History Summarized: the Ancient Greek Post-Apocalypse

Turns out the "Studio Ghibli Post-Apocalypse" aesthetic has a historical basis in ancient Greek history's Bronze Age Collapse, long Dark Age, and slow re-emergence into the Polis Age. I don't know if I'd call the process *pleasant*, but it sure as hell is a *vibe*.

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[christicrochets]

Hi OSP, I feel that you need to know that Harvard University has a classical Mythology class which has like 200 students and is taught by one of the forerunners of Classical studies in the world. And guess what’s on our syllabus? YOUR VIDEOS for the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid. And our syllabus has a permalink to your channel and says “if you’re ever out of time just watch these little videos lol.” Your channel is the ONLY one provided by HARVARD UNIVERSITY that has been approved for accuracy and entertainment, and our syllabus is revised every year to include more of your videos. Make of that what you will.

[annekeener]

I love that instead of focusing on what was lost during a civilization collapse, you focus on how it sets up the next civilization period. This is so rarely done but is an important piece to understanding so-called Dark Ages when they happen. Both the Rome after Rome and this video explore the topic instead of focusing on the doom and gloom. It’s a fascinating approach.

[Bardic_Knowledge]

"When people told themselves their past with stories, explained their present with stories, foretold the future with stories, the best place by the fire was kept for... The Storyteller."

[Things_n_Stuff]

It’s kinda nice to realize that unless something catastrophic happens, like a meteor impact, humans will continue. No matter how much it seems like things are falling apart

[thospe-fx]

I really like the growing push (the public-facing side of which seems to have been led by youtube educators) toward not assuming that technology is a straight line and that people who don't have this thing that we take for granted just hadn't figured it out yet.

I'm a materials scientist who studies metals and I don't think many people quite understand how easy it is to make iron that ancient societies would have found absolutely useless, and even the stuff that had the right combination of strength and formability would corrode unless you took very good care of it. Stainless steel was a 19th century invention. It's weird that it's a novel thought that bronze age societies were quite happy with bronze who would not have seen iron as a step up even though that's like the first straightforward upgrade in every Civilization style game.

[atypicalprogrammer]

The Illiad is full of these themes of decay, and how this heroic age was supposedly so much better in every way.
There is this one passage where Diomedes picks up a huge rock, and laments that twelve "modern" men could not lift it.
It seems the Iron age people assumed that their age was so much worse because its very people were worse than their ancestors.

[SandsBuisle]

The fact that the Phoenician Alphabet pretty much maps 1:1 (both in names and use, almost perfectly) with the Hebrew one is kinda amazing. Even if the letters themselves look very different.

[hangebza]

Thanks for mentioning Iron being a downgrade from bronze. Because it is in many cases, despite many people seeing iron as an upgrade.

If both are in equal supply, bronze is the far better material. You can easily mass produce its goods. Just smelt it and pull it into prepareed forms. A bit more polishing and you made 100 swords. Whereas Iron didn't smelt properly and you had to forcefully hammer it into form.

Also Bronze wasn't that much weaker than Iron and more longlasting, as it didn't rost much, compared to iron.

Plus if a bronze tool broke, just smelt it in and make a new one. If an iron tool broke it was much harder to recycle/replace.

Indeed the bronze age never really stopped. Critical tools and components could only be made out of bronze up until the mid-late the industrial revolution. Even Napoleon used bronze cannons for example.

In this I too say that bronze age cultures likley had the knowhow to refine and forge iron weapons. But why do, if you have so much better bronze stuff around.

[mjschul]

I love the connection between the tone of the epics and the human experiences that must have inspired that tone--looking down on the still impressive ruins of what was not so long ago majestic palaces and structures. Of course the scattered peoples of a civilization fallen would pass on stories of their ancestors as "This is what we WERE" and that would inspire the future to build towards that idea for their future. Man I love history.

[Kaijugan]

Hey OSP folks. Just thought I'd let you know that my college (that is the Louisiana Delta Community College) has recently started using your videos as materials for their history classes. And part of the reason why is because so many of their students and even the teachers watch your videos. You should be proud.

[PillarofGarbage]

Also interesting to note that some historians believe that the development of the Greek alphabet in time to take down the Iliad might not have been simply good fortune - instead, there's some indication that the alphabet might have been developed *specifically* to record the epic.

[bradstev]

I'm a PhD historian, and the minute you said 'Dark Age' I felt my hackles rise. Just as I was getting ready to allow a head full of steam to allow me to vent in the comments section - you added the qualifiers, and slight accompanying mockery, and that hit home. Touché :D.

[Balmung]

Wow Blue, this was one of your best!! Once again showing that while history might be interesting by itself, the tapestry that it weaves about the lives of the peoples therein is the real treasure

[AubriGryphon]

In my head, the boat list functioned something like the shout-outs at a public event, with people waiting to cheer the mention of their town's culture hero.

[solisemporium]

I just think it’s neat that so many times through history, humanity was on the brink of collapse so many times, all throughout the world and yet we continue to this day.

[Letoiusprime]

I have never been so enticed by a video title before

[AlixL]

This video is making me so oddly emotional. Like, damn, people really spent so long remembering a civilization they came from after it had collapsed. I can't help but wonder what that felt like, growing up seeing the ruins of palaces your ancestors supposedly lived in, hearing stories about how civilization used to be so much bigger and stronger, even while you're just living your normal rural life life. And yet people really held onto those stories. Did they feel like they were living after the end of the world?

[WulfgarOpenthroat]

Going from mature bronze tech to early iron tech *was* a downgrade. It's not just harder to make, but good iron, much less steel, actually takes considerable knowledge and skill, and properly hardening it involves completely different methods. Even then, low carbon iron is softer than bronze, while high carbon iron is brittle, and you need techniques to mitigate or minimise slag inclusions which create hidden weak spots that could see a seemingly find tool or weapon suddenly snap(a possible reason that old swords were prized in the iron age; the more use an iron blade has seen the less likely it would fail suddenly).

And then after all these issues, iron rusts; it's harder to make, lower quality, less reliable, and needs more maintenance or it will degrade fairly rapidly.

[josephsalmonte]

Greek history, mythology & philosophy are *SO* fascinating. So much wisdom & fantastic stories ♥️

[aetherseeker]

I looked at the thumbnail and read the title and thought "Well this looks interesting" and I am not disappointed. Great work as always, Blue!