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00:00All the generations of the entire town, it's like everyone is here.
00:11Oh, it's going off.
00:15They told me I was coming to film some ancient Greek traditions.
00:18This is not exactly what I had in mind.
00:24My name is Professor Hannah Frye.
00:27A mathematician and writer with a lifelong habit of following my curiosity.
00:33Especially when things are deeply, deliciously interesting.
00:40Kitchen yoga for you.
00:43Dionysus would approve.
00:46Some people travel to see the world.
00:49I travel to question the forces that shape entire nations.
00:54Welcome to South Korea.
00:55I wanted to come here for their optimal urban planning.
01:00It sort of feels quite chaotic, I'll be honest with you.
01:03I want to meet the people with unexpected stories to tell.
01:07I cannot imagine going through that as a young boy.
01:10No.
01:11And dig up the peculiar and wonderful treasures that reveal what a country is made of.
01:16This is my way to make sense of what makes our world go round.
01:27Even if you've never set foot on Greek soil, trust me, it's already had a big influence on your life.
01:46This is the country that gave us democracy, philosophy, modern science, the Olympics.
01:54I mean, I could go on.
01:57These days, Greece is better known for its island hopping.
02:02Its lush olive groves and some of the best food the Mediterranean has to offer.
02:06Yama.
02:07Yama.
02:08What was it about this sun-soaked land that meant so many big ideas took hold?
02:15And how much of that legacy still shapes Greece today?
02:25Not to be a peasant, but see that?
02:28That's a Cartesian plane.
02:30It wasn't invented until about 2,000 years after Pythagoras.
02:33But who am I to mention it?
02:36Any holiday destination where you get mathematicians on the souvenirs...
02:40I like this one.
02:41...is my kind of country.
02:42Do you know who he is?
02:44Of course, it's Euclid.
02:45He's my favourite.
02:46He's my personal favourite.
02:48Some of the greatest minds in history, now available in fridge magnet form.
02:54Okay, I want to buy one of them, please.
02:55Of course.
02:58Naturally, I want to start exploring where so many of their revolutionary ideas were born.
03:04And so I'm kicking off my journey in Athens, Europe's oldest capital,
03:08and once the intellectual powerhouse of the ancient world.
03:12These are the streets which have rung for millennia, with the sound of sandals, debates,
03:19and probably the occasional falling out over Oliver.
03:25But as life continued below, towering over the city, rising up from the rock,
03:30was the Parthenon, a temple carved from stone.
03:34Jaw-dropping proof of the ancient Greek commitment to philosophy, politics, art, and ambition.
03:41I know it's not enough for me to just tell you that the ancient Greeks were a big deal.
03:47I need to show you, and what better evidence is there than this magnificent monument to perfection,
03:55the Parthenon.
03:56This was built in about 400 BCE, and there were other pretty big buildings around the world at the time,
04:01but none that had their dedication to symmetry and proportions.
04:06It's going to make Stonehenge look a bit pathetic, don't you think?
04:08The Parthenon is one of the most popular tourist spots in Greece.
04:14Millions visit every year, and while most of them come here to soak up the history
04:18or marvel at the awe-inspiring architecture.
04:22I'm looking at it and thinking, excellent maths.
04:28What beautiful geometry.
04:30Because hidden at the heart of this temple is an ancient optical illusion.
04:37When you look at the Parthenon from here, it kind of looks like everything's straight, right?
04:40So it's sort of a very straightforward building, but there are no straight lines in the Parthenon
04:46because the base is not flat.
04:50It arches upwards towards the middle and down at the ends.
04:54It's as if the whole thing sits on the surface of a sphere.
04:57And just to show off, all the pillars lean in towards the centre ever so slightly.
05:03And they're all shaped a little bit like a Coca-Cola bottle,
05:07skinny at the top with a kind of bulge and then big at the bottom.
05:12Up until the 19th century, some thought it must be a fluke,
05:16that flaws in its design had walked the whole thing.
05:19But no, every curve was deliberate.
05:23The ancient Greeks understood something we're still catching up to.
05:27Your brain expects things to sag under gravity.
05:30And so if a structure is too straight, it looks like it's bending.
05:34Their solution was to build it subtly curved so that it looks straight.
05:40In other words, to make it look perfect, they had to cheat your eyes.
05:47Of course, it's one thing to dream up a design this clever.
05:50But building it without either modern tools or a calculator, that's something else.
05:57To understand more about how they managed it,
06:00I'm spending a few hours on the job with one of the restoration team,
06:04tasked with restoring the Parthenon to its former glory.
06:06A second-generation stonemason with quite possibly the most Greek name imaginable.
06:13Is your real name Adonis?
06:15Yes.
06:15Really? Amazing.
06:16Over the millennia, this building has been shaken by earthquakes,
06:21raided by looters and blown up by bombs.
06:25And what's left is a 70,000-piece jigsaw puzzle to solve and restore,
06:30and no picture on the box.
06:32To reinstate each of the 69 columns,
06:36Adonis and the rest of the team need to cut fresh marble
06:38to fit seamlessly around the ancient stone.
06:42Oh, I see. So you have the new stuff, like, wrapping around?
06:45Yes.
06:46That's complicated.
06:48Very complicated.
06:49Modern machinery is used for the rough shaping.
06:52But when it comes to the fine details,
06:54it's chisels and hammers,
06:56just like the original craftsmen used two and a half millennia ago.
07:00Oh, my God, this is so small.
07:03Look at this, compared to the size of the box.
07:07If you were just using the ancient techniques,
07:10just you, just the chisel,
07:12and you've got to make one whole bit.
07:14Just one?
07:15Yeah.
07:15One month.
07:17But just one bit.
07:19Okay.
07:19But with the electric tools, it is one week.
07:23Can I do a bit?
07:24Uh...
07:24Am I allowed?
07:25Don't tell anyone.
07:26We won't tell anyone.
07:27Okay.
07:29He's letting me a chisel, God.
07:30Um, maybe you can try here.
07:34An easy bit.
07:34It's very safe.
07:36And after, if you want...
07:39First, this.
07:41And after, like this.
07:46So you can...
07:48Okay.
07:49Hold the tools strongly.
07:51Do not damage the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
07:56Like this?
07:57Yes.
07:58Okay.
07:58Congratulations.
08:02I think you'll learn fast.
08:08Because one mistake you cannot replace.
08:11I am glad that I haven't ruined it.
08:14This is one of the most impressive buildings in the whole of the world.
08:23Why did it happen here?
08:24They work clever, but it is not only this.
08:27All these marbles come from this mountain.
08:31It is hard as they need to work or to not be very soft.
08:37Not too soft, not too hard.
08:39It is a very nice kind of marble.
08:42Do you feel connected to your ancestors?
08:45Many times, yeah.
08:46Yeah?
08:46I can touch it.
08:48Yeah.
08:48I can feel it.
08:49Yeah.
08:49And I can see what an ancient worker will see.
08:54The idea that what I'm doing now will exist a thousand years after me.
09:00Maybe I'll be the grand, grand, grand, grand, grand, grand, grandfather of a worker after 500 years, you know.
09:10Beautiful.
09:11For Adonis and the millions of tourists who visit each year, the Parthenon is more than just a monument.
09:18It's a portal to the past, a tangible link to the brilliant minds who built it.
09:24I think anybody who comes here leaves with the impression that the Parthenon is this spectacularly beautiful, impressive thing.
09:32But I think that what is even more impressive, even more beautiful, is what the ancient Greeks did that made the Parthenon possible.
09:42Because behind every column and curve is a radical new idea that logic can be used to shape the world around you.
09:52The ancient Greeks didn't just build temples.
09:54They built a whole new way of thinking, one that would change the course of history forever.
10:02The Greeks' real legacy isn't their iconic architecture or beautiful buildings.
10:08It's their blueprint for rational thought.
10:12So, 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.
10:25Let me tell you the rather excellent story of the head librarian of Alexandria, Eratosthenes.
10:33Now, in a classic case of ancient Greek banter, Eratosthenes' contemporaries liked to call him Beta, to sort of imply that he was second rate.
10:42Strangely enough, though, no one remembers those guys now.
10:45One 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.
10:59Now, most of us, I think, would hear that and find it interesting and go on about our day.
11:03But Ol' Beta got to thinking, because if there were no shadows at that exact moment, it must mean that the sun is directly overhead.
11:16Which was weird, because he'd never noticed such a phenomenon in the north, in Alexandria.
11:21So, he waited for the summer solstice to roll around again, when the sun would be highest in the sky.
11:28And he confirmed that, unlike in Sien, there were definitely shadows here in the north.
11:34How could that possibly make any sense?
11:36How 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?
11:46If the earth was flat, then both shadows should be the same.
11:50And 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.
12:04It was curved.
12:06But Beta wasn't done.
12:09If the world was round, Eratosthenes realized he could calculate exactly how big it was.
12:15He knew the angle of the shadow in Alexandria, so if he could just work out the distance to Sien in the south, he could use triangles and geometry to do the rest.
12:25Ideally, he could have just sent somebody off with a camel, but camels have this nasty habit of getting a bit bored and wandering off course.
12:34And so, he gave somebody one of the worst jobs in scientific history, the challenge of pacing out the exact distance between Alexandria in the north and Sien in the south.
12:46The distance came out as 5,000 stadia, roughly 800 kilometers, which, with some simple arithmetic, told Eratosthenes that the circumference of the earth was approximately 40,000 kilometers.
13:00We now know the circumference of the earth is 40,075 kilometers, which isn't bad for old second-rate Beta, is it?
13:14For the Greeks, maths wasn't about numbers.
13:17It was about ideas, a tool for revealing the deepest structure of reality, one elegant principle at a time.
13:24Inevitably, that understanding was deeply tied to their surroundings, a dramatic landscape of mountains and islands.
13:34But maybe something about the geography of this region helped shape things, too.
13:39If you take a look at a map of Greece, you'll spot something straight away.
13:44A large portion of it is islands.
13:47Around 200 inhabited ones, to be precise, sweeping in a neat arc across the Aegean.
13:52And that's because Greece's volcanic islands sit on a tectonic fault line beneath the sea.
13:59Now, if you compare ancient Greece and its geography to some of the other superpowers that were around at the time, like Egypt or Persia,
14:07they were kind of centrally ruled, right?
14:09They had a monarch, they had a king, or they had a pharaoh.
14:12Greece's fragmented geography made central rule almost impossible.
14:16So instead, Greece really was a collection of autonomous city-states.
14:23They were spread across the mainland and its many islands.
14:27Familiar names such as Athens, Sparta, Rhodes and Thebes.
14:32Constantly bickering and fighting, but also bound together by a shared language and culture.
14:37And that is what makes Greece such an interesting country based on its geography.
14:43You'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.
14:53And yet close enough together via the sea to be continually fighting and trading and intermingling with one another.
15:02It turns out that island hopping wasn't just for the views.
15:08It's also now hardwired into the local genetics.
15:12Like in Crete, for instance, the largest of the islands.
15:15What is interesting about Cretan DNA is that you also see it sprinkled occasionally across people in the other islands of the Aegean Sea.
15:25Across the Mediterranean, up into mainland Europe, and then down into Egypt and the Levant.
15:32This isn't just true of in and around Crete, by the way.
15:35If you zoom out, you realize that this was happening all across the Mediterranean.
15:40These weren't isolated islands, but a buzzing network of Greek colonies constantly trading resources and ideas with other civilizations.
15:49Those Greek trade routes are just as busy now as they've always been.
15:57So I'm leaving the mainland and heading off to sea, following in the footsteps of the ancient voyagers.
16:03No Greek holiday is complete without a trip to one of its idyllic islands.
16:14Thousands of passenger ferries crisscross the Aegean, fueling a tourism industry that makes up almost 20% of Greece's economy.
16:23I've come to Lavrio, Greece's third largest passenger port.
16:27But I'm not here for the cruise ships or looking for cocktails and sun loungers.
16:31I want some good, old-fashioned conquest and philosophy.
16:36And maybe a little bit about how Greece's seafaring skill helped turn it into an ancient superpower.
16:42So I'm traveling old school, with wind and sails.
16:46Catching a lift with local skipper Lucas, who still navigates the Aegean the traditional way.
16:52Lucas, do I have to ask permission to come on board?
16:55Hello, hello.
16:56Thank you.
16:57Lucas runs Aegean cargo sailing, using wind power to ferry cheese, wine, honey and olive oil between the islands.
17:07So we can now undo the rope, please.
17:09Yes, Captain.
17:10Do you insist on them calling you captain?
17:12Well, everybody does call me, even if I don't ask for it.
17:15Really?
17:16And I'm very happy about it.
17:19During the summer months, Lucas invites tourists aboard to help with his deliveries.
17:24And today I'm the latest recruit, underqualified but very enthusiastic.
17:30Very good.
17:32We'll hire you.
17:33Lucas' trade route links 25 Greek islands, allowing small-scale farmers and producers to share their products with buyers across the Aegean.
17:47The same way Lucas' ancestors were doing millennia ago.
17:50It's so peaceful.
17:56Yeah, you just put up the sails and then I can only hear the waves and the whistling of the wind.
18:04The traditional way.
18:06I 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.
18:14And that's exactly what happened.
18:15The circulation in the Aegean was by sight.
18:21You could see the island you go to and you see the island you left behind you all the time.
18:26I 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.
18:36Yeah, that's why the Greeks became so good sailors.
18:39It was easy and they were doing it all the time.
18:42But also there was stuff to find, I guess, right, particularly where you are.
18:46And there was a lot of commerce to do.
18:47Yeah.
18:48As a matter of fact, Greece became, or Athens mainly, became very rich because of the commerce.
18:55And since then, Greece's maritime trade hasn't just survived.
18:59It's gone global.
19:02Today, Greek shipping giants control just over a fifth of the world's merchant fleet, the largest share of any nation.
19:08And sharing the shipping lanes with these juggernauts is Lucas, a living link between Greece's trading past and present.
19:17But if we're doing this old school, then we're doing it properly, full-on ancient Greek.
19:22So I thought we could do a bit of traditional navigation.
19:28I brought my very own astrolabe, Nickus.
19:30Wow, fantastic.
19:32I never travel without it.
19:33Great.
19:34I mean, that's absolutely not true.
19:35So you're going to tell us where we are?
19:38I'm going to try.
19:39Let's see how we get on with the ancient equivalent of GPS.
19:45First developed by Greek astronomers around 150 BCE, the astrolabe helped sailors push beyond familiar coastlines,
19:54venturing across open sea to places like Egypt and as far west as Spain,
19:59all by navigating with nothing but the sun and the stars.
20:03It's based on the idea that if you were down at the equator, at midday, the sun would be directly overhead.
20:10But if you were at one of the poles, the sun would be very low in the sky.
20:15So if you can work out the angle that the sun is at midday, you can find out how far north or south you are.
20:23A century after Eratosthenes measured the Earth with shadows and geometry,
20:28the Greeks turned that logic into tools to expand their horizons.
20:33So the way that this works, and it's very clever, is trying to work out the angle from the vertical.
20:40Then you want to work out where the sun is in the sky by twizzling this bit and pointing the needle upwards.
20:49Now 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.
20:58Oh, okay, that's pretty good.
21:01Right, I'm getting about 46, I think.
21:05Once you've got the sun's angle above the horizon, you just need to tweak it slightly for the time of year.
21:11Do the math and voila, you've got your latitude.
21:14Which gets me to, I'm going to say 38.
21:19Let's verify.
21:21It's almost 38, 37.7.
21:24I mean, the 0.3 is quite a big difference though, in terms of the actual circumference of the Earth.
21:31But I mean, that's pretty good.
21:32Yeah.
21:33What do you do when it's cloudy?
21:35You cannot.
21:36It's as simple as that.
21:37Okay, obviously your mobile phone could do a better job, but this is ancient technology.
21:45Navigation from 2,000 years ago.
21:48Armed with just circles, straight lines and triangles, the Greeks used the cosmos to understand the Earth
21:55and built tools to exploit it that are small enough to hold in the palm of your hand,
22:00yet powerful enough to launch voyages into the unknown.
22:04I have always wondered what makes the Greeks so special.
22:08Like, why was it here that they had this massive intellectual revolution?
22:14I think being on this boat sort of makes it a bit clearer.
22:19Greece found itself at a unique point in history and place on the planet,
22:23where they could reach out in any direction and find riches on the horizon.
22:28And I don't just mean valuable resources, but intellectual and cultural riches too.
22:33It's little wonder that they ended up with this voyager mindset, still alive in people like Lucas.
22:39And all that Greek ambition was fuelled by something.
22:44So I'm heading south, to the very edge of the Greek archipelago,
22:49in search of treasure as vital to the modern Greek economy as it was to their ancient ancestors.
22:57Wherever the ancient Greeks went, one precious resource always travelled with them.
23:03A single commodity that fed their people, lit their homes and helped transform scattered city-states into thriving powerhouses.
23:13A liquid gold that brought the ancient Greeks' time to think, debate and build the foundations of the Western world.
23:20I've come to Crete, Greece's largest island and the cradle of Europe's earliest civilisation,
23:29to uncover how the humble olive helped shape a nation.
23:34A fruit so important to Greek life, it comes with its own legend.
23:38So the story goes that two of the Greek gods, Athena and Poseidon, are having this big argument over the naming of a new city.
23:47And Poseidon gets his trident out, decides to make this really dramatic move.
23:51He conjures up this saltwater spring, which looks amazing, not very practical.
23:56Athena, on the other hand, she does something much quieter.
23:59She simply plants an olive tree.
24:02But over time, that olive tree becomes the source of food, of oil and of wood.
24:08This is a tree that can survive droughts and storms and wars.
24:14And so the people of the city, they make their choice.
24:17They call their city Athens after Athena.
24:20And the olive tree itself becomes this real symbol of perseverance, of endurance and of wisdom.
24:28Now, that mythical tree is just a legend.
24:31But this one in Crete is the real deal.
24:35Talk about having roots in the past.
24:37This olive tree is over 4,000 years old.
24:40A living, breathing link to ancient Greece.
24:44And it's not just the trees that have roots in the past.
24:47People like Maria, a fifth generation olive farmer, still tend to these ancient beings with the same care their ancestors did.
24:59What does this kind of tree mean to the people of Greece?
25:02It's not just a tree to you.
25:04No, it's not just a tree.
25:05It symbolizes our history, our long relationship with olive oil.
25:09It reminds us our obligation to give it even better to the next generation.
25:14Our tradition is here in Crete, when the baby is born, we plant the tree.
25:21While the child will grow up, the olive tree will provide his food.
25:26Wait, so do you have your own tree?
25:28Yes, I have one.
25:28So now it's very emotional to see the tree and to know that it has the same age with you.
25:36I really love the idea that even after you die, even after everybody who knows you has died, your tree will still be there.
25:43Yes.
25:44Yes.
25:44It's really beautiful.
25:45It gives you hope.
25:47I'm a choco.
25:48I've agreed to help out with one of the busiest periods for olive farmers like Maria, pruning season.
25:54You know, this is how my hair goes if I brush it.
25:57Olive trees outnumber people 50 to 1 on Crete.
26:01They blanket the islands all the way from the coastline to the highest peaks.
26:06Maria has over 2,500 trees in her care.
26:09So, yes, help is welcome.
26:12I'm hoping to learn a few tricks of the trade from her father, Yorgos, and grandfather, Mikaelis.
26:18Have you been doing this for many years then, with these trees?
26:22Really?
26:23And then you taught, did he teach you as well?
26:26So you're the master?
26:31We want an umbrella around the trees in order to be protected from the sun.
26:39The main pruning must be done from upstairs in order to watch what you cut.
26:45I mean, I noticed there's not a ladder down the bottom.
26:48It doesn't need to be good.
26:49Okay.
26:50It's climbing.
26:51You will be, you know, a real Creighton farmer.
26:54Let's do it.
26:55I mean, yeah.
26:55I'm told the tree Maria's grandfather has chosen for me is an easy climber.
27:03But let's just say I spent more of my youth reading books than up trees.
27:07This olive tree is just a baby.
27:10Okay, I'm in.
27:10Less than 1,000 years old and produces between 3 and 5 liters of olive oil every year.
27:16Thank you.
27:17Got it.
27:18You can see the umbrella shape much better up here.
27:20This one?
27:22Yes.
27:23The one that looks up.
27:25It goes, oh, just the, oops.
27:27Don't worry.
27:30But then hold on.
27:31Do you not get more olives if you keep up more branches?
27:34No, no, no.
27:35Because you will not have enough air and enough sun in order to the branches to flower.
27:41Oh, I see.
27:42So there's a balance, right?
27:44Balance is the secret.
27:47You got it?
27:49Yes.
27:50It needs strength.
27:52Did you have a good breakfast?
27:53Oh, well done.
27:55Oh, well done.
27:56I can see the sky.
27:57There are very few moments where you get to feel as though you are doing something that
28:06has been the same way for thousands of years.
28:09You do the same thing and it keeps you provide with food.
28:12You love the tree.
28:14Yes.
28:14And then it loves you back.
28:15Yes.
28:16And this tree's been loved for a millennium.
28:19Exactly.
28:21There was a ladder this whole time.
28:23Yeah.
28:23We wanted to live the authentic experience.
28:27I'm pretty sure they had ladders a thousand years ago.
28:30Unbelievable.
28:31Can I give you this?
28:33This deep-rooted tradition has made Greece one of the world's top olive oil producers, a large
28:38volume of which comes from Crete.
28:41But when it comes to consuming the stuff, the Greeks are top tier.
28:46They practically bathe in it, getting through about 20 litres per person per year.
28:54Yamash.
28:54Yamash.
28:55Thank you for having me.
28:57We worked hard and now we can eat traditional food.
29:02Beautiful.
29:03From sweet cheese pastries called Kalitsunia to my personal favourite, Kumbanya, delicious
29:10Cretan doughnuts.
29:12Everything here is either made with olive oil or is basically drowning in it.
29:18There's something very special about olive farming because it's like this lineage that
29:23goes back like beyond anything that you could comprehend with any other kind of farming.
29:28It's our tradition.
29:30We grow up in olive groves.
29:32We learn to our children how to respect, how to love in olive trees.
29:36It's like a legacy for us.
29:39I guess in many ways then, although you might technically own these olive trees now, it's
29:44more like you're their guardians.
29:46Yeah, I try.
29:47Yes.
29:48To protect.
29:49Until they sell it.
29:52We hope they don't.
29:56I mean, it is pretty amazing that you have what is essentially an immortal being in the
30:01olive tree.
30:01And it's amazing that you have these people who care for them so deeply.
30:07But what I think is really interesting is this symbiotic relationship consistent through
30:13time between this ancient organism and the people who care for it.
30:19Across Greece, you'll find people tending to history as part of their daily lives.
30:25Here in the olive groves are the temples in Athens and the trade routes of the Aegean.
30:31These aren't just relics of Greece's past.
30:33They're responsibilities.
30:35And some of the most devoted caretakers are the last people you might expect.
30:39Greece is a country with an undeniably rich history.
30:47But here's the thing.
30:48History isn't just what happened.
30:50It's what we choose to remember, protect and retell.
30:54And there is a reason that the cultural legacy of ancient Greece endured to leave such an indelible
31:00mark on our modern world.
31:02I'm heading inland to the breathtaking landscape of Meteora, where towering rock formations rise
31:09up from the Thessaly plains.
31:13Meteora means suspended in air.
31:15And you can see why.
31:17Here, monasteries look less built and more precariously balanced on top of high stone pillars.
31:24I was brought up Catholic, right, so I feel very at home in a church.
31:28But there is something that always struck me as sort of unusual about Greece, right?
31:34Because this is a place that is known for its curiosity, for its intellectual exploration.
31:41And yet, at the same time, it's one of the most religious countries in all of Europe.
31:4890% of Greeks, by the way, identify as Orthodox.
31:51And you sort of think those two things would be in conflict with one another, you know?
31:55Like, on the one hand, this sort of unquenchable thirst for proof.
32:00And then on the other, that's who you sort of believe and don't question.
32:04Built by a group of monks in the 14th century, with some serious determination and no fear
32:14of heights, St. Stephen's Monastery is now home to a community of 31 nuns, who are up
32:21at 5 a.m. every day for prayer and their daily rituals.
32:28The ancient Greeks had gods for practically everything.
32:31When Greece was absorbed into the Roman Empire, they began to whittle them down.
32:37And over time, the country fully embraced the Orthodox Church, with just one god, which
32:43still plays a big role in Greek life today.
32:47But St. Stephen's isn't just a place of prayer.
32:49This is a vault for centuries' worth of sacred texts, too.
32:54Carved into the rock beneath, there is a museum packed with religious treasures and ancient
32:58manuscripts.
32:59And I'm here to find one in particular.
33:03My guide is Sister Nicothemi.
33:05She's spent 30 years in this monastery and knows every treasure hidden within.
33:09Thank you.
33:09Thank you so much.
33:11It's a place where the most important pieces of the mountain are in the city.
33:14Tucked away here are 154 manuscripts, some dating back to the 11th century.
33:25Painstaking copies made by the monks who once called this place home.
33:29And in pride of place sits the one I'm looking for.
33:32A full edition of Aristotle's works.
33:44The Greek philosopher who basically wrote the manual on scientific thought, asking questions,
33:50testing theories, and using logic to make sense of the world.
33:53So it does make you wonder, what's his work doing here alongside orthodox religious texts?
34:00The ancient Greeks to me are like, you know, Aristotle or Plato, all those guys to me are like my heroes.
34:07But what I've been trying to do is try and understand how ancient Greece and modern Greece fit together.
34:14These kind of ideas that Aristotle worked on and Catholicism feel very far apart.
34:19What happened here?
34:20Why was it so different here?
34:22The Greek philosopher is something interesting.
34:24It's just sort of interesting.
34:24Like, for the Greek Greeks, it's interesting.
34:25The Greek Greek philosophy was a philosophy in ancient Greece.
34:30It ended up all the world.
34:31Who was the great Высermος in an ancient Greece?
34:35It was a philosopher.
34:36The philosophers were philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, astronomers, astronomers, astronomers.
34:41They were all the ancient Greek and Greek days.
34:45Los maestros siempre creyeron como una traducción y una traducción, un sustentable de la dignidad.
34:54Por eso siempre, los maestros también se trataban de hacerlas y obtener estas libras.
34:59Los maestros ortodoxos eran más que solo hombres de la creación.
35:03Ellos también eran estudiantes.
35:05Y durante el periodo de la Iglesia de la Iglesia de la Iglesia de la Iglesia de la Iglesia de la Iglesia de la Iglesia,
35:09cuando la Iglesia de la Iglesia estaba en peligro,
35:11era la Iglesia que lo protegía y lo protegía.
35:13Los maestros tienen una relación muy única entre las razones, científicos, filosóficos y la religión.
35:24Los dos se combinan juntos.
35:26Las cosas en la Iglesia y en la Iglesia son muy relacionadas.
35:30Es lo mismo para nosotros.
35:32Las cosas son difíciles de separar.
35:35Lo que dice mi alma, así que lo pensamos en mi corazón.
35:40No podemos ser que los maestros de la Iglesia de la Iglesia de la Iglesia.
35:44¿Has estudiado estas, entonces, vosotros?
35:47No todas estas, no todas, pero las he estudiado.
35:50¿Cómo me letís?
35:51¿Puedo decirme un minuto?
35:52¿Puedo hablar inglés todo el tiempo?
35:54¿Puedo hablar inglés?
35:54¿Puedo hablar?
35:55¿Puedo hablar inglés?
35:57No puedo confiar con los secretos de la Iglesia de la Iglesia.
35:59Pero lo que he estado dejando en es algo mucho más grande.
36:03La manera que la Iglesia y la Iglesia co-exist aquí.
36:06No como rivales, pero co-conspirators en la search de la Iglesia.
36:11So, Iíve always had this world view.
36:14That there are like two parallel universes.
36:17So, on the one hand youíve got the real world.
36:19Which is messy and ugly and complicated.
36:23Y then lying underneath that, youíve got the mathematical universe.
36:27This is beautiful and pure and divine.
36:30And you know the ancient Greeks and the Orthodox Church,
36:34they see things in the same way.
36:36It's just, they think it's literally divine rather than just metaphorically.
36:41And so maybe our beliefs aren't actually quite so different after all.
36:46Which does make me wonder if I've just actually been on a pilgrimage this entire time.
36:52The monks and nuns of Meteora are quiet custodians of Greek culture,
36:57keeping it alive for future generations.
37:00But what about the people inheriting that legacy?
37:03In a country so defined by ancient greatness,
37:07what is it like to live in the shadow of all of that history?
37:11On the final leg of my journey, I'm looking for the modern Greek identity,
37:15preferably somewhere with fewer philosophers and a bit more chaos.
37:22If there's one thing I've learned so far,
37:24it's that being Greek comes with a pretty overwhelming legacy.
37:29So now I want to see what happens when all of that weight of history
37:32meets something a little more unexpected.
37:37I've come to Galaxidi, a coastal town with postcard views
37:41and a festival that promises to be part heritage, part chaos,
37:46and entirely unforgettable.
37:48Except, right now, it feels a bit more ghost town than carnival.
37:53There is a festival that takes place across Greece every year,
37:57one that dates back to the days of worshipping Dionysus, the god of fun.
38:03And this town of Galaxidi has its own take on the festival
38:07that has been going for a couple of hundred years.
38:09And believe me when I tell you, Dionysus would approve.
38:16Right now, the whole town is holed up at home,
38:20preparing for what they proudly and slightly ominously call the Flower War.
38:25Luckily, I've been taken under the wing of local Galaxidian Yorgos.
38:32Go on, go crazy!
38:33With help from his son, Andreas, I'm getting battle ready.
38:37Step one, smear yourself with flower mixed with coloured pigment.
38:42Naturally.
38:43This tradition dates back to Galaxidi's glory days in the 18th century,
38:48when it was a booming, shipbuilding town.
38:51Back then, the whole town would turn out to send sailors off in style.
38:56Faces dusted with flower, spirits high,
38:59and just enough anarchy to qualify as a proper send-off.
39:03Then came the age of the steamboat.
39:05The shipyards fell silent,
39:07and Galaxidi became the sleepy coastal town it is today.
39:10But once a year, that silence is shattered.
39:14The town wakes up, grabs the flower,
39:17and throws itself back into history, one fistful at a time.
39:22So do you remember going as a little boy as well?
39:24From the age of my age, I was born, I was born, I was born,
39:27I was born, I was born, I was born in my home.
39:31I was born, I was born, and I was born again.
39:33This is my dream.
39:35This must be really nice,
39:37having grandfather, father, and son all together.
39:40I agree with you completely.
40:03Generations of Galaxidians have fought to keep their town's story alive,
40:09passing the tradition down through families.
40:12But beneath the flower and the face paint lies an even older tale,
40:16a thread that stretches back to ancient Greece.
40:19Are they family bells?
40:20They're from my grandfather's parents.
40:22The wearing of sheep bells is a pagan practice,
40:25rooted in ancient Dionysian rituals
40:28celebrating fertility, rebirth,
40:30and the transition of winter to spring.
40:33These are over 100 years.
40:36These are the birds,
40:37which we hide in animals.
40:39So you know which sheep it is?
40:41Yes.
40:41And every rod has to have their own ears.
40:50Today is a big day for four-year-old Andreas.
40:53It's his very first flower war wearing his own bell.
40:56And you get one.
40:58A small one from the family goat,
41:00but it's a big step in joining the family tradition.
41:02He's passing from age to age.
41:04And it's like a sheeple,
41:06which passes from one sheep to another.
41:09He better not lose one then, right?
41:11Yes.
41:13Yorgos and his family aren't trying to relive the past.
41:16They're just continuing the tradition
41:18with a cloud full of colorful flower.
41:22And as thousands of people gather on the edge of town,
41:25it's clear that this festival has grown
41:26way beyond a mere local custom.
41:32They told me I was coming to film
41:34some ancient Greek traditions.
41:36This is not exactly what I had in mind.
41:39Let's go.
41:47What do you think about it?
41:48The things don't really change that much over time, right?
41:51You've got war, you've got gods,
41:53you've got love, you've got death.
41:55I have to tell you, this isn't my usual scene.
41:58I like things with a bit of structure.
42:00You know, mild control over my surroundings.
42:02But this, on the other hand, is chaos.
42:05It's a mash-up of ancient ritual and local history,
42:08stitched together into something that is loud and messy
42:11and somehow still speaks to Greeks today.
42:15You've got old people, you've got young people.
42:18It's like everyone is here.
42:20And yet, somehow, it works.
42:23My father claims that he's the oldest one at 75.
42:29Yeah?
42:30How does it compare to Christmas or to Easter?
42:33Like, do you look forward to this day?
42:35If you put aside the Orthodox holidays,
42:37it's more important for the local people.
42:39Where's your book?
42:40Oh, close your mouth,
42:42because you have something coming.
42:44Back in ancient Greece,
42:49festivals were more than just an excuse for a party.
42:53They were how people made sense of who they were.
42:56Shared stories and rituals
42:58were what stitched those scattered city-states together
43:01into what we now know as Greece.
43:04And that tradition still lives on,
43:06passed down through families,
43:07to make sure that the story doesn't end with them.
43:10I think when I first got here,
43:15I saw Greece as sort of disjointed, right?
43:17You've got, like, the ancients,
43:19and then you've got the people today.
43:21Most felt disconnected somehow.
43:25But actually, thinking about it,
43:27I realised there are these threads
43:28that are consistently there all through time.
43:33You've got the Parthenon, of course.
43:34You've got ancient Greek mathematics.
43:36You've got the olive tree.
43:38You've got the life on the sea.
43:40And perhaps Greece isn't the trailblazer it once was.
43:44Or maybe it's just that the rest of the world
43:45finally caught up.
43:47Radical thought became the mainstream.
43:50Either way,
43:51the Greeks have every reason to celebrate a legacy
43:54that didn't just shape history.
43:57It set the bar for it.
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