the ancient Greeks were known for the
revolutionary politics and
groundbreaking ways of thinking and are
called the fathers of Western
civilization but how much about them do
you actually know welcome to
watchmojo.com
we’re counting down the five most
fascinating things that you probably
didn’t know about the ancient Greeks
spark tags what is your profession
number five ancient Greece wasn’t a
country but a group of city-states a
common misconception is that ancient
Greece was one unified country sorry to
burst your bubble but nope ancient
Greece was actually comprised of many
city-states called Peleus you’ve heard
of places like Athens Sparta Corinth and
Thebes saddle up kid we’re going to
Thebes these were all ancient Greek city
states these Peleus were typically small
in terms of population in size and
essentially like individual countries
that only housed one city each because
of this each paula’s had its own
judicial political legal and currency
systems which like we said basically
made them independent countries despite
these differences though the pelea
shared some common features like
language and broadly speaking religious
beliefs which helped establish a
connection and political alliances
between the states even so Greece as we
know it today did not exist
number four Western literature began in
ancient Greece as did pretty much
everything Western really okay
now name three things the Greeks did
Forks do you enjoy reading books
watching movies or even reciting the
alphabet well you can thank the ancient
Greeks they place considerable emphasis
on both the written word and drama he’s
making the story sound like some Greek
tragedy in fact according to historians
the Western literary tradition began
with Homer when the poet or collection
of poets is unbeliev created the
timeless works the Iliad and the Odyssey
this war will never be forgotten nor
will the heroes who fight in it as
evidenced by the myriad Greek
amphitheaters that still stand
we can also surmise that the Greeks love
them some drama
make sense they basically invented the
format produced enduring works of art in
both comedy and tragedy oh and the
English language itself what English
mother do you speak it yep that pretty
much started with the ancient Greeks –
they were the first to introduce vowels
to written language giving rise to the
Latin alphabet and the languages that
subsequently stemmed from it give me
award an award and I show you how the
root of that word is Greek number three
ancient Greeks were weirdly obsessed
with a good beard ever notice that like
every Buster statue of an ancient Greek
man is rocking a long curly beard ever
wonder why it’s not because they didn’t
have razors the ancient Greeks saw the
beard as a representation of masculinity
I’m sure conversely they saw a smooth
cleanly shaved face as feminine what’s
more a healthy beard was also a sign of
intelligence and philosophers like
Socrates and Plato believed that a long
beard was actually discharged from an
overcrowded brain it wasn’t until
Alexander the Great came along that
shaving was encouraged but even then it
wasn’t an aesthetic thing it was because
Macedonian soldiers had been killed in
battle after being grabbed by their
beards I don’t like his beard what
number two ancient Greece produced some
all-time geniuses you’re back damn thing
we’re assuming that not every citizen of
ancient Greece turned out to be a beacon
revolutionary ideas truth is though
civilization produced many geniuses that
helped give rise to modern knowledge in
school for those of the male persuasion
whose families could afford it anyway
boys were taught the fundamentals of
reading and writing but also studied
musical instruments and advanced topics
like geometry and astronomy
aside from philosophers like Plato and
Socrates these schools also produce some
other fantastic Minds such as the
astronomer mathematician and geographer
Eratosthenes who miraculously gave a
nearly accurate figure of the Earth’s
circumference by comparing the length of
shadows at different latitudes
so point being ancient Greece had its
fair share of smartypants just mugged
enough for a girl OH
you think you’re smarter than me ah
number one ancient Greek democracy was
very different from our own ancient
Greeks were the architects of democracy
and Athens was its birthplace however
the political system was far different
from our own most modern societies
practice a representative democracy
where citizens elect officials to make
most of the decisions the Greeks
practice direct democracy where they cut
out the middleman and vote on issues
themselves there are reasons the system
has rarely been used since ancient
Greece to start it takes a lot of time
to attend debates and votes so eligible
citizens needed free time to focus on
politics there is a lot of stuff in here
it there’s a lot of interesting thanks
Athenian citizens had free time because
slavery they had lots of slaves also we
said eligible citizens for them that
only meant males over the age of 18 with
an athenian heritage that’s oddly
specific the vast majority of people in
Athens had no say in how the place was
run so while Athens is credited as the
birthplace of democracy and some of its
elements are similar to today’s
political systems modern democracy is a
very different institution for better or
worse so which of these facts surprised
you the most and would you want to hop
in a time machine and check out the
culture for yourself for more
philosophizing top 10s and luscious
curly top fives be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com
there will be yours all time
revolutionary politics and
groundbreaking ways of thinking and are
called the fathers of Western
civilization but how much about them do
you actually know welcome to
watchmojo.com
we’re counting down the five most
fascinating things that you probably
didn’t know about the ancient Greeks
spark tags what is your profession
number five ancient Greece wasn’t a
country but a group of city-states a
common misconception is that ancient
Greece was one unified country sorry to
burst your bubble but nope ancient
Greece was actually comprised of many
city-states called Peleus you’ve heard
of places like Athens Sparta Corinth and
Thebes saddle up kid we’re going to
Thebes these were all ancient Greek city
states these Peleus were typically small
in terms of population in size and
essentially like individual countries
that only housed one city each because
of this each paula’s had its own
judicial political legal and currency
systems which like we said basically
made them independent countries despite
these differences though the pelea
shared some common features like
language and broadly speaking religious
beliefs which helped establish a
connection and political alliances
between the states even so Greece as we
know it today did not exist
number four Western literature began in
ancient Greece as did pretty much
everything Western really okay
now name three things the Greeks did
Forks do you enjoy reading books
watching movies or even reciting the
alphabet well you can thank the ancient
Greeks they place considerable emphasis
on both the written word and drama he’s
making the story sound like some Greek
tragedy in fact according to historians
the Western literary tradition began
with Homer when the poet or collection
of poets is unbeliev created the
timeless works the Iliad and the Odyssey
this war will never be forgotten nor
will the heroes who fight in it as
evidenced by the myriad Greek
amphitheaters that still stand
we can also surmise that the Greeks love
them some drama
make sense they basically invented the
format produced enduring works of art in
both comedy and tragedy oh and the
English language itself what English
mother do you speak it yep that pretty
much started with the ancient Greeks –
they were the first to introduce vowels
to written language giving rise to the
Latin alphabet and the languages that
subsequently stemmed from it give me
award an award and I show you how the
root of that word is Greek number three
ancient Greeks were weirdly obsessed
with a good beard ever notice that like
every Buster statue of an ancient Greek
man is rocking a long curly beard ever
wonder why it’s not because they didn’t
have razors the ancient Greeks saw the
beard as a representation of masculinity
I’m sure conversely they saw a smooth
cleanly shaved face as feminine what’s
more a healthy beard was also a sign of
intelligence and philosophers like
Socrates and Plato believed that a long
beard was actually discharged from an
overcrowded brain it wasn’t until
Alexander the Great came along that
shaving was encouraged but even then it
wasn’t an aesthetic thing it was because
Macedonian soldiers had been killed in
battle after being grabbed by their
beards I don’t like his beard what
number two ancient Greece produced some
all-time geniuses you’re back damn thing
we’re assuming that not every citizen of
ancient Greece turned out to be a beacon
revolutionary ideas truth is though
civilization produced many geniuses that
helped give rise to modern knowledge in
school for those of the male persuasion
whose families could afford it anyway
boys were taught the fundamentals of
reading and writing but also studied
musical instruments and advanced topics
like geometry and astronomy
aside from philosophers like Plato and
Socrates these schools also produce some
other fantastic Minds such as the
astronomer mathematician and geographer
Eratosthenes who miraculously gave a
nearly accurate figure of the Earth’s
circumference by comparing the length of
shadows at different latitudes
so point being ancient Greece had its
fair share of smartypants just mugged
enough for a girl OH
you think you’re smarter than me ah
number one ancient Greek democracy was
very different from our own ancient
Greeks were the architects of democracy
and Athens was its birthplace however
the political system was far different
from our own most modern societies
practice a representative democracy
where citizens elect officials to make
most of the decisions the Greeks
practice direct democracy where they cut
out the middleman and vote on issues
themselves there are reasons the system
has rarely been used since ancient
Greece to start it takes a lot of time
to attend debates and votes so eligible
citizens needed free time to focus on
politics there is a lot of stuff in here
it there’s a lot of interesting thanks
Athenian citizens had free time because
slavery they had lots of slaves also we
said eligible citizens for them that
only meant males over the age of 18 with
an athenian heritage that’s oddly
specific the vast majority of people in
Athens had no say in how the place was
run so while Athens is credited as the
birthplace of democracy and some of its
elements are similar to today’s
political systems modern democracy is a
very different institution for better or
worse so which of these facts surprised
you the most and would you want to hop
in a time machine and check out the
culture for yourself for more
philosophizing top 10s and luscious
curly top fives be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com
there will be yours all time
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