Today the Greek Thing has become a sort of shorthand. Professor Richard Miles, Ancient Worlds III: The Greek Thing, BBC 2010
The Greeks reconnected with the modern world of the late iron age. ibid.
The city state or polis was a remarkably flexible concept. ibid.
Passions inside the city state ran high. ibid.
This is Olympia. Home of the famous games. There was nothing playful about what went on here ... The Greeks have always played to win. ibid.
The Greeks seemed prepared to try any system. ibid.
Sparta was the strangest test-tube in the whole laboratory. ibid.
Thirteen years of savage training to prepare them for their vacation as warriors. ibid.
The wealth gap was becoming so great it was affecting the unity and stability of Athens. ibid.
Cleistenes called his reforms ... equality before the law. ibid.
Sparta mistrusted Athenian democracy. ibid.
It was said that after the Persian Wars Sparta slept. ibid.
The Peloponnesian War lasted longer than the Trojan conflict. ibid.
Alexander the Great would carry the Greek Thing forward. ibid.
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world. Socrates
Nobody can say a word against Greek: it stamps a man at once as an educated gentlemen. George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara
Let there be light! said Liberty,
And like sunrise from the sea,
Athens arose! Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hellas 1822
When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch’s statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty to learn Greek. I am amazed no longer. Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they take so long. Groucho Marx
Cold is the heart, fair Greece! that looks on thee,
Nor feels as lovers o’er the dust they loved;
Dull is the eye that will not weep to see
Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
By British hands. Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth!
Immortal, though no more! though fallen, great! ibid.
And thus they form a group that’s quite antique,
Half naked, loving, natural, and Greek. Lord Byron, Don Juan
The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!
When burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set! ibid.
The mountains look on Marathon –
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dreamed that Greece might still be free. ibid.
The Greeks were gods! The Greeks were gods! Henry Fuseli, 1741-1825, on first seeing Parthenon marbles
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence, native to famous wits
Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,
City or suburban, studious walks and shades;
See there the olive grove of Academe,
Plato’s retirement, where the Attic bird
Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long. John Milton, Paradise Regained 4:240
Nor can I do better, in conclusion, than impress upon you the study of Greek literature, which not only elevates above the vulgar herd, but leads not infrequently to positions of considerable emolument. Thomas Gaisford, English classicist
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, 1820
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter. ibid.
For ever piping songs for ever new. ibid.
For ever warm and still to be enjoyed,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue. ibid.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green alter, O mysterious priest,
Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands dressed,
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? ibid.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. ibid.
But for mine own part, it was Greek to me. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar I ii 283-284, Casca to Cassius & Brutus
I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat. Winston Churchill
Yet for centuries not just ordinary people ... struggled up here in search of answers to their most puzzling questions. Fundamentally, they came here to ask the Oracle of Apollo about the future. But however unwelcome, unhelpful, indeed awful those responses were, they kept coming. Why? Michael Scott, Delphi: The Bellybutton of the Ancient World, BBC 2010
Perhaps the most important international event at Delphi was the Athletic festival called the Pythian Games. It took place every four years and rivalled the Olympics. ibid.
Delphi was the Greek world’s notice board. ibid.
Success allowed the Athenians to decorate their city with some of the most beautiful buildings the world has ever seen, and to fund a political system whose ideals we still live by today ... The idea that votes, not wealth or breeding, should determine politics. ibid.
The Speaker’s podium still survives. ibid.
It was the Athenian democracy that ran the oppressive Athenian empire. ibid.
The Athenian expansion was underpinned by the Athenian fleet. ibid.
Part of a collection of some of the most wondrous luxuries the world has ever seen. Dr Michael Scott, Guilty Pleasures I: Luxury in Ancient Greece: Nothing in Excess BBC 2013
An idyll that touches on democracy, patriotism, on social harmony and epic courage, and even on the divine … Luxury is a rare thing … The haves and the have-nots. ibid.
Luxury as political propaganda. ibid.
A serious danger of civil unrest. Or even revolution. ibid.
The birth of democracy and a new role for luxury ... Led by a man called Cleisthenes, invoked the mass of the people, to break the power of its enemies ... The rule of the people: one man one vote ... Democracy was established in Athens in 508 B.C. ibid.
The Acropolis was rebuilt. ibid.
Perecles’ play: The Persians [luxurious and decadent]. ibid.
We’re off to Sparta: ’cause luxury was an issue there too. ibid.
Sparta was very different from Athens. ibid.
Sparta had no city walls. ibid.
Sparta was organised for war. ibid.
By the end of the fifth century the Spartan military machine dominated mainland Greece. ibid.
The remains of ancient Sparta are not impressive. ibid.
This Spartan stoicism even extended beyond death. ibid.
Inverted minimalist luxury. ibid.
Language, Literature, Art, Philosophy, Politics, Architecture, Sport, Culture - the very bones and sinews, muscles, lifeblood, of our modern world are often said to be indebted to the Ancient Greeks. Michael Scott, Who Were the Greeks? BBC 2013
A patchwork of thousands of small territories. ibid.
An ancient well full of baby bones has been discovered. ibid.
Older man/younger boy relationships were celebrated in ancient Greece. ibid.