We meet the female philosopher Arete of Cyrene, who explains how so many aspects of Ancient Greek civilisation are still relevant to us today.
The video
ARETE:
Welcome to Ancient Greece! Now I鈥檓 not going to blow our trumpet too much but鈥 Well, actually I am! We are a pretty impressive civilisation! Just look at some of the details on these wonderful buildings. Timeless! The architectural style we created for our buildings is still used by you for many of your buildings. So, we must be getting something right!
So many of the things we do in our time are still relevant to you in your time. It鈥檚 our legacy you might say.
My name is Arete of Cyrene. I study and teach philosophy. I am a philosopher. And, wow, there are a lot of us in Ancient Greece. We spend our time thinking about what it means to live a good life鈥
Perhaps our most famous philosopher is Socrates. He never writes anything down. A bit lazy maybe, eh, Socrates? Or maybe too busy thinking鈥 To be fair he does spend hours discussing everything with his students, helping them learn by asking open-ended questions. Sound familiar? Thought so! His 鈥楽ocratic鈥 methods are still used by teachers and many others in your time.
Luckily some of his students - me included - do write things down, so all our hard work and brainy thoughts can be read by you lot. And writing is something else we鈥檙e great at. We have famous writers - like Herodotus - who record historical events, like wars. So, if you love history you can thank us for being the first to write about it. And if you 诲辞苍鈥檛 like history you can thank us for鈥ell, being the first to write about it!
And many of our words are still used in your time, either exactly the same, or very similar. 鈥楪alaxy鈥, 鈥楨urope鈥, 鈥楧emocracy鈥, even 鈥楢crobat鈥 - they鈥檙e all based on Ancient Greek words. There are thousands of others! It鈥檚 worth looking up a few more, if only to understand quite how linguistically brilliant we are!
鈥楢lpha鈥, 鈥楤eta鈥, 鈥楪amma鈥, 鈥楧elta鈥 - you鈥檝e probably heard of a few of our letters. They鈥檙e so great you still use them in your time to name stuff, or as symbols in maths and science. For example, 鈥楶i鈥 is used for that number that never ever ends鈥ou know the one: 3.14159265359鈥 I could go on鈥
Which leads me neatly onto science. Yep, we鈥檙e rubbish at that鈥 Ha! Just kidding! We鈥檙e great at that too! You probably take for granted that the earth revolves around the sun and that the moon is lit up by the sun. But our astronomers are the ones who said it first.
Then there鈥檚 Pythagoras and mathematical concepts like infinity. A few of us have been grappling with that one. But 诲辞苍鈥檛 think about it for too long or you may never stop鈥 Get it?
A few centuries ago, we used to believe that illness was caused by the gods and you could just pray it away. Then my good friend Hippocrates changed all that. He realised that illness has natural causes and that patients should be treated by studying their symptoms. Many doctors in your time take the 鈥楬ippocratic Oath鈥, which means they promise to look after all people well.
People. The word 鈥榙emocracy鈥 comes from two of our words that mean 鈥榩eople鈥 and 鈥榩ower鈥: 鈥榩eople power鈥. It鈥檚 the form of government that allows people to vote on who gets to be in charge. Only鈥ot all. Slaves can鈥檛 vote. And as a woman I can鈥檛 vote either. But that鈥檚 something you鈥檒l put right with your own form of democracy.
I may be wrong鈥s I live here鈥ot there with you鈥 But am I really alive at the moment? Or am I just on the screen? Oops. Sorry. There I go philosophising again!
5. Theories, thoughts, language and law
Synopsis
We meet the philosopher Arete of Cyrene, who explains how so many aspects of Ancient Greek civilisation are still relevant to us today. The topics she covers includes architecture, philosophy, science, mathematics, medicine and democracy.
Arete indicates how many of the most important buildings in the present day copy the features of Ancient Greek architecture. She shows how Ancient Greek letters and symbols have been adopted by modern science; how Ancient Greek astronomers were the first to postulate that the Earth moves around the sun; how Hippocrates was the first medic to presume that illness came from natural causes.
Teacher Notes
Taken from the complete Teacher Notes. See Resources.
Before watching the video
Over the course of the last few sessions children have been introduced to different aspects of Ancient Greek life. Which of them are still relevant? Are there any other elements of our way of life that they think may have come from Ancient Greece?
After watching the video
- Junior philosophers. Stage a class discussion entitled What does it mean to live a good life? What makes children feel content? Note down ideas and create a class action plan to help children lead a happy and fulfilled life. This could take the form of a list of tips or a weekly calendar of actions, such as reading to younger children every Monday.
- Democracy in action. As we know, the Ancient Greeks were governed by democracy, a form of government that allows people to vote on who should be in charge. Hold a class election in which children can put themselves forward for a particular role. This could be a role relevant to your school or, for example, a 'Happy Life Leader' who decides on a weekly action to help everyone lead a better life (see the previous activity). Candidates should prepare a speech and then each child has a ballot slip on which to cast their vote. A template is provided for this.
- Greek words. In the video we heard how many of the words we use today come from Ancient Greek. Using the cards provided, ask pairs of children to sort the words into those that come from Greek and those that 诲辞苍鈥檛. (Note the only words that do not come from Greek are 鈥榤edicine鈥, 鈥榩lay鈥, 鈥榙ance鈥, 鈥榣izard鈥 and 鈥榟oney鈥.) Then play a game in groups: children have 30 seconds to describe one of the words on the list without actually saying it and the others must guess which it is.
- Learn the alphabet! The Greek alphabet looks quite different to our own. Give children a copy of the Greek alphabet provided. Then give each child one of the 30 sentences provided to write in Greek. They must then swap their sentence with a friend to translate. (Sentences vary in length to allow for different attainment levels.) Who will translate their message first?
- Time for a quiz! Pupils will have learned a lot about Ancient Greek civilisation from this set of videos and activities and it鈥檚 time to put that new knowledge to the test. However, it鈥檚 up to the children to test one another. Challenge each child to write a question for a class quiz. Sort children into teams and invite each team to read out their questions to the other teams. You may wish to elect a spokesperson in each team to avoid lots of shouting out. Teams win a point for a correct answer but if nobody answers correctly, the team posing the question wins the point. The team with the highest number of points at the end wins.
Resources - Teacher Notes from Teachit
Comprehensive Teacher Notes covering episodes 1 to 5, including worksheets and activities.
Click to display the worksheet full-size or print it (taken from the Teacher Notes).
Click to display the worksheet full-size or print it (taken from the Teacher Notes).
The Teacher Notes for this series have been prepared in partnership with .
Other resources
成人快手 Teach: Tales from Ancient Greece - audio versions of more popular Ancient Greek myths