Lord Elgin took about half of the marble sculptures that survived on the Parthenon. ibid.
An act of wholesale plunder. ibid.
17th September 1802 The Mentor hit a rock in a storm and sank. She was carrying seventeen cases of marbles including fourteen pieces of the frieze. ibid.
To Byron, Elgin was a despoiler of Greece’s proud heritage. ibid.
The controversy caused by Elgin’s actions was only just beginning. ibid.
[Melina] Mercouri’s campaign in the 1980s took the issue of the Marbles’ return to an international level. ibid.
Aristotle – the man who gave us logic, poetics, political philosophy and ... the natural world. Professor Armand Leroi, Aristotle's Lagoon, BBC 2013
For me, science is an endless conversation about the world. ibid.
It’s the beginning of the great classifications we know today. ibid.
He invents a new way of understanding the world. ibid.
He has Darwin’s sense of how creatures are fitting to the environments in which they live. ibid.
Off the southern coast of mainland Greece lie the ruins of a city founded over five thousand years ago. This city thrived for two thousand years during the time that saw the birth of Western civilisation. But then the city vanished, consumed by the sea. City Beneath the Waves: Pavlopetri, BBC 2011
Thought to be the oldest submerged city in the world. ibid.
It laid forgotten under the waves for three thousand years when it was discovered purely by chance. ibid.
The whole pantheon of gods that we have in ancient Greece consists of nothing else but flesh and blood extraterrestrials who were misinterpreted as being these divine creatures by our ancestors. Giorgio Tsoukalos, editor Legendary Times magazine
And it happened, after that Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came out of the land of Chettiim, had smitten Darius king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first over Greece. I Maccabees 1:1
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. Acts 17:22
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;
Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.
Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:
So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.
And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Acts 19:24-28
Ancient Greeks kept their women indoors. Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, Sex and the Church I: From Pleasure to Sin, BBC 2015
It was the ancient Greeks who shaped our ideas of what art should look like. No other civilisation has played such an important role in creating our vision of artistic perfection of beauty, of realism. Alastair Sooke, Treasures of Ancient Greece I, BBC 2015
Mycenae and other kingdoms across the Mediterranean rapidly fell apart ushering in a new age characterised by hardship, pain and grief. ibid.
A sharp contrast with the arts of a hundred years before: movement, psychological tension, expression and a sense of drama. Alastair Sooke, Treasures of Ancient Greece II
The classical style had arrived, and would become the bedrock of Western art. ibid.
The art of the ancient Greeks has dazzled the world. With their mastery of technique and their fascination for the human form they reach new heights of beauty and sophistication. Alastair Sooke, Treasures of Ancient Greece III
The Renaissance saw Greek art rediscovered, celebrated and reborn through a new generation. ibid.
In its place he [Hitler] commissioned state-sponsored Greek-style art. Most have now been destroyed. ibid.
The Greeks were passionate about mathematics ... They gave us the power of proof. Professor Marcus du Sautoy, The Story of Maths I
Pythagoras is a controversial figure. ibid.
Experimenting with a stringed instrument Pythagoras discovered that the intervals between harmonious musical notes were always represented by whole number ratios. ibid.
The Academy: Plato founded this school in Athens in 387 B.C. ibid.
We know very little about Euclid’s life, but his greatest achievements were as a chronicler of mathematics. Around 300 B.C. he wrote the most important text-book of all time: The Elements. ibid.
Hypatia was exceptional – a female mathematician ... She was in fact a brilliant theorist and teacher. ibid.
For thousands of years ancient myths have told of gods who came down from the heavens. Who were these mystical beings that ruled the skies with their supernatural powers? Ancient Aliens s2e2: Gods & Aliens, History 2011
Mount Olympus: According to ancient myths it was the home of the gods. And it was here that Zeus presided on his throne determining the fate of ordinary men. Iibid.
If Mount Olympus was home to alien visitors, was Zeus their leader? ibid.
One of the most important Greek gods is Apollo who rode the skies in his chariot of fire. ibid.
Norse legends record the triumphs of great warriors with advanced weaponry, sophisticated combat techniques and navigational prowess. Like the Greeks, Norse mythology recounts supernatural beings, other worlds and powerful gods. ibid.
Such similarities are not limited to the Greek and Norse myths. In India the ancient epic of the Maharbarata describes visitations from God who possess the advanced technology of space travel. ibid.
But technology was not the only characteristic these ancient deities had in common. According to legends the gods enjoyed intimate relations with humans. If aliens chose human women as their sexual partners, what was their motivations? And what was the outcome of these very close encounters? ibid.
Ancient myths are full of stories of gods descending to Earth to mate with humans. ibid.
Ancient Greek artefacts depict terrifying beasts such as the Gorgon, the Hydra, and the ferocious Cerberus. Ancient Aliens s3e2: Aliens and Monsters, History 2011
These Mycenaen fortifications were thought to be the work of a strong one-eyed race of giants known as the Cyclops. Ancient Aliens s2e6: Alien Tech
He [Socrates] was the soldier whose bravery in battle was matched by the inflammatory courage of his ideas. Bettany Hughes, Socrates: Genius of the Ancient World, BBC 2015
A cradle of civilisation, the Greeks of the ancient world hothoused everything from democracy to medicine. A Greek Odyssey with Bettany Hughes, Channel 5 2020
Odysseus: a legendary warrior whose cunning won the Trojan war. After the victory there begins a long journey home to the far west of Greece across these seas. His story – The Odyssey – is a brilliant tale of triumph over adversity and danger, inspiring books, movies and adventures. ibid.
A place full of mystery and wonder and tens of thousands of years of history and human experience. A Greek Odyssey with Bettany Hughes II
I’m following the trail of Odysseus who we’re told journeyed from the battlefields of Troy in what’s now Turkey back home to the Island of Ithaca in the far west of Greece. ibid.
Delos: ruins right across this island – it’s Greece’s greatest outdoor archaeological museum. ibid.
Santorini – Thera to the ancient Greeks – where I discover the island’s deadly volcano and the story of the lost city of Atlantis. The most southern of the Aegean Cycladic islands, it’s a place of myth, fire and brimstone. A Greek Odyssey with Bettany Hughes III