News Hit

The main founders of knowledge and ideas in contemporary western society were none other than the Ancient Greeks. Everyone today aims to be more westernized because of many things, mainly because Westernized societies have more civil and personal freedom. The Greeks have contributed much towards Western civilization and culture including: the idea of humans being “rational animals”, common humanity, sex being dangerous and irrational, women’s rights, debates on slavery, the destruction of war, and many more that will be covered.

Probably the most important thing the Greeks have taught us is the untrustworthiness of human nature in general. The Greeks were very accepting towards foreigners, their historian Herodotus may even have been considered “foreigner-lover”. They enjoyed learning and exchanging ideas with people. They borrowed Phoenician style of writing and used Phoenician consonant letters to signify vowel sounds, this way allowing people to write more expressively and include more complex ideas. Without this change, we wouldn’t have poets like Homer or Sappho. They also discovered how important freedom is, starting from property owning. Freedom is crucial to happiness. Rationalism and science are both very great achievements of the Greeks and will be covered in more details later on. They had the idea of humans possessing innate rights simply for being humans and thinking of themselves all united instead of united tribally. This idea of humans being “rational animals” and there being a “common humanity” helped contribute to the present day end of slavery and women’s rights. The Greeks began the spirit of criticism, first with Socrates who believes that the “unexamined life is not worth living” and died for his belief. However, because of his martyrdom many philosophers were able to come out through Plato’s school. Even today, the “Socratic method” is still in use in courtrooms where lawyers question the defendant and eventually find him guilty or not guilty.

The Greeks were also the first to describe sex as dangerous and irrational, not like man. Plato described the soul as having two components, “passion” as a beast and reason as man. If the beast is corrupted, “they will bite and struggle and devour one another”. This leads to the destruction of the soul. They created the idea of how “love-making” is similar to a disease which is capable of driving people to the brink of insanity.

Furthermore Greeks are considered the inventors of the “worship of male beauty and youth”. The Greeks attempted to explain where homosexuality and heterosexuality come from as well through Aristophanes’ “Symposium”. They tried to explain it by saying that people are born either heterosexual or homosexual. Some philosophers also try to explain it as a habit or from nature. Interesting that in our modern society, we still use their argument to prove homosexuality, except now we can actually prove it by looking into genes and having real solid proof. Not that they fully accepted this behavior, some of them saw it as abnormal.

The Greeks came up with the idea of controlling sexual desires through marriage, where a woman is treated like soil. The man plants his seed inside the soil and it is up to the woman to fertilize the soil and help it grow. So technically, the mother is not a parent but simply the person who takes care of the new seed. Meanwhile the father is the true parent of the child that sprouts from the womb of the woman.

Today people use sex to sell products to people from music videos to cars. The Greeks were all well aware of the power of sex; therefore they put limits on it with not allowing a man who has done pederasty to enter the political office. Because if he does, it means that he is not able to resist his own passion. This can eventually lead to self gain but the tearing down of one’s country. "The man who will abandon his body to shameful pleasures will sell out his country as well".

The period known as the “Reign of the Phallus” originated with the Greeks who oppressed their women, not allowing them to vote even though they have a democratic political system. Even so, philosophers like Plato and Cleanthes have been debating about whether women should have equal rights as men. In many places all over the world, women didn’t get the privilege of having the same rights as men. However, we could say that it is also thanks to the Greeks that women in many places now have equal rights as men. Plato said that if we only use half of the population to its fullest potential, then we’re only reaching half of the city’s potential. If we have both men and female work, then we are reaching our full potential for success in the city. Plus, it doesn’t require more cost or any special sacrifices. It is the Greeks who first questioned whether women should or should not have same rights as men. They made plays of women acting boldly like a man, for example Aristophanes’ Lysistrata who organized a sex strike with all the wives in Athens to force men into ending the Peloponnesian war. To organize a strike like this requires a lot of skill and talent that only men are suppose to possess. But in this play, they allow women to have the upper hand. Such open mindedness hasn’t been seen anywhere else other than in Greek during the ancient times.

In the ancient world, slavery is practiced almost everywhere even in Greece. The difference between slavery in Greece and slavery in America is that there doesn’t necessarily have to be a difference in skin color. Greeks sell Greeks into slavery, it can also be family selling their child or a person selling himself. Most of the time, slaves come from the defeated city in war. In Greece, they also treated their slaves less cruel than in America. Slaves in ancient Greece were also more educated and some worked as skilled craftsmen or even tutors! Famous slave tutors have taught their master’s sons, shaping their characters. American slaves do not have the privilege of any such right.

From what I can see, Greek slaves have more of a normal way of life in ancient society. They did not seem to be discriminated as much as American slaves. A possibility for this could be that because the slaves are phsically similar to the owener, therefore the owner feels a certain soft spot for the slave after a period of time. Unlike in America, the slaves were slaves because they could not match with the western military weapons. In the ancient days, all these cities were pretty much equal in terms of their weaponry. There isn’t too great of a gap when it comes to weapon and agriculture. The Greeks continued to have slaves throughout their time. Even so, they were open to discussion on whether there should be slaves or not. The philosopher Dio Chrysostom wrote a dialogue between a slave and a freeman. Where the slave throws out intelligent reasons why there should be slavery. This doesn’t happen anywhere else, but possibly because in other places like Egypt, they had one ruler who was supposedly god. So we should not question what god says, if he says it is so, then it must be so. Unlike in Greece where they have a democracy, this system proves to work very well in spreading around new ideas. This sort of attitude that the Greeks have, has led us down the path towards eventually abolishing slavery.

On the topic of war, the Greeks after extensive analysis came to the conclusion that war is evil and destructive. It is actually surprising that no other empires realized this. Perhaps they did but record it. There is a large amount of evidence that shows us that the kings during this time enjoyed boasting about their wars. Like how the Egyptian pharaohs carved it into their walls. There was even an inscription found of an Assyrian king who boasted about skinning people. In Comparison to that, the Greeks seem pretty civilized. So can we say that the Greeks invented the term “civil”? Civilized people should not enjoy things like slaughtering and impaling people. The Greeks learnt to make a decision about whether the motive for the war is clear and correct. Not just an angry man being irrational because of a woman maybe, like Troy. That king caused many deaths due to his selfishness over a woman, Greeks learned to avoid starting a war for something like that. In clearer terms, the Greeks are more sensible in their decisions, leading future civilizations to be more and more sensible as well.

The typical form of government in the ancient days would be one man declaring to be the only ruler, chosen by god or is god. And no other man can talk back to him because he has the power to do whatever he wants; this is an example of the way Xerxes, a Persian king thought. The Greeks however, were wise enough not to leave so much power under one man but to divide it among many. The Greeks contributed to our present day government system where the president has a lot of power but not all the power. It is divided between the Judicial, Legislative and Executive branch of government. The Greeks started the idea of human rights by allowing all men alike no matter the class or wealth to vote or sign up for political office. The power of the government is governed by law, institutions and offices and not merely man. I believe this is because the Greeks know that this is the best idea for people to live like free men. Without law, the ruler will be controlled by his own thirst for power and desires.

When it comes to different inventions like the Egyptians invented geometry or the Babylonians inventing astronomy, none of them came up with these because of science but because of problems at hand. Unlike the Greeks who strive to find the best explanation for a theory that perhaps someone else already explained. Then they must try to disprove this theory or question it to make sure it’s a good one. With all this questioning and critiquing of theories and ideas, we arrive today with good solid science that explains much of our natural world from the weather to dealing with illnesses. The Greeks search for a rational explanation for all the problems that come around. They can be given credit for contributing to a godless world.

As mentioned earlier, the Greeks are were successful when it came to solving problems and providing a rational explanation for these problems. So even though the Egyptians and Babylonians knew about the Pythagorean formula, they bother to prove it. The result of this is the Pythagorean formula being named after Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher who found a proof. The Greeks are good with abstract thinking, like in Sophocles’ Oedipus, where Oedipus is a good riddle solver. The riddle the Sphinx gave out shows a deep understanding of human’s limits. This story of Oedipus shows us that if we truly want to know what kind of person we are, it can be horrifying. Because we as human beings, have a destructive nature that is difficult to control, like what Phaedra says about lusting after her stepson Hippolytus “We know the good and recognize it, but we cannot accomplish it.” This actually sounds like something from the bible. But the Greeks have already thought of it and understood it.

The voice of freedom is a huge part of our lives today, thanks to the Greeks. They made it known to all that freedom is worth fighting and dying for. Freedom is not being controlled by another empire, not being somebody else’s slave and having a chance to be part of the political government. In most areas of the ancient Mediterranean, people are enslaved by their own king. Only a king has complete freedom, being able to take his subject’s life at will. This is known as being “politically enslaved”. The Greeks did not know of this until the Persian war when they rejected the Persian King as ruler. Aristotle notes down how the “barbarians” differentiate with the Greeks through worshipping their king and being slaves to him, there was no such thing in Greece. The Greeks also learned that this sort of strategy is no good in war. Free soldiers make better soldiers. They learned this through observing how the Persian captains would whip their soldiers into fighting the battle because the soldiers didn’t have the spirit to fight. While the Spartans stand tall and bravely against the Persian army even if they are outnumbered. This is why we have the Greeks to thank for imprinting the idea of a free society for later civilizations to come.

In conclusion, I believe that we must thank the Greeks for their critical spirits and curiosity in questioning everything around them. It is only through this process that humanity were able to find solid evidence that illnesses could be cured with certain medicine and not praying to the gods in the temples. Debates about women’s rights or in general, human rights were brought up because of the Greeks. The idea of not leaving power to one man but let it be governed by laws, institution and offices makes up our political system today. This is due to their realization of man being easily controlled by his passions. The term “civil” can also be deterred from the Greeks, they were the first to realize how evil and horrifying war can be. All in all, the Greeks have contributed much knowledge and ideas into our present day society.