Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

The Impact of Ancient Greece on Modern Culture 307
Cacoyannis’s film version of Euripides’ Trojan Women (1971) was a
condemnation of both the Greek junta and the Vietnam War; Seamus
Heaney’s adaptation of Sophocles’ Philoktetes entitled The Cure
at Troy (1990) was critical of the culture of violence in Northern Ireland;
and Ariane Mnouchkine’s adaptation of Aeschylus’s Oresteia
entitled Les Atrides offered a feminist interpretation of the trilogy.
THE CONTINUING CLASSICAL TRADITION
Whether we like it or not, it is virtually impossible to shake off the
influence of our classical past. It is evident in our way of thinking,
in our concept of government and political theory, in our aesthetic
judgment, in our architecture, in our science and mathematics, in
our medical tradition, and in our literature. In some branches of
learning, its influence remains paramount. In philosophy its legacy
is overwhelming. In the writing of history we remain dependent on
our classical antecedents—notably Herodotos and Thukydides—
who established the proper business of a historian. We could even
claim that with Herodotos came the birth of anthropology, since the
criteria for cultural differences that he established—style of dress,
eating habits, burial customs, language, religion, and so on—remain
at the center of any anthropological definition of the Other.
Over the past two hundred years, Greek words have been imported
into the English language in vast quantities to describe new fields
of inquiry and new scientific accomplishments. Modernity and the
modern experience have been described and defined very largely
by words of Greek origin. Examples include psychiatry, paranoia,
schizophrenia, ophthalmology, euthanasia, pornography, cybernetics,
cryogenics, eugenics, prosthetics, chemotherapy, orthodontics,
pediatrics, pedagogy, and technology.
The Greek Revival in Architecture
What we call neoclassicism, so-named because it draws its inspiration
from Greek architectural motifs and principles, was largely
initiated by two Britons: the painter James Stuart and the architect
Nicholas Revett. The pair visited Athens from 1751 to 1753 and produced
detailed drawings of the buildings on the Acropolis, which
they published in 1762 in volume 1 of Antiquities of Athens. These
drawings later served as the basis of design for many important
buildings, including the British Museum. Stuart and Revett were
among the first Europeans to associate Athenian democracy with