Athenian Influence on Modern Society

Cassian Harrison’s Greeks: Crucible of Civilization (1999) documents the history of ancient Athenian Greece between 570 BC and 460 BC. It was released as a three part series through PBS as a documentary of events through the lives of Cleisthenes, Themistocles, Pericles, and Socrates, as well as their contributions to ancient and modern society. Film scholar Bill Nichols qualifies non-fiction films as documentaries of social representation. Nichols states, “documentaries of social representation offer us new views of our common world to explore and understand” (2). Greeks builds a foundation of beliefs, practices, and events that can be directly linked to our modern world. According to Nichols, “The bond between documentary and the historical world is deep and profound. Documentary adds a new dimension to popular memory and social history” (2). Analysis of Harrison’s film allows us to understand how Greeks gives tangible representation to the world we already inhabit and share, makes the stuff of social reality visible and audible in a distinctive way, and gives a sense of what we understand reality itself to have been, of what it is now, or of what it may become.

Greeks: Crucible of Civilization provides tangible representation of the world we already inhabit and share. Nichols says documentaries should “offer us a likeness or depiction of the world that bears a recognizable familiarity” (2). Greeks offers a history of ancient Athens that gives not only documentation of what happened then, but a foundation to link these events to ways of today. Stories told throughout the film are set in the past, but images are shown of present-day Athens, visually linking the past with real, tangible places that exist now. Theatre, the Olympics...

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...n a way that allows for analysis and interpretation of our society’s beginnings. The evidence presented builds a foundation for present-day societal practices and beliefs. Rhetorical devices involve the viewer more directly with the story and help to convince that this point of view is accurate and superior to other interpretations of events. The goal of non-fiction documentaries, according to Nichols, is to “instill belief. This is what aligns documentary with the rhetorical tradition, in which eloquence serves as a social as well as aesthetic purpose. We take not only pleasure from documentary, but direction as well” (2). Greeks argues on behalf of the Athenians, using historical evidence to present their side of the story, contending for the viewer’s belief. It provides us with information from the past, relating to the present, that could help us in the future.