Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

310 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
roots. Examples include leôphoreion, literally “people- transporter,”
meaning bus, and nosokomeion, literally “sickness-tending-place,”
meaning hospital. Katharevousa remained the official language
of Greece until 1976, when it was replaced by demotic, which had
never died out. (The reason for the change at this date was that
katharevousa had become associated with the junta that had ruled
Greece from 1967 to 1976 and was thus discredited.)
Greece’s past continues to haunt, even to shape, contemporary
politics, not least through the medium of archaeology. As mentioned
in chapter 1, a Greek archaeologist named Manolis Andronikos
discovered a tomb at Vergina in Macedonia that is thought to
have been that of Philip II. To the Greeks, Andronikos’s discovery
proved that the region of Macedonia was exclusively Greek in character.
This was contrary to the claim made by the predominantly
Slavic Republic of Macedonia, whose appropriation of the name
Macedonia caused deep offence to the Greeks when the state was
established in 1977 on the breakup of Yugoslavia. “We have lost the
shield of Macedonia,” declared Prime Minister Konstantin Mitsotakis
at Andronikos’s funeral, indicating how centrally archaeology
figures in matters of cultural heritage. The dispute about the
name still awaits full resolution and is an ongoing irritant to the
Greeks.
Postmodern Architecture
Postmodernism, the term often used to describe the prevailing
cultural climate, signifies in effect a return to and reworking of classicism,
following the rejection of the past, as exemplified by the preceding
movement known as modernism. One of the most important
skyscrapers to be erected in New York City in recent years is the
AT&T Building, now owned by Sony, which was erected in 1984.
Designed by U.S. architect Philip Johnson, it is topped by a broken
pediment that is inspired by the designs of the eighteenth-century
English furniture maker Thomas Chippendale, who was himself
inspired by the design of a classical temple.
A more literal example of the influence of Greek architecture is
the reconstructed Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. Built of concrete
and gravel from the Potomac River, it is an exact copy of the
Athenian original. In 1990, it acquired a forty-foot-high replica of
the gold and ivory statue of Athene by Pheidias, made out of concrete
and fiberglass. As Umberto Eco has said, “The post-modern
reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it