Episode 3 of renowned filmmaker Chris Marker's mythical masterpiece about…
The Owl's Legacy: Symposium, or Accepted Ideas
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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“The wake of our dreams is Greek” --George Steiner
This episode sets the tone for the rest of the series, introducing the fundamental idea Marker and his participants explore: For centuries, we’ve used Greek civilization as a touchstone, but as John Winkler—classics scholar, queer historian, and one-time monk—says, looking at ancient Greece is like trying to determine what lies beneath a face covered in many layers of makeup.
The concept of the individual, calls to moderation, the value of knowing one’s self: classical Greek politics and culture have often been represented as models of rationality and order. But, as this episode makes clear, this is not because Greeks were particularly enlightened. On the contrary, order is the prize in a hard-fought battle against humanity’s dark, incestuous, and violent sides—as embodied in the story of Oedipus. Rather than embracing simple binaries, ancient Greece—like Oedipus standing at the spot where three roads meet, killing the man he will later learn is his father—embraced broader choices, including those that lead to the mysterious and unknown.
"We should raze the Sorbonne and put Chris Marker in its place." —Henri Michaux
"The primary pleasure of the series, which is incredibly inspiring, is linked to this great banquet of participants, the sum of knowledge they invoke, but above all to the playful flows the editing establishes between their ideas, constructing a formidable network of meanings, historical and cultural perspectives - a veritable encyclopedia of development." —Le Monde
"Why did we have to wait so long for this electrifyingly intelligent film?"—Le Point
"Thirteen words to uncover an entire civilization and reestablish its considerable influence on our modern societies." —Les Inrockuptibles
"With erudition, Chris Marker questions in each episode what remains Greek within us." —Philosophie Magazine
Citation
Main credits
Marker, Chris (film director)
Peck, Bob (narrator)
Other credits
Music, Eleni Karaindrou [and 4 others]; camerapersons, Andreas Sinanos [and 5 others]; editing team, Khadicha Bariha, Nedjma Scialom.
Distributor subjects
Historical Anthropology; Ancient Greece; Chris Marker; France; PhilosophyKeywords
"The Owl's Legacy"; Icarus Films; France; Chris Marker; Ancient Greece; culture; ,doc,art; history; shod
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.500 align:middle line:90%
00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:03.451 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:03.451 --> 00:00:24.180 align:middle line:90%
00:00:24.180 --> 00:00:27.780 align:middle line:84%
It all began on a
summer night in 1987.
00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:30.950 align:middle line:84%
The idea for a television
series based on Greek culture
00:00:30.950 --> 00:00:33.930 align:middle line:84%
had just crystallized, and
we were facing the specter
00:00:33.930 --> 00:00:36.620 align:middle line:84%
that harms the realm of
the cultural documentary,
00:00:36.620 --> 00:00:39.210 align:middle line:84%
and that Chekhov
defined for eternity--
00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:42.300 align:middle line:84%
to say things that clever
people already know,
00:00:42.300 --> 00:00:44.160 align:middle line:90%
and that morons will never know.
00:00:44.160 --> 00:00:46.940 align:middle line:90%
00:00:46.940 --> 00:00:49.790 align:middle line:84%
Our friend Jean-Pierre Vernant
had the idea of the banquets
00:00:49.790 --> 00:00:51.440 align:middle line:90%
around the world.
00:00:51.440 --> 00:00:54.080 align:middle line:84%
In Paris, the great amphitheater
of the École des Beaux-Arts
00:00:54.080 --> 00:00:56.150 align:middle line:84%
suited our purpose
particularly well,
00:00:56.150 --> 00:00:59.210 align:middle line:84%
hanging as it does over the
caves where antiquity rests,
00:00:59.210 --> 00:01:02.190 align:middle line:84%
in the shape of plaster copies
waiting for the all-clear
00:01:02.190 --> 00:01:02.690 align:middle line:90%
signal.
00:01:02.690 --> 00:01:05.660 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:01:05.660 --> 00:01:41.300 align:middle line:90%
00:01:41.300 --> 00:01:45.015 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IN FRENCH]
00:01:45.015 --> 00:03:08.710 align:middle line:90%
00:03:08.710 --> 00:03:10.920 align:middle line:90%
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:44.292 align:middle line:90%
00:03:44.292 --> 00:03:46.080 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IN GREEK]
00:03:46.080 --> 00:04:43.905 align:middle line:90%
00:04:43.905 --> 00:04:48.360 align:middle line:84%
The peculiar thing about
the Greeks, I suppose,
00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:51.390 align:middle line:84%
is that they are as remote as
they are, as different as they
00:04:51.390 --> 00:04:57.210 align:middle line:84%
are, but connected with
us through what they\'ve
00:04:57.210 --> 00:04:58.410 align:middle line:90%
impinged on our own society.
00:04:58.410 --> 00:05:00.300 align:middle line:84%
They are the back
of our society,
00:05:00.300 --> 00:05:02.880 align:middle line:84%
the base of our society
through the Romans.
00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:04.620 align:middle line:84%
So we are to some
extent an extension,
00:05:04.620 --> 00:05:07.440 align:middle line:84%
a continuation of things
that the Greeks contributed--
00:05:07.440 --> 00:05:09.820 align:middle line:90%
they didn\'t invent, themselves.
00:05:09.820 --> 00:05:14.320 align:middle line:84%
But at the same time, they\'ve
reintroduced themselves,
00:05:14.320 --> 00:05:17.820 align:middle line:84%
or been reintroduced
at periodic intervals
00:05:17.820 --> 00:05:19.760 align:middle line:84%
over the next few
millennia, and that\'s
00:05:19.760 --> 00:05:23.990 align:middle line:84%
something that has changed
from generation to generation.
00:05:23.990 --> 00:05:25.850 align:middle line:84%
Sometimes people
are quite shocked
00:05:25.850 --> 00:05:29.900 align:middle line:84%
to find what the
previous generation has
00:05:29.900 --> 00:05:33.900 align:middle line:84%
done with the Greeks, with the
reading of their literature
00:05:33.900 --> 00:05:35.830 align:middle line:84%
and the interpretation
of their history.
00:05:35.830 --> 00:05:41.690 align:middle line:84%
And perhaps what I\'d like to
ask is what is this generation
00:05:41.690 --> 00:05:44.060 align:middle line:90%
doing to the Greeks?
00:05:44.060 --> 00:05:47.750 align:middle line:84%
For 200 years or more,
perhaps, the Greeks
00:05:47.750 --> 00:05:52.460 align:middle line:84%
have been made by us, turned by
us into a kind of angelic race.
00:05:52.460 --> 00:05:55.130 align:middle line:84%
They\'re the source of
much wisdom and knowledge.
00:05:55.130 --> 00:05:56.780 align:middle line:84%
And what\'s most
interesting now is
00:05:56.780 --> 00:05:59.630 align:middle line:84%
three is to study the difference
between the idealization
00:05:59.630 --> 00:06:01.190 align:middle line:90%
and the reality.
00:06:01.190 --> 00:06:03.530 align:middle line:84%
It\'s a special
case study for us,
00:06:03.530 --> 00:06:07.500 align:middle line:84%
of the remaking, the putting
on of other cosmetic makeup
00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:08.960 align:middle line:84%
of a face that was
very interesting
00:06:08.960 --> 00:06:10.730 align:middle line:90%
underneath the makeup.
00:06:10.730 --> 00:06:13.501 align:middle line:84%
I would say almost that I\'m
not interested in the Greeks
00:06:13.501 --> 00:06:14.000 align:middle line:90%
at all.
00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.480 align:middle line:84%
That the Greeks are for me a
kind of legal fiction by means
00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:21.020 align:middle line:84%
of which we get to
authorize our own inquiries
00:06:21.020 --> 00:06:23.510 align:middle line:84%
into our own identities,
and to the way
00:06:23.510 --> 00:06:25.750 align:middle line:84%
our own identities have been
historically constructed
00:06:25.750 --> 00:06:29.630 align:middle line:90%
They give us this--
00:06:29.630 --> 00:06:32.810 align:middle line:84%
this people who existed long
ago, and who are in some way
00:06:32.810 --> 00:06:36.536 align:middle line:84%
related to ourselves
historically, genealogically.
00:06:36.536 --> 00:06:37.910 align:middle line:84%
And through studying
that people,
00:06:37.910 --> 00:06:41.330 align:middle line:84%
we get to uncover
through various layers,
00:06:41.330 --> 00:06:43.970 align:middle line:84%
the construction of our
own identities over time.
00:06:43.970 --> 00:06:47.000 align:middle line:84%
And get to see how our
identities have been shaped,
00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:48.950 align:middle line:84%
how we\'ve explained
ourselves to ourselves,
00:06:48.950 --> 00:06:50.660 align:middle line:90%
by talking about the Greeks.
00:06:50.660 --> 00:06:52.430 align:middle line:84%
And what the Greeks
themselves really did,
00:06:52.430 --> 00:06:53.346 align:middle line:90%
or what they thought--
00:06:53.346 --> 00:06:55.940 align:middle line:84%
I mean, if one ran
across a Greek nowadays,
00:06:55.940 --> 00:06:58.436 align:middle line:84%
I don\'t know what one
would have to say.
00:06:58.436 --> 00:07:02.607 align:middle line:84%
There\'s a special magic
and beauty and power.
00:07:02.607 --> 00:07:05.190 align:middle line:84%
And there\'s that-- it\'s what you
were saying in the beginning,
00:07:05.190 --> 00:07:08.150 align:middle line:84%
that ultimately,
you can\'t really
00:07:08.150 --> 00:07:10.940 align:middle line:84%
say what draws you
to these texts, what
00:07:10.940 --> 00:07:12.880 align:middle line:90%
makes them so powerful for you.
00:07:12.880 --> 00:07:14.240 align:middle line:90%
But they are for me.
00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:15.840 align:middle line:84%
And it\'s certainly
true that Euripedes
00:07:15.840 --> 00:07:20.450 align:middle line:84%
has taught me an enormous
amount about victimization.
00:07:20.450 --> 00:07:25.715 align:middle line:90%
And I wonder, do you feel like--
00:07:25.715 --> 00:07:27.260 align:middle line:84%
and this is an
open question-- do
00:07:27.260 --> 00:07:32.690 align:middle line:84%
you feel like reading
Greek literature does make
00:07:32.690 --> 00:07:35.416 align:middle line:90%
you a better person in any way?
00:07:35.416 --> 00:07:37.491 align:middle line:84%
Does it allow you to
be a better person?
00:07:37.491 --> 00:07:37.990 align:middle line:90%
No.
00:07:37.990 --> 00:07:44.080 align:middle line:84%
And yet I keep discovering
things that Aeschylus said,
00:07:44.080 --> 00:07:47.930 align:middle line:84%
that Homer said, that Plato
said, that Plutarch said,
00:07:47.930 --> 00:07:50.230 align:middle line:90%
which do something for me.
00:07:50.230 --> 00:07:54.190 align:middle line:84%
They answer to some
need in my life.
00:07:54.190 --> 00:07:57.400 align:middle line:84%
An aesthetic need, a
need for understanding
00:07:57.400 --> 00:07:59.880 align:middle line:84%
of what makes people tick,
and how to relate to them.
00:07:59.880 --> 00:08:01.230 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IN FRENCH]
00:08:01.230 --> 00:09:59.000 align:middle line:90%
00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:01.120 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IN GREEK]
00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:04.984 align:middle line:90%
00:10:04.984 --> 00:10:06.780 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IN FRENCH]
00:10:06.780 --> 00:10:11.000 align:middle line:90%
00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:14.950 align:middle line:84%
Well, I suppose it started
when I was a child, being very
00:10:14.950 --> 00:10:16.075 align:middle line:90%
interested in toy soldiers.
00:10:16.075 --> 00:10:19.360 align:middle line:90%
00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:22.300 align:middle line:84%
I collected since
the age of six,
00:10:22.300 --> 00:10:25.180 align:middle line:84%
and I built quite a
lot of soldiers up.
00:10:25.180 --> 00:10:29.380 align:middle line:84%
And then I got very interested
in small Greek soldiers
00:10:29.380 --> 00:10:32.080 align:middle line:90%
more than any of the other toys.
00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:36.050 align:middle line:84%
And the older I got, the more
I wanted to learn about them.
00:10:36.050 --> 00:10:40.180 align:middle line:84%
And I started reading books, and
watching programs about them.
00:10:40.180 --> 00:10:43.345 align:middle line:84%
And it\'s something that\'s always
fascinated me, Greek culture.
00:10:43.345 --> 00:10:46.498 align:middle line:90%
00:10:46.498 --> 00:10:49.050 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IN FRENCH]
00:10:49.050 --> 00:12:54.350 align:middle line:90%
00:12:54.350 --> 00:12:57.870 align:middle line:84%
What I first found fascinating
about the Greek world
00:12:57.870 --> 00:13:01.530 align:middle line:84%
was the fact that they
had come across the idea
00:13:01.530 --> 00:13:06.180 align:middle line:84%
of \"gnothi seauton,\"
\"know thyself.\"
00:13:06.180 --> 00:13:09.990 align:middle line:84%
It is always very strange
to think that the Greeks,
00:13:09.990 --> 00:13:13.620 align:middle line:84%
which had no concept
of unconscious--
00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:19.610 align:middle line:84%
or even, perhaps, until Plato,
a proper concept of the soul--
00:13:19.610 --> 00:13:27.640 align:middle line:84%
could have come to think that
you should know yourself.
00:13:27.640 --> 00:13:31.133 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:13:31.133 --> 00:13:33.630 align:middle line:90%
00:13:33.630 --> 00:13:39.810 align:middle line:84%
I think if Freud were to
be compared to anyone,
00:13:39.810 --> 00:13:42.080 align:middle line:84%
it would be to the
Greeks before Plato.
00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:45.450 align:middle line:84%
And I think he is
much closer to that
00:13:45.450 --> 00:13:50.100 align:middle line:84%
diffused the concept of the
soul and mind, which the Greeks,
00:13:50.100 --> 00:13:57.450 align:middle line:84%
which the pre-Socratics
have had when they said.
00:13:57.450 --> 00:14:06.740 align:middle line:84%
\"know thyself\" and \"nothing
in excess,\" than to Plato.
00:14:06.740 --> 00:14:09.900 align:middle line:84%
Aristotle, in a sense,
is saying something,
00:14:09.900 --> 00:14:11.300 align:middle line:90%
as Plato was saying before him--
00:14:11.300 --> 00:14:14.580 align:middle line:84%
as all the Greeks up
until at least, I suppose,
00:14:14.580 --> 00:14:17.820 align:middle line:84%
the Epicureans are saying--
that it makes no sense
00:14:17.820 --> 00:14:23.700 align:middle line:84%
to study a human being as a
moral person in isolation.
00:14:23.700 --> 00:14:26.220 align:middle line:84%
You cannot talk of a person
and his or her rights,
00:14:26.220 --> 00:14:29.250 align:middle line:84%
a person and his or
her moral duties,
00:14:29.250 --> 00:14:32.790 align:middle line:84%
except in relation to his or
her place within a structure.
00:14:32.790 --> 00:14:34.986 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IN FRENCH]
00:14:34.986 --> 00:19:02.560 align:middle line:90%
00:19:02.560 --> 00:19:04.310 align:middle line:84%
One of the practices
that\'s systematically
00:19:04.310 --> 00:19:06.500 align:middle line:84%
been overlooked
about Greek justice
00:19:06.500 --> 00:19:09.260 align:middle line:84%
is that since it\'s a
highly agonistic culture,
00:19:09.260 --> 00:19:12.600 align:middle line:84%
and prosecutor and defendant
are facing each other,
00:19:12.600 --> 00:19:16.370 align:middle line:84%
and will use every means
that they can to win,
00:19:16.370 --> 00:19:20.480 align:middle line:84%
there were lots of cursed
tablets and voodoo dolls used
00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:23.007 align:middle line:90%
to influence your enemy.
00:19:23.007 --> 00:19:24.590 align:middle line:84%
These dolls are made
of lead, and they
00:19:24.590 --> 00:19:26.870 align:middle line:84%
have twisted limbs,
twisted behind the body,
00:19:26.870 --> 00:19:29.870 align:middle line:84%
and heads turned around
and in unnatural positions.
00:19:29.870 --> 00:19:32.930 align:middle line:84%
And they\'re buried in coffins,
inscribed with curses which
00:19:32.930 --> 00:19:36.470 align:middle line:84%
say, may so and so, my
enemy in the upcoming trial,
00:19:36.470 --> 00:19:41.240 align:middle line:84%
forget his speech which he
is practicing for this trial.
00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:45.039 align:middle line:84%
Now this sort of under-sided,
illegitimate practice was
00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:46.580 align:middle line:84%
widely attested--
not only in Athens,
00:19:46.580 --> 00:19:48.170 align:middle line:90%
but in many Greek cities--
00:19:48.170 --> 00:19:50.750 align:middle line:84%
and ought to be part
of the normal account
00:19:50.750 --> 00:19:53.400 align:middle line:84%
of the actual experience
of going to trial.
00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:55.760 align:middle line:84%
And indeed, it\'s
in the Eumenides,
00:19:55.760 --> 00:19:57.680 align:middle line:84%
because the Eumenides,
the furies themselves,
00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.110 align:middle line:84%
sing a song against their
opponent Orestes, in which they
00:20:00.110 --> 00:20:02.690 align:middle line:90%
say, it\'s our binding hymn.
00:20:02.690 --> 00:20:06.260 align:middle line:84%
These curses were called
binding curses, and they say,
00:20:06.260 --> 00:20:08.300 align:middle line:84%
may the wits of
Orestes be befuddled,
00:20:08.300 --> 00:20:09.980 align:middle line:90%
and may his tongue be frozen.
00:20:09.980 --> 00:20:13.370 align:middle line:84%
They\'re using what was
recognized as an illegitimate,
00:20:13.370 --> 00:20:16.870 align:middle line:84%
but all-too-prevalent means
for overcoming an enemy.
00:20:16.870 --> 00:20:18.536 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IN FRENCH]
00:20:18.536 --> 00:24:19.207 align:middle line:90%
00:24:19.207 --> 00:24:22.189 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:24:22.189 --> 00:24:24.680 align:middle line:90%
00:24:24.680 --> 00:24:26.820 align:middle line:84%
You can still see the
three way crossroads down
00:24:26.820 --> 00:24:28.600 align:middle line:90%
in the Theban plain.
00:24:28.600 --> 00:24:31.110 align:middle line:84%
This third road,
where it\'s so easy
00:24:31.110 --> 00:24:34.530 align:middle line:84%
to get lost, many mistook for
the road to a eternal Greece,
00:24:34.530 --> 00:24:38.040 align:middle line:84%
when it led nowhere but
to their imaginary Greece.
00:24:38.040 --> 00:24:40.380 align:middle line:84%
An ultimate example
of that road--
00:24:40.380 --> 00:24:42.030 align:middle line:90%
and of that loss--
00:24:42.030 --> 00:24:44.010 align:middle line:90%
has left its traces.
00:24:44.010 --> 00:24:46.920 align:middle line:84%
The date is 1936,
the place is Olympia.
00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:50.270 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:24:50.270 --> 00:26:10.902 align:middle line:90%
Distributor: Icarus Films
Length: 26 minutes
Date: 1989
Genre: Expository
Language: French; German; English / English subtitles
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
Interactive Transcript: Available
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