The Ancient Greeks are famous worldwide for
their philosophy, inventions, understanding
of math, science and medicine, incredible
armies, and their early forms of democracy.
There are many articles, books, TV specials
and so on that go over the greatest deeds
of the Ancient Greeks, but that isn’t what
we are here to talk about today.
In today’s article, we will be going over
the strange, bizarre, absurd, and disgusting
facts about the Ancient Greeks — the things
you don’t hear hailed as much as their greater
achievements…
10.
The Ancient Greeks Preferred A Sort Of “Blurred
Unibrow” On Their Women
Today, having a unibrow is considered to be
among the highest tier of fashion “don’ts,”
along with things like the fanny pack, and
wearing sandals with socks.
Many people will not only shave, but even
painfully pluck their eyebrows today in order
to avoid even the slightest appearance of
one, and at least for women (unless you’re
Frida Kahlo), there are a decent amount of
looks that basically minimize the eyelashes
as much as possible.
However, fashion goes in and out of… well,
fashion, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Back in the days of Ancient Greece, the men
definitely preferred the eyebrows to be a
little more connected than they tend to be
now.
We do want to clear up a misconception, though,
as some people have heard about this and are
under the impression that Greek men liked
whole, uninterrupted unibrows on their women.
As far as historians can tell, though, what
they were attracted to was more of a blurred
unibrow, where it wasn’t fully joined, but
only partially, to the point you could notice
the contrast up close, but perhaps not tell
too well from a distance.
9.
A Ridiculous Amount Of Athenians Were Actually
Enslaved By Full Citizens
Today, ancient Athens is considered to be
one of the earliest bastions of democracy,
learning, and free thought, which is kind
of surprising because a huge amount of the
population at any given time were either enslaved,
or didn’t have the rights of full citizens.
For starters, only those who were actually
born of Athens or families from Athens could
ever be full citizens, which meant at any
given time, there were a large number of nationals
living in Athens, who had citizenship in other
parts of Greece or elsewhere.
These people were treated mostly with respect
and could do business and live temporarily
in Athens, but they had no real say in the
Athenian system.
And then in terms of slaves, the numbers are
hard to pin down.
Ancient Athens was around for quite some time,
so it is likely these numbers fluctuated at
different points, but some estimates put the
numbers at about 150,000 citizens, 50,000
nationals, and roughly 100,000 slaves around
the year 432 B.C.
Of course, sometimes overall population numbers
written down from ancient times are hard to
prove, or believed to potentially be exaggerations
by historians (we’re looking at you, Herodotus).
However, while we may not know the actual
numbers for sure, and they may have changed
throughout history, it is clear that at least
a significant minority was enslaved at any
given time.
8.
Spartan Warriors Were Guided By Flutes And
Sang War Hymns Before Battle
In modern times, the Spartans — despite
being a relatively small population in a small
space — are still infamous for their past
deeds and known as being among the most manly
warriors to ever walk the land.
However, what many people may not think much
about is how combat may have really looked
so far back in the day.
Nowadays we have radio communication, making
communication vastly easier, but back in the
old days, armies usually used some kind of
music to give orders and keep people in proper
lineup.
And the Spartans were no exception to this
rule, but most people who imagine them going
to battle with music would probably imagine
drums or some kind of tough sounding instrument,
but this wasn’t the case.
The favored musical instrument for giving
instructions in battle for the Spartans was
the flute, a musical instrument that many
people now associate more with femininity.
Also, the Spartans going to battle really
was almost a holiday-like affair for them,
so perhaps the music was a way of adding some
extra levity.
It is said that the Spartans’ training routine
was so brutal that going to battle was actually
kind of a break for them.
7.
The Olympic Torch Relay Did Not Originate
In Ancient Greece
Today, the Olympic torch relay is considered
a pretty much essential part of the Olympic
Games, and most couldn’t imagine the games
without it.
It helps build up hype, and people like to
stand along parade lines, watching the torch
pass and cheering along the relay runners.
However, the truth is that while the Ancient
Greeks did employ a ritual fire, they did
not do any kind of torch relay.
Instead, the entire thing was dreamed up by
Carl Diem, the organizer of the 1936 Berlin
Olympic Games.
Now, Diem was not himself a member of the
Nazi Party, but the Nazi Party was running
the country, and Goebbels saw Diem’s idea
as great propaganda.
The idea was that the relay would show the
games symbolically going from the ruins of
Ancient Greece, all the way to modern Germany.
This was an attractive idea to Hitler, as
he admired the Ancient Greeks, and felt that
the Germans — being the “proper” Aryan
race — were the rightful heirs to the Ancient
Greeks, and the place of respect, power, and
influence that they once held in the world.
While the Olympic torch relay has become synonymous
with the games, it has not, as some in the
Third Reich once hoped, made it synonymous
with the glory of Germany, or the supposed
Aryan race.
6.
Athens Famed Democracy Wasn’t Really Quite
How Many People Envision It
Today people like to think of Athens as the
cradle of democracy, and while it was advanced
for its time, it was hardly a fair system
as most people didn’t actually have a say.
For starters, at any given time the population
of Athens had a lot of slaves (as we mentioned
above), and those slaves couldn’t vote.
While some sources say during the greatest
age of Athens the slave population was about
a third, some sources suggest that near the
same time period (about the early 400s B.C.),
the slave population was closer to almost
60%.
Considering non-resident foreigners and women,
along with the aforementioned slaves, were
unable to vote, this narrowed down the voting
population even further.
Also, you had to be over 18 to vote, which
means some estimates suggest that the population
of voting people was only about 40,000 citizens,
which would suggest only 15% of the population
could vote at any given time.
Now, some sources do suggest the slave percentage
was a lot lower, and historical records on
the exact population numbers at any given
time are mostly estimates, but the point is
that the vote was limited to a very small
demographic of the overall population at any
given time.
5.
The Spartans Had A Slave Population Called
Helots That They Hunted Every Year
Something that is often glossed often when
kids are being told the history of the Spartans
is how they managed to take care of all their
agricultural needs.
With all the men being warriors and all the
women doing homemaking, it does leave the
question of how their farming and other basic
labor needs were met.
Well, the Spartan solution was a population
of slaves they called the Helots, although
some sources suggested they might have once
been a group of Messenians who were conquered
long ago.
Regardless, in various sources they tend to
outnumber the Spartans by different figures
depending on the time period, but always by
absurd margins.
This left the Spartans in constant fear of
a revolt — a fear that was realistic, as
multiple revolts were attempted (and eventually
successful).
In order to strike fear in the hearts of the
Helots and make it less likely for them to
rebel, they would ritually have their newest
and youngest warriors hunt the toughest and
bravest Helots every Autumn.
As we mentioned, the Helots eventually did
manage to successfully revolt, showing that
no matter how tough a group of warriors you
are, when your slaves vastly outnumber you,
you cannot control them forever.
4.
Ancient Greeks Diluted Their Wine, They Considered
It Uncultured Not To
Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans were known
for their love of wine, and some people imagine
that pretty much everyone was getting drunk
on a regular basis — especially those with
a lot of wealth or power.
And while there is some truth to this in any
time period (after all, rich people and poor
people sometimes drink to excess), people
may have a bit of a confused picture of the
situation.
The truth is that the Ancient Greeks believed
in watering down their wine, usually with
a ratio of at least three parts water to one
part wine.
In fact, they considered it rather barbaric
and uncouth to go drinking wine without diluting
it with water first.
The Ancient Romans are said to have diluted
it even further, despite how many think them
to be super hedonistic as a culture, and would
sometimes dilute it at 10-to-1 ratio, or even
further.
Some historians have pointed out that this
is more like adding some wine to your water
than water to your wine, and might have been
an attempt to kill off bacteria and make a
glass of water safer to drink, while still
keeping your wits about you.
3.
Married Women Were Not Allowed To Watch The
Naked Olympic Competitors
While many people like to think of the Ancient
Greeks as a very sexually free culture (and
there is some truth to this compared to today),
like many cultures of the time period, one
thing they were absolutely not okay with was
adultery.
And for this reason, situations that might
give someone adulterous desires were something
that the Ancient Greek authorities believed
should be avoided.
Now, this presented a bit of a problem when
it came to the Olympic Games, as the men competed
entirely in the nude.
For this reason, married women were not allowed
to watch, as they may get lustful desires
for men who were not their husbands.
This meant that they couldn’t even watch
their husband compete if he happened to be
in the games, because there might be other
naked men she could see as well.
While this emphasis is put on married women,
married men, as we mentioned, could still
compete in the games, and young, single women
could see them compete, and potentially make
advances toward them afterwards.
The rule here has an expectation that the
party most likely to commit adultery would
be an unfaithful woman.
2.
Their Methods For Wiping After Defecation
Were Almost Entirely Unpleasant
Most people have heard of the famed bathroom
and plumbing systems of Ancient Rome, and
the relatively advanced systems in cities
like ancient Athens.
And, in modern days, many people have also
learned that the Roman sewer system, in particular,
could actually be a bit of a horror show.
However, what would probably alarm folks more
than anything, when it came to the bathroom
hygiene habits of the Romans and Greeks, was
how they cleaned up afterward.
Of course they didn’t have toilet paper
back in those days, so instead they used a
sponge on a stick.
Before and after using it to wipe, the stick
was either left in a channel of running water,
or dunked in a bucket of water that was also
mixed with salt and vinegar (try to enjoy
those potato chips while reading that one!).
The really gross part is that this stick was
communal, meaning that in public bathrooms,
you could be cleaning up with a sponge used
by a lot of other people.
However, people sometimes got inventive, and
there wasn’t always a single, standard method.
According to the theory of a French anthropologist
named Phillippe Charlier, the Ancient Romans
and Ancient Greeks may have sometimes used
small, flat-ish stones (without too many rough
edges) in order to clean up after defecation.
We guess it still beats the three seashell
method.
1.
Part Of Testing A Spartan Babies Strength
Was Dunking It In Wine
The Spartans were known for being incredibly
unforgiving to little ones, and for practicing
one of the earliest and most shocking forms
of eugenics.
They were known for testing babies for any
birth defects, weaknesses, or other abnormalities,
and then literally tossing the baby out as
garbage if they didn’t pass muster.
However, before the baby was brought before
a group of elders, he had to go through the
wine test.
The wine test is about as messed up as it
sounds.
They would bathe the newborn baby in wine,
and then just wait and see what happened.
If the baby convulsed and died, obviously
it was too weak to be a proper Spartan warrior,
and the now shamed father could throw out
the baby, move on and try to make more badass
progeny.
If the baby didn’t convulse and die from
being bathed in wine, he would be taken before
a group of elders.
These old men would then decide the newborn’s
fate, looking it over for any sign of weakness,
and decide whether it would have a harsh life
growing up knowing nothing but pain and war,
or whether it would be left on a mountainside
to die.
