A list of human delusions, with which you can learn about the most important phenomena of the culture of Ancient Greece and once again make sure that this culture is even more interesting than we thought.
300 Spartans saved Greece
Probably the most famous battle in the history of ancient Greece is the Battle of Thermopylae, which took place in 480 BC, when the Spartan king Leonidas and three hundred of his soldiers heroically repulsed the attacks of a huge army of Persians (led by Xerxes) and saved Greece from defeat and enslavement. … "300" and "Thermopylae" for several centuries have been a symbol of heroic resistance to superior enemy forces - the last time this story was played in the blockbuster "300" by Zack Snyder (2007).
Battle of Thermopylae. Painting by Massimo d'Azzello. 1823 year.
However, both Herodotus and another ancient Greek historian, Ephor of Kim, from whom we received basic information about this battle (the version of Ephor was preserved in the transcription of Diodorus of Siculus), described it in a different way. First, the battle was lost - the Greeks only managed to stop Xerxes for a short time. In 480, the Persian king and his allies managed to conquer most of Hellas, and only a month later, in September 480, the Greeks defeated them at Salamis (at sea), and a year later at Plataea (on land). Secondly, there were not only the Spartans - various Greek city-states sent troops to the gorge, including Mantinea, Arcadia, Corinth, Thespia and Phocis, and as a result, the first onslaught of the enemy was repelled not by three hundred, but from five to seven thousand soldiers. Even after Ephialtes (a citizen of the Thessalian city of Trachina) showed the Persians how to surround the Greeks,and Leonidas let most of the soldiers go home, so as not to doom them to inevitable death, the total number of the detachment still reached a thousand people: the hoplites from the Boeotian policies of Thebes and Thespia decided to stay, since the Persian army inevitably had to pass through Boeotia (Peloponnesians - Mantineans, the Arcadians and others - hoped that Xerxes would not reach their peninsula). However, perhaps the Boeotians did not act out of rational considerations, but decided to die a death of heroes, just like the warriors of Leonidas.that Xerxes will not reach their peninsula). However, perhaps the Boeotians did not act out of rational considerations, but decided to die a death of heroes, just like the warriors of Leonidas.that Xerxes will not reach their peninsula). However, perhaps the Boeotians did not act out of rational considerations, but decided to die a death of heroes, just like the warriors of Leonidas.
So why, in popular beliefs, was the legend of only 300 Spartans preserved, although ancient historians list in detail all the members of the Hellenic army? Probably, the point is in the habit of seeing only the main characters and forgetting the minor ones. But the modern Greeks decided to restore justice: in 1997, near the monument to the Spartans (a bronze statue of Leonidas), they erected a monument in honor of 700 Thespians.
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The library of Alexandria was burned by barbarians
The Library of Alexandria was one of the largest libraries in the history of mankind, it contained from 50 to 700 thousand volumes. It was founded by the Egyptian rulers of the Hellenistic era in the 3rd century BC. It is generally believed that the library - a symbol of ancient learning - was burned to the ground by barbarians and haters of ancient culture. This view is reflected, for example, in the 2009 film Agora directed by Alejandro Amenabar, dedicated to the fate of the Alexandrian scholar Hypatia.
Fire in the Alexandria Library. Engraving. 1876
In fact, the barbarians had nothing to do with the death of the library - and it did not disappear because of the fire. Some sources (for example, Plutarch in The Life of Caesar) do mention that the books were damaged by fire during the siege of the city by Caesar in 48 BC. e. - but modern historians are inclined to believe that then it was not books that burned, but papyri, which were stored near the port (accounting records on goods were recorded on them). Perhaps the library suffered during the conflict between the emperor Aurelian and Zenobia, the queen of Palmyra, who captured Egypt in 269-274. But there is no direct evidence of any grandiose fire that completely destroyed the library.
Most likely, the Library of Alexandria disappeared due to budget cuts that continued for several centuries. At first, the attention of the Ptolemies (the dynasty that ruled Egypt during the Hellenistic era) guaranteed large privileges for the library staff, and also provided the funds necessary to acquire and rewrite tens of thousands of scrolls. These privileges continued after the Roman conquest. However, in the “crisis” III century AD, the Emperor Caracalla eliminated scholarships for scientists and forbade foreigners to work in the library - which in many ways turned books into a dead weight, incomprehensible and uninteresting to anyone. Gradually, the library simply ceased to exist - the books were either destroyed or decayed naturally.
Modern democracy was invented in Athens
The form of government that existed in Athens from about 500 to 321 BC is considered the world's first democratic system - and is considered the forerunner of modern Western political order. However, Athenian democracy has little in common with the current one. It was not representative (where the right of citizens to make political decisions is realized through the deputies elected by them), but direct: all citizens were obliged to regularly participate in the work of the People's Assembly, the supreme body of power. In addition, Athens was very far from the ideal of participation in the politics of the entire "people". Slaves, meteki (foreigners and slaves who were freed) and women, who made up the majority of the population, did not have the rights of citizens and could not participate in government. According to some estimates, there were three times more slaves in Athens during the democratic era than free ones. Poor citizens also often found themselves excluded from the political process: they could not afford to spend a whole day at meetings in the People's Assembly (although there were periods when the citizens of Athens were paid for this).
Headstone. Greece, circa 100 BC e. The woman in the relief probably comes from a wealthy family. Numerous elements in the relief reflect her high status, while the dress and hairstyle of the girl on the left suggests that she is a slave.
Headstone. Greece, circa 310 BC e. The relief depicts a little girl in the presence of a servant - short hair and long sleeves make her mistaken for a slave.
The word "democracy" (like many other concepts) acquired a new meaning at the end of the 18th century, when the idea of representative democracy arose in France (the people exercise their power through their elected representatives). In parallel, there was a struggle to expand voting rights, and today most restrictions on voting rights are considered anti-democratic.
Amazons did not exist
Among the Greeks, legends were spread about the Amazons - a warlike people, consisting only of women, shooting a bow and even chopping off one breast to make it easier to handle them. The Amazons met with the men of neighboring tribes only to conceive children, and they returned or killed the boys.
A crater depicting the battle of the centaurs with the lapiths (above) and the battle of the Amazons with the heroes (below). Greece, circa 450 BC e. The Lapiths, probably a really existing tribe, in Greek mythology - very belligerent. The battle with the centaurs (centauromachia) happened when the latter tried to kidnap their wives from the Lapiths. Bellerophon, Hercules, Theseus and Achilles fought with the Amazons (this plot, often found in ancient Greek art, is called Amazonomachy).
Previously, historians considered the Amazons to be fictional creatures - especially since the Greek authors placed them in different remote regions of the inhabited world (either in Scythia, then in Anatolia, then in Libya). This put the Amazons on a par with the monsters and outlandish creatures of distant countries, which in one way or another differ from the "normal" society.
However, excavating the Scythian mounds of the Black Sea steppes, archaeologists discovered the burials of female warriors, in whose grave they put a bow and arrow. Most likely, women, shooting a bow and riding a horse along with their husbands, did not fit into the picture of the world of the Greeks so much that they singled them out as a separate people. Scythian women really could stand up for themselves - they needed it when the men wandered a long distance - and, perhaps, began the battle, firing at the enemy from a safe distance. But they hardly killed their sons, avoided men and certainly did not cut off their breasts - military historians are sure that this is absolutely unnecessary for accurate shooting.
Antique art is a white stone
We imagine the Parthenon and antique statues as white. They have survived to this day as they were made of white marble.
Sculpture of the Sphinx 570-560 BC e. and reconstruction of its original appearance.
However, real statues and public buildings were painted in color - the paint just peeled off over time. The fact is that the pigments used in these paints were mineral (cinnabar, red ocher, copper azure, copper green, yellow ocher, and others), and the carrier that “glued” the paint to the surface was organic. Organic matter is destroyed over time by bacteria, so the paints crumble easily.
How the antique statues initially looked could be seen at the traveling exhibition “Gods In Color: Painted Sculpture in Classical Antiquity”, which was made in 2007 by American and German scientists. In addition to the fact that the statues were colored, it turned out that many of them had bronze inserts, and their eyes had bulging pupils of black stone.
The Spartans threw children into the abyss
One of the most famous legends about Sparta says: when a boy was born into a Spartan family, he was taken to the edge of the Apofeta abyss (on the slopes of Mount Taygetus). There, the elders carefully examined him and, if the boy was sick and weak, threw him into the abyss. We know this story from Plutarch's Biography of Lycurgus, it is colorful and is still very popular - for example, it is played up in the 2008 parody film “Meeting the Spartans”.
Young Spartans. Painting by Edgar Degas. Around 1860.
Recently Greek archaeologists have proven that this is a myth. They analyzed the bones recovered from the Apofeta Gorge and found that the remains belong only to adults - specifically forty-six men between the ages of 18 and 55. This is consistent with other ancient sources: they say that the Spartans threw traitors, prisoners and criminals into the gorge, and not children at all.
Pandora's Box
The myth of Pandora's box is known to us in the retelling of Hesiod, from the poem "Works and Days". In Greek mythology, Pandora is the first woman on earth that Hephaestus molded out of clay to bring misfortune to people. He did this at the request of Zeus - who wanted to punish people with the hands of Pandora for the fact that Prometheus stole fire from the gods for them.
Pandora. Painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 1871 year.
Pandora became the wife of the younger brother of Prometheus. One day she found out that there is something in their house that cannot be opened. Curious Pandora discovered this, and numerous troubles and misfortunes scattered around the world. Horrified, Pandora tried to close the dangerous container, but it was too late - evil had already seeped into the world; at the bottom there was only hope, which people were thus deprived of.
In Russian, the name of the object from which all the misfortunes flew out has become a stable expression - about a person who has done something irreparable, with large-scale negative consequences, they say: “He opened Pandora's box”.
However, Hesiod is not talking about a box or a casket, but about a pithos, a vessel for storing food, which can be very large - even as tall as a person. Unlike the "clay" Pandora, the vault of misfortunes was made of durable metal - Hesiod calls it indestructible.
Where did the box come from? Most likely, the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam is to blame, who translated Hesiod into Latin in the 16th century. He mistook "Pythos" for "pixis" (in Greek - "box"), perhaps recalling the out-of-time myth of Psyche, who brought a box of incense from the underworld. Then this translation error was fixed by famous artists of the 18th-19th centuries (for example, Dante Gabriel Rossetti), who portrayed Pandora with a box.
Olga Bartoshevich-Zhagel