What is so significant about the ways in which the ancient Greeks lived?

Question

My Lecturer, is an enthusiast, about the Ancient Greeks. I know that she is a feminist: talks constantly about Mary wollencraft(spelling) etc. she has also openly told the class that she is permiscious etc...
pupil colleagues suggests that she is a lesbian(not so sure)
I am just trying to give a background, so that the question gets answered.
what would you suggest about a person who supported the views of the ancient Greeks?

Answer 1

Lots of people are big fans of the ancient Greeks, and I don't think it matters whether that person is a feminist lesbian or a straight-laced conservative, because as it just so happens, we've got quite a lot to thank the Greeks for.

Why are they significant?

For a start democracy evolved in ancient Greece, as did Philosophy, Maths and Science. The Greeks were also the guys who brought theatre to the world and poetry. Architecture is still influenced by Greek architecture (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns) and Greek sculpture stressed ideals of beauty and as such is still much admired to the present day. Furthermore, a surprising number of English words come from Greek roots, for example, cinema and agnostic.

The first men to ever write down history were also Greeks.

Of course, the ancient Greeks also instituted the Olympics which may have been Greek games in the ancient times, but which have been resurrected in recent times and are the most important sporting event of our times.

Furthermore, Greek thinking in various guises continues to haunt us. Their philosophy and ideas are still floating around in our collective subconscious, and even if you've never read a Greek text in your life, you can bet that someone who has had an influence on you has read one that influenced them and by default, you. Sometimes this influence comes screaming out at us, such as Freud's Oedipus Complex theory...yup, Oedipus is a Greek myth and the topic of a Greek tragedy.

Furthermore, the Greeks profoundly influenced the Romans, and the Romans influenced us. Check out the figure of Britannia on a 50p piece. The depiction of Britannia can be traced back to ancient Greek depictions of the goddess Athena. In fact, while we're on that subject, we can thank the Greeks for coinage, full stop, actually.

Basically, if it hadn't been for the ancient Greeks the world, especially Europe, would be nothing like what it is today. The influenced a huge range of our thoughts and instituted many things that we still hold dear to our hearts today. We owe them a huge debt, and that is why the way they lived was so significant.

Answer 2

Ancient Greeks had the most advance civilization so long ago 3000 years. You see they had the well fare to be able to get involved with other matters than how to survive. Mathematics, Philosophy, Democracy, Physics. It is so weird how could someone 2000 years ago comprehend matter as a mass of atoms. There would be no Enlightenment with the ancient Greeks the basis of our culture is found in their culture. They were simply significant. But the most amazing thing is that the are still significant because always when someone talk about them is only to praise or accuse. And that is the exactly the same thing that is with all the subjects of a serious matter e.g. war, Darwin, Freud...

Answer 3

Not entirely sure about the right answer to give in this matter, but why would she be disclosing the fact that she is permiscious??? she should have just sent out invitations and see if she got a response!!
That is so bad on the teacher - pupil professionalism though, and she would probably get the sack if found out. Sorry i couldn't help anymore

Answer 4

Are you asking about your lecturer or about greeks?
Why judge people based on labels?

Hitler were a quit streight man, religious and always within right side of the law. Kennedy or Churchill had a lot of problems and were such lmeadres.
We can use same parameter about Einstein (terrible husband) and Da Vinci (Homosexual).

Your question is linked to Behavior and not history. It should be in another yahoo answers section.

By the way, greeks had many different viwes; You can get Sparta and Athenes. You have beautiful ideas as a Democracy, discourse, theatre, mathematics and many other great ideas and thinkers as a Plato and Aristoteles. Well evolved before all this culture being smashed by 1000 years of darkness.

Understand culture is better than judge it.

Answer 5

I try to take a non-eurocentric approach when it comes to civilizations because there are always two sides. She probably only supports the 70 or so years when Athens was at its high point, which was wonderful time because of the advances in spirtual and artistic matters. Even so, athens was by no means in any kind of good shape, Socrates hated the government system in Greece. Someone who idolizes past civilizations probably lives in some kind of fantasy world and I would be weary. Day dreamers are usually very intelligent, however, their grip on reality is usually skewed.

Answer 6

It wasn't so much the gods they worshipped or their sexual proclivities that makes your lecturer a fan. It was how they thought! Ancient Greek philosophy is the entire basis of western thinking and science.

Not so long ago, there used to be a professor of philosophy at Oxford who refused to teach anything else but Greek philosophy. He said the rest were merely footnotes.

Answer 7

The ancient Greeks had a very organised and intellectual society which was civilised ahead of it's time, they also had much more liberal attitudes to sex and sexuality than we recognise today.
It was quiet the thing for older men and older women to adopt adoloscents of the same gender to teach them matters of culture and sex. It was not unheard of for these relationships to involve sexual activity and the older person was often married or what we would indentify as "straight" in our modern world.
It doesn't surprise me that your lecturer values such a culture so highly when the values of that society sound similair to her own. I'm not judging her in saying that, each to their own ofcourse.
Ancient Greek society has a lot to teach us but like any social structure, it was far from perfect.

Answer 8

Many people admire the Ancient Greeks for their love of learning, their advanced culture and the fact that they were the origin of much of western philosophy and science as well as the birthplace of democracy.

I don't think your lecturer's lifestyle and views have any particular relevance here.

Answer 9

Most people who didn't have to live through it hanker after some kind of 'good old days'.
The period of the Golden Age of Greek civilization (based in Athens) did seem to have a lot going for it.

There are plenty of references in Wikipedia.

Answer 10

I think the neolithic henges scattered around Europe equally as interesting. Time when we interacted with our environment in a more in depth way. I disagree with the world view of the classic era, in entirety. But,we would not have the West without out the classical era's "logic" mixed with Christianity's liberal out look, then mixed with the Scientific Method. The classical era's way of thinking is seriously out-dated when compared to post-modernism/post-structuralism.