As a student of Classical Civilizations, I study the vast impact that the Ancient Greeks (and the Romans) had on modern society (especially western society). Theoretically, I know that the ancient societies I study continue to strongly influence the world today but practically, my mind still boggles whenever I see something that is clearly Ancient Greek or Roman play a huge part in the mainstream of today's society.
Take companies and corporations for example. When we think of coffee, most of us think of Starbucks. Next time you're at a Starbucks, take a good look at the seal on the sleeve protecting your hand from the piping hot, delicious latte. The woman in the logo with all the snakes for hair: that's Medusa. We all see Nike products every day but we rarely recognize that the company derives its name from Niké (pronounced NeeKay) who was the Goddess of Victory for the Greeks. Apart from being omnipresent in books, art, television, movies and songs, the Ancient Greek flying horse Pegasus has found itself as the logo/name of thousands of corporations including Mobil, FBR Capital Markets, Pegasus Express Ltd, the UB group, Pegaso, Reader's Digest, Pegasus Airlines, Air France, TriStar Pictures and even Dallas, Texas. Most of us are loyal customers of Amazon.com. Where do you think the name comes from? When we think of the moon landing, we think of Apollo 11. Who do you think that series of spacecrafts was named after? Just do a Google search of Greek influences in industry and you'll turn up an astonishing number of hits. It completely blows my mind.
Don't even get me started on Film and Television. It seems that every second film produced by Hollywood these days is directly influenced by ancient mythology and the rest are indirectly influenced by it. Greek influence in modern music is as surprising as it is extensive. The Greek Epics are ubiquitous in classical music and references to Greek myth in pop music is more common than you'd think. However, arguably the field where classical civilizations have had the greatest impact would have to be literature. A ridiculously high percentage of fiction books produced today draw from the Ancient Greeks. Medieval works of literature, of course, is almost wholly based on Greek or Roman influences. Romantic poetry is famous for being based on Greek mythology. The Classical period of literature is named after the overt classical influences apparent in the literary output of the era. I end with possibly my favorite example: the Bible. The best-selling book of all time tries exceedingly hard not to draw from Greek society but ends up drawing more from it than almost any other book. Just pick up any Dan Brown novel for proof...
Take companies and corporations for example. When we think of coffee, most of us think of Starbucks. Next time you're at a Starbucks, take a good look at the seal on the sleeve protecting your hand from the piping hot, delicious latte. The woman in the logo with all the snakes for hair: that's Medusa. We all see Nike products every day but we rarely recognize that the company derives its name from Niké (pronounced NeeKay) who was the Goddess of Victory for the Greeks. Apart from being omnipresent in books, art, television, movies and songs, the Ancient Greek flying horse Pegasus has found itself as the logo/name of thousands of corporations including Mobil, FBR Capital Markets, Pegasus Express Ltd, the UB group, Pegaso, Reader's Digest, Pegasus Airlines, Air France, TriStar Pictures and even Dallas, Texas. Most of us are loyal customers of Amazon.com. Where do you think the name comes from? When we think of the moon landing, we think of Apollo 11. Who do you think that series of spacecrafts was named after? Just do a Google search of Greek influences in industry and you'll turn up an astonishing number of hits. It completely blows my mind.
Don't even get me started on Film and Television. It seems that every second film produced by Hollywood these days is directly influenced by ancient mythology and the rest are indirectly influenced by it. Greek influence in modern music is as surprising as it is extensive. The Greek Epics are ubiquitous in classical music and references to Greek myth in pop music is more common than you'd think. However, arguably the field where classical civilizations have had the greatest impact would have to be literature. A ridiculously high percentage of fiction books produced today draw from the Ancient Greeks. Medieval works of literature, of course, is almost wholly based on Greek or Roman influences. Romantic poetry is famous for being based on Greek mythology. The Classical period of literature is named after the overt classical influences apparent in the literary output of the era. I end with possibly my favorite example: the Bible. The best-selling book of all time tries exceedingly hard not to draw from Greek society but ends up drawing more from it than almost any other book. Just pick up any Dan Brown novel for proof...
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