How Greeks’ Influence Today’s Society

Ancient Greeks culture had an enormous impact on Western civilization. It was through them that many concepts such as democracy, philosophy, science, mathematics, medicine, architecture, art, literature, engineering, and much more were born. Let’s take a look at them one by one.

If you have previously considered to travel in Greece and get familiar with the Greek customs and the history of the country, the influence of Greek culture is discussed in this post for you.

The Greeks’ influence

Greek philosophy influences the modern world mainly through its method, not just its conclusions: Socrates’ question-and-answer dialectic is the direct ancestor of today’s Socratic seminars in classrooms and cross-examination in courtrooms, while Plato’s and Aristotle’s writings on justice, virtue, and the good life still frame how Western ethics, political theory, and law are taught.

Greeks have been a dominant force in the world for centuries, shaped by their unique culture and traditions. From philosophy and mathematics to art and cuisine, Greeks have had a profound impact on the world.

Greeks have long been considered among the greatest thinkers and philosophers of all time. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and Pythagoras are just a few of the many famous Greeks who made significant contributions to philosophy.

Mathematicians and scientists such as Pythagoras, Archimedes, and Eratosthenes were pioneers in the field of mathematics. Their discoveries helped shape the development of mathematics and science today. Here’s what we’ll cover.

Democracy

Modern representative government traces its lineage straight back to one Athenian reform: Cleisthenes’ constitution of 508 BC, which broke the grip of the aristocracy by organizing citizens into ten tribes cutting across old family and regional loyalties, and handed real power to an assembly of ordinary citizens. Ancient sources credit Cleisthenes’ reforms as the moment Athens’ constitution became genuinely popular rather than aristocratic, the historian Aristotle, in his account of the Athenian constitution, notes that Cleisthenes’ reforms made the government far more democratic than Solon’s had been, since the tyranny had let Solon’s laws fall out of use and Cleisthenes replaced them with new ones, including the law of ostracism.

Citizens gathered on the hill of the Pnyx, debated and exchanged views. At the same time, the political process of ostracism enabled the people to remove from public life any politician who could stand as a serious obstacle to the decisions of the majority.

Every time you vote, sit on a jury, or watch a parliamentary debate, you’re looking at a distant descendant of the Pnyx: majority rule, direct citizen participation, and the idea that political power flows from the people rather than birthright all start here.

Greeks’ philosophy

Aristotle (384–322 BC) was one of the first philosophers to write extensively about ethics. He believed that humans should live according to nature and not try to control everything. His ideas influenced Plato (427–347 BC), who wrote about justice and equality.

Socrates (470-399 BC) was one of the most important personalities of Greek and world culture. He was the first philosopher to deal systematically with ethics, trying to examine how we should live. Thanks to his contribution, philosophy turns to the study of man and becomes anthropocentric. Man turns from the outside in, from the examination of nature and the world, to his soul and mind. Socrates used to teach through dialogue.

The philosophical method he used was the dialectic, a way of discussing a subject by questions and answers, based on the exchange of short words, definitions, and arguments, and aimed at formulating general positions. Socrates did not write anything himself. His personality and work are known to us through the work of four ancient writers, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle. Although Plato (427-347 BC) was not actively involved in politics, he tried to put into practice his political ideas by organizing a state under a prudent ruler, who would be a philosopher, in the last years of his life.

In “The Republic”, his most important work, he speaks of a new political community, with a perfect constitution, and reflects on the future of ancient Greek society. He focused on the concepts of justice and equality. Aristotle (384-322 BC) was interested in ethics. For him, virtue was understood both in terms of the total and perfect development of all the physical and bodily abilities of man and in terms of moral perfection.

According to Aristotle, the moral constitution of the individual is achieved in the appropriate environment in which virtues develop, and this is none other than the environment of the city, that is, the perfect society. This tie between individual character and the wider community runs right through his Nicomachean Ethics, where Aristotle argues that the true statesman is really someone who has made a special study of goodness, since making citizens good and law-abiding is his actual aim.

This is the thread that runs all the way to the present: Socrates’ method is the backbone of modern legal cross-examination and the case-study teaching used in law and business schools, and Plato and Aristotle’s questions about justice, virtue, and the good life are still the starting point for Western ethics and political philosophy courses today.

Arts

In Ancient Greece, drama has its roots in ceremonies and festivals for Dionysus, God of fertility and vegetation. The faithful followers disguised themselves, danced wildly and sang the god’s devotional song, the dithyramb. In the 6th century BC, the poet Arion in Corinth transformed the improvised dithyramb into an artistic composition and performed it in front of an audience. In Attica, again, around the middle of the same century, Thespis brought an even greater change. As a first dancer in a dithyramb, he stood up to the rest of the group.

Wearing a mask, he began to “(hupokrī́nomai)”, that is (in Attic Greek), to converse with the others. Thus, the dialogue between the individual and the group, or between the actors and the dance, began and evolved. The myths from narration of acts consequently became action, imitation, representation, theatrical act. The three great tragic poets are Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

Thespis stepping out of the chorus to talk back to it is, quite literally, the birth of the leading role, the same structure behind every film, TV drama, and stage play today: a protagonist set against a chorus, crowd, or ensemble. Tragedy and comedy as genres, and the very word “theater,” never left us; we just changed the costumes.

Moral values

One of the most important aspects of the Greek culture is their moral values. Homer’s influence on Western literature is undeniable. Concepts such as justice, honor, wisdom, spiritual strength, virtue, and friendship play an important role in the Homeric epics, while the institutions of family and hospitality are praised. The humanistic values in Homer’s work are timeless and have shaped the modern world to a large extent.

These values are taught to children from a young age and are instilled in them to help them live responsible and ethical lives. Greeks believe that being ethical is the best way to get along with others and to maintain good relationships as well as taking responsibility for your actions.

Another important Greek moral value is respect. Greeks believe that respect is a key ingredient in a healthy society. Respect is shown to others by listening to them, treating them with dignity, and showing empathy.

These aren’t museum values. Concepts like honor, hospitality, and personal responsibility are still the backbone of how most modern cultures teach children right from wrong. Homer just got there roughly 2,700 years earlier.

Greeks contribution to mathematics and science

Pythagoras is the foremost founder of Greek mathematics; he created a complete system for the science of celestial bodies which he established with all the relevant numerical and geometric proofs and was the founder of a mythical philosophical movement called Pythagoreanism. A very important discovery made by Pythagoras is the numerical interpretation of the universe.

By measuring the appropriate lengths of the string of a single-string instrument, he found that the consonant musical intervals can be expressed in simple numerical ratios of the first four integers. Pythagoras’ interest in musical harmony was due to the theory of the “Harmony of the Spheres” formulated by his wife Theano. Various geometric discoveries have also been attributed to him, the most famous being his eponymous theorem.

You used the Pythagorean theorem, or something built on it, the last time you measured a diagonal, squared off a wall frame, or used GPS the same triangle math is still the working foundation of construction, engineering, and navigation today.

Athletic spirit

Athletic competition and physical activity were a way of life for the ancient Greeks from prehistoric times. The first sporting events in Minoan Crete were linked to religious ceremonies. In Mycenaean Greece, athletic competitions were an integral part of the funeral rites in honor of prominent dead people. From the 8th century BC, the emergence of the first city-states influenced the development of sport.

Various systems of education developed in each city-state, including gymnastics, music, writing and reading. The education of young people was intended to help them develop both body and mind and to acquire harmony. Physical exercise was accompanied by music.

The greatest sporting event of Greek antiquity was the Olympic Games (Olympia), which were held every four years at the sacred site of Olympia, in honor of Zeus, the father of the gods. The starting point of the Olympic Games is considered to be 776 B.C., since the first written records exist from that time. Greeks were great athletes.

The line to today isn’t a metaphor here it’s a direct revival. The International Olympic Committee notes that the first Games of the modern era were staged in Athens in 1896, explicitly reviving the ancient Games that had been held every four years for nearly twelve centuries, from 776 BC to AD 393, at the sanctuary of Olympia. Every Olympics since is, quite literally, a sequel.

Medicine

Hippocrates is the founder of medical science and is recognized worldwide as the father of modern medicine. He relied on the observation of clinical symptoms and after examining the patient, he proceeded to make a diagnosis and concluded with the selection of the appropriate treatment. Influenced by the Pythagorean theory that Nature consists of four elements, Hippocrates believed that the human body has the composition of four qualitative states, which in a healthy body should be in perfect harmony. He is also credited with founding the Hippocratic Oath, which is still used by doctors today.

Today on the island of Kos, there is a museum, which represents the doctor’s office of the time of Hippocrates. There, visitors can admire replicas of ancient representations with medical content, busts of Hippocrates and Asclepius, a large number of silver and bronze medals, original editions of the Hippocratic School, stamps and paintings depicting Hippocrates.

Medical schools around the world still hold White Coat Ceremonies where new doctors swear a modern version of that same oath, the specific wording has changed over 2,400 years, but the core promise, to do no harm and to put the patient first, hasn’t.

How do Greeks influence you today? We would love to hear your thoughts here. And don’t forget to discover the Greek words that have influenced European languages for centuries and you can find then through our eBook.