For the Greeks, there was no single canonical version of creation, but a number of overlapping stories. Neil MacGregor More Quotes by Neil MacGregor More Quotes From Neil MacGregor [The Persian Empire] left a dream of the Middle East as a unit, and a unit where people of different faiths could live together. Neil MacGregor god dream people From the point where our ancestors started making tools, people have been unable to survive without the things they make; in this sense, it is making things that makes us human. Neil MacGregor ancestor tools people For a million years the sound of making handaxes provided the percussion of everyday life. Anyone choosing a hundred objects to tell a history of the world would have to include a handaxe. Neil MacGregor everyday sound years For many, the icon of the British Museum is the Rosetta Stone, that administrative by-product of the Greek imperial adventure in Africa. Neil MacGregor icons adventure museums Objects let you tell a narrative that encompasses everybody. Texts don't. Neil MacGregor objects narrative Objects are better than text at conveying narrative Neil MacGregor conveying objects narrative In the world of the Middle East at the moment, the debates are shrill. But ... the wisest voice of all of them may well be the voice of this mute thing, the Cyrus cylinder. Neil MacGregor voice motivation inspiration In 1600, when Shakespeares audience at the Globe heard Hamlet for the first time, every one of them knew very well what it meant to be handed a cup of wine by a figure of authority and told to drink. Neil MacGregor cups wine firsts The British Museum was founded with a civic purpose, to allow the citizen, through reasoned inquiry and comparison, to resist the certainties that endanger free society and are still among the greatest threats to our liberty. Neil MacGregor citizens liberty museums Both institutions believe it is precisely at moments like this that the museums have to keep speaking. Neil MacGregor lifestyle Creation stories, so central in the religions of the Middle East, play a surprisingly marginal part in Greek myth. The Greeks had nothing to set alongside the resounding 'In the beginning' in the book of Genesis, where one eternal God creates the universe out of nothing. Neil MacGregor beginning universe god book The collapse of the Tower of Babel is perhaps the central urban myth. It is certainly the most disquieting. In Babylon, the great city that fascinated and horrified the Biblical writers, people of different races and languages, drawn together in pursuit of wealth, tried for the first time to live together - and failed. Neil MacGregor great together time people As the Persians wrote very little about how they ran their affairs, the Greek propaganda of the 5th century B.C. has for centuries gone virtually unchallenged - indeed, for Edward Said, it was the beginning of Europe's long habit of misunderstanding and ill-informed contempt of the Middle East. Neil MacGregor beginning misunderstanding habit long The things we make have one supreme quality - they live longer than us. We perish, they survive; we have one life, they have many lives, and in each life they can mean different things. Which means that, while we all have one biography, they have many. Neil MacGregor survive live quality life Hardest of all for Europeans to negotiate are traditional African religions, whose transactions with unseen powers are central to the running of life in many areas, the main weapon in the struggle against the forces of evil. Neil MacGregor religions struggle evil life While there are few records of Viking women participating in battle, they certainly held positions of high status in society as human sorceresses known as 'volvas.' Neil MacGregor high women society battle The spread of Viking bling is a good indication of the spread of its culture. Neil MacGregor good indication spread culture In a very literal way, of course, Shakespeare did change the course of history: when it didn't fit the plot he had in mind, he simply rewrote it. His English histories play fast and loose with chronology and fact to achieve the desired dramatic effect, re-ordering history even as it was then understood. Neil MacGregor change mind history way Prometheus - trickster, rebel and hero - links the realm of the gods with the world of humanity, with which he had such close affinity. His act of stealing fire has been viewed as the foundation of all man's technologies. Neil MacGregor man humanity fire hero Google the name Prometheus, and see how often it has been given to innovations in many different fields, notably science, medicine and space exploration. The fire he stole can be seen, too, as the spark generating all artistic creativity. Neil MacGregor creativity space fire science
