The Ancient Greeks had an empire that spanned for a long time - it lasted for longer than the existence of the US. Events such as the Cold War or the formation of NATO and the EU are just a blip on the map for the Ancient Greeks. Their Empire lasted from 800 B.C. to 146 B.C. (so they never made it to Christ's time), which allowed them to create many beautiful pieces of art - but also some horrible mistakes. What follows are the 15 most outrageous things invented by the Ancient Greeks.
You wouldn't know it from the history books, but the Ancient Greeks were fairly advanced when it came to technology and medicine. It's just that until the release of Dr. David. H. Newman's book on the Ancient Greeks, little was known of their hidden missteps.
I'm sure you remember Hippocrates - he's the guy that basically created Western medicine. He just had a weird habit. He didn't really believe in talking to his patients - he preferred to taste their bodily fluids, and was especially a fan of earwax.
Few people know Soranus of Ephesus. He's the world's first gynecologist, and he even traveled to Ancient Rome in order to hone his craft. He was fascinated with treating diseases that affected the female population, and so many Greek women viewed him as their savior.
One of his most frequent requests from women was not about improving their health. It was about how not to get pregnant. He obviously didn't recommend the condom route - he's the kind of guy that takes the more difficult way - just because he can.
After many months of failed experiments (I presume this got a lot of women pregnant - when the birth control didn't work), he discovered his first cure! Women should sneeze after being intimidated with their partner, but he was not done yet.
The title above is just a joke, but it is what Soranus did to hype his medicine. He told women that apart from sneezing, they should also squat down to force themselves to sneeze and that they should also drink something cold while squatting. He was quite a creative guy.
Zombie-tier pale skin was all the hype during the ancient times. I hear this still holds true in some Asian countries, someone needs to remind them that the year 860 B.C. wants its fashion style back! Anyway, at least modern makeup is safe to use - the Ancient kind was most certainly not safe to use.
The Ancient Greeks regarded pale skin as youthful looking, and the one that could look the fairest would in a sense appear as forever "young" to them. This forced them to use drastic measures on their face and bodies, sometimes with fatal results.
They didn't have normal powder-based makeup back then. They discovered that lead was actually extremely good at thinning your skin's outermost layers. Little did they know that lead is one of the most harmful and carcinogen metals you can put on yourself. People DIE from lead poisoning.
The Ancient Greeks looked upon sport as serious business. There were no serious businesses back then (companies were impossible to form), and thus it was the Olympics and sport that took a lot of mindshare in the common man's life.
Since fighting and winning was the end all to everything, many of the Ancient Greeks would fight until the end, even losing their lives if they had to, just so they can try to become the reigning champion. I like ambitious people, but this is getting out of hand.
There is an old story that proves this rumor about the Ancient Greeks fighting until the end. One athlete was being held at chokehold by his opponent. He knew he was losing, so he grabbed his opponent's ankle with such fierce strength, that the guy was in so much pain that he lost his hold on the athlete, and thus lost the fight.
You might think that taking a cold shower after your workout routine is a nice thing to do (remember, a cold shower is always healthier than a hot one). This was not the case, as the Ancient Greeks had better uses for old' sweat.
The Greeks admired their athletes so much, that even the sweat had worth. There are some myths that say if you could bottle up even a few ounces of the rising champion's back, you could earn enough money to live off for months.
Zeus occupies the highest tier in the Greek god's hierarchy. He is like Oden was for the Vikings and Perun for the Slavic people. The athletes were revered because it was believed that their competitions pleased Zeus, and he was the one giving them such immense strength and will.
