The culture of ancient Greece had flourished thousands of years ago and many scholars and commentators even consider it as the cradle of Western Civilization. Even many modern politicians and nations have tried to appropriate the achievements of the ancient civilization and so it still holds relevance even today.
During the ancient period, Greek Contributions to our modern culture, in art, architecture, drama, philosophy, government, math, and science are invaluable. They are one of the largest contributors to present-day civilization.
These givings of important ideas, events, inventions, and structures have had an extraordinary influence on the surrounding environment then and in the future.
Ancient Greek Contributions to Societies
Ancient Greek Contributions helped influence today’s societies enormously. The Hippocratic Oath helps keep order and fairness. Their architecture shows up all of our today’s buildings. The democracy gave citizens a voice and still does in many countries. Through the blending of Ancient Greece Contributions over time, it may live on for further future societies.
Medics in the western civilization have been impacted by many of ancient Greece’s contributions. Hippocrates, who created the Hippocratic oath, was a renounced mathematician, and doctor he is sometimes referred to as “the father of medicine.
The Hippocratic oath states that Hippocrates will treat his patient to the best of his abilities that he will refuse to give deadly medicine to his patients. Today some medical students and doctors still take the oath and learn about it. The Hippocratic oath is now starting to be used less often due to more revised oaths and law concerning the medical field.
The Greeks were also the first to create a standardized system of medicine and the way in which treatment and diagnosis are carried out today were similar to the ones in Ancient Greek.
Science and Mathematics
Greek contributions in the field of science and mathematics are invaluable. Legendary thinkers like Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, Archimedes, Hipparchus, etc. have given theories which have helped modern science and astronomy a lot.
Eratosthenes had calculated the circumference of the earth while Aristarchus created a model which showed the sun as the centre of the known universe with the earth revolving around it. Archimedes had calculated the area of geometric shapes and even gave an approximate value of the pi.
Greek contributions to Architecture
The most grand example of Greek architecture can be said to be the Parthenon and the Erechtheum in the city of Athens. The most common Greek architecture which are still used are the columns and pillars. As the Greek architectures were inspired by their mythology and their gods so it has a characteristic largeness and grandness to it. Greek architecture had three orders: the Ionic, the Doric, the Corinthian.
Their architecture have greatly influenced the modern western architectures and can be seen in public libraries, churches, etc. and even the capitol hill building in US is influenced from ancient Greek architecture
Greek epics, literature ,Drama
Ancient Greek literature have always captured the minds of western thinkers and writers and have had a profound impact on western literature as a whole.
The earliest surviving Greek literature are the Epics, Iliad and Odyssey by Homer in the Archaic Age. Classical Greece was a hub of literary activities with famous writers like Herodotus being termed, the Father of History. Famous writers like John Milton and Bernard Shaw have been influenced the Greek ancient literature.
Olympics
The modern Olympic games started in 1896 AD but this idea of a multi-sporting event was derived from the Ancient Panhellenic Olympic Games which had started in the city of Olympia in the year 776 BC in honor of Zeus.
Although have fundamental differences but the concept has been highly influenced by the Ancient Olympics. Even the idea of the Olympic flame is derived from the sacred fire on the altar in the sanctuary of Hestia in ancient times during the games.
Philosophy
Ancient Greece can be said to be the golden period of Philosophy. Legendary philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. contributed to the field of philosophy immensely. A huge portion of modern western philosophy is still based on the work of these philosophers. The renaissance thinkers were highly influenced by these ancient Greek thinkers and came up with theories based on their work.
Greek Contributions to Democracy
One way that ancient Greece affected western civilization is politics. Greece had the first known democracy. The Greek statesman Pericles had three goals, to Strengthen Democracy, Hold strength in the empire, and to glorify Athens. Greece was the first country to utilize the democratic form of government. Greece had decided to give power to the people.
While other countries shunned the citizen’s voices out, Greece had encouraged personal decisions. The democracy gave everyone a chance at success, social standings, and political decisions. Today, countries such as the United States, India, France, and Canada still use the democracy.
Ancient Greek was the first to employ trial by jury by a host of juries which formed the basis of the modern justice system.
The first library was also from Alexander occupied Egypt and even the first lighthouse was also found from Greek occupied Alexandria which was the second largest structure of its day after the Pyramids of Giza.
Other important Ancient Greek Contributions include the Pythagoras theorem, Euclid’s geometry etc that help us to solve numerous mathematical and physics problems today.
Words and thoughts from great men such as Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, and Aristotle are still taught in universities to this day. Cities which have withstood the powers of nature for thousands of years still stand for us to view in awe. This was a great civilization far ahead of its time, whose beauty and knowledge will live on for many generations to come.
