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Black Athena – The Fabrication of Ancient Greece

 

Channel: trtmrtfrt
Duration: 51:9
Description: Examines the claims of Professor Martin Bernal who questions the assumption of the “Europeaness” of our civilisation placing instead the “black” Egyptians and Phoenicians at the centre of the West’s origins. Black Athena examines Cornell Professor Martin Bernal’s iconoclastic study of the African origins of Greek civilization and the explosive academic debate it provoked. This film offers a balanced, scholarly introduction to the disputes surrounding multiculturalism, “political correctness” and Afrocentric curricula sweeping college campuses today. In his book Black Athena, Prof. Bernal convincingly indicts 19th-century scholars for constructing a racist “cult of Greece” based upon a purely Aryan origin for Western culture. He accuses these classicists of suppressing the numerous connections between African and Near Eastern cultures and early Greek myth and art. Leading classical scholars, on the other hand, contend that Bernal, like the 19th-century classicists he attacks, uses evidence selectively, uncritically and ahistorically to support his own Afrocentric agenda. They argue that cultural diffusion alone can’t account for the distinctive achievements of the Greeks during the Classical Period. Black Athena can help students begin to distinguish between sound scholarship and cultural bias – whether inherited from the past or imposed by the present.
Published: May 3, 2012 12:00 pm

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The Acropolis of Athens in ancient Greece – Dimensions and proportions of Parthenon

 

Channel: Hernán Gil
Duration: 47:9
Description:
This video contains a description of the monumental buildings in the Acropolis. Especially it has very interesting analysis of the proportions and optical refinements of The Parthenon.
This monumental work is a peripteral octostyle Doric temple on the Athenian Acropolis dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron.
Its construction began in 447 and was completed in 438 BC although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC.
It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, considered the zenith of the Doric order. The construction of The Parthenon, made ​​almost entirely of white marble from Mount Penteli, was initiated by Pericles in thanks to the gods for his victory against the Persians. The architects in charge of the work were Ictino and Calicrates and were, in most cases, under the direction of the architect and great Athenian sculptor Phidias, author of the sculptural decoration and the great statue of Athena Parthenos which was located as the centerpiece of the temple (measuring forty feet high and for its elaboration 1,200 kg of gold were needed).
Published: September 30, 2014 3:14 pm

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Stories of Old Greece and Rome (FULL Audiobook)

 

Channel: FULL audio books for everyone
Duration: 8:11:59
Description: Stories of Old Greece and Rome – audiobook
Emilie Kip BAKER.
The Stories of Old Greece and Rome is an easy to read summary of all of the famous and not so famous Greek and Roman mythological stories.
All of the famous Heroes are here: Theseus, Jason, Hercules, and all of the well known Deities. These stories tell the real detail of the myths, not the ones that have become sanitized (and dare I say it, ‘Disneyfied’) over the centuries. These are not stories for children, as the old gods and heroes were vengeful and some might say sadistic in their treatment of minor slights and misdemeanors. Putting out of eyes and ripping out of tongues is commonplace, and punishment by death is ever present. It is however fascinating to see how these tales have affected and influenced our culture and have woven themselves into our own myths and stories. (Summary by Kevin Green)
Published: July 31, 2014 9:48 am