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Civilization #7: Homer's Iliad and the Birth of Greek Civilization — Transcript

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0:00okay so today we start Greek
0:04civilization and it is
0:07incredible uh what Greek civilization is
0:10it is the greatest most creative most
0:14significant civilization ever in human
0:16history uh the Greeks really created
0:19western
0:20civilization and not only were the great
0:23what not only were the Greeks the
0:25greatest
0:26civilization there's really not been a
0:28second great gener civilization okay um
0:32so let's think about how incredible the
0:35Greeks were if you look at um
0:38literature the Greeks basically created
0:41literature uh with Homer okay Homer
0:44wrote two books called The Iliad and the
0:48Odyssey and he wrote these books about
0:513,000 years ago now last year I taught
0:53the great books to the students and we
0:55read many books and by far the favorite
1:00book was zad okay so think about this
1:03how a Greek writer writing 3,000 years
1:05ago for a Greek audience his book Still
1:09resonates Still
1:10impresses uh and still impresses um
1:14students in in China today okay so
1:18that's Homer then you have
1:21Plato philosophy Plato and even
1:25today there are many who consider Plato
1:28the greatest philosophy ER whoever lived
1:31there are many people who read the
1:33Republic by Plato and it and they say
1:36it's
1:37transforms their lives okay it makes
1:40them think very differently about the
1:42world then you have in history a man
1:46named
1:48fiddies if you are a military leader
1:51today you read faciiities okay there are
1:54still many generals today in America in
1:58Russia in Europe who believe reading
2:01forties will help them win
2:05Wars okay so not only the Greeks create
2:08civilization but their Works their books
2:13are still wi they read
2:15today and considered
2:18amazing okay so now the question I have
2:22is how does this happen how were the
2:26Greeks able to create Humanity greatest
2:31civilization in really about 200 years
2:33okay they they really were
2:35not dominant for a long time they really
2:38created all these Works in about 200
2:41years Al together so how is this
2:44possible okay so
2:48um let's go back to last class we talked
2:50about the Bronze Age collapse right and
2:53we talked about how in about
2:561,00 BCE Greece was
3:01United in a place called mean Greece
3:04okay so basically the means controlled
3:06Greece and Greece was a monarchy and it
3:09was no different from any other place in
3:11the world at this point 1200 BCE the
3:14world was basically the same okay and
3:17then this Society collapsed because of
3:20the branchage collapse and three things
3:21happen okay first of
3:23all
3:25centralization the idea that you had a
3:28unified Society it went away okay so
3:31Greece became chaotic and decentralized
3:33that's the first thing that happened
3:35second thing that
3:37happened um is Greece became
3:40illiterate so Greece Lo the Greeks lost
3:44the abil ability to read and right and
3:46we call this the Dark Ages
3:49so from about a thousand to about 600 BC
3:54but for 400 years the Greeks basically
3:57lost the ability to read and write we
3:58call this the Dark Ages
4:00because we don't have any books or
4:02writing from that period it's completely
4:05dark to us okay so the second thing that
4:07happened the Greeks became illiterate
4:10the third thing that happened
4:11is the the Greeks became poor okay so
4:16before the Greeks traded with the world
4:18it was very prosperous and then because
4:21of R collapse um it started to become
4:24more isolated and became a lot poorer
4:27okay so these are the three major cone
4:29consquences of the Bron AG collapse in
4:33Greece it became decentralized it became
4:35illiterate it became poor and the
4:38amazing thing is it's because of these
4:42three things that Greece became the most
4:45creative civilization in the world okay
4:50so remember this it it is because of the
4:52destruction of old Greece it's because
4:55Greece became chaotic illiterate and
4:57poor that Greece
5:00eventually became the most civiliz the
5:03greatest civilization in the world okay
5:05so let me explain how this happened okay
5:08so there are three major reasons why
5:12Greek cation became dominant the first
5:14reason is the
5:17polus the poll is um it's hard for us to
5:21translate it we usually translate it as
5:23city state
5:25okay a city
5:28state um and this where where we get the
5:30word politics but really um what it
5:35means is
5:36community okay
5:40community and the idea of the Pol is is
5:43a community of people who discuss
5:47politics together how how to best run
5:52the town okay and because of this chaos
5:56there were thousands of policies around
5:58Greece of about a thousand people each
6:01okay so it's a very small
6:04community and this became the main
6:07political structure of Greek society
6:10okay so the polus is one factor second
6:12factor that happened
6:14is the
6:17alphabet so after the Greeks became
6:20illiterate they had to relearn literacy
6:23okay they had to relearn how to read and
6:25write in the process they adopted a new
6:29writing system
6:30called the
6:31alphabet okay which forever transformed
6:33the
6:34society the last thing is
6:38Homer Homer was a poet who introduced to
6:43the Greeks a new way of Imagining the
6:47world okay so these are the three major
6:50factors that led to the rise of Greek
6:53civilization and if you look at each
6:55factor okay so the poll is was a
6:57political
6:59Revolution it's forever
7:03transformed um Society okay the alphabet
7:07was a
7:09language Revolution it forever
7:11transformed the way people communicated
7:14with each other and Homer was really an
7:20intellectual Revolution it forever
7:22transformed how Greeks saw and imagin
7:25the world around them okay
7:30so let's go over each of these
7:34revolutions one by one okay so the
7:41polus there were three things about the
7:45polus
7:46that um allow for Innovation creativity
7:50in Greece okay the first thing about the
7:52Polish was competition
7:56okay these Poes were all spread out and
7:59they were all competing against each
8:01other for resources they were constantly
8:04at war with each other that allowed for
8:07massive Innovation
8:09okay and again remember there's no
8:11centralized Authority now that's the
8:13first thing second thing is
8:18diversity so if you look at the map of
8:21Greece Greece
8:24has very diverse Geography okay it has
8:29um um Farmland has mountains has Plains
8:33it has Coastal land okay and depending
8:36on where you
8:38were geographically in Greece you
8:41develop a different economy and culture
8:44and Society based on the Geography okay
8:47does that make sense and so you had a
8:49lot of
8:50diversity and the last Factor was the
8:53idea of
8:54democracy okay so Greek
8:58civilization uh introduce the idea of
9:00democracy or the modern sense of
9:02democracy to us and the reason why is at
9:06this time Greece was very
9:09poor okay if you're very poor you need
9:14everyone to participate and work hard
9:17especially in battles against other
9:20polies so the rule was you could be rich
9:24or poor but if you fought for us you had
9:27the right to speak
9:30okay you could be the leader of this
9:33polus and you have the right to speak
9:35but if you you could be the poorest
9:36person in this polish and you still had
9:38the right to speak because everyone had
9:41a responsibility to defend the polus
9:45okay so this introduced the idea of
9:49democracy and what this meant was that
9:51everyone basically had to
9:55participate
9:57politically so you could be farmer but
10:00you still have to think about the
10:01political life and you still had a
10:03responsibility to speak up in front of
10:06your peers okay and this is where we get
10:09the idea of polus
10:11from and this was a major driver of
10:15innovation in
10:17Greece okay so does this make sense guys
10:19the
10:20Polish any questions so far before I
10:24move
10:26on okay so one of the major inov ations
10:29of AP polis was the introduction of the
10:33alphabet into Greek society okay so um
10:40let me explain the development of
10:42writing systems over time to you okay
10:46and this this can be comp be be a bit
10:49complicated um so make sure you're
10:51following along if if I'm seeing
10:53something unclear to you make sure you
10:55interrupt and ask me questions okay all
10:57right so writing was first developed in
11:00Europe uh in Western Society in Egypt
11:04and in
11:05Samaria and they did so to solve an
11:08economic problem okay so these societies
11:10were very wealthy and they needed people
11:13uh Farmers to help them build roads and
11:15build irrigation networks and build
11:17temples okay to do so I need to pay
11:21these workers right so writing system
11:25became a contract
11:29all right a contract so basically um the
11:32wunning system at first was a pictogram
11:36a
11:37pictograph that serve the function of a
11:40contract so for example if I do
11:42this okay two
11:47people okay so what this is saying is if
11:51you work for me I promise to give two
11:54people two bushes of wheat okay and so
11:58when you have this you can then give it
12:00to me and I have to give you the wheat
12:02does that make sense so they first start
12:04as pictograms and what they recognize is
12:08hey we can just have this as
12:12symbols right so maybe just two faces
12:16and then two v's and this could
12:19represent the same thing because
12:20everyone understood what it meant so you
12:22went to symbolism that's the next
12:24step all right but then what they
12:27recognize is hey
12:30these symbols can also represent
12:33ideas okay so here's an example all
12:36right so you have maybe a sun and a moon
12:40right okay sun and moon you can they can
12:43represent the sun and the moon but if
12:45you put them together okay Sun and the
12:48Moon you get the concept of
12:52day right so now you have a concept an
12:55idea day okay we call this an idiogram
12:59and guess what guys
13:01Chinese is an idiogram language does
13:05that make sense okay and then as they
13:08continue developing writing they they
13:10recognized that you know what it would
13:13be a lot easier for us to communicate if
13:17these idiograms represented syllables
13:21and sounds
13:23instead okay so rather than representing
13:26ideas let's get them to represent sounds
13:29so for example this is um sun right and
13:32this is
13:33Moon well now if we if we do
13:38this it becomes Moon Sun right which is
13:42English word for Monsoon which means
13:45storm okay so now this it this tells us
13:50to read it as Monsoon
13:53okay and then the final the final recog
13:56recognition is guess what we can
13:59actually just have the sound represent a
14:05consonant okay the simplest sound and
14:08this would be an M this would be an S so
14:11if I write something like this it now
14:14becomes SM or
14:17sum okay and we call
14:20this the
14:24alphabet does it make sense okay so this
14:27is the development of writing
14:30and the reason why we do this is um with
14:35each Innovation each development we're
14:38allowed more
14:39flexibility in our language to
14:41communicate our
14:43ideas does it make sense guys okay so
14:47now with the
14:49alphabet something remarkable has
14:51happened before it before um these
14:56develop these different stages of
14:57writing required a professional class of
15:00people to manage the writing system okay
15:03we call these scribes right scribes the
15:07reason why is that writing is not
15:12speaking speaking is one language but
15:14writing is a different language this is
15:16true for Chinese right what was true
15:18back then as well so to learn to read
15:21and write you had to have professional
15:23scribes to do so because it was such a
15:27complicated task
15:30okay does that make
15:32sense all
15:34right but now with the alphabet writing
15:40can become
15:42speaking and this marked a
15:45incredible
15:47revolution in human thought and the
15:51capacity to think okay so let me explain
15:54why before the invention of writing we
15:57lived in an oracle
16:00culture in or culture okay in or culture
16:03means we don't write we just speak to
16:05each other all right now now we live in
16:08a writing culture a literary culture
16:12where we don't actually speak to each
16:13other we mainly just write to each other
16:16okay so mainly through email or texting
16:18okay now there are certain advantages to
16:22both
16:23cultures with oral culture the first
16:27major advantage is
16:30it's very
16:32emotional okay when I'm speaking to you
16:35I'm trying to get you excited I'm trying
16:36to get you to pay attention so I'm
16:39trying to think about how to Rouse your
16:40emotions so so oral culture it's very
16:43emotional Focus that's the first major
16:46advantage second major advantage is it's
16:49very Innovative and
16:52open and what this means is I can create
16:56words when I speak right I can
16:59sayak okay that means nothing okay but I
17:02can create it and when we're speaking
17:05you can figure out what I mean so when
17:07I'm speaking I can create all these
17:08different words so so there's room for
17:12Innovation and Imagination in oral
17:15culture does that make sense Okay the
17:18third thing
17:20is the thing about oral culture is it
17:23forces everyone to have a really strong
17:26memory the reason why is when I speak I
17:30C I have to remember my speech right and
17:33then you have to remember my speech in
17:35order to respond to my speech and these
17:37speeches go on for like hours and hours
17:41so back then during or culture everyone
17:44had a photographic
17:47memory okay does that make sense so back
17:50then they were a lot smarter than we are
17:52today and it's the same as remember
17:56during the hunter gatherer stage right
17:58when we were out in the field guess what
18:00guys they were a lot stronger faster and
18:04healthier than we are today because
18:06today all we do is sit
18:07around right does that make sense so
18:10back then they were a lot smarter than
18:11us so these are the three major
18:13advantages of em of or culture it's very
18:16emotional language it's very Innovative
18:18and it forces you to have a really
18:19strong memory okay but there's also a
18:23lot of advantages to writing culture as
18:24well that or culture doesn't have so for
18:26example the first major advantage is
18:29rather than emotional it has to be
18:31logical right it has to make sense by
18:34itself I can't trick you with rhetoric
18:38all right I have to use reason and logic
18:42to persuade you because you can read it
18:45at your own time okay so that's a first
18:47major advantage second major advantage
18:50is it's very
18:53disciplined okay meaning okay I can't
18:56make up words I have to use words we we
18:59are okay the third major
19:01advantage um
19:05is even though it decreases my memory it
19:09stores up brain space for me to think
19:12deeply about the argument for me to
19:16reflect on your argument and find
19:19logical problems in your argument okay
19:21does that make sense all right so we are
19:25basically before they were in oral
19:27culture
19:29um and that had certain
19:31advantages now we are in a liter culture
19:34and we've lost the oral culture
19:37okay but when the Greeks discovered the
19:42alphabet what happened was they combined
19:46the advantage of both cultures okay they
19:49were most of the time they were speaking
19:52they were living in a roal culture but
19:54they also had the opportunity to write
19:56down their thoughts which allowed them
19:58the advantages of the litter culture to
20:01have a more disciplined focused logical
20:05mind okay does that make
20:09sense and this marked an incredible
20:11Revolution the capacity for human beings
20:15to
20:17think okay any questions so
20:19far okay this is very complicated
20:21concept I I I want to make sure you're
20:23following along okay any questions about
20:25what I just said before I move on
20:30all right now let's move on to Homer
20:33okay
20:36homer so we discussed the polus and how
20:39it is a new political structure which
20:41allows for freedom and democracy we
20:44discussed the alphabet which marks a
20:46revolution in our capacity to
20:50think okay now it comes along Homer and
20:54Homer is a poet
21:01and back then there were many poets who
21:03went around and and told stories about
21:06the world okay Legends
21:08mythologies and the very best poets are
21:11usually hired by Kings okay rich people
21:14because Kings need poets to solve three
21:17problems okay Kings usually hire poets
21:19to solve three problems the first
21:22problem
21:24is legitimate
21:27Authority okay what this means is you
21:29have to answer the question if you're
21:31King why are you king now we know that
21:34most Kings get power by killing a lot of
21:38people okay that's how they become king
21:39by fighting Wars and by winning wars so
21:43when they become king they need to clean
21:45up their image okay they need to legit
21:47legitimize their
21:49Authority so what they tell people is
21:51usually what why why am I
21:54King why
22:01exactly God chose me and how do I prove
22:04God chose
22:07me how do I prove
22:11that because there's a poet who sings a
22:13beautiful song about me and this song
22:17can only come from divine
22:19inspiration right the poet is a vessel
22:24for
22:26divine um message mes right does that
22:29make sense this poem this song is so
22:32beautiful it must be divine and if this
22:35Divine song is saying I am the I am born
22:38of a God the gods want me to become king
22:41then I must be divine myself doesn't
22:45make sense okay so that's the first
22:47major function of poets in these Society
22:51to legitimate legitimize Authority
22:54second function is to create a cultural
22:57identity
23:01so you know in China you have books like
23:03sang okay Ro Romans are three kingdoms
23:05you have the Bible all these literary
23:07Works their function is to create a
23:10common cultural identity okay it tells
23:13us what it means to be
23:16Chinese does that make sense because
23:18then you unify the people who then obey
23:21the king who unifies them right that's
23:24the second function the third
23:26function is the idea of culture
23:32differentiation to know who you are you
23:34must also know who you are not we're
23:37Chinese so therefore we are not Japanese
23:40we're not Korean we're not American okay
23:43doesn't make sense so most literary
23:46works that we
23:49have were sponsored by leaders Kings to
23:54to to solve these three problems okay so
23:57uh in the future we will read uh the
23:59inad uh which is what the Romans had
24:02will read the Bible
24:04okay um in China you have like um the
24:08Romans of the three kingdom and all
24:10these literary Works were
24:13designed to serve the
24:17powers that exist at that time okay does
24:20that make sense the problem with Homer
24:24is when he was around and we don't know
24:27actually when he was live maybe about 6
24:30uh 800 to 600 BC okay around then we
24:34don't know actually know okay but there
24:37was no King there's no one to pay him
24:40therefore he could only make his living
24:44by appealing
24:46to the people around him okay he had to
24:51appeal to orer
24:53people and so the question then is if
24:56you're a poet how do you get H people
24:59who are poor to pay you
25:01money why would they want to pay you to
25:05sing songs for them okay well there are
25:07three
25:08reasons the first
25:11is just
25:14entertainment today we listen to songs
25:16we go to movies well back
25:20then their entertainment their source of
25:22entertainment was to pay people like
25:24Homer to sing songs to them okay
25:29that was that was what they were thought
25:31was fun to do that was their source of
25:34entertainment second reason is
25:39education so remember that back then
25:41Greece was poor they didn't have schools
25:44but because of the Pol system they had
25:46to speak in front of their peers so how
25:49did you learn to speak well well you
25:52learn you do so by imitating people who
25:54do speak well who are usually poets
25:57right so you listen to Homer speak and
26:01give speeches you can imitate him and
26:04copy what he does to make your own
26:06speech in front of your peers okay so
26:09second reason is educational basically
26:11Homer was a teacher as well as a
26:15poet okay now the third
26:18reason and what made Homer special is
26:22what we call
26:25edification edification
26:29edification means to be a better you to
26:34be a higher you
26:40okay
26:42and
26:43edification the way that Homer
26:45accomplish
26:47edification is by changing the way that
26:51you saw the world around you the way you
26:54felt about the world the way you
26:56imagined the world okay
26:58so let me explain how he did so but
27:01first of all before before I continue
27:03are there any questions about this so
27:04far anything anything you are not clear
27:11about any anything I've said that you
27:15are not clear about or you're confused
27:18by before I
27:21continue okay so Homer was a poet who
27:25told stories and the the most popular
27:27story at that time was something called
27:29the children
27:30War so the main story of the children
27:33war is this okay so there was a Greek
27:37goddess named Nemesis and Nemesis likes
27:40to create problems she's always thinking
27:42of ways to get the gods to fight against
27:44each other so one day she creates this
27:46apple it's a golden apple and the golden
27:49apple says to the most beautiful goddess
27:52in the world okay it doesn't say who it
27:55just says to the most beautiful goddess
27:57in the world
27:59and then she just puts it on Mount
28:01Olympus for the gods to find three
28:03goddesses find this apple and they fight
28:05over it okay the first goddess is Hera
28:08who is the um Queen God okay second
28:13goddess is Athena who is the goddess of
28:16wisdom the third goddess is apod who is
28:19the goddess of love they're fighting
28:21over this apple all the time and they're
28:23creating a huge
28:25Ruckus and so the king God Zeus gets
28:29tired of all their fighting and he finds
28:31a human stupid enough to be the judge
28:35okay so this human uh his name is
28:39Paris his job is to pick who is the most
28:42beautiful goddess in the universe okay
28:44is it gonna be Hera apina or Aphrodite
28:47okay and again he's stupid enough to
28:49want to piss off two goddesses
28:52right so when he's making his decision
28:55all the goddesses try to bribe Paris
28:59Paris says to
29:01Paris Paris if you pick me I will give
29:04you your own kingdom I will make you
29:07king of the world Paris is like oh
29:09that's that's pretty good Athena says to
29:12Paris I will make you the wisest man in
29:16the world I will give you all the
29:17knowledge of the world and Paris is like
29:20oh that's pretty good and then after
29:22after he says hey I will give you the
29:24most beautiful woman in the world to
29:26marry and then is like I want that okay
29:31and so par but the problem is the most
29:34beautiful woman in the world is Helen
29:38queen of Sparta she's a Greek who's
29:40married to a Greek king Paris steals
29:43Helen takes her back to Troy and then
29:47the Greeks get angry and they raise this
29:49huge Army and for 10 years they attack
29:52Troy which is a walled City okay and the
29:55war ends when a Greek General named o
29:58disas he comes up with this idea called
30:00The Wooden horse Okay so the Greeks
30:03pretend they give up they they're going
30:05to go home because they're homesick and
30:08and as a present uh to the Trojans they
30:11leave behind a wooden horse the Trojans
30:14take the wooden horse into the city at
30:16night the Greeks jump out of the wooden
30:18horse open the gates and the children
30:20are slaughtered okay and this is the
30:23story of the uh children War and the
30:28Greeks love the story because it's
30:31really the Greeks being Heroes right the
30:34Greeks have this great Victory people
30:36love to win battles what's amazing about
30:39Homer story okay it's called The Iliad
30:42and we will read this next
30:44semester that there are three things
30:47that Homer does in The Iliad that's
30:51really never been done before okay and
30:54so with the ilad we have the invention
30:56of literature the first
30:59thing that Homer
31:02does
31:05is rather than telling the story from
31:07the Greek side he tells the story from
31:09both the Greek and Trojan side in fact
31:13when you read thead you'll discover that
31:15the Trojans are actually more heroic
31:19more courageous and more Brave than the
31:23Greeks okay that's pretty amazing and by
31:26switching perspective
31:29a new idea comes into being that never
31:32really existed before and we call this
31:33idea
31:37empathy okay empathy the ability to see
31:41the world from the perspective of other
31:44people and before in human civilization
31:47this didn't really exist before okay but
31:50Homer creates this for the
31:53ilad the second thing that is new and
31:58unique to the ilad is human
32:04psychology so for the first time Homer
32:07discusses what
32:10motivates the
32:12characters in the in in in the ilad okay
32:17why are you fighting this war and so the
32:20story is between two individuals
32:25Achilles and King prome
32:28okay so Achilles is The Greatest Warrior
32:31of the Greeks prum is the king of the
32:34Trojans and they hate hate each other
32:36okay because they're enemies Achilles is
32:38trying to kill pram Prime is trying to
32:40defend his family and his home so um the
32:45ilot starts like this
32:48Achilles at the beginning gets in a
32:50fight with egam Manon who is the king of
32:53the Greeks okay they get in a fight and
32:55they curse each other and achilles says
32:57you're your dog eanon I'm never going to
33:00fight for you again and aanon the King
33:02says I don't need you man so Achilles
33:05refuses to fight okay the problem is
33:07Achilles is The Greatest Warrior of the
33:10Greeks and the
33:12Trojans um led by Hector who is a son of
33:17Priam he sees an opportunity because
33:19Achilles refuses to fight and Hector
33:22leads the children Army out of Troy and
33:24they're destroying the Greeks
33:27and the Trojans are about to crush the
33:30Greek army so the Greek generals say to
33:33Egon could you please beg Achilles to
33:37return to the
33:39battlefield and they go and they talk to
33:42Achilles and achilles basically says
33:44screw off I'm not helping you guys okay
33:47his friend
33:48Petrus okay Petrus is basically like his
33:52younger brother he feels sorry for the
33:54Greeks so he pretends to be Achilles and
33:57goes off to battle against Hector Hector
34:00kills Petras and this angers Achilles
34:03okay Achilles is so angry that he jumps
34:06into the battle and he kills Hector once
34:09he kills Hector he does something very
34:12odd okay usually when you kill someone's
34:15body you return that body to your enemy
34:18for a ransom because the belief back
34:21then is only if you bury your dead can
34:24the dead find peace in the in the after
34:28World
34:29okay but Achilles is so angry at Hector
34:33that he's
34:34torturing Hector's body which is
34:37torturing
34:39prium but even after Achilles does
34:43this he can't sleep and he feels
34:46tremendous sadness even though he's
34:48Avenged the death of fas and the reason
34:51why is in his heart Achilles
34:55knows he was the one responsible for
34:58killing Petrus right because if he
35:01didn't get into the stupid fight with ag
35:02Manon and if he did not refuse the
35:04Greeks when they requested help and
35:07petas wouldn't have died so it's because
35:09achillus was so stubborn and so proud
35:12that his friend petas died so he feels
35:14tremendous guilt for what happened and
35:18his guilt turns into an intense hatred
35:21for Hector that's why he's torturing
35:23Hector's
35:25body then what happens is pram King pram
35:29who can't sleep either because his son
35:31is being tortured okay his son is dead
35:33but his soul is still being tortured by
35:35Achilles he sneaks into Achilles tent
35:40okay and he's right behind Achilles
35:42while ailles is talking to his generals
35:44and at this point remember Achilles
35:47doesn't see him he's standing behind
35:48Achilles he could take his knife and
35:50stab Achilles in the neck right and
35:53that's what most people would do but
35:56Prim doesn't do that Prime instead
35:59kneels down and kisses the hand of
36:03Achilles which forces
36:06Achilles to be in awe of this king who
36:11has knelt down before him and he admires
36:15PR's
36:17courage and love for his son so much
36:21that he feels tremendous shame and
36:23remorse for what he's done to Hector and
36:25he returns Hector's body to prum as
36:30compensation and that's how the ilad
36:33ends okay the main message of the ilad
36:36is it's not war that creates
36:38civilization it is love that creates
36:41civilization it is Prime's love for
36:45Hector that gives him the courage to
36:48defeat
36:50Achilles in battle and in this defeat
36:52Achilles becomes a better person because
36:55he's able to forgive himself and he's is
36:57able to do what is right and just and
37:01return um Hector to his father okay
37:05that's the that's the ilc as as you can
37:07imagine this is
37:10extremely complicated
37:13psychology and it forces you to think
37:16deeply about who we are as
37:19humans
37:24okay okay does that make sense the third
37:27thing that is shocking about daad is the
37:29use of
37:32metaphors so what are metaphors
37:35metaphors are connections between things
37:38that were unseen okay so for example if
37:41I say the
37:43sky is a
37:45snail you're like oh I didn't know that
37:49okay do you understand that's what a
37:50metaphor is a metaphor is connecting two
37:53things that before were not connected if
37:56you think about it what is is a new
38:01thought and there are lots of metaphors
38:03in the ilad okay so
38:06essentially metaphors teach you how to
38:09think okay they are the tools for
38:14thought so these are the three distinct
38:16characteristics of the ilad that make it
38:20um unique in the world okay it's
38:22switching perspectives all the time
38:24which creates empathy
38:27right it talks about human psychology
38:30all the time which creates
38:32imagination and it uses metaphors which
38:36enables you to think much more deeply
38:38about the world okay if you put these
38:40three things together what this
38:43is ultimately
38:47is a
38:49theory of
38:51human okay it's a theory of what it
38:54means to be a human being before we
38:58thought human beings thought over land
39:01they thought over uh woman like Helen
39:04okay they struggle for power what Homer
39:08is saying is what it means to be a human
39:10is someone who has empathy
39:13imagination
39:15and the willingness to think
39:19okay only if you're willing to see feel
39:22and think are you
39:25human this is a new Theory
39:27of
39:29human that becomes the basis for Greek
39:35civilization and that's why the Greeks
39:37believe the founder of the Civ
39:39civilization was not a general it was
39:41not a king it was a poet named
39:46Homer okay and it's because of the ilad
39:50that they all read and
39:52memorized and they could recite okay
39:55because again this is an oral culture
39:57where you're trained to have a very
39:59strong memory and because they memorize
40:01the Iliad it forever
40:03transform them
40:05as humans okay this is a new theory of
40:09what it means to be human and this
40:10becomes the basis for Greek civilization
40:13which then becomes the basis for western
40:17civilization and it's because of these
40:19three reasons the
40:22polus um the alphabet and Homer that
40:28we have W civilization as we know it
40:31today okay any questions so
40:35far any questions so far
40:38guys all right now I'm going to spend
40:42some time and discuss okay why is Greek
40:47civilization different from Chinese
40:50civilization okay and this will help you
40:52better understand um Western
40:55Civilization so the first question is
40:58why is it the Greeks developed alphabet
41:01okay the alphabet and the Chinese did
41:04not develop the
41:06alphabet okay the answer is this the
41:09answer is
41:12um
41:13Greece was not an isolated culture okay
41:17so the people who actually developed the
41:19alphabet were the
41:21Egyptians okay
41:23Egyptians and the reason why is egyp was
41:27constantly in contact and communication
41:30with many different societies and
41:31cultures including the samarians and the
41:34Greeks and they could adopt new
41:37practices to advance their
41:40language okay so it was a Greeks it was
41:43Egyptians who develop um the
41:46alphabet um the Phoenicians were
41:49traitors and the the phans connected the
41:52Egyptian culture to everyone else okay
41:54so it's the Phoenicians who brought the
41:56alphabet to the Greeks who because they
41:58became illiterate were looking for a new
42:01language system okay does that make
42:03sense that's why that's how the Greeks
42:06got the alphabet again the question is
42:09why didn't China develop the alphabet
42:12and the answer is this China for most of
42:15its history was isolated from the rest
42:17of the
42:18world but not only was China isolated
42:20but it was stable for most of its
42:23history because for most of China's
42:25history China was running by a class of
42:28people called scholar officials right
42:30confusion
42:31Scholars what was their power what what
42:33was their secret power it was the
42:35ability to read and write that's what
42:37differentiate them from everyone else
42:39right that's what made them
42:41indispensable to the emperor that's why
42:45they were so powerful and so when you
42:47have a monopoly over literacy you don't
42:50want to give it up you want to increase
42:52it and the way they did so is by
42:55creating a new language call classical
42:58Chinese literally Chinese okay does that
43:00make sense that's why there was this
43:03Divergence between Greece and China at
43:06this
43:07time because China the PO literacy was
43:11monopolized by an elite who benefited
43:13from from this Monopoly and therefore
43:15they made this Monopoly much more
43:18effective by introducing a new language
43:20called classical Chinese that only they
43:23could
43:25Master okay does that make sense guys
43:32EXC
43:38me
43:40because um the schull officials they
43:42were in charge of bureaucracy right if
43:44you're if you're running a bureaucracy
43:45you need the ability to read and write
43:48you need the ability to tr to to
43:51basically um transport information from
43:53one place to to the next right that's
43:54through reading and writing through
43:56literacy
43:58doesn't make sense so only they could
44:00become
44:02bureaucrats
44:04okay so does that make sense okay any
44:09more
44:10questions okay second question
44:13is why is it the Greeks had Homer and
44:18the Chinese we Chinese we never had
44:20Homer okay and again the problem are the
44:22scholar officials um if you look at
44:24confusion thought
44:27um there's a hierarchy in confusion
44:29thought in confusion thought right at
44:31the very top are scholar officials
44:33they're the most virtuous they they're
44:34the most well educated the most
44:36cultivated okay they're the best people
44:39next to the below the SCH officials are
44:44uh the farmers and The Artisans right
44:47because they produce wealth for society
44:49below them are the
44:51merchants right and then at the very
44:54bottom are
44:56who the
44:57artists right The
44:59Poets now guess what guys in Greece this
45:03was the complete opposite they placed
45:06Homer at the very top of the society
45:10everyone wanted to be a poet like Homer
45:14okay so when Plato was running the
45:16Republic he was trying to become Homer
45:19he was trying to become a teacher of
45:22civilization an in an inspirer of
45:26civilization ation okay a big G of
45:29civilization that's what Plato wanted
45:31but guess what forties when he wrote the
45:34pipan war he was trying to do the same
45:37thing he was trying to inspire
45:39civilization he was trying to inspire
45:41new
45:42ideas because they all wanted to become
45:45Homer okay because they all knew Homer
45:47was the father of civilization and they
45:50wanted to continue his
45:52legacy and that's what made the Greeks
45:54unique in human history because only the
45:57society put poets first and foremost at
46:00the top and no other Society did so okay
46:03in China was the complete opposite
46:05because if you're a small official what
46:07you're most afraid of is independent
46:09thinking okay so
46:11censorship
46:15censorship was their main role okay
46:18controlling how people thought through
46:20censorship and that's why China never
46:22really produced a homer or a great
46:26thinker
46:28okay doesn't make sense right but and so
46:32this is going to be strange but it's
46:34only because Greece got destroyed by the
46:37at the at the end of the Bronze
46:39Age it became decentralized it lived in
46:42poor that they could then become a great
46:46civilization it was only through
46:47destruction that they could have the
46:49polis the alphabet and Homer okay and
46:53that's the main message of human history
46:55it's through destruction that we have
46:57Innovation and it's only through this
46:59process that human beings are able to
47:03rejuvenate the society okay does that
47:06make sense any
47:12questions was this clear to you
47:15guys okay so we'll continue the Greeks
47:19okay

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