You made me think about how (and in some ways more importantly who) we learn of them. I think I picked it up from mentions in philosophy and biology classes that started the greeks and then moved forward, and from a few fantasy books that used the concept. There may have also been some of those ‘child education’ type science books when I was a kid. You have the english classes, which to me seems an even more akilter way to pick them up. I would bet that many historians would get it, and people who take classics as their major.
That makes me think that most of my peers in the medical field and nerd section of the library should get the reference, and maybe some of the folks who would occasionally remember and remark on interesting historical works or times… but that must still be less than 2-10% of the population. Which, since I had thought it was common knowledge, really stuns…
You made me think about how (and in some ways more importantly who) we learn of them. I think I picked it up from mentions in philosophy and biology classes that started the greeks and then moved forward, and from a few fantasy books that used the concept. There may have also been some of those ‘child education’ type science books when I was a kid. You have the english classes, which to me seems an even more akilter way to pick them up. I would bet that many historians would get it, and people who take classics as their major.
That makes me think that most of my peers in the medical field and nerd section of the library should get the reference, and maybe some of the folks who would occasionally remember and remark on interesting historical works or times… but that must still be less than 2-10% of the population. Which, since I had thought it was common knowledge, really stuns…