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Documentary, Ancient Greece, The Greatest Show on Earth, Democrats Episode 1
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00:00My bed, my bridle, all for misery, and I cannot, I cannot save my child from death.
00:14This is one of the most shocking stories ever written.
00:17A mother, a princess, has lost her city and her husband in war.
00:22Now she has to face the news that she is to be sold into slavery and her only son killed.
00:30This film version of an ancient Greek play called Trojan Women has become a classic.
00:36The first time I saw it, I was moved to tears, and it still moves me now.
00:42It is a play about the most charged aspects of human life.
00:47Love, war, sacrifice, fear, and death.
00:51And although it is set amongst the gods, myths, and peoples of ancient Greece, it is still utterly gripping today.
00:58It is one of the main reasons I study classics.
01:06An Athenian called Euripides wrote this play a little under two and a half thousand years ago.
01:13Back then, he was often ridiculed as an angry young man,
01:16but over time, his plays have come to symbolise the incredible sophistication of ancient Greek civilisation.
01:23That civilisation has influenced almost every aspect of our lives.
01:31Not just drama, but politics, language, philosophy, art, and architecture.
01:39To understand ourselves, it turns out, we need to understand the ancient Greeks.
01:45And the best seat from which to do that, for my money, is in the theatre.
01:51This series is about how ancient drama changed our world.
01:58It's the story of dramatists like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides,
02:03who revolutionised storytelling through plays like Trojan Women, Antigone, Oedipus, and the Oresteia.
02:10It's the story of how the ancient Greeks gave birth to tragedy and comedy,
02:15and it's the story of how theatre spread throughout Greece and beyond,
02:20becoming a benchmark of civilisation, not just for the Greeks, but for the world, then and now.
02:28In this episode, I want to journey to Athens, to explore how drama first began.
02:34From the very start, it was about more than just entertainment.
02:37It was a reaction to real events, it was a driving force in history,
02:42and it was deeply connected to Athenian democracy.
02:45In fact, the story of theatre is the story of Athens,
02:50the cultural hub of ancient Greece,
02:52and the stage for one of the greatest shows on earth.
03:07The story of drama as we know it begins in a particular place and a particular time,
03:21Athens in the 6th century before Christ.
03:24At that time, Greece was not a single country,
03:27but a mass of competing city-states, or polis,
03:30the Greek term describing a body of citizens.
03:33But in the late 6th century, the polis of Athens pulled ahead of the others,
03:39politically, economically, and culturally.
03:43In the last part of the 6th century BC,
03:46Athens was the breeding ground for two extraordinary inventions.
03:50The first was democracy.
03:52Athens was ruled not by kings or by cliques of aristocrats,
03:55but by the votes of its own citizens.
03:58But the second was theatre.
04:00Athens invented an entirely new art form,
04:03drama.
04:04And these two inventions were tightly intertwined
04:08at the beating heart of Athenian society.
04:11And both of them were the result of an extraordinary cultural revolution.
04:19At this time, the whole of ancient Greek culture
04:22underwent a historic transformation.
04:25The revolution extended from architecture to literature,
04:28from vase painting to philosophy.
04:30You can see the impact of that revolution clearly in how Greek sculpture developed.
04:35In the middle 6th century, it was rigid, stylized, lacking movement and life.
04:40But then, things began to change.
04:43By the 5th century, Greek artists began to produce
04:46some of the greatest lifelike sculptures ever made.
04:49It all amounted not just to a new-looking world,
04:53but to a whole new view of the world.
04:56We call it the classical world.
04:59And in this groundbreaking epoch,
05:02drama was perhaps the biggest innovation of them all.
05:05Tales of love, death and war had always been passed on by storytellers
05:13and epic poems like Homer's Iliad.
05:16And savage myths had been celebrated in choral dance and song.
05:20But the Athenians added actors and invented the idea of performance.
05:25These epic stories would now play out not only in the mind,
05:29but live on stage.
05:32This was more than innovation.
05:34This was a revolution.
05:37Never before in the Greek tradition that we know of,
05:39in the Greek storytelling tradition,
05:41were things enacted rather narrated.
05:44So instead of having,
05:46and then the king drew his sword and said,
05:48instead a person actually draws a sword and speaks.
05:52I know we sort of say, well, children do that.
05:55But to do it with serious storytelling,
05:58with storytelling that actually delves into important roots in human behaviour,
06:03that is a very new step.
06:05And to have it done in front of you,
06:08I think that must have been a very, very startling innovation.
06:14Ancient Greek drama looked and sounded very different from drama as we know it today.
06:18There were no more than three or four actors.
06:20There was a chorus who interrupted the action with song and dance,
06:24and all the performers wore masks.
06:29When an actor began to enact rather than narrate,
06:33there's a kind of dangerousness about that,
06:35that the actor has to become a woman.
06:39The actor has to become a slave.
06:41The actor, perhaps even more dangerously, has to become a god.
06:44And it's almost as if the mask is a kind of signal of the profession
06:49that protects the actor against the danger of doing these things.
06:55Blood shoot of Atreus, destroyer!
06:57The chorus are costumed and masked in an identical or near-identical way.
07:04And they move and speak as a group.
07:06The chorus is not a bunch of individuals.
07:08For the Greeks, the chorus was a group,
07:10in which, in a sense, they submerge their identity.
07:14And what the chorus does is, in its groupness,
07:18it tries to make sense of what it's witnessing.
07:23They're deeply emotionally involved,
07:25and the suffering becomes a song.
07:28And the chorus, as a group, and with its group response,
07:32sings its choral lyrics.
07:33You can explot it, single-handed!
07:35The people will stand you!
07:36You don't stand a chance!
07:41It seems to me that the crucial thing
07:44is that it is simultaneously a very strong emotional experience
07:48and a very strong thought experience.
07:52When the Greeks came to analyse their new art form,
08:00they discerned three different types of play,
08:03two of which we still have with us today,
08:04tragedy and comedy.
08:06But in many ways, modern tragedy has actually changed
08:09from how ancient tragedy worked.
08:11For us, tragedy is a play with a sad ending,
08:15but for the ancient Greeks,
08:17tragedy was a play in which the events
08:19offered the audience a tough decision.
08:22And because no real ancient tragedy ends conclusively,
08:26siding with one course of action or another,
08:28what it does is face the audience with a problem.
08:32What would they do if they were in the same situation?
08:37Take one of the most famous plays ever written,
08:41Oedipus the King by Sophocles.
08:43It tells the story of Oedipus,
08:45a man who was destined to kill his father and marry his mother.
08:49Although this outcome is predicted by an oracle,
08:52Oedipus himself makes a series of free choices
08:54that lead to its fulfilment,
08:56choices that would have posed serious questions for the audience.
09:00The play ends with Oedipus blinding himself in despair.
09:04The issues dealt with in tragedy were often so disturbing
09:10that the plays were nearly always set away from Athens
09:12in the land of myth, a legend, or at the very least, a faraway city.
09:17And after a series of tragedies,
09:19the Athenians were offered a satyr play.
09:21Now, we don't have this any more today,
09:23but effectively, satyrs were the half-male, half-goat companions
09:26of the god of revelry,
09:28who would be allowed to run around the stage
09:29doing lots of lewd and bawdy things as a bit of, like, relief.
09:32But what we do have today is comedy.
09:34An ancient comedy, just like tragedy,
09:37spoke directly to contemporary Athenians.
09:43Usually set in a topsy-turvy version of real life
09:46or in a realm of fantasy,
09:48they poked fun at contemporary Athens.
09:52The Birds is a play that mocks the Athenian obsession
09:55with litigation and politics.
09:57It tells the story of two men
09:59who are tired of a life of law courts and civic duties.
10:03To escape, they turn themselves into birds
10:05and create a bird city in the sky called Cloud Cuckoo Land,
10:09where they reject all attempts
10:11to impose Athenian-style law and order.
10:14Both comedy and tragedy
10:16sought to have a direct bearing on life in Athens.
10:20And most fascinating of all
10:21is how they seamlessly blended together religion and myth
10:25with contemporary politics.
10:27This means that a play like The Oresteia by Aeschylus
10:29can start with a mythic tale from the Trojan Wars
10:32where Agamemnon is murdered by his wife
10:34and avenged by his son, Orestes,
10:36but can end in a courtroom in democratic Athens
10:39with Orestes on trial for the murder of his mother.
10:46The Oresteia is one of the biggest hits in antiquity.
10:50It's also one of the very few trilogies that we've got.
10:53So what you have is three tragedies
10:55and in this case, it's got a connected story.
10:59How does tragedy take this smorgasbord, if you like,
11:03and make it into a story?
11:05Well, it's not the same problem for the ancient Greeks
11:08as it might be for us.
11:09You know, there's not this idea of anachronism.
11:12Your mythical world with the gods,
11:16with the Trojan War,
11:17all of this that we've had in the first parts of the trilogy,
11:20can then end in that third part
11:23with a law court in Athens,
11:27which would have been familiar, of course,
11:28from 5th century contemporary Athens.
11:31So you have this brilliant genre
11:33where you can zoom from your present day into the past
11:37and bring your past into your present day.
11:39And it's that relationship that tragedy uses
11:43to be able to say things about its contemporary society.
11:46To find out more about how drama
11:49and democratic Athens became so intimately connected,
11:52I want to look at how theatre first emerged.
11:56Everything in ancient Greece
11:58came under the auspices of a particular god,
12:01and the god-controlling theatre was called Dionysus.
12:04He was also the god of wine and revelry.
12:06And many scholars think that theatre evolved directly
12:09out of the choral songs performed in honour of Dionysus.
12:13But there's also something else going on here,
12:16something that is suggested by the ruins
12:18at a place called Thoracos, near Athens.
12:21This region was once home to the ancient Athenian silver mines,
12:25but it is also the site
12:27of the oldest stone-built theatre in the Greek world.
12:30We're in an industrial heartland of the ancient Athenian state
12:34with the ore washeries and the mineshaft
12:36just beyond the theatre here.
12:39The first phase of this theatre is late 6th century,
12:42and that puts it in the same time
12:44as the invention of Athenian democracy itself,
12:46which throws up another question.
12:49What is the relationship between theatre and democracy,
12:53and how did the two help each other into being?
13:01It's a question that has been debated by scholars for centuries.
13:06Were theatre and democracy connected from the very start?
13:09I actually buy into the story
13:12that tragic drama is a democratic invention.
13:16I have a particular take,
13:18because I am one of those who think
13:20that Athenian tragic drama
13:22was deeply, strongly politicised.
13:25Not just it happened in a polis,
13:28but it happened in a polis of a particular sort,
13:30and could not have happened
13:32before Athens became a polis of that particular sort,
13:36a democratic one.
13:38The theatrical side seems to coincide
13:41fairly closely with the political identity.
13:44The theatrical activities of some sort or another
13:47were one of the ways in which they expressed the fact
13:50that now they all belong together,
13:52this was the place to which they came
13:53and in which they acted.
13:54It's about the local community
13:57feeling itself to be a local community.
14:01I'm on my way to visit
14:02one of the smaller Athenian communities
14:04to try and find some more proof
14:06about the connection between drama and politics.
14:10I want to see what the archaeology itself has to say.
14:13Now, neither for theatre nor democracy
14:16was there any kind of immaculate conception,
14:18nor were either born into the fully developed form
14:21that we recognise them today.
14:23Both developed arm in arm over time.
14:26And all around us as we drive in Attica,
14:28we can see the building blocks,
14:29the basis of the Athenian democratic system.
14:32People tend to think of Athenians as city dwellers,
14:40but much of the population actually lived
14:42in village communities called deems.
14:45There were 139 deems making up the Athenian democracy,
14:50and each deem governed itself.
14:52The deem I'm looking for is one of the remotest.
14:55It's called Ramneus.
14:56The people who lived here were mostly farmers.
14:59But all the male citizens voted for the council
15:02and on local regulations and on bylaws.
15:05And right at the heart of the community
15:07are the remains of what was once a theatre.
15:10This is what I've come looking for on this very hot afternoon.
15:15An inscription that shows us democracy
15:17at its most local level in operation.
15:22Dionysoi to Dionysus.
15:26Hupo tis bules.
15:29From the bule.
15:30The bule, the local council controlling this deem here in Attica.
15:35And it's to Dionysus because, yes, you've guessed it,
15:38we're in a theatre, a theatre, the space of Dionysus,
15:42the privileged seats for the distinguished local clientele
15:45and the stage set out before us.
15:48Religion, politics, theatre,
15:51at democracy's most local level.
15:57These theatres really were far more than just places of entertainment.
16:02They were places where the whole deem would gather together.
16:05No-one's going to bother to build a theatre
16:09just for a couple of days of drama a year.
16:12But the theatres here,
16:13at the lowest, most basic level of the Athenian democracy,
16:16seem to also have been used as multi-purpose civic spaces,
16:21giving them all-year-round potential,
16:23not just for drama,
16:25but also for democracy and democratic action itself.
16:29And that is what the archaeology is really beginning to uncover.
16:33Not only the deems,
16:35but the deem theatres spreading across all of Attica.
16:39The use of theatres for democratic activity
16:44seems to have been the case not just in the deems,
16:46but in the city of Athens itself.
16:48Every year the democratic authorities spent a fortune
16:52on the Great Dionysia Festival,
16:55a drama competition that took place
16:56in the Theatre of Dionysus
16:58in honour of the God of Theatre.
17:00It's through understanding the different stages of this festival
17:04that we can get closer to understanding
17:06what ancient Athenians experienced
17:08when they watched and created drama.
17:11The festival began with a procession,
17:13a rowdy affair with feasting, drinking,
17:15and a great crowd of people parading through the streets
17:18with a statue of the God
17:20and a small herd of sacrificial animals.
17:23When it reached the altar of the 12 Olympian gods
17:26in the marketplace,
17:27the first thing that happened was a holy dance.
17:30The cult of Dionysus is very,
17:33much psychological thing.
17:37You know, wine was of course very important
17:39for the Dionysus, everybody knows that.
17:42But the thing was that by drinking wine
17:45you are getting closer to the God.
17:49And the more wine you drink,
17:50the more you step out of yourself
17:52and get closer to the God.
17:55And that is also what happens when you're dancing,
17:58you're getting outside yourself, so to say.
18:01But also by, for example, wearing a mask.
18:05The ancient people thought that when you're wearing a mask
18:08you really become someone else.
18:11And the Greek word is...
18:13It's ecstasy.
18:14So ek out stasis of oneself, of one's stance.
18:18Yes, yes.
18:19And that's our ecstasy.
18:21It is the ecstasy, yeah.
18:22As in that...
18:23The ecstasy of the God.
18:24The procession then surged through the streets
18:32along a route lined with tripods,
18:34monuments put up by the proud sponsors
18:36of the winning plays.
18:38Often politicians, they spent fortunes
18:41funding dramatic productions
18:43and marked their victories with monuments
18:45like this one,
18:46put up by a winner from the 4th century BC.
18:49So the drama festival was more than an opportunity
18:54for staging plays.
18:55It was a chance for the leading figures of Athens
18:58to stage their generosity
18:59and their success to the whole city.
19:03Finally, having wound its way right around the Acropolis,
19:07the procession emerged noisily
19:09into the precinct of Dionysus.
19:11By now, the participants were becoming a single entity.
19:14It was a religious but also a political incident, actually.
19:20You know, the whole city, so to say,
19:23steps towards the God,
19:26so in order to worship the God.
19:30And they show not only their piety
19:33but also that they belong together.
19:36So it's an extraordinary idea, isn't it,
19:39that when they take their seats in the theatre,
19:41it's no longer, you know, we would say in English,
19:43it's no longer Joe Bloggs and somebody,
19:45it's no longer the farmer and the individuals,
19:47it is a collective of people
19:49with a new identity
19:51which is that of worshippers of the God Dionysus.
19:54Yes, correct.
19:55It's a bit different to going to the theatre today, right?
19:57It is indeed.
20:01All of this put the audience into a receptive state
20:04for the drama competition that was to follow.
20:07But first, as they took their seats in the theatre,
20:10there was one more important set of rituals to come.
20:14The audience were seated here perhaps in the same groupings
20:18as when they went to war.
20:20The citizens of Athens who were acting on the stage
20:22were acting in the same groups as when they went to war.
20:26And in the front seats of the theatre were the reserved seats
20:29for the priests of the city
20:30and for the important civic officials.
20:34And then before the place began,
20:36there were a series of events.
20:37First, a libation, an offering to the gods
20:41were poured in the centre of the stage
20:42by the generals, the military generals of the city.
20:46Then, a parade of tribute
20:48of all the money paid by the cities and states
20:51of the Athenian Empire to Athens
20:53was literally taken across the stage,
20:56paraded in front of an audience
20:58that contained members from those same cities and states
21:01who'd had to pay all that money.
21:02Then a list of all those who had benefited the city
21:06in some way was read out.
21:08And finally, onto the stage were brought the orphans,
21:12those whose parents had died fighting for the city in battle
21:16and whom the city would now take on
21:18the expenses of bringing up and educating.
21:21They came on, dressed themselves in the armour of war
21:26and took their seats, their special seats, here in the theatre.
21:29Only then did the plays begin.
21:34From dawn until dusk for five days,
21:38the citizen audience watched three playwrights,
21:40each put on three tragedies,
21:42as well as a farcical setter play and some comedies.
21:46At their heart were issues of justice and loyalty,
21:49war and peace, vengeance and compassion,
21:53which sent powerful messages to the citizen audience.
21:58In the centuries of Athens' greatness,
22:01over a thousand plays were written for the Dionysia.
22:04But today, just 32 of them survive in full.
22:09And those 32 have survived in part
22:11because they were considered to be the greatest.
22:13And they were all written by just three people.
22:17Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides.
22:20The great tragedians of the 5th century BC.
22:26Aeschylus was the first.
22:27He was the author of the Oresteia,
22:29the only whole trilogy to have survived.
22:31Sophocles wrote two of the most enduring plays,
22:35Oedipus the King and Antigone,
22:37which tells the tragic story of Oedipus's daughter,
22:40who was sentenced to death for breaking the law
22:42and burying her rebel brother.
22:45But of all the playwrights,
22:46Euripides is now considered in many ways to have been the best.
22:50He wrote the play Medea,
22:51with its shocking tale of a woman betrayed by her husband
22:54who takes revenge by killing her own children.
22:58The playwrights of ancient Athens
23:01were all gurus of the city in one form or another.
23:05Aeschylus, the war hero.
23:07Sophocles, the civic official.
23:09And Euripides, the sort of enfant terrible of Athenian society.
23:13The Greek word for playwright is didaskalos,
23:18which means trainer or teacher.
23:21Now, in part, that refers to the playwright's role
23:23in training the chorus for their play.
23:25But many believe that it also refers to the role of the playwright
23:29in training the audience for participation in democracy itself.
23:35If we take Sophocles' Ajax as an example,
23:39it's a retelling of a classic myth
23:42set in the time of the legendary war
23:44between the Greeks and the Trojans.
23:46And on the one hand, it's just that.
23:47But on the other, it's also a lesson.
23:50A lesson in the sacrifices that have to be made
23:53for democracy to work.
24:00Ajax was one of the warriors
24:01who fought with the Greeks at Troy.
24:04After the death of Achilles,
24:06the greatest hero of them all,
24:08the Greeks take a vote on who should get his weapons.
24:12They choose Odysseus, not Ajax,
24:14and Ajax is furious.
24:18Unable to accept the result of the vote,
24:21he goes on a killing spree,
24:23and ultimately, consumed by the shame of his actions,
24:27he is driven to suicide.
24:32The motor of this play is a vote,
24:34a process that would have been very familiar
24:36to the democratic citizens of ancient Athens.
24:39But it's a vote that Ajax refuses to accept.
24:43Ajax is the antithesis
24:44of the good democratic citizen.
24:47But the play also goes further,
24:49because for me,
24:50the key moment is actually
24:52what happens after Ajax's death.
24:55So what Sophocles has the other Greeks do
24:57is debate about how they should proceed.
24:59And some argue that Ajax should not be buried
25:01because of his actions,
25:03but Odysseus steps in to argue
25:04that he should be buried.
25:07Do not fling his body out unburied,
25:10treated so unfeelingly,
25:12and don't let force have such control of you
25:15that you allow your hate
25:16to trample justice down.
25:18For scholars,
25:20this is the critical point in the play.
25:23There's a real danger in Ajax
25:25that because you've got
25:26these two extraordinary episodes
25:29that are bloody and shocking,
25:31you think the play is about
25:32those two episodes
25:33that are bloody and shocking.
25:34But I think the play
25:36is about the process of debate
25:38that leads to decisions
25:40in the wake of actions
25:43that really you haven't been able to cope with.
25:46And so this is a play
25:49that stages debate.
25:51And it stages it in all its forms.
25:54One way of thinking about Ajax
25:55is as a Homeric or Bronze Age
25:58or archaic warrior
25:59stuck in a much more modern political system.
26:03He has values about being an individual
26:05and being a hero,
26:06not being a cooperative person
26:08that make him very, very difficult
26:10as if individuals
26:11can't no longer be powerful figures
26:14in the democracy.
26:15A man out of time, out of place.
26:17Yes.
26:17So, yeah, this may be somebody
26:19who is hardly a role model citizen,
26:21but there are going to be lots of people in Athens
26:23who are hardly role model citizens.
26:32Athens, no doubt,
26:33would have had its own fair share
26:34of big heads and glory seekers,
26:36people who just wouldn't work
26:38within the democracy.
26:39And this play plays out the dilemma
26:41of what do you do
26:42with those kinds of people?
26:43How do you keep the democracy on track?
26:46And that, for me,
26:47is why Odysseus' intervention
26:49is so crucial,
26:50because he shows that
26:51you need to have empathy
26:52with these people
26:52and you need to let justice
26:54run its course.
26:56Odysseus offers a way
26:57for the community
26:58to come back together,
26:59make a joint decision,
27:00and move forward.
27:01And that's why this play
27:04is such a great example
27:05of what theatre did
27:07in ancient Athenian society.
27:10It told a story,
27:11it posed problems,
27:13it asked questions,
27:14questions of the audience
27:15about what would you do
27:16in this kind of situation,
27:18a situation which they would
27:19undoubtedly have to face up to
27:21at some point in their lives.
27:22Theatre was vital
27:26to the processes
27:27that played out here
27:29on the Ponyx,
27:30home of the Athenian assembly.
27:32It was the oil
27:33that allowed democracy to function,
27:35a contained space
27:36which allowed
27:37for a continual process
27:38of risky reflection,
27:40self-doubt,
27:41and debate.
27:42It's no accident
27:43that the most important words
27:45in any Greek tragedy
27:46are tidraso,
27:47what shall I do?
27:50Theatre and democracy
27:51had grown up together
27:53and were now inextricably linked
27:55in Athenian minds.
27:57And every year,
27:58for almost next two centuries,
28:00the Athenians came to the theatre
28:02to rework the old myths
28:04into tragic dramas
28:05that spoke to the problems
28:07that have beset
28:08and were fundamental
28:10to one of the most important
28:12and interesting stories in history,
28:14the rise and fall of Athens.
28:16And at the same time,
28:18those very same people
28:19were here in the assembly
28:21making the decisions
28:23that affected those events.
28:27It's therefore no surprise
28:29that a common subject matter
28:31in Athenian drama
28:32was a problem
28:33that constantly dogged
28:34the Athenian assembly.
28:36War.
28:37And one war in particular
28:38fired the imagination
28:39of the playwright Aeschylus,
28:41who lived through
28:42the real-life drama
28:43and was inspired to write
28:45what is now
28:45the first ancient Greek play
28:47to survive in full.
28:49In 490 BC,
28:51less than 20 years
28:52after the democracy
28:53was established,
28:54Athens was attacked
28:55by the greatest power on earth,
28:57the Persian Empire.
28:59Yeah!
29:01The first crisis
29:02came at Marathon,
29:0426 miles from the city of Athens.
29:06A Persian fleet arrived
29:09with an enormous army.
29:11Although outnumbered,
29:12the Athenians attacked
29:14and against all the odds,
29:16they triumphed.
29:18The Athenian dead
29:19were commemorated
29:20by a memorial barrow
29:22near the battlefield,
29:23which is impressive
29:24even today.
29:25But ten years later,
29:28the Persians were back
29:29with an army
29:30said to have been
29:31more than a million strong.
29:32As it bore down on Athens,
29:34the assembly passed
29:35a heroic decree
29:36at the urging
29:37of a leading general
29:38called Themistocles.
29:40Amazingly,
29:40a later copy of the decree
29:42actually survives
29:43in an Athens museum.
29:45This is one of the most
29:47evocative inscriptions
29:48surviving to us today.
29:50It's a decree
29:51of the people of Athens.
29:52And here's the key word,
29:54Salamina.
29:56This is the decree
29:59recording the decision
30:00by the Athenian people
30:01to evacuate their home city
30:03and go to the island of Salamis
30:05to save themselves
30:07from the invading hordes
30:08of Persians.
30:10This is the record
30:12of one of the most key moments
30:13in the whole of ancient history.
30:18The Athenians abandoned their city
30:21and took to their ships,
30:22leaving only a few men
30:23barricaded on the Acropolis.
30:26The Persians ransacked the city,
30:29destroying the temples.
30:31But the Athenian gamble paid off.
30:34The Athenian fleet defeated the Persians
30:36in the narrows off Salamis.
30:38Greece was saved.
30:40And witnessing it all,
30:42not from afar,
30:42but at close range,
30:44was Aeschylus.
30:45Aeschylus wasn't just a playwright,
30:49he was also a soldier.
30:52He stood in the Athenian ranks
30:54on the plain at Marathon
30:55on that fateful day
30:57when the Persians first arrived.
30:59He was part of the victorious Athenian army,
31:02but he also lost his brother
31:04on the battlefield.
31:05Aeschylus, in his own epitaph,
31:08preferred to be remembered
31:09for his role here at Marathon
31:11rather than for his plays.
31:14Without doubt,
31:14it was his extraordinary experiences
31:16here on the battlefield
31:17that gave him a unique perspective
31:20and allowed him to represent war on stage
31:23in a way that has echoed ever since.
31:29Aeschylus composed over 90 plays
31:31in his lifetime
31:32and of the few that survive,
31:34the play that he composed
31:35about these great events
31:36is one of the most moving
31:38and one of the most fascinating.
31:40In 472 BC,
31:43Aeschylus produced a play
31:44called The Persians
31:45and it's the first ancient tragedy
31:46to survive to us in full today.
31:48Its sponsor was no-one less
31:51than the future democratic hero Pericles.
31:54But what's really surprising about it
31:56is its subject matter
31:57because it tells the story
31:59of how the Persians
32:01reacted to the news of their defeat
32:03at the Battle of Salamis,
32:05a battle that those in the audience
32:07had fought and won
32:09just eight years before.
32:14The play is set in the Persian capital.
32:16A messenger arrives at the Persian court
32:19with the news of the Greek victory.
32:22The Persians cannot believe
32:23that they have been defeated
32:24and they fall to pieces.
32:27In their misery,
32:28they summon the ghost
32:29of the previous king Darius for advice.
32:32The ghost of Darius tells the Persians
32:35that they themselves
32:36are to blame for their defeat
32:37because their pride
32:38and their ambition
32:40has led them to disregard the gods.
32:42The voiceless heaps
32:46of slaughtered corpses
32:47shall eloquently show
32:49that no one human
32:50should puff up inflated thoughts.
32:52You see how insolence
32:54once opened into flower
32:56produces fields ripe with calamity
32:58and reaps a harvest home of sorrow.
33:01This is the crucial theme of the play.
33:05Well, I think really at its heart
33:07it's almost really a tragedy
33:09about hubris.
33:11This idea of,
33:12sometimes translated it,
33:14arrogance,
33:14something like that,
33:15going too far,
33:16crossing a line,
33:17transgressing.
33:18And the Persians
33:20had done that.
33:21They thought big,
33:22they thought they could go
33:23and take Greece.
33:24They didn't win.
33:25And actually part of what the play
33:27is exploring is the idea
33:28that big empires can fall.
33:31What kind of resonance
33:32and implications
33:34does a play like the Persians
33:35have for us today?
33:37It deals with one of these
33:38eternal themes.
33:39It looks at war
33:41and it looks at the destruction,
33:43the loss,
33:44the risks you run
33:45if you go to war.
33:47They became really popular
33:48with the Gulf War
33:50and then with the Iraq War as well.
33:51And this is a really interesting one.
33:54In some modern productions
33:56what you get is
33:57a costume that really tells you
33:59that the audience
34:00should be making a link
34:01with contemporary war.
34:04What point is Aeschylus making
34:06do you think with that?
34:07I mean this is an amazingly
34:08difficult question to answer.
34:10You can't even imagine
34:11how this must have felt
34:13for the audience
34:14when they'd had their city sacked.
34:17They'd really come close
34:19to being completely occupied
34:21by Persia.
34:22This play is, you know,
34:24on one level
34:25really celebratory.
34:26Yeah.
34:27But you have to imagine it
34:29operating on another level
34:30as well
34:30because there are
34:31incredibly moving speeches
34:34in this.
34:34The language isn't
34:36just victorious
34:38if you like.
34:39I think it tells us
34:40a lot about what tragedy
34:41is doing.
34:42It is complex
34:42and it doesn't make it easy
34:44on the audience
34:45and it's really asking
34:46the society to reflect.
34:48This play for me
34:55is both an exception
34:56to normal tragedy
34:57and a fantastic example
34:59of it.
35:00It's an exception
35:01because unlike most
35:02that focus on mythical stories
35:04this focuses on real
35:06and recent history.
35:08But it's a fantastic example
35:10of what tragedy does
35:12because it doesn't just allow
35:13the Athenians to gloat
35:15over their victory.
35:16Instead, it offers a warning
35:18for the Persians
35:19pride came before a fall
35:21and at a time
35:22when Athens
35:23and the Athenians
35:24were beginning to grow
35:25in their own power
35:26within the Greek world
35:27the play offers
35:28that same message.
35:30Be careful
35:31or you too
35:32could end up
35:33just like the Persians.
35:36This warning
35:37had a direct bearing
35:39on the current situation
35:40in Athens.
35:42In the aftermath
35:43of the Persian Wars
35:44Athens reached the peak
35:45of her power
35:46and influence
35:47and the fleet
35:48that had secured victory
35:50at Salamis
35:50now reached out
35:52across the Aegean.
35:54Athens became
35:55the leading city-state
35:56in a new
35:57anti-Persian alliance
35:58but what began
36:00as a free coalition
36:01was soon under
36:02Athenian control.
36:03The financial muscle
36:08at Athens' command
36:09allowed it eventually
36:10to turn the free alliance
36:12of Greek cities
36:13and states
36:13that had been
36:14brought together
36:15to wreak revenge
36:16on the Persians
36:17into an empire
36:18solely to support
36:20the glory of Athens
36:21and it was policed
36:22by the mighty
36:23and yet brutal
36:24majesty
36:25of the supreme
36:26Athenian fleet.
36:27The war chest
36:28of that free alliance
36:29which had been kept
36:30on the sacred island
36:31of Delos
36:32was moved to Athens
36:33placed on the Acropolis
36:34and eventually
36:35into a building
36:36the Parthenon
36:37which has today
36:38become synonymous
36:39with democracy
36:40and freedom
36:41and yet
36:42which was originally built
36:44with the blood money
36:45of Athenian empire.
36:49Every year
36:50each city
36:51in the alliance
36:52or empire
36:52contributed money
36:54in silver
36:54as tribute
36:55and this money
36:56was displayed
36:57in the theatre
36:57in Athens
36:58at the great
36:59Dionysia festival.
37:01But when any members
37:02of the empire
37:03refused these payments
37:04Athens sent a fleet
37:06to attack them.
37:07Having an empire
37:08meant that the Athenian
37:09assembly was now
37:10making life or death
37:11decisions
37:12not just about themselves
37:13but about cities
37:15and peoples
37:16far away
37:16who had no real say
37:18in the matter.
37:20These decisions
37:21were far from easy
37:22as the Athenians
37:24discovered
37:24when they had
37:25to decide
37:25how to deal
37:26with the city
37:27of Mytilene.
37:32In 428 BC
37:34the city of Mytilene
37:35rebelled
37:35against the Athenian empire.
37:37The Athenian assembly
37:38met to decide
37:39how to respond.
37:40The hardliners
37:41wanted to execute
37:42every man
37:43and enslave
37:44every woman
37:44in the city.
37:45The moderates
37:46just to execute
37:47the ringleaders.
37:48And on the first day
37:49of debate
37:49the Athenian assembly
37:50sided with the hardliners.
37:52They even dispatched
37:53a trireme
37:53to Mytilene
37:54to carry out
37:55those orders.
37:56And yet when they met
37:57on the second day
37:58the Athenian assembly
37:59started to doubt
38:01its own decision.
38:02And indeed
38:02they went on
38:03to reverse it
38:04sending a second trireme
38:05which got there
38:06just in time.
38:08Now these events
38:08not only brought
38:09great relief
38:10to the Mytileneans
38:11but it also brought
38:12home to the Athenians
38:13the critical importance
38:14of thinking through
38:16properly
38:17their decisions
38:17before taking action.
38:23Dealing with life
38:24and death decisions
38:25like this
38:26had always lain
38:26at the heart
38:27of Athenian drama.
38:29And authors
38:29like the prize winning
38:30Sophocles
38:31forced the audience
38:33to experience
38:33vicariously
38:34the consequences
38:35of sloppy thinking.
38:38In 442 BC
38:39Sophocles won
38:40yet another victory
38:41at the city
38:41Dianesia
38:42with his play
38:43Antigone.
38:44Now Sophocles
38:45was a man
38:45intensely involved
38:46with the affairs
38:47of the Athenian state.
38:48He had been a general
38:49and he would go on
38:50to become
38:50one of its closest advisors
38:52during its darkest hours
38:53in future years.
38:55And his play Antigone
38:56deals with exactly
38:56this kind of thing.
38:57How to debate
38:59and argue
38:59through the difficult
39:01and yet critical issues
39:02that face a city.
39:04And what can happen
39:06when it all goes
39:07terribly wrong.
39:12The play tells
39:14the sad story
39:15of Oedipus' daughter
39:16Princess Antigone.
39:19When Antigone
39:20buries the body
39:21of her rebel brother
39:22she is following
39:22the law of the gods
39:24but the city's law
39:25and her uncle
39:26King Creon
39:27have forbidden it.
39:30Creon is furious
39:31and condemns her
39:32to death.
39:35Creon's son
39:36Hymon
39:37who is in love
39:38with Antigone
39:39urges his father
39:41to reconsider.
39:43He argues that
39:44a city
39:45is not a city
39:46if it is the holding
39:47of one man.
39:49But Creon
39:50is stubborn
39:50and uncompromising.
39:52He refuses to listen
39:53and refuses
39:54to back down.
39:56The play ends
39:56with Antigone
39:57and Hymon
39:58both committing suicide
39:59and with Creon
40:00facing the displeasure
40:01of his people
40:02and of the gods.
40:04Creon has to face
40:04the fact
40:05that his actions
40:06and his alone
40:07have caused
40:08this disaster.
40:10All of Greek tragedy
40:11stages dilemmas
40:13that cities
40:14under leaders have
40:15where they are faced
40:17with either
40:17very bad luck
40:18or very bad management
40:21or both.
40:23Now at one end
40:23of that spectrum
40:24you have got Oedipus
40:25who has very very
40:26very bad luck.
40:27He is doomed
40:28before he is even born.
40:29How do you react
40:30to that?
40:31How do you conduct
40:32yourself in a situation
40:33with very bad luck?
40:34Right at the other end
40:35is the story
40:36of Oedipus' daughter
40:37Antigone
40:38faced with the
40:39most incompetent leader
40:41in all of Greek literature
40:43and that is saying something.
40:45Creon simply cannot
40:46put a foot right
40:47so Sophocles
40:48is asking people
40:49to think about
40:50what a good leader
40:51might be
40:52through showing them
40:53the worst possible leader
40:54and the Athenians
40:55loved that so much
40:56that antiquity said
40:58they made him general
40:59in response.
41:00Creon's getting
41:01a pretty bad stick
41:02from Oedipus'
41:03but there is a real sense
41:05in which the issue
41:06at the centre of the play
41:07is an issue
41:09that arises
41:09even in Athenian law.
41:11In Athenian law
41:12if someone is a traitor
41:14they are not to be buried.
41:16You have to take them
41:17beyond the borders
41:18and you can then
41:19bury them outside.
41:20If you are a demarch
41:21in Athens
41:22and there is a dead body
41:24in your dem
41:24you are obliged
41:26to bury it.
41:26So immediately
41:28that clash of
41:30yes you must bury it
41:31but no you can't
41:32arises if the dead body
41:34happens to be a traitor.
41:35So this isn't a non-issue
41:37this is a real issue
41:38and Creon may make
41:40a complete fist
41:41of resolving it
41:42but he makes a fist
41:44because
41:45there are two
41:46diametrically opposed
41:48justifiable views
41:49and you then have to
41:51pick your way
41:52through these.
41:56Due to his
42:01dogged determination
42:02for others
42:03to do exactly
42:03what he wants
42:04his inability
42:05to listen
42:06to compromise
42:07Creon ends up
42:09paying the ultimate
42:10price
42:10the loss of his
42:11family
42:12and his authority.
42:14It's a play
42:15about listening
42:16debate
42:17compromise
42:18what it takes
42:19to be a leader
42:20those are issues
42:20which of course
42:21had relevance
42:22to the ancient
42:23Athenians
42:24watching the play
42:25but they're also
42:26issues that are
42:27relevant to any
42:28society at any
42:29time.
42:30That's what makes
42:31Antigone so timeless.
42:36It's got universal
42:38appeal because it's
42:39about someone
42:41fighting against
42:42a system
42:43and a system
42:44that's wrong.
42:45I mean that's how
42:45it gets picked up now
42:46and that's what
42:48really appeals to
42:49modern audiences
42:50I think about it.
42:51A play like
42:51Antigone
42:52what kind of
42:53resonance does that
42:54have for us today?
42:55thinking about
42:56this adaptation
42:57that Jean
42:58Ennui produced
42:59in 1944
43:01in France
43:03while it was
43:03being occupied
43:04by Nazis
43:05that's a real
43:06example of where
43:07you've got this
43:07play which is
43:09really taken on
43:10and championed
43:12by the
43:13resistance.
43:14How did it
43:15ever get
43:16permission to be
43:17performed if it's
43:18such a play of
43:18resistance?
43:19Well I think
43:21that's the
43:22ambiguity of the
43:22play.
43:23So you know
43:24for the
43:25occupying force
43:26for the
43:27Vichy government
43:27actually you can
43:29look at this
43:29play and think
43:30this is a play
43:31about law
43:32and imposing
43:33law and
43:34actually this is
43:35a silly little
43:35girl who breaks
43:36that law and
43:37you know she
43:38gets what's
43:39coming to her.
43:40So it's that
43:40ambiguity that
43:41allows even in
43:42those circumstances
43:43this great play
43:44of resistance
43:45for some people
43:46to be put on.
43:47Tragedy was an
43:53effective way of
43:55engaging with the
43:56issues that beset
43:57the democracy
43:57but it was not
43:59the only way.
44:00There was also
44:01comedy.
44:02Comedy was
44:03irreverent, rude
44:05and bawdy and
44:06it was also
44:07personal targeting
44:08real individuals
44:09and just like
44:11today ordinary
44:12Athenians in the
44:13marketplace were
44:14deeply suspicious of
44:15their elected
44:16political leaders.
44:17Some people it
44:19seems were just
44:20naturally born to
44:21successfully navigate
44:22the slippery waters
44:24of Athenian politics
44:25and one of those
44:27guys was a man
44:28called Cleon.
44:31Now Cleon was
44:32what we call today
44:33an opportunistic
44:34politician.
44:36He would be with
44:36the aristocrats
44:37or he would be
44:38sparing on the
44:39lowest of the low
44:39of the Athenian
44:40citizenry.
44:41And the ancient
44:42commentators are
44:43fairly hard on Cleon
44:45and today we'd
44:46probably be a bit
44:47more balanced.
44:48But without a
44:49shadow of a doubt
44:50he would do
44:50whatever it took
44:51to get whatever
44:52he wanted.
44:53Naturally he had
44:54his enemies.
44:56They accused him
44:57of being greedy
44:58not just for power
44:59but for fresh
45:00caught tuna
45:01seen back then
45:02as a luxury
45:03desired by the
45:04rich and
45:05anti-democratic.
45:08How could the
45:09democracy keep
45:10people like this
45:11in check
45:12while not killing
45:13off their energy
45:14and enthusiasm
45:14that at the end
45:15of the day
45:15benefited the city?
45:18Well one of the
45:18ways they did it
45:19was in the theatre
45:20by taking the piss
45:22out of them
45:22right in their
45:23very face.
45:30Comedies
45:30while performed
45:31at the Dionysia
45:32festival also had
45:33their own smaller
45:34festival.
45:35It was called
45:36the Lanaya.
45:38It took place
45:38early in January
45:39long before the
45:40season for sailing
45:41started so there
45:42were no foreigners
45:43present.
45:44This meant that
45:44comic writers could
45:45really let rip
45:46without letting
45:47the city down.
45:49What you have
45:50is really lively
45:51plays, very
45:53outrageous plays
45:54actually sometimes
45:55but they are
45:56politically involved.
45:58The settings can
45:59be amazing in the
46:01real sense,
46:02incredible.
46:03You have comedies
46:04that go to the
46:05underworld, they go
46:06to hell and
46:07that's where you get
46:07these animal choruses
46:09like frogs.
46:10This is a frog
46:12that was used in
46:14the King's College
46:17Greek play.
46:18I mean animal
46:19choruses are quite
46:20common in comedy.
46:21You've got for
46:22example the chorus
46:23here.
46:24These guys
46:25performing and the
46:26songs that they
46:27get to sing.
46:28I mean this is a
46:29great source of
46:31comedy.
46:32What kind of
46:32level of biting
46:33satire are we
46:35talking about here
46:35in ancient comedy?
46:36It's extremely
46:37personal.
46:38There's insults
46:39really of quite an
46:40infantile nature.
46:42You have plays
46:42which actually put
46:43politicians as one
46:45of the characters
46:45very thinly
46:46disguised but
46:47there'll be the
46:49leading politicians
46:50of the day,
46:51their policies will
46:52be clear, the way
46:53they speak might be
46:54parodied, even the
46:55mask can reflect
46:57characters from
46:58Athenian society.
47:00This was the sort
47:02of thing that lay
47:03in store for
47:03ambitious politicians
47:04like Cleon.
47:07And the man who
47:08was the real
47:08expert at this was
47:10a comic playwright
47:11called Aristophanes.
47:13And for Aristophanes
47:14and Cleon, it was a
47:16grudge match.
47:17They even came from
47:18the same village.
47:23In 45 BC, Aristophanes
47:26wrote a play called
47:27The Knights.
47:28It portrays Cleon as
47:29a cunning servant working
47:31for an old man called
47:32Deimos.
47:34Deimos represents the
47:36people.
47:36And as his crafty
47:38servant, Cleon misuses
47:40his position for the
47:41purposes of extortion
47:42and corruption.
47:44Yet in the end, it is
47:45Deimos who has the
47:46last laugh.
47:47Cleon's corrupt ways
47:49are exposed.
47:50He loses his position
47:52and he is reduced to
47:53selling sausages outside
47:54the Athens city gates.
47:57Aristophanes didn't pull
47:58any punches.
47:59This play brings Cleon
48:00right back down to
48:01earth.
48:02And of course, the
48:03politicians about whom
48:04the jokes were being
48:05made were right here,
48:06visible to all in the
48:08audience.
48:08So it's like having one
48:11of our shows, the Daily
48:11Show in the States, or
48:12Have I Got News for
48:13You here, being played
48:15out in an important
48:15civic space, the
48:16capital or the House
48:17of Commons, with the
48:19people they're taking
48:20the piss out of, sitting
48:21right here in the
48:22audience, having to take
48:23it in front of
48:23everyone.
48:24The Greeks even had a
48:25word for this.
48:26They called these
48:27people the
48:27comedoumonoi, those
48:29made fun of in
48:30comedy.
48:31And this isn't just
48:33some sort of sideshow.
48:34This many ancient
48:35commentators saw as the
48:37hallmark of ancient
48:39Athenian democracy and
48:40of freedom and free
48:42speech.
48:44The laughter didn't
48:45stop Cleon's career.
48:47Despite his slippery
48:48reputation, he was
48:49elected again and
48:51again.
48:52But the effect of
48:53comedy was more subtle
48:54than that.
48:55What it did do was
48:56police the boundaries of
48:58behavior, skewer
48:59pretensions, and remind
49:01those in positions of
49:02power of their
49:03responsibilities and of
49:04the limits of their
49:05ambitions.
49:06It's a kind of satire
49:07that we can still see
49:09at work in our own
49:09democracy today.
49:11By the time of Cleon,
49:13this experiment in
49:14Athenian democracy was
49:16heading towards its
49:17centenary.
49:18And in that time, it had
49:19seen it all from fighting
49:20for survival to cultural
49:22supremacy to empire to
49:24wealth.
49:25And it was still at war,
49:28not now with Persia, but
49:30with Greece's greatest
49:31fighting force, the
49:33Spartans.
49:35And desperate times call
49:37for desperate measures.
49:41The war between Sparta
49:43and Athens started in
49:44431 BC and lasted for
49:47decades.
49:48It was a fight to the
49:49death.
49:49Sparta ruled by land,
49:51Athens ruled at sea.
49:54But there was one
49:54island that had never
49:56submitted to Athenian
49:57domination and tried
49:58instead to remain neutral.
50:01The small island of
50:03Melos.
50:05In 416 BC, the Athenian
50:07Democrats had had enough.
50:09It was time for the
50:10Melians to submit.
50:12So the Athenians sent
50:14their fleet to enforce
50:15their demands.
50:18Now, according to
50:18Thucydides, the
50:19contemporary Athenian
50:20historian, the Athenians
50:22sent in not just their
50:23fleet, but also some
50:24diplomats to put the
50:25case.
50:26The case was very
50:27simple.
50:27It was this, join us
50:29or die.
50:31But what happened next,
50:32according to Thucydides,
50:34was an extraordinary
50:35debate between the two
50:37sides.
50:38These envoys, the
50:39Melians, did not bring
50:40before the popular
50:40assembly, but bade them
50:41tell in the presence of
50:42the magistrates and the
50:43few what they had come
50:44for.
50:45The envoys gave the
50:46Melians an ultimatum,
50:48surrender and pay tribute
50:50to Athens or be
50:51destroyed.
50:52The Melians argued that
50:54they were a neutral city,
50:55not an enemy, and that it
50:57would be shameful and
50:58cowardly to submit without
50:59a fight.
51:00But the Athenians were
51:01unmoved.
51:03They counted that if they
51:04didn't extract surrender
51:05from Melos, the empire
51:07would look weak.
51:08They argued that the
51:09strong have the right to
51:11exert their authority.
51:12This is a classic example
51:14of what we call in Greek
51:15an agon, a debate.
51:17You could have seen it in
51:18the philosophical lecture
51:19hall or in the political
51:20assembly or in the law
51:21courts or indeed on the
51:23stage in the theatre.
51:24And it's summed up, well,
51:26it's summed up rather well
51:27actually by an enthusiastic
51:28student who seems to have
51:29had this copy before me and
51:30who has written rather
51:31pithily in the margin,
51:32might is right.
51:34And that was the Athenian
51:35argument.
51:36The strong do as they can,
51:38the weak suffer what they
51:40must.
51:40And that's exactly what
51:42happened.
51:43The Athenians invaded the
51:44island of Melos.
51:45They executed all the men.
51:47They enslaved all the women
51:48and the children and they
51:49established an Athenian
51:50colony there.
51:52And yet, just the very next
51:54year, in the theatre of
51:56Dionysus, in the centre of
51:58Athens, Euripides, the
51:59enfant terrible of Athenian
52:01drama, staged a play called
52:03Trojan Women.
52:05Its subject matter was what
52:07happened to the women at
52:08Troy after the Greeks had
52:10besieged, invaded, destroyed
52:12the city.
52:13So the Athenians sat down to
52:16watch a play which laid before
52:19them on the stage the tragic
52:21reality of what they had done
52:23just the year before to the
52:26island of Melos.
52:27The play is set in the aftermath of
52:33the legendary siege of Troy.
52:36The city has fallen, all the
52:38Trojan men are dead, and the
52:39surviving Trojan women who make up
52:41the chorus in the play are to be
52:43sold into slavery.
52:45But for Princess Andromache,
52:47there's worse.
52:48Her son is to be taken from her and
52:50slaughtered.
52:50When she argues, the messenger tells
52:54her to be brave.
52:55Might is right.
53:05Push!
53:05If you say words that make the army
53:15angry, the child will have no burial,
53:20and without pity.
53:24So bear your fate as best you can.
53:26Then you need not leave him dead
53:30without a grave.
53:33And you will find the Greeks.
53:36What kind?
53:42Trojan women may well have spoken to
53:44Athenian actions on Melos, but
53:47Euripides was also crucially sending
53:49a broader message about the
53:51disillusionment that was taking hold
53:53in Greece after years of relentless
53:55savage war, and the terrible impact
53:58that such conflict has on all
54:00members of society.
54:04Why should we think that what the
54:06Athenians did to the Melians would
54:09have generated such terrific
54:11outrage when the Spartans had done
54:13something very similar to the people
54:16of Hysiae just a few years earlier?
54:19Exactly.
54:19I mean, that's purely historically.
54:21On the other hand, the coincidence of
54:23date means, it seems to me, that the
54:25that as Euripides is writing this, what
54:27is the big campaign that the Athenians
54:30are involved in that is going to involve
54:32women as slaves of war?
54:35Well, it is the Melian.
54:36There is no other campaign going on as
54:39Euripides is writing it in the winter of
54:424165.
54:43But he could have thought it at any time.
54:47That's the thing.
54:47By 416, 415, I think Euripides really has seen that war as a way of life brings nothing but misery to both victors and vanquished.
54:58And from that point of view, if you focus on Milos, you actually miss that point.
55:01Exactly.
55:02The more you think this is just a sort of, oh, there's been a terrible atrocity, the more you miss that this is about the fact that war is irrational and terrible.
55:12And Euripides is presenting a very, a view of all the Greeks as having barbarised themselves during the course of the Peloponnesian War.
55:21Euripides was not the only one to despair at the state of affairs in Greece or criticise Athenian behaviour.
55:30Many in Greece now felt that Athens was guilty of hubris of overreaching pride.
55:36And anyone who had ever seen a Greek tragedy would have been aware of what could happen next.
55:42Here at Ramnus in the 6th century, the people had built a temple to the Greek goddess responsible for punishing those guilty of hubris.
55:51She was called Nemesis, a name that comes from the Greek verb nemo, meaning to give what is due.
56:00Now, after the Melian atrocity, it seemed like Athenian ambition and pride was beginning to overreach itself.
56:09They not only had enemies abroad, they had an increasing number of enemies in Greece,
56:13and indeed an increasing number of enemies at home as well,
56:16who were beginning to think of democracy as perhaps the immoral inversion of the righteous order.
56:22The question was, as the glorious golden age of the 5th century drew to a close,
56:28how would theatre and democracy, which had so spectacularly grown up together,
56:34survive in a much harsher and more difficult world?
56:38Although the future of Athens now looked uncertain,
56:49the past century had been a spectacular era.
56:53Athens had invented and pioneered an array of things which underpin our own civilisation,
57:00from classical sculpture and architecture to new directions in philosophy and history.
57:06But for me, out of all those legacies, two stand out as the most extraordinary.
57:14First, democracy.
57:15Athens created the first democratic constitution in history,
57:20which has become a beacon across the centuries.
57:24And second, at the very same time,
57:27Athens invented a powerful and incisive new art form, theatre.
57:31An innovation without which, perhaps, that democracy might never have survived.
57:39Drama comes from the Greek word dran, to do, to act, to perform.
57:45And if there's one thing that's become abundantly clear,
57:47it's that theatre was never just mere entertainment, never a passive spectator,
57:51it was a performer in Athens' story in the ancient world.
57:55From tragedy, making our most important beliefs uncomfortable,
58:01to comedy, questioning and policing citizenship and keeping people in check,
58:07theatre was an institution that plugged into religious, civic, political and military aspects
58:13of ancient Athenian society.
58:16It was an extraordinary and an extraordinarily uncomfortable,
58:20risky and yet essential part of Athenian life.
58:24Join the Open University as we explore the connections between Greek theatre and modern-day democracy.
58:29Go to bbc.co.uk slash ancient Greece
58:32and follow the links to the Open University's free learning website.
58:39Peter and Dan Snow explore another 20th century battlefield
58:43in just a moment's time here on BBC4 this evening,
58:46and then a chance to re-meet the ancestors,
58:49families of the Stone Age,
58:50in stories from the Dark Earth at 11.
58:53Stay with us.
58:54Stay with us.
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