- 3 days ago
The Infinite Explorer with Hannah Fry - Season 1 Episode 2 -
Greece
Greece
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00The entire town, it's like everyone is here.
00:06Oh, it's going off.
00:10They told me I was coming to fill some ancient Greek traditions.
00:13This is not exactly what I had in mind.
00:19My name is Professor Hannah Fry,
00:22a mathematician and writer with a lifelong habit of following my curiosity.
00:27Especially when things are deeply, deliciously interesting.
00:35Kitchen yoga for you.
00:38Dionysus would approve.
00:41Some people travel to see the world.
00:44I travel to question the forces that shape entire nations.
00:49Welcome to South Korea.
00:51I wanted to come here for their optimal urban planning.
00:54It sort of feels quite chaotic, I'll be honest with you.
00:58I want to meet the people with unexpected stories to tell.
01:02I cannot imagine going through that as a young boy.
01:05No.
01:06And dig up the peculiar and wonderful treasures that reveal what a country is made of.
01:12I'm looking at it and thinking, what beautiful geometry.
01:16This is my way to make sense of what makes our world go round.
01:22Even if you've never set foot on Greek soil, trust me, it's already had a big influence on your life.
01:42This is the country that gave us democracy, philosophy, modern science, the Olympics.
01:49I mean, I could go on.
01:52These days, Greece is better known for its island hopping.
01:56Its lush olive groves and some of the best food the Mediterranean has to offer.
02:02What was it about this sun-soaked land that meant so many big ideas took hold?
02:10And how much of that legacy still shapes Greece today?
02:20Not to be a peasant, but see that?
02:23That's a Cartesian plane.
02:25It wasn't invented until about 2,000 years after Pythagoras.
02:28But who am I to mention it?
02:29Any holiday destination where you get mathematicians on the souvenirs...
02:35I like this one.
02:36...is my kind of country.
02:38Do you know who he is?
02:39Of course, it's Euclid.
02:40He's my favourite. He's my personal favourite.
02:43Some of the greatest minds in history, now available in fridge magnet form.
02:49Okay, I want to buy one of them, please.
02:50Of course.
02:51Naturally, I want to start exploring where so many of their revolutionary ideas were born.
02:59And so I'm kicking off my journey in Athens, Europe's oldest capital...
03:04...and once the intellectual powerhouse of the ancient world.
03:09These are the streets which have rung for millennia...
03:12...with the sound of sandals, debates...
03:15...and probably the occasional falling out over Oliwoi.
03:18But as life continued below, towering over the city, rising up from the rock...
03:25...was the Parthenon, a temple carved from stone.
03:30Jaw-dropping proof of the ancient Greek commitment...
03:33...to philosophy, politics, art and ambition.
03:39I know it's not enough for me to just tell you that the ancient Greeks were a big deal.
03:42I need to show you.
03:43And what better evidence is there than this magnificent monument to perfection, the Parthenon.
03:50This was built in about 400 BCE.
03:52And there were other pretty big buildings around the world at the time...
03:55...but none that had their dedication to symmetry and proportions.
03:59Kind of makes Stonehenge look a bit pathetic, don't you think?
04:02The Parthenon is one of the most popular tourist spots in Greece.
04:08Millions visit every year.
04:10And while most of them come here to soak up the history...
04:12...or marvel at the awe-inspiring architecture...
04:14...I'm looking at it and thinking...
04:16...excellent maths.
04:20What beautiful geometry.
04:25Because hidden at the heart of this temple is an ancient optical illusion.
04:31When you look at the Parthenon from here...
04:33...it kind of looks like everything's straight, right?
04:35So it's sort of a very straightforward building...
04:37...but there are no straight lines in the Parthenon...
04:41...because the base is not flat.
04:43It arches upwards towards the middle and down at the ends.
04:48It's as if the whole thing sits on the surface of a sphere.
04:52And just to show off...
04:53...all the pillars lean in towards the centre ever so slightly.
04:57And they're all shaped a little bit like a Coca-Cola bottle...
05:01...skinny at the top with a kind of bulge...
05:04...and then big at the bottom.
05:06Up until the 19th century, some thought it must be a fluke...
05:10...that flaws in its design had walked the whole thing.
05:14But no, every curve was deliberate.
05:18The ancient Greeks understood something we're still catching up to.
05:22Your brain expects things to sag under gravity.
05:25And so if a structure is too straight, it looks like it's bending.
05:29Their solution was to build it subtly curved...
05:32...so that it looks straight.
05:35In other words, to make it look perfect...
05:37...they had to cheat your eyes.
05:39Of course, it's one thing to dream up a design this clever.
05:45But building it without either modern tools or a calculator...
05:49...that's something else.
05:51To understand more about how they managed it...
05:54...I'm spending a few hours on the job with one of the restoration team...
05:58...tasked with restoring the Parthenon to its former glory.
06:01A second-generation stonemason with quite possibly the most Greek name imaginable.
06:08Is your real name Adonis?
06:09Yes.
06:10Really? Amazing!
06:12Over the millennia, this building has been shaken by earthquakes...
06:16...raided by looters and blown up by bombs.
06:20And what's left is a 70,000-piece jigsaw puzzle to solve and restore...
06:26...and no picture on the box.
06:28To reinstate each of the 69 columns, Adonis and the rest of the team...
06:32...need to cut fresh marble to fit seamlessly around the ancient stone.
06:36Oh, I see, so you have the new stuff, like, wrapping around?
06:39Yes.
06:40That's...complicated?
06:42Very complicated.
06:43Modern machinery is used for the rough shaping...
06:46...but when it comes to the fine details, it's chisels and hammers...
06:50...just like the original craftsmen used two and a half millennia ago.
06:55Oh, my God, this is so small.
06:57Look at this, compared to the size of the bar.
07:00If you were just using the ancient techniques...
07:04Just you?
07:05Just you?
07:06Just the chisel?
07:07And you've got to make one whole bit?
07:08Just one?
07:09Yeah.
07:10One month?
07:11But just one bit?
07:13Okay.
07:14But with the electric tools, it is one week.
07:17Can I do a bit?
07:18Am I allowed?
07:19Don't tell anyone.
07:20We won't tell anyone.
07:21Okay.
07:22Please let me a chisel.
07:24God.
07:25Maybe you can try here.
07:28An easy bit.
07:29It's very safe.
07:30And after, if you want...
07:32First, this.
07:33And after, like this.
07:34So you can...
07:35Okay.
07:36Hold the tools strongly.
07:37Do not damage the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
07:39Like this?
07:40Yes.
07:41Yes.
07:42Okay.
07:43Okay.
07:44Hold the tools strongly.
07:46Do not damage the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
07:51Like this?
07:52Congratulations.
07:53I think you learn fast.
07:54Because one mistake you cannot replace.
08:05I am glad that I haven't ruined it.
08:11This is one of the most impressive buildings in the whole of the world.
08:17Why did it happen here?
08:18They work clever, but it is not only this.
08:22All these marbles come from this mountain.
08:25It is hard as they need to work or to not be very soft.
08:31Not too soft, not too hard.
08:33It is a very nice kind of marble.
08:36Do you feel connected to your ancestors?
08:39Many times, yeah.
08:40Yeah?
08:41I can touch it.
08:42Yeah.
08:43I can feel it.
08:44Yeah.
08:45And I can see what an ancient worker will see.
08:49The idea that what I am doing now will exist a thousand years after me.
08:56Maybe I will be the grand, grand, grand, grand, grand, grandfather of a worker after 500 years.
09:04Beautiful.
09:05For Adonis and the millions of tourists who visit each year, the Parthenon is more than just a monument.
09:12It is a portal to the past.
09:14A tangible link to the brilliant minds who built it.
09:18I think anybody who comes here leaves with the impression that the Parthenon is this spectacularly beautiful, impressive thing.
09:27But I think that what is even more impressive, even more beautiful, is what the ancient Greeks did that made the Parthenon possible.
09:36Because behind every column and curve is a radical new idea that logic can be used to shape the world around you.
09:46The ancient Greeks didn't just build temples.
09:48They built a whole new way of thinking, one that would change the course of history forever.
09:55The Greeks' real legacy isn't their iconic architecture or beautiful buildings.
10:02It's their blueprint for rational thought.
10:06So, as I leave Athens behind, I want to show you what happened when the Greek mindset, curiosity, reason and a love of asking impossible questions met the vast unknowns of the natural world.
10:20Let me tell you the rather excellent story of the head librarian of Alexandria, Eratosthenes.
10:27Now, in a classic case of ancient Greek banter, Eratosthenes' contemporaries liked to call him Beta, to sort of imply that he was second-rate.
10:36Strangely enough, though, no-one remembers those guys now.
10:39One day, Eratosthenes heard a story about a town called Sien in the south, where at exactly midday, on the summer solstice, there were no shadows on the ground.
10:52Now, most of us, I think, would hear that and find it interesting and go on about our day.
10:57But Ol' Beta got to thinking.
11:00Because if there were no shadows at that exact moment, it must mean that the sun is directly overhead.
11:10Which was weird, because he'd never noticed such a phenomenon in the north, in Alexandria.
11:16So, he waited for the summer solstice to roll around again, when the sun would be highest in the sky.
11:22And he confirmed that, unlike in Sien, there were definitely shadows here in the north.
11:27How could that possibly make any sense?
11:30How could it be that you have shadows in Alexandria in the north at the exact same moment that there are no shadows in Sien in the south?
11:40If the earth was flat, then both shadows should be the same.
11:45And so Eratosthenes realized the only possible explanation to have shadows in Alexandria at the same time as there were no shadows in Sien is that the world wasn't flat at all.
11:58It was curved.
12:01But Beta wasn't done.
12:03If the world was round, Eratosthenes realized he could calculate exactly how big it was.
12:09He knew the angle of the shadow in Alexandria.
12:12So, if he could just work out the distance to Sien in the south, he could use triangles and geometry to do the rest.
12:21Ideally, he could have just sent somebody off with a camel.
12:24But camels have this nasty habit of getting a bit bored and wandering off course.
12:28And so, he gave somebody one of the worst jobs in scientific history.
12:33The challenge of pacing out the exact distance between Alexandria in the north and Sien in the south.
12:42The distance came out as 5,000 stadia, roughly 800 kilometers.
12:48Which, with some simple arithmetic, told Eratosthenes that the circumference of the earth was approximately 40,000 kilometers.
12:55We now know the circumference of the earth is 40,075 kilometers.
13:03Which isn't bad for old second-rate Beta, is it?
13:09For the Greeks, maths wasn't about numbers.
13:12It was about ideas.
13:13A tool for revealing the deeper structure of reality, one elegant principle at a time.
13:20Inevitably, that understanding was deeply tied to their surroundings.
13:24A dramatic landscape of mountains and islands.
13:29But maybe something about the geography of this region helped shape things, too.
13:34If you take a look at a map of Greece, you'll spot something straight away.
13:38A large portion of it is islands.
13:41Around 200 inhabited ones, to be precise, sweeping in a neat arc across the Aegean.
13:47And that's because Greece's volcanic islands sit on a tectonic fault line beneath the sea.
13:53Now, if you compare ancient Greece and its geography to some of the other superpowers that were around at the time, like Egypt or Persia,
14:02they were kind of centrally ruled, right?
14:04They had a monarch, they had a king, or they had a pharaoh.
14:07Greece's fragmented geography made central rule almost impossible.
14:12So instead, Greece really was a collection of autonomous city-states.
14:18They were spread across the mainland and its many islands.
14:22Familiar names such as Athens, Sparta, Rhodes and Thebes.
14:26Constantly bickering and fighting, but also bound together by a shared language and culture.
14:33And that is what makes Greece such an interesting country based on its geography.
14:38You've got over a thousand city-states that are just about far enough away from each other to be completely autonomous and have their own identity.
14:47And yet close enough together via the sea to be continually fighting and trading and intermingling with one another.
14:58It turns out that island hopping wasn't just for the views.
15:03It's also now hard-wired into the local genetics.
15:07Like in Crete, for instance, the largest of the islands.
15:09What is interesting about Cretan DNA is that you also see it sprinkled occasionally across people in the other islands of the Aegean Sea.
15:20Across the Mediterranean, up into mainland Europe, and then down into Egypt and the Levant.
15:26This isn't just true of in and around Crete, by the way.
15:29If you zoom out, you realize that this was happening all across the Mediterranean.
15:35These weren't isolated islands, but a buzzing network of Greek colonies constantly trading resources and ideas with other civilizations.
15:45Those Greek trade routes are just as busy now as they've always been.
15:50So I'm leaving the mainland and heading off to sea, following in the footsteps of the ancient voyagers.
16:02No Greek holiday is complete without a trip to one of its idyllic islands.
16:08Thousands of passenger ferries criss-cross the Aegean, fueling a tourism industry that makes up almost 20% of Greece's economy.
16:16I've come to Lavrio, Greece's third-largest passenger port.
16:22But I'm not here for the cruise ships or looking for cocktails and sun loungers.
16:26I want some good, old-fashioned conquest and philosophy.
16:31And maybe a little bit about how Greece's seafaring skill helped turn it into an ancient superpower.
16:36So I'm traveling old school, with wind and sails.
16:39Catching a lift with local skipper Lucas, who still navigates the Aegean the traditional way.
16:46Lucas, do I have to, like, ask permission to come on board?
16:48Yes.
16:49Hello, hello.
16:52Lucas runs Aegean cargo sailing, using wind power to ferry cheese, wine, honey and olive oil between the islands.
17:00So we can now undo the rope, please.
17:04Yes, Captain.
17:05Do you insist on them calling you captain?
17:06Well, everybody does call me, even if I don't ask for it.
17:09Really?
17:10And I'm very happy about it.
17:13During the summer months, Lucas invites tourists aboard to help with his deliveries.
17:19And today, I'm the latest recruit. Underqualified, but very enthusiastic.
17:23Very good. We'll hire you.
17:32Lucas' trade route links 25 Greek islands, allowing small-scale farmers and producers to share their products with buyers across the Aegean.
17:42The same way Lucas' ancestors were doing millennia ago.
17:49It's so peaceful.
17:50Yeah, you just put up the sails, and then I can only hear the waves and the whistling of the wind.
17:59The traditional way. I guess if you had existed on that island, right, and then you see this one in the distance, it's going to be sort of calling you to go on the water.
18:08And that's exactly what happened. The circulation in the Aegean was by sight. You could see the island you go to, and you see the island you left behind you all the time.
18:20I guess that does sort of indicate a mindset then, right, of like, you're going to be quite adventurous if you're a people that grew up seeing other islands in the distance.
18:30Yeah. That's why the Greeks became so good sailors. It was easy, and they were doing it all the time.
18:36But also there was stuff to find, I guess, right?
18:38Exactly.
18:39Particularly where you are.
18:40And there was a lot of commerce to do.
18:42Yeah.
18:43As a matter of fact, Greece became, or Athens mainly, became very rich because of the commerce.
18:49And since then, Greece's maritime trade hasn't just survived. It's gone global.
18:56Today, Greek shipping giants control just over a fifth of the world's merchant fleet, the largest share of any nation.
19:03And sharing the shipping lanes with these juggernauts is Lucas, a living link between Greece's trading past and present.
19:12But if we're doing this old school, then we're doing it properly. Full-on ancient Greek.
19:19Because I thought we could do a bit of traditional navigation.
19:22I brought my very own astrolabe, Lucas.
19:24Ah, fantastic.
19:25I never travel without it.
19:27Great.
19:28I mean, that's absolutely not true.
19:29So you're going to tell us where we are?
19:32I'm going to try.
19:35Let's see how we get on with the ancient equivalent of GPS.
19:39First developed by Greek astronomers around 150 BCE, the astrolabe helped sailors push beyond familiar coastlines,
19:48venturing across open sea to places like Egypt and as far west as Spain, all by navigating with nothing but the sun and the stars.
19:58It's based on the idea that if you were down at the equator, at midday, the sun would be directly overhead.
20:05But if you were at one of the poles, the sun would be very low in the sky.
20:10So, if you can work out the angle that the sun is at midday, you can find out how far north or south you are.
20:17A century after Eratosthenes measured the earth with shadows and geometry, the Greeks turned that logic into tools to expand their horizons.
20:26So the way this works, it's very clever, it's trying to work out the angle from the vertical.
20:34Then you want to work out where the sun is in the sky by twizzling this bit and pointing the needle upwards.
20:43Now, when you are in exactly the right point, there's a little hole in the top here that you line up with the second hole below.
20:53Oh, OK, that's pretty good.
20:56Right, I'm getting about 46, I think.
21:00Once you've got the sun's angle above the horizon, you just need to tweak it slightly for the time of year.
21:05Do the math and voila, you've got your latitude.
21:08Which gets me to, I'm going to say 38.
21:13Let's verify, it's almost 38, 37.7.
21:18I mean, the 0.3 is quite a big difference though, in terms of the actual circumference of the earth.
21:25But I mean, that's pretty good.
21:27Yeah.
21:28What do you do when it's cloudy?
21:29You cannot, it's as simple as that.
21:33OK, obviously your mobile phone could do a better job.
21:36But this is ancient technology.
21:39Navigation from 2,000 years ago.
21:43Armed with just circles, straight lines and triangles, the Greeks used the cosmos to understand the earth.
21:50And built tools to exploit it that are small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, yet powerful enough to launch voyages into the unknown.
21:58I have always wondered what makes the Greeks so special.
22:02Like, why was it here that they had this massive intellectual revolution?
22:07I think being on this boat sort of makes it a bit clearer.
22:12Greece found itself at a unique point in history and place on the planet, where they could reach out in any direction and find riches on the horizon.
22:22And I don't just mean valuable resources, but intellectual and cultural riches too.
22:27It's little wonder that they ended up with this Voyager mindset, still alive in people like Lucas.
22:34And all that Greek ambition was fuelled by something.
22:38So I'm heading south, to the very edge of the Greek archipelago, in search of treasure as vital to the modern Greek economy as it was to their ancient ancestors.
22:49Wherever the ancient Greeks went, one precious resource always travelled with them.
22:58A single commodity that fed their people, lit their homes and helped transform scattered city-states into thriving powerhouses.
23:07A liquid gold that brought the ancient Greeks' time to think, debate and build the foundations of the Western world.
23:17I've come to Crete, Greece's largest island and the cradle of Europe's earliest civilization.
23:24To uncover how the humble olive helped shape a nation.
23:28A fruit so important to Greek life, it comes with its own legend.
23:33So the story goes that two of the Greek gods, Athena and Poseidon, are having this big argument over the naming of a new city.
23:41And Poseidon gets his trident out, decides to make this really dramatic move.
23:45He conjures up this salt water spring, which looks amazing, not very practical.
23:50Athena, on the other hand, she does something much quieter.
23:53She simply plants an olive tree.
23:56But over time, that olive tree becomes the source of food, of oil and of wood.
24:03This is a tree that can survive droughts and storms and wars.
24:08And so the people of the city, they make their choice.
24:11They call their city Athens after Athena.
24:14And the olive tree itself becomes this real symbol of perseverance, of endurance and of wisdom.
24:21Now, that mythical tree is just a legend.
24:25But this one in Crete is the real deal.
24:28Talk about having roots in the past.
24:30This olive tree is over 4,000 years old.
24:33A living, breathing link to ancient Greece.
24:37And it's not just the trees that have roots in the past.
24:41People like Maria, a fifth generation olive farmer, still tend to these ancient beings with the same care their ancestors did.
24:53What does this kind of tree mean to the people of Greece?
24:56It's not just a tree to you.
24:58No, it's not just a tree.
25:00It symbolizes our history, our long relationship with olive oil.
25:04It reminds us our obligation to give it even better to the next generation.
25:09Our tradition is here in Crete, when the baby is born, we plant the tree.
25:15While the child will grow up, the olive tree will provide his food.
25:20Wait, so do you have your own tree?
25:22Yes, I have one.
25:23You do.
25:24So now it's very emotional to see the tree and to know that it has the same age with you.
25:30I really love the idea that even after you die, even after everybody who knows you has died, your tree will still be there.
25:38Yes, yes.
25:39It's really beautiful.
25:40It gives you hope.
25:42I've agreed to help out with one of the busiest periods for olive farmers like Maria, pruning season.
25:48You know, this is how my hair goes if I brush it.
25:51Olive trees outnumber people 50 to 1 on Crete.
25:55They blanket the islands all the way from the coastline to the highest peaks.
26:00Maria has over two and a half thousand trees in her care, so yes, help is welcome.
26:06I'm hoping to learn a few tricks of the trade from her father, Georgos, and grandfather, Michaelis.
26:12Have you been doing this for many years then, with these trees?
26:16Really?
26:17And then you taught, did he teach you as well?
26:20So you're the master?
26:25I think it's an umbrella.
26:26We want an umbrella around the trees in order to be protected from the sun.
26:33The main pruning must be done from upstairs in order to watch what you cut.
26:39I mean, I noticed there's not a ladder down the bottom.
26:42It doesn't need it.
26:43Okay.
26:44It's climbing.
26:45It will be, you know, a real cretin farmer.
26:48Let's do it.
26:49I mean, yeah.
26:50I'm told the tree Maria's grandfather has chosen for me is an easy climber.
26:57But let's just say I spent more of my youth reading books than up trees.
27:01This olive tree is just a baby.
27:04Okay, I'm in.
27:05Less than a thousand years old and produces between three and five liters of olive oil every year.
27:12Got it.
27:13You can see the umbrella shape much better up here.
27:15This one?
27:16Yes.
27:17Yes.
27:18The one that looks up.
27:19It goes...
27:20Oh, just the...
27:21Oops.
27:22Don't worry.
27:25But then hold on.
27:26Do you not get more olives if you keep up more branches?
27:29No, no, no.
27:30Because you will not have enough air and enough sun in order for the branches to flower.
27:36Oh, I see.
27:37So there's a balance, right?
27:38The balance is the secret.
27:41You got it?
27:43Yes.
27:44It needs strength.
27:46Did you have a good breakfast?
27:48Oh, well done.
27:49Well done.
27:50I can see the sky.
27:51There are very few moments where you get to feel as though you are doing something that
28:01has been the same way for thousands of years.
28:03You do the same thing and it keeps you provide with food.
28:06You love the tree.
28:07Yes.
28:08And then it loves you back.
28:09Yes.
28:10And this tree's been loved for a millennium.
28:13Exactly.
28:14There was a ladder this whole time.
28:17Yeah.
28:18We wanted to live the authentic experience.
28:21I'm pretty sure they had ladders a thousand years ago.
28:24Unbelievable.
28:25Can I give you this?
28:27This deep rooted tradition has made Greece one of the world's top olive oil producers.
28:32A large volume of which comes from Crete.
28:35But when it comes to consuming the stuff, the Greeks are top tier.
28:40They practically bathe in it, getting through about 20 litres per person per year.
28:47Yamas.
28:48Yamas.
28:49Yamas.
28:50Thank you for having me.
28:51Work hard and now we can eat.
28:55Traditional food.
28:56Beautiful.
28:57From sweet cheese pastries called Kalitsunia to my personal favourite, Kumbanya, delicious
29:04Cretan doughnuts.
29:06Everything here is either made with olive oil or is basically drowning in it.
29:11There's something very special about olive farming because it's like this lineage that
29:17goes back like beyond anything that you could comprehend with any other kind of farming.
29:22It's our tradition.
29:24We grow up in olive groves.
29:27We learn to our children how to respect, how to love olive trees.
29:31It's like a legacy for us.
29:33I guess in many ways then, although you might technically own these olive trees now,
29:38it's more like you're their guardians.
29:40Yeah, I try.
29:41I try.
29:42Yes.
29:43To protect.
29:44Until they sell it.
29:47We hope they don't.
29:49I mean, it is pretty amazing that you have what is essentially an immortal being in the olive tree.
29:56And it's amazing that you have these people who care for them so deeply.
30:01But what I think is really interesting is this symbiotic relationship consistent through time between this ancient organism and the people who care for it.
30:14Across Greece, you'll find people tending to history as part of their daily lives.
30:20Here in the olive groves are the temples in Athens and the trade routes of the Aegean.
30:25These aren't just relics of Greece's past. They're responsibilities.
30:29And some of the most devoted caretakers are the last people you might expect.
30:37Greece is a country with an undeniably rich history.
30:41But here's the thing. History isn't just what happened.
30:44It's what we choose to remember, protect and retell.
30:48And there is a reason that the cultural legacy of ancient Greece endured to leave such an indelible mark on our modern world.
30:57I'm heading inland to the breathtaking landscape of Meteora, where towering rock formations rise up from the Thessaly Plains.
31:07Meteora means suspended in air, and you can see why.
31:12Here, monasteries look less built and more precariously balanced on top of high stone pillars.
31:19I was brought up Catholic, right? So I feel very at home in a church.
31:23But there is something that always struck me as sort of unusual about Greece, right?
31:28Because this is a place that is known for its curiosity, for its intellectual exploration.
31:36And yet at the same time, it's one of the most religious countries in all of Europe.
31:42Ninety percent of Greeks, by the way, identify as Orthodox.
31:46And you sort of think those two things would be in conflict with one another, you know?
31:49Like on the one hand, this sort of unquenchable thirst for proof.
31:54And then on the other, that's who sort of believe and don't question.
32:03Built by a group of monks in the 14th century with some serious determination and no fear of heights,
32:09St. Stephen's Monastery is now home to a community of 31 nuns,
32:14who are up at 5am every day for prayer and their daily rituals.
32:23The ancient Greeks had gods for practically everything.
32:26When Greece was absorbed into the Roman Empire, they began to whittle them down.
32:31And over time, the country fully embraced the Orthodox Church with just one god,
32:37which still plays a big role in Greek life today.
32:41But St. Stephen's isn't just a place of prayer.
32:44This is a vault for centuries worth of sacred texts too.
32:48Carved into the rock beneath, there is a museum packed with religious treasures and ancient manuscripts.
32:54And I'm here to find one in particular.
32:57My guide is Sister Nicotheimi.
33:00She spent 30 years in this monastery and knows every treasure hidden within.
33:04Thank you. Thank you so much.
33:06That's the place where the most important cave of the valley is.
33:13Tucked away here are 154 manuscripts. Some dating back to the 11th century.
33:19Painstaking copies made by the monks who once called this place home.
33:23And in pride of place sits the one I'm looking for.
33:27A full edition of Aristotle's works, the Greek philosopher who basically wrote the manual
33:42on scientific thought, asking questions, testing theories, and using logic to make sense of
33:47the world. So it does make you wonder, what's his work doing here alongside orthodox religious
33:54texts. The ancient Greeks to me are like Aristotle or Plato, all those guys to me are like my
34:01heroes. But what I've been trying to do is try and understand how ancient Greece and modern
34:07Greece fit together. These kind of ideas that Aristotle worked on and Catholicism feel very
34:14far apart. What happened here? Why was it so different here?
34:17The mathematics is something similar. For the Greeks, the mathematics is also a philosophy.
34:23The philosophy in the ancient Greece was all over. Who was the Pythagoras, who was a very
34:30mathematician, was a philosopher. The philosophers were also doctors, mathematicians, astronomers,
34:36and astronomers. Everything was the ancient Greek spirit, the ancient Greek philosophy.
34:41The Orthodox monks were more than just men of faith. They were also scholars. And during
35:00the period of Ottoman rule from the 15th to the early 19th century when Greek culture was
35:05under threat, it was the church that protected and preserved it. The Greeks have this very
35:11unique relationship then between rational, scientific, philosophical thoughts and religion.
35:18I mean, the two are sort of combined together.
35:20combined together have you studied these then yourself not all of this but
35:43clearly I'm not to be trusted with the monastery's more delicate secrets but what I have been
35:56letting on is something much bigger the way science and religion coexist here not as rivals
36:03but co-conspirators in the search for meaning so I've always had this worldview that there are
36:09like two parallel universes so on the one hand you've got the real world which is messy and ugly
36:16and complicated and then kind of lying underneath that you've got the mathematical universe and this
36:22is beautiful and pure and divine and you know the ancient Greeks and the orthodox church they
36:29sort of see things in the same way it's just they think it's literally divine rather than just
36:34metaphorically and so maybe our beliefs aren't actually quite so different after all
36:40which does make me wonder if I've just actually been on a pilgrimage this entire time
36:45the monks and nuns of Meteora are quiet custodians of Greek culture keeping it alive for future
36:54generations but what about the people inheriting that legacy in a country so defined by ancient
37:01greatness what is it like to live in the shadow of all of that history on the final leg of my journey
37:07I'm looking for the modern Greek identity preferably somewhere with fewer philosophers and a bit more chaos
37:14if there's one thing I've learned so far it's that being Greek comes with a pretty overwhelming
37:23legacy so now I want to see what happens when all of that weight of history meets something
37:28a little more unexpected I've come to galaxy a coastal town with postcard views and a festival
37:37that promises to be part heritage part chaos and entirely unforgettable except right now it feels a bit
37:45more ghost town than carnival there is a festival that takes place across Greece every year one that
37:53dates back to the days of worshipping Dionysus the god of fun and this town of galaxy has its own
38:00take on the festival that has been going for a couple of hundred years and believe me when I tell you
38:07Dionysus would approve right now the whole town is holed up at home preparing for what they proudly and slightly
38:17ominously call the flower war
38:23luckily I've been taken under the wing of local Galaxidian Yorgos go and go crazy with help from his son
38:29Andreas I'm getting battle ready step one smear yourself with flower mixed with colored pigment
38:37naturally this tradition dates back to galaxy these glory days in the 18th century when it was a
38:44booming ship building town back then the whole town would turn out to send sailors off in style
38:50faces dusted with flower spirits high and just enough anarchy to qualify as a proper send-off
38:58then came the age of the steamboat the shipyards fell silent and galaxy d became the sleepy coastal town it
39:05is today but once a year that silence is shattered the town wakes up grabs the flower and throws itself
39:12back into history one fistful at a time
39:17so do you remember going as a little boy as well
39:19I put in the gap to a drag you go yeah to my zone one of the no one of my parents would
39:23go down to get a mess of the room with your mouth of the open and you go to your mom
39:28this must be really nice having grandfather father and son all together
39:35i agree with you completely generations of galaxy dians have fought to keep their town's story alive
40:04passing the tradition down through families but beneath the flower and the face paint
40:09lies an even older tail a thread that stretches back to ancient greece
40:17the wearing of sheep bells is a pagan practice rooted in ancient dionysian rituals celebrating fertility
40:24rebirth and the transition of winter to spring
40:27so you know which sheep it is
40:45today is a big day for four-year-old andreas it's his very first flower wall wearing his own bell and you
40:51get one a small one from the family goat but it's a big step in joining the family tradition
41:04he'd better not lose one then right
41:08yorgos and his family aren't trying to relive the past they're just continuing the tradition with a cloud
41:14full of colorful flower and as thousands of people gather on the edge of town it's clear that this
41:20festival has grown way beyond the mere local custom
41:28they somehow was coming to film some ancient greek traditions this is uh this is not exactly what i had
41:33in mind let's go
41:42what do you think about it the themes don't really change that much over time right you've got war you've
41:47got gods you've got love you've got death i have to tell you this isn't my usual scene i like things
41:53with a bit of structure you know mild control over my surroundings but this on the other hand is chaos
42:00it's a mash-up of ancient ritual and local history stitched together into something that is loud and
42:06messy and somehow still speaks to greeks today you've got old people you've got young people it's like
42:13everyone is here and yet somehow it works
42:21my father claims that he's the oldest one at 75. yeah how does it compare to christmas or to easter
42:28like do you look forward to this day if you put aside the orthodox holidays it's more important for
42:33the local people oh close your mouth because you have you have something coming
42:43back in ancient greece festivals were more than just an excuse for a party they were how people
42:49made sense of who they were shared stories and rituals were what stitched those scattered
42:55city states together into what we now know as greece and that tradition still lives on passed down
43:01through families to make sure that the story doesn't end with them
43:08i think when i first got here i saw greece is sort of disjointed right you've got like the ancients
43:14and then you've got the people today most felt disconnected somehow but actually thinking about
43:21it i realized there are these threads that are consistently there all through time you've got the
43:28parthenon of course you've got ancient greek mathematics you've got the olive tree you've got
43:33the life on the sea and perhaps greece isn't the trailblazer it once was or maybe it's just that the
43:40rest of the world finally caught up radical thought became the mainstream either way the greeks have every
43:47reason to celebrate a legacy that didn't just shape history it set the bar for it
44:06you
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