The impact of Greek Civilization

on today’s world

Presented By:
Jannatul Ferdous
ID: 201011133
Course Code: GED 201
Section: 08
Department: BBA
 Influence of Ancient Greece
The ancient Greek civilization is considered one of the most successful and
sophisticated civilization in the history. They proved their excellence and made
advancements in different political, educational, scientific and cultural sectors.
The ancient Greek Civilization came to an end in 146 BC but the ancient Greek
legacy is still present today in-

❖ Democracy
❖ The Olympics
❖ Art and Architecture
❖ Philosophy
❖ Science, Mathematics and Medicine
❖ The Alphabet
❖ English Language
❖ Theater
❖ Mythology
 democracy
Today’s modern government systems are greatly inspired by the Greek democracy. Democracy is a
system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from
amongst themselves. Democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought
in the city state of Athens during classical antiquity. Even the word democracy comes from the
ancient Greek language: “Demos” meaning people and “Kratos” meaning strength. Cleisthenes is
referred to as the father of Athenian democracy. Athenians established a citizens assembly to govern
city policy. This assembly evolved into a direct democracy in between 508 and 507 BC. As a direct
democracy citizens voted directly on legislation. Citizens were also randomly selected to hold
government administrative and judicial positions. Athenian democracy is considered the most direct
in history as regular citizens controlled every part of the political process. But the Athenians only
allowed the eligible citizens, specifically all men over 20 years could participate in the assembly and
considered eligible to vote. But the women, slaves and foreigners were excluded from citizenship and
voting rights.

Democracy is the greatest gift from the ancient Greece to the modern world. Though not a perfect
system, Athenian democracy led to many of the principals on which modern constitutions and
democracies are founded. Nowadays, many modern countries including the United States use
“Representative democracy” but the idea is basically the same. Here, the citizens vote for their
representative to make laws and decisions in the country. Opposite to the system of ancient Greece,
women are now allowed to vote in the modern world. Bangladesh is also a democratic state where
people select their leaders by voting which was introduced by the Greeks thousands of years ago.
 The Olympics
The Olympic games began in Ancient Greece in 776 BC at Olympia as a festival with
athlete events staged to honor the god Zeus, the king of gods. The games were held every
4 years and athletes participated from all over the Greek world for fame and honor. The
Olympic games were extremely important to the ancient Greeks that they stopped wars
so people from different cities could travel safely and participate in them. Originally the
Olympic games only had one event – a short race across a stadium. But through the
years more events were added including boxing, wrestling, long jump, throwing javelins
and discus, and chariot racing. In the ancient Olympics only men were allowed to
compete. The winners were awarded a crown of olive branches, which was a great honor
and often received money and other prizes. The ancient Olympic games fell into decline
when Rome concurred Greece in 146 BC and were finally abolished in 393 AD by
emperor Theodosius Ⅰ. But 1500 years later the games revived. The modern Olympic
games were born in Athens in 1896 featuring 241 participants from 14 nations. The
games slowly grew under the guidance of Pierre de Coubertin who founded the
“International Olympic Committee” in 1894. In the 1900 games women were allowed to
take part for the first time. The modern Olympics now includes winter and summer
games and has become the world’s largest sporting celebration with thousands of athletes
competing from different parts of the world. Similar to the ancient Olympics some of the
old traditions including the olive leaf crowns, the lighting of the Olympic flames, and the
opening and ending ceremony of the games have remained exactly the same. Even some
of the events in the original Olympic games including races, throwing the Javelins and
tossing the discus are continued to be practiced today. It is still a huge honor to compete
at the Olympics and only the best of the best in the world get a chance to participate.
 Art and architecture

The Parthenon The Temple of Justice hall, White House The Little Rock Negaunee National
Athena Nike New York city Washington, D.C. AME Zion Bank, Michigan
Church,
The Greeks are extremely famous for their excellence in art, sculpture and Arkansas
magnificent architecture. Artists were masters at creating realistic sculptures and
statues which have influenced the figurines and artworks around the world we see
today. Besides, the columns or, pillars they invented have influenced the modern
architecture for the past two millennia. The three main types of Greek columns are
Doric, Ionic and Corinthian (the fanciest).

The most famous adaptation of Greek Architecture in the modern world is the use
of columns or pillars. Located in Athens, the Parthenon is considered the most
famous landmark of Greek architecture. It is a grand building decorated with
beautiful pillars. Nowadays, hundreds of famous government buildings, churches,
libraries, modern banks, and other structures have the familiar columns and pillars
of classical Greek temples. For instance, the White House in Washington, the Justice
Hall and Federal Hall in New York, The Little Rock AME Zion Church in Doric Ionic Corinthian
Arkansas, the Negaunee National Bank in Michigan are some modern structures
having similar decorative columns resembling the Greek ones.
 Philosophy
Several ancient Greek philosophers are considered the founding fathers of western
philosophy. Writings and ideas from individuals like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
are studied today by students. Philosophy was developed to try to better
understand the world in a non religious or mythical way. Socrates tried to answer
the question of what is right and wrong. Plato was a student of Socrates and used
several dozen philosophical dialogues in his writings to answer questions like what Socrates
is justice and what is the right type of government. He wrote arguments in the form
of conversation and a few letters , which are highly applicable till now. Plato
opened the first university of higher learning named The Academy. The great
thinker Aristotle was Plato’s most famous student and helped developed reasoning
for a middle ground between good and bad, the idea of moderation and the balance
between the two extremes. He made important contribution to logic, psychology,
mathematics, ethics and politics.

Today the legacy of ancient Greece is still prominent in the world and many of the Plato
ideas are used everyday. One of them is the philosophy. Ancient Greek philosophy
has a great influence on modern philosophy, as well as modern science.

Aristotle
 Science, Mathematics and Medicine
Pythagoras
Ancient Greece has a great influence on the modern field of science, Mathematics and
medicine. The Greeks created many advancements in geometry, mathematical analysis,
calculus, technology, physics, astronomy, geography, biology and medicine. The famous
Greek philosopher Pythagoras developed the Pythagorean theorem which is used by the
modern students to solve mathematic and geometric problems. Euclid is another Greek
genius who is considered the father of Geometry. Archimedes calculated the value of pi
which is used for several mathematic and scientific calculations. Herodotus crated the first
map of the known world. Besides, Greek scientists identified and named plants and their
parts and the doctors used herbs as medicine and pain treatment as well. Hippocrates was
the famous Greek doctor and an important figure in the history of medicine. He is
acknowledged as “The Father of Modern Medicine” and wrote a plenty of books, advising
doctors, how to treat their patients via natural methods. These books were used by doctors
for centuries and still influences modern medicine. Hippocrates is also very famous for the
Hippocratic oath which is a promise made by doctors to practice medicine honestly in
their professional lives. Physicians still use a modern version of Hippocratic oath to guide
them in ethical treatment of patients. Another thing Hippocrates is famous for is the
“Clinical method of observation” which doctors still use today. This method involves 4
steps including Diagnosis (study the symptoms), prognosis (consider and predict),
observation (observe, note and compare) and treat ( Treat with confidence). Hippocrates
Hippocrates also recommended that patients should exercise and eat different diets in different seasons
to stay healthy. Nowadays the doctors and nutritionist also advice their patients to work
out and eat healthy diets to be in good health.

Ancient Greeks were able to upgrade many scientific theories, inventions, medicines and
calculations which are still applicable today in the modern world. Todays world should be
very grateful for the incredible contributions the Greeks have made years ago.
 GREEK INFLUENCE ON
The alphabet
The ancient Greeks shaped our modern lives with plenty of their impressive inventions
including the Alphabets. We are truly thankful to the ancient Greeks for the form of
alphabet we use today. The word Alphabet itself comes from the first two letters of Greek
alphabets – alpha (α) and beta (β). The Greek alphabets were the first to have different
letters for both vowels and consonants. The creation of the Greek alphabet inspired the
creation of many other alphabets still used today. Even some of the letters of the modern
alphabet, including A, B, E, and O, derive from the Greek alphabet. Though languages
have evolved and will keep on evolving with time, but the original idea of writing down
vowels and consonants hasn’t changed much which is exactly how we write today.

GREEK INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH

Greek is a language that has influenced many other languages including English. The
most remarkable way that Greeks has influenced English is in its vocabulary. A lot of the
words that we use in our English language today came from the ancient Greeks. Some
words were borrowed directly from Greek into English. But a larger number of Greek
words entered English indirectly through Latin or, French . Modern words like hyper,
phobia, acrobat, fraternity, cemetery, museum, olive, chaos, paragraph, democracy,
catastrophe, architect, biology, cinema, helicopter, panic, gymnasium that we use today
came either directly or, indirectly from the Greeks.
 Theater styles and plays
The Greeks have contributed incredibly in our modern
lives in various ways. One of the contribution is the theater.
Traditional Greek theater was open air and was built into
the side of a hill. The audience sat in a semicircle up the
hill side and the bottom of the hill was a flat area called the
orchestra which is Greek for dancing space or where the
chorus would have performed and behind that a raised
stage area and some buildings for the actors. Some modern
theaters including the Olivier theater are modeled
resembling Epidaurus which is the best and earliest
surviving stone theater. The ancient Greek theaters have
heavily influenced the modern theaters and shaped the way
we view art, theater and entertainment today. The Greeks
were also the masters of tragedy and comedy. Similar to
the ancient Greece, the same type of plays are still
performed in modern theaters. The modern movies we
watch in the television are just a form of play. If it isn’t for
the Greek theaters, we might not have the modern films or
television we enjoy today.
 Mythology
Greek mythology has greatly influenced the modern world through uses in movies, TV shows, video
games, modern literature and words and phrases. Nowadays, several novels and movies are made
based on Greek mythology. The wildly popular novel series, Percy Jackson and The Olympians is
based on Percy and his adventures with the members of the pantheon in a modern day setting. Plots
and Characters of some famous TV series including “XENA, Warrior Princess” and “Battlestar
Galactica” and movies including “Harry Porter” and The Little Mermaid” are greatly influenced by
the Greek mythology. Besides, many of the modern business companies and brands take their names
and logos from Greek mythology as well. For instance, the famous jewelry brand Pandora, took its
name from the first mortal women in Greek mythology. The extremely popular online retail store
“Amazon” is named after the group of women warriors known as “The Amazons”. “Hermes” is one
of world’s prominent luxury brand today best known for their handbags, jewelry, perfumery and
other accessories, took its name from the Greek messenger God named Hermes. “Nike” is the
world’s most popular and biggest sportswear company which is named after the winged Goddess of
victory, Nike. “Medusa Corporation” is one of the world’s oldest cement companies in the united
states named after a snake haired mythological monster named Medusa. The US Apollo space
program took astronauts to the moon was named after Apollo, who was the Greek God of the sun,
healing, poetry and medicine. Greek mythology also contributed in the field of astronomy as well.
Thank you