31:58matters are thrashed out verbally.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02And it's very striking that these intellectuals couldn't have done
0:32:02 > 0:32:07what they did without the, if you like, wireless network
0:32:07 > 0:32:12that Athens provides, which dynamises, galvanises thoughts.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17Paint a picture for me of what it might have been like to interact
0:32:17 > 0:32:20with these people in Athens. Where would you go to find them?
0:32:20 > 0:32:23Well, we know that they were star showmen.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26Some philosophers, in other words, gave display lectures
0:32:26 > 0:32:29at which Athenians would sit for entertainment.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31After all, no movies in ancient Athens.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35And they did love talk, so they loved hearing speeches.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39Athens had a big space in the middle, where people would hang out.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43The Greek word is "Agora," somewhere where you gather together.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47Hyde Park corner, if I can give a very English analogy.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52In other words, not a formal, actual physical space - that comes later.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55And we might think our picture of ancient Greece was that they were
0:32:55 > 0:32:58all sitting around doing nothing all day, discussing philosophy.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02I think we should get out of the way first the idea that all Greeks,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05as it were, all ancient Greeks were philosophers.
0:33:05 > 0:33:10Most Greeks, 90+% of them were doing something to do with agriculture
0:33:10 > 0:33:13and that's pretty time-consuming and pretty back-breaking,
0:33:13 > 0:33:16and actually you don't tend to want, instantly to ponder
0:33:16 > 0:33:19extremely difficult philosophical problems.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21Another Greek word, problem.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24Obviously, some of the most famous names that have come to us,
0:33:24 > 0:33:27Aristotle, Plato, Socrates.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Socrates was asking the very big questions - what is?
0:33:30 > 0:33:33And then big abstract and justice.
0:33:33 > 0:33:38And his technique would be to make people realise that they knew
0:33:38 > 0:33:42either nothing, or they knew very much less than they thought
0:33:42 > 0:33:46they knew, and quite often a dialogue would end
0:33:46 > 0:33:49on what was called "Aporia," no way forward.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53Well, that's very dispiriting. Most people like to be shown
0:33:53 > 0:33:57the way to go, not to be told, "You're at a dead end, mate."
0:33:57 > 0:34:02And so a lot of Socrates' lessons are questioning
0:34:02 > 0:34:06how should one think about this question - let's say justice.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11Today we think of men like Socrates with reverence.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14But perhaps that's because we never had to live alongside them.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17For everyday Athenians, his incessant questioning
0:34:17 > 0:34:21provoked something closer to irritation or even ridicule.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24Socrates is said to have considered himself
0:34:24 > 0:34:28the gadfly of ancient Athens, there to sting the city out of its stupor,
0:34:28 > 0:34:30to make them reject any tradition
0:34:30 > 0:34:32that didn't stand up to rational argument.
0:34:32 > 0:34:33But the result of it was
0:34:33 > 0:34:36that he was always pointing out Athens' moral weaknesses.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39He was always criticising, always philosophising
0:34:39 > 0:34:41and it all got rather annoying.
0:34:41 > 0:34:43The comic poet Eupolis put it like this,
0:34:43 > 0:34:47"I loathe that poverty-stricken windbag Socrates,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50"who's always contemplating everything in the world,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53"and yet doesn't know where his next meal is coming from."
0:34:53 > 0:34:56Even 2,000 years ago, no-one liked an insufferable know-it-all.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01But what happened next to Socrates was quite shocking.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08In 399 BC, Socrates was put on trial and imprisoned.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11He was charged with corrupting the youth of Athens, of not believing
0:35:11 > 0:35:14in the gods of the state and of introducing his own divinities.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17It didn't help that his political affiliations
0:35:17 > 0:35:19were also extremely unpopular.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22He was found guilty by a jury of 501 Athenians,
0:35:22 > 0:35:24who sentenced him to death.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28Athens, a city so proud of its democracy and its freedom,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31put to death one of its brightest minds,
0:35:31 > 0:35:33one of the founding fathers of philosophy.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42This extraordinary explosion of philosophy in 5th century Athens
0:35:42 > 0:35:45has had an enormous influence on our thinking ever since.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49One of the reasons why we see the Greeks as our forefathers
0:35:49 > 0:35:51is that they were the first civilisation in Europe to ask
0:35:51 > 0:35:55the big questions about life that we still wrestle with today.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59But the case of Socrates reminds us of what we saw at Olympia,
0:35:59 > 0:36:00that the Greeks were a people
0:36:00 > 0:36:03who could be as ruthless as they were remarkable.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06Despite producing some of the greatest minds in history
0:36:06 > 0:36:09no-one was put on a pedestal.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11A result of this was that the ancient Greeks
0:36:11 > 0:36:13could never get too comfortable.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15They had to keep moving, keep striving.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19It was a trait of Hellenism that defined the entire Greek world.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25These are some of the most impressive Greek ruins in the world,
0:36:25 > 0:36:28but this is not Athens. It's not even Greece.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31This is the ancient Greek city of Selinus, in Sicily.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33Now, the ancient Greeks had been moving around
0:36:33 > 0:36:35the wider Mediterranean world for centuries,
0:36:35 > 0:36:40but it was in the last part of the 8th century BC that this process,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43of not just travel but of establishing new communities,
0:36:43 > 0:36:44really took hold.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52The colonists would have brought with them the sacred flame,
0:36:52 > 0:36:56the embers of the flame that burned in the heart of their home community
0:36:56 > 0:36:58to establish here in their new world.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01And, of course, with that flame they also brought their customs,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04their cultures, their way of life.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07And in setting out that blueprint, they would have established
0:37:07 > 0:37:09their new community's temples.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13This is a classic example of Doric Greek architecture, and there
0:37:13 > 0:37:17would have been sculptures adorning this temple of Greek myths and gods.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22But the architecture here was about more than merely replicating
0:37:22 > 0:37:24the culture of the mainland.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28It was also about outdoing it. This city contains the ruins of temples
0:37:28 > 0:37:31that were destined to be amongst the largest in antiquity.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35Their floor plan alone gives some sense of their size and scale.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39Yet the greatest of them was never completed.
0:37:42 > 0:37:48In 409 BC, Selinus was invaded by the Carthaginians in North Africa.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51The inhabitants of Selinus fled and their city was destroyed.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57But this terrible disaster has given us a rare insight
0:37:57 > 0:37:59into the secrets of ancient Greek construction.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04An old road leads to the quarry which provided the stone
0:38:04 > 0:38:06for the city's temples.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09When the invaders arrived, the stonecutters fled.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12And these incomplete column drums have lain here,
0:38:12 > 0:38:15as monuments to that moment, ever since.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22The column drums of the extraordinary temple at Selinus
0:38:22 > 0:38:26began life just like this one, hewn out of the solid limestone,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28and these ones are here today because the quarry
0:38:28 > 0:38:29was literally abandoned overnight,
0:38:29 > 0:38:33the craftsmen never returning to complete their work,
0:38:33 > 0:38:36but on the other hand, it's because of that catastrophe
0:38:36 > 0:38:40that befell the city that we can today still unlock the secrets
0:38:40 > 0:38:43of how they created these incredible monuments.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48The shape of the column would have been drawn out
0:38:48 > 0:38:49onto the top of the rock,
0:38:49 > 0:38:52before the stonecutters began carving downwards.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56These are the tell tale signs, the striations
0:38:56 > 0:39:00of all the chisel marks and tool marks as slowly, slowly
0:39:00 > 0:39:04this gap was worked down and down around what would become
0:39:04 > 0:39:08the column of the temple, until they'd finally got far enough down
0:39:08 > 0:39:10to create this extraordinary height.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13Then, using wooded wedges that had been soaked in water
0:39:13 > 0:39:17so they expanded, or metal wedges to drive in and cut off
0:39:17 > 0:39:20each column drum, topple it over
0:39:20 > 0:39:23and then start the hard business of moving it towards the temple itself.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Wooden frames would have been constructed around the columns,
0:39:29 > 0:39:32and they were moved on wheels or carts.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35These square holes were used to attach the wheels
0:39:35 > 0:39:37and wooden frameworks to the column drums.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42The fluting, or vertical grooves, common to Greek columns on temples
0:39:42 > 0:39:45were only carved once the pieces were all in place.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48This temple never reached that stage,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52but if it had been finished, it would have been enormous.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55Each one of these column drums weighs around 100 tons,
0:39:55 > 0:39:58and the columns themselves would have been over 16 metres high.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04This incredible architectural skill produced some of the most
0:40:04 > 0:40:08colossal feats of architecture in the ancient west.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11And we may well ask why here? Why Sicily?
0:40:11 > 0:40:14In part it was because Sicily was on the edge of the ancient Greek world,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17and people at the edge of a community tend to shout louder
0:40:17 > 0:40:19to make themselves heard as part of that group.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22And shout loud the Sicilians definitely did.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24But it was also to do with competition,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27not just between the different peoples of Sicily
0:40:27 > 0:40:31but also with entirely different parts of the ancient Greek world.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34This was keeping up with the Joneses writ large,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37and that continual process of competition
0:40:37 > 0:40:39provoked artistic innovation and perfection,
0:40:39 > 0:40:43making Sicily one of the key melting pots for the creation
0:40:43 > 0:40:47of the physical legacies that have defined the ancient Greek world.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54In ancient Greece, there was a fine line
0:40:54 > 0:40:58between creative competition and violent conflict.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01These two forces were described brilliantly by a Greek writer
0:41:01 > 0:41:05called Hesiod as "good strife" and "bad strife".
0:41:05 > 0:41:09He said that bad strife was destructive and led to war
0:41:09 > 0:41:13and battle, but that "agathe eris" - "good strife" - was when people
0:41:13 > 0:41:16competed creatively and pushed each other to even greater success.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22Good strife pitted potter against potter, craftsman against craftsman
0:41:22 > 0:41:25and architect against architect, inspiring an outpouring
0:41:25 > 0:41:30of creativity that has only ever been equalled by the Renaissance.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34I would argue that it was this need to balance good and bad strife
0:41:34 > 0:41:37that pushed the Greeks to reach such astounding levels
0:41:37 > 0:41:40of achievement and to create such an extraordinary legacy.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47And this good strife was at the heart of another
0:41:47 > 0:41:49great Greek invention - theatre.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54Theatre emerged in Athens in the form of a drama competition,
0:41:54 > 0:41:56but soon spread throughout the Greek world.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59It was particularly popular in Sicily,
0:41:59 > 0:42:01and this island is still home to some of most beautiful
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Greek theatres ever built, like this one,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06hewn into the hillside in Segesta.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11The Greeks gave us the two defining dramatic genres,
0:42:11 > 0:42:12tragedy and comedy.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16Without them, there would be no Shakespeare, no Oscar Wilde,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18no soap operas and no sitcom.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22And it's here, in the theatre, that the Greeks feel simultaneously
0:42:22 > 0:42:25at their most familiar and at their most alien.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29Greek tragedy has given us some of the most strange,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32dark and brutal stories of all time.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35There are tales of murder, vengeance, and incest,
0:42:35 > 0:42:37of insanity and mutilation.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41There are men who kill their fathers and marry their mothers,
0:42:41 > 0:42:45lovers who commit suicide, and women who kill their own children.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49These are bloody and violent stories,
0:42:49 > 0:42:53but they're much more than some sort of weird form of entertainment
0:42:53 > 0:42:54for the ancient Greeks.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57They spoke to the dark side of humanity and to the harsh
0:42:57 > 0:43:00and unpredictable nature of life itself.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03And here in the Greek theatre, these stories did something more
0:43:03 > 0:43:07than that as well. They were lessons. They were challenges.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10My favourite line in Greek tragedy is in Aeschylus' Libation Bearers,
0:43:10 > 0:43:12and it's when Orestes is about to get his revenge.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15He's there, knife in hand, about to kill his mother
0:43:15 > 0:43:20and he panics and asks the question "ti draso?" - "What shall I do?"
0:43:20 > 0:43:23That is the key question of tragedy.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25Tragedy didn't just tell a nasty story
0:43:25 > 0:43:27and let the audience walk away. No.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31It asked them to respond, it challenged them. What would they do
0:43:31 > 0:43:33if they were caught in such an impossible situation?
0:43:36 > 0:43:37The result of all this
0:43:37 > 0:43:40was something Aristotle called catharsis.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43It refers to the relief and clarity that can come
0:43:43 > 0:43:45from experiencing extreme emotions
0:43:45 > 0:43:48in the controlled environment of the theatre, and which leaves
0:43:48 > 0:43:50the audience better equipped
0:43:50 > 0:43:52to deal with their problems in real life.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57Tragedy, therefore, while it seems violent and strange,
0:43:57 > 0:43:59had a real purpose in the Greek world.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04But for me, it's actually with comedy that we can see
0:44:04 > 0:44:08most clearly what we have inherited from the Greek theatre.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11One of the most famous comic playwrights in Greece
0:44:11 > 0:44:14was an Athenian called Menander, and as with all Greek theatre,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17his plays were performed with masks.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21Comedy masks appear especially alien and strange,
0:44:21 > 0:44:24but when we look more closely at the characters that they represent,
0:44:24 > 0:44:28we find a society not that dissimilar to our own.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32In a typical plot you'd have maybe a young man falling in love
0:44:32 > 0:44:36with an experienced prostitute.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38He's going to get a clever slave who helps him along the way.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41He's going to have a father who might object, and somehow,
0:44:41 > 0:44:42one way or another,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45by the end of the play, they're going to be happily married.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49And obviously we've got a collection here of masks.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52How do they relate to the comedy that we're talking about?
0:44:52 > 0:44:53For Menander,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57it was really helpful to have these masks for the stock characters.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01You could tell immediately, as the audience, that you're looking at
0:45:01 > 0:45:03the clever slave, just from the mask.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05So, who do we have here?
0:45:05 > 0:45:07Well, let's start with the lady.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10Here we have, often called the golden hetaerae,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13which is just a word for prostitute.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15She would be someone with a lot of front,
0:45:15 > 0:45:19someone who seems like she's disinterested maybe in the plot,
0:45:19 > 0:45:24but then turns out to have a heart of gold and get involved and help out.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, right? We're hoping.
0:45:28 > 0:45:29Who else do we have down here?
0:45:29 > 0:45:33Here, we've got your standard young man.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36In many of the plots, he's going to be the one who falls in love,
0:45:36 > 0:45:41but then he may be more or less streetwise, depending on how
0:45:41 > 0:45:45he's done, so you might think about the difference
0:45:45 > 0:45:49between Tim in The Office and Simon in The Inbetweeners.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52- OK!- Both are young men who are in love,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56but here we have the possibility of different characterisation.
0:45:56 > 0:45:58And this is obviously your favourite down here,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01you're keeping him close to your heart.
0:46:01 > 0:46:02This is the ruler slave.
0:46:02 > 0:46:07He's cleverer than his master, and he's often quite a deceptive
0:46:07 > 0:46:11character, but really in quite a charming way at the same time.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14So I guess the modern equivalent here would be Blackadder?
0:46:14 > 0:46:17Blackadder, exactly, Jeeves in Jeeves And Wooster,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20maybe Humphrey in Yes, Minister.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23So I guess step one is to recreate the mask,
0:46:23 > 0:46:25but step two, to really understand this,
0:46:25 > 0:46:26is to put them back into performance.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29Seeing them in action is where you get to see that, really,
0:46:29 > 0:46:34they're not just static, they don't just have one fixed expression.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37That's where you see how a character can really colourfully
0:46:37 > 0:46:39be brought out by masked theatre.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44So this is giving us more of the anxious face, the anxious slave.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48Exactly. He's anxious, he's worried about something, you can
0:46:48 > 0:46:50see that by looking straight at him there.
0:46:51 > 0:46:57And then here's this transition, where, actually, maybe he's having
0:46:57 > 0:47:02an idea, and at that point you start to see the eyes more.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06And when you start to see the eyes more, you get this sense of,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09wait a minute, the cogs going round in the brain
0:47:09 > 0:47:11and, yes, he's got the idea!
0:47:11 > 0:47:14And then looking up even further, you're seeing the eyes,
0:47:14 > 0:47:15the bulging eyes appearing.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19Which tell us he's got the idea but also bring out his cunning.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23You can see now those crossed eyes which make you think,
0:47:23 > 0:47:28"Wait a minute, maybe I don't really trust this guy."
0:47:28 > 0:47:31So what do you think watching this in performance does
0:47:31 > 0:47:36for our understanding of how alien ancient Greek theatre might seem?
0:47:36 > 0:47:40I think it's exactly that idea that it's alienating, but actually, when
0:47:40 > 0:47:42you start watching a performance,
0:47:42 > 0:47:45and seeing what the mask can do and the emotions it brings out,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47these characters become really familiar.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51And you realise actually this is drama that we can understand,
0:47:51 > 0:47:53this is drama we can tap into.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Tragedy, comedy, philosophy, art, architecture and sport -
0:48:02 > 0:48:06these were some of the great innovations of the ancient Greeks.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09But their mere invention isn't enough to explain
0:48:09 > 0:48:12why they have spread so far or endured so long.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16Something else happened that spread what Herodotus called
0:48:16 > 0:48:19"the Greek Thing" as far as the Middle East and Asia.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22That something was the impact
0:48:22 > 0:48:25of a father and son from Northern Greece.
0:48:25 > 0:48:30King Philip II of Macedon, and his son, Alexander the Great.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34The question of who were the Greeks cannot be answered
0:48:34 > 0:48:38without considering two of the most famous Greeks of all.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44The Kingdom of Macedon was a land of horses, huntsmen and warriors,
0:48:44 > 0:48:48and under the leadership of Alexander's father, King Philip II,
0:48:48 > 0:48:50it had become a power to rival Athens.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58These treasures testify to the wealth and artistic achievements
0:48:58 > 0:49:02of Macedon, but also reveal Philip's own ambition,
0:49:02 > 0:49:05which was to become the single leader of all the Greeks.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10This silver banqueting set belonged to Philip.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15It features a representation of the hero Heracles from Greek mythology.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18The Macedonians emphasised their Greekness by tracing
0:49:18 > 0:49:21their royal line back to Heracles himself.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26This gold oak crown is one of the most impressive artefacts
0:49:26 > 0:49:28in all of Greece.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32It has 313 leaves, 68 acorns and would have been made
0:49:32 > 0:49:35by some of the most skilled craftsmen in the Greek world.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Philip was drawing the best artists in Greece away
0:49:39 > 0:49:41from Athens to Macedon.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45This suit of armour was found in Philip's tomb.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48The ivory design on the shield shows a classic scene
0:49:48 > 0:49:51from Greek myth of the Greeks defeating the Amazons,
0:49:51 > 0:49:56and the armour itself includes this - Athena, the symbol of Athens.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02By becoming a patron of all that the Greeks excelled in creating,
0:50:02 > 0:50:06and by engaging with Greeks myths and traditions, Philip preserved
0:50:06 > 0:50:09and augmented the legacies of the ancient Greek world.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15With a combination of military might and diplomacy, Philip brought
0:50:15 > 0:50:18the independent cities of mainland Greece under his leadership.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23He prepared to embark on a war of revenge
0:50:23 > 0:50:26against Greece's age-old enemy, Persia.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28But before he could begin, he was assassinated,
0:50:28 > 0:50:31and the leadership of Greece passed to Alexander.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37Alexander pursued his father's campaign,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40and in the process, conquered a vast empire
0:50:40 > 0:50:43that stretched from Europe to the shores of India.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46And it's the way in which he secured his empire
0:50:46 > 0:50:50that helps to explain the lasting endurance of Greekness.
0:50:52 > 0:50:54These are the ruins of Priene,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56a small Greek city near the Turkish coast.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01And in ancient times, this city had one great claim to fame.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07In the fourth century BC, the citizens of Priene decided
0:51:07 > 0:51:10to rebuild their city in this extraordinary location,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13and at its heart would be the Temple of Athena Polias,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16the temple to the city's main deity.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19It was designed by one of ancient Greece's master architects, and its
0:51:19 > 0:51:24architecture came to be seen as a perfect example of the Greek style.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27But what's really fascinating about this temple is an inscription
0:51:27 > 0:51:29that once stood on the south wall of the temple,
0:51:29 > 0:51:31facing out over the plain below.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33And it read like this,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37"King Alexander dedicated this temple to Athena Polias."
0:51:37 > 0:51:41Alexander the Great came here and paid for this temple
0:51:41 > 0:51:44as part of his conquests heading east.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Alexander spread Greek culture across his empire.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59He founded new Greek-style cities, sponsored temples to the Greek gods,
0:51:59 > 0:52:02and got his generals to stage Greek plays.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06But he also realised that he could not secure his power and position
0:52:06 > 0:52:07through force alone.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10He had to work with local inhabitants.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13Alexander took Greek culture further east,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16but he also mixed it as he went with local traditions,
0:52:16 > 0:52:18so he used Persian officials and systems of government.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23He wore Persian dress, he and his officers married Persian wives.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27And what he created as a result was a much bigger but also much
0:52:27 > 0:52:32more mixed, cosmopolitan world and there's no better example
0:52:32 > 0:52:36of how that cosmopolitanness defined that world than this.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41This is a replica of a coin minted by one of Alexander's successors,
0:52:41 > 0:52:47and it shows Alexander wearing the ram's horns of the god Zeus Ammon,
0:52:47 > 0:52:50a god that was itself the creation of a mix of Greek culture
0:52:50 > 0:52:51and Egyptian culture -
0:52:51 > 0:52:54the Greek god Zeus and the Egyptian god Ammon.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58It was a god that Alexander claimed to be a descendent of,
0:52:58 > 0:53:02and the fact that his successors have chosen this hybrid image
0:53:02 > 0:53:06shows that it was a powerful symbol in a world in which Greek culture
0:53:06 > 0:53:11mixed with local traditions from the Nile all the way to the Himalayas.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18This mixing of cultures is one of the things that allowed
0:53:18 > 0:53:21the great legacies of ancient Greece to take hold
0:53:21 > 0:53:22across Alexander's empire,
0:53:22 > 0:53:26and to be woven into the fabric of the civilisations that followed.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30But that isn't the end of the story.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35Alexander the Great soon left Priene to continue his conquests
0:53:35 > 0:53:41further east, but this temple wasn't completed for another 300 years,
0:53:41 > 0:53:45and it's this inscription that tells us who was finally responsible.
0:53:45 > 0:53:46It reads like this,
0:53:46 > 0:53:51"Demos" - the people, "Athenai Poliadi" - to Athena Polias,
0:53:51 > 0:53:52and - "kai".
0:53:55 > 0:54:00"Autokratori kaisari, theowhoyoui theoi, sebastoi anatheykin."
0:54:02 > 0:54:05The people erected this temple to Athena Polias
0:54:05 > 0:54:12and to the emperor, Caesar, son of a god, god, Sebastos -
0:54:12 > 0:54:14the Greek for the Roman Emperor Augustus.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18In the second century BC,
0:54:18 > 0:54:22Greece was conquered by the expanding Roman Empire.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25It was Augustus, who came to power in the late first century BC,
0:54:25 > 0:54:29who oversaw the completion of this Greek temple.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32But he chose to keep the original Greek design.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43The Romans saw the Greeks as military weak,
0:54:43 > 0:54:45but artistically supreme.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49They adopted and promoted Greek cultural achievements so much
0:54:49 > 0:54:51that one writer quipped that, in effect,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54though Greece had lost the battle, it had won the war.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00To understand the power and tenacity of the Greek legacies,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04we need to realise that the Romans were fundamentally involved
0:55:04 > 0:55:07in shaping what we see as ancient Greece today.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12One of Augustus's successors was the emperor Hadrian,
0:55:12 > 0:55:15who was a lover of Greek culture. In fact, it's in part thanks to
0:55:15 > 0:55:19Hadrian that the city of Athens was transformed into a beacon
0:55:19 > 0:55:22for the greatness of Greece in the Roman world.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25And there's no better example of that transition
0:55:25 > 0:55:29than the extraordinary temple of Olympian Zeus.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33The Greeks failed to finish it, whereas Hadrian completed it.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37And in that process of not just the preservation but the augmentation
0:55:37 > 0:55:41of the realities of ancient Greece, Hadrian was part of the way Rome
0:55:41 > 0:55:47stage-managed Greece's transition into the icon that it is today.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59The Romans were just the first of many cultures who have,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03in admiring and learning from the Greeks, also shaped their legacy.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06It's a process that continues to this day.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11There's no better symbol of the ways in which the wonders
0:56:11 > 0:56:14of ancient Greece have been reshaped and reworked over time
0:56:14 > 0:56:15than the Parthenon.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18It began as a symbol of victory and freedom,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21but became the place from which the Greeks honoured the Roman emperors,
0:56:21 > 0:56:24and since then it's been a Christian church, a mosque,
0:56:24 > 0:56:27even a gunpowder store, amongst other things.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31And today it is being restored to one moment in that story,
0:56:31 > 0:56:35to the golden age of ancient Greece, but without the paint,
0:56:35 > 0:56:38because we're still not ready to accept
0:56:38 > 0:56:40that version of ancient Greece.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43We are still absolutely implicit
0:56:43 > 0:56:46in shaping the answer to the question, who were the Greeks?
0:56:53 > 0:56:55The Greeks gave us some amazing legacies,
0:56:55 > 0:56:59things we can't imagine living without today.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02Because of their brilliance and appeal to societies ever since,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04their genius is still all around us.
0:57:04 > 0:57:10Their legacy is so strong that, in a way, I believe we are all Greeks.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14And when we trace these legacies back to the people who created them,
0:57:14 > 0:57:19we find an unexpectedly large, diverse and interconnected world.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22We find a people propelled by good strife,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25to reach ever-greater creative achievements.
0:57:25 > 0:57:29A people who never stopped asking why.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32But they also challenge some of our strongest preconceptions
0:57:32 > 0:57:35about their world and our own.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37They painted their sculptures in vibrant colours,
0:57:37 > 0:57:39they could be violent and cruel
0:57:39 > 0:57:42and they refused to put anyone on a pedestal.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48Without doubt, the ancient Greek world has had a major impact
0:57:48 > 0:57:52on our own, but its legacy has also been a movable feast,
0:57:52 > 0:57:54because of the way that every generation
0:57:54 > 0:57:57has reformulated and recast it.
0:57:57 > 0:57:58And that makes ancient Greece
0:57:58 > 0:58:02the perfect combination of icon and enigma.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05And that, for me, is what's so unique about their legacy.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08Asking who were the Greeks means asking who we are,
0:58:08 > 0:58:13and stops us from becoming too comfortable in the answer,
0:58:13 > 0:58:15and that can only be a good thing.
0:58:43 > 0:58:46Subtitles by Red Bee Media