Amazon.com: Athens and five other cities of ancient Greece are brought back to life for an hour in this installment of the Great Cities of the Ancient World series. Beginning with a lovely shot of the sunrise behind the Acropolis, the program looks at early achievements in architecture, philosophy, sport, theater, and democracy that composed the dawn of modern civilization. As narrator Edmund Purdon points out, it's ironic that when we think of ancient Greece we picture austere white marble, when in fact the Greeks led such colorful lives. Thanks to computer graphics that "rebuild" ruined temples and amphitheaters in vivid shades of red, blue, yellow, and gold, the viewer can get a glimpse of these glorious structures as the Greeks knew them. Purdon intersperses myths and historical facts with the trivial details of daily life, so the viewer learns not only about the 12 labors of Hercules but also about what the average citizen might have purchased in the Agora (marketplace). From the mysterious Oracle at Delphi, to the birthplace of the Olympic Games, to the prostitution and slave markets of Corinth, this video provides a well-rounded introduction to the colorful complexity of Hellenic culture. --Larisa Lomacky Moore
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Informative video
This is a good video, very informative. It compares favorably with, for instance, National Geographic and Reader's Digest videos. The computer recreates of the ancient structures are good. When superimposed on the modern grounds, you can see it's artificial because the lighting is wrong. It would be nice if all ancient structures that can be restored and rebuilt are done so.
The video should have included the modern lighting of the olympic flame ceremony.
The video could have had normal color footage, instead of that faded black and white footage for the ancient everyday scenes.
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Rating: - Beautiful and Dramatic
This video is a bit over an hour long. It has some drama when presenting the different cities and the myths associted with them, but it is highly entertaining. They are able to show what we know as monuments in thier ancient "glory" through computer enhancement. It was fascinating to see that ancient Greece was not built in white (as the relics are today) but in vivid colors.
Does not iclude Greek Islands (I was dissapointed that Ithaka, Krete, etc were left out). Does include Corinth.
