Spawforth T. What the Greeks Did for Us

Monograph. — New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2023. — X, 335 p.An enjoyable, accessible exploration of the legacy of ancient Greece today, across our daily lives and all forms of popular culture.Athens and Sparta may not be uppermost in the minds of most people going about daily life in the twenty-first century. That said, there are many around the world who may be channelling the ancient Greeks more or less unawares – using words derived from the Ancient Greek language, watching modern Olympic sports, playing a video game set in ‘ancient Greece’ with a name like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and so on. This book seeks to track down the ways in which something as old and seemingly outdated as ancient Greece does, indeed, still have something ‘to do’ with us.For this book, the emphasis on the present day is key. Already in their ancient heyday, the Greeks had created a civilisation that made a big impression on neighbours. The pièce de résistance of a small museum in eastern France is a fancy bronze bowl over five feet high. Archaeologists found it in the burial mound of a high-status Celtic woman who had died around 500 Bc. This breathtaking vessel, with its appliqué bronze figures of Greek soldiers and chariots, was made in a smithy in ancient Greece. It had travelled perhaps up to 1,500 miles before finally becoming the deceased’s prize possession.Our contemporary world is inescapably Greek. Whether in a word like “pandemic,” a Freudian state of mind like the “Oedipus complex,” or a replica of the Parthenon in a Chinese theme park, ancient Greek culture shapes the contours of our lives. Ever since the first Roman imitators, we have been continually falling under the Greeks’ spell.But how did ancient Greece spread its influence so far and wide? And how has this influence changed us?Tony Spawforth explores our classical heritage, wherever it’s to be found. He reveals its legacy in everything from religion to popular culture, and unearths the darker side of Greek influence—from the Nazis’ obsession with Spartan “racial purity” to the elitism of classical education. Paying attention to the huge breadth and variety of Hellenic influence, this book paints an essential portrait of the ancient world’s living legacy—considering to whom it matters, and why.Prologue. What did the Greeks do for us?
Back to the Greeks.
Political animals.
People (un)like us.
The invention of sex.
Word of mouth.
In pursuit of wisdom.
Facts and alternative facts.
Poetry matters.
The gospel truth.
Greek beauty.
Perfect buildings?
Greeks on screen.
Sporty Greeks.
Greeks on stage.
Epilogue.