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At least that's how it seems on this dark, rainy afternoon, with nary a tourist in sight and an engaging guide like Penny Kolomvotsou, a 28-year-old specialist in archaeology and Greek heritage. I ask Penny why she is so passionate about antiquity. Her answer comes without a second's hesitation. "Because I'm fed up with the stupid society we are in. We've lost our feeling of time. If I convey my passion to people and make them think, then I have given them something worthwhile. Antiquity makes people think of many different alternatives, other ideas. Globalization wants us all to think alike. It hasn't solved any of the world's problems — there is still slavery, poverty, the gap between rich and poor."
Apostolos Doxiadis is a Renaissance man. Trained as a mathematician, educated in the U.S. and France, founder of one of Greece's largest computer companies, he is also a creator of films, plays and puppet shows, as well as a best-selling novelist. A modern, cosmopolitan businessman with classical tastes and multiple passions, he seems just the man to explain how Greece can embrace the future and remain faithful to its roots.
Doxiadis meets me at his Athens headquarters on a Sunday morning, dressed casually in an open-necked green shirt and khakis. A youthful-looking 47-year-old, he speaks engagingly about everything from the New Economy and higher mathematics to Greek history and a puppet play he has just produced on the life of Jackson Pollock.
Doxiadis was a math prodigy who graduated from Columbia University at 18, then pursued his studies in France. While still in his 20s, he launched the computer company that grew into his current firm, UniSystems, which now has a market capitalization of around $350 million. Like most companies, UniSystems realized a few years ago that "you can't live without the Web and the New Economy." So Doxiadis has made a big push into new information technologies. "Young people have been the vanguard of this," he says. "When we want to do new things, we don't start from scratch. We team up with young companies, harness the talent and energy of their entrepreneurs."
There is no shortage of technology talent in Greece, says Doxiadis. "We have bright, inquisitive people, lovers of new things and change. But the market in Greece is two to five years behind in assimilating these changes."
I suggest that these changes might threaten national identity in such a traditional society. "I think the idiosyncrasies of a people start with geography and language," Doxiadis replies. "As long as these two hold, globalization is not a threat. National identity also has to do with politics. Only in the past 10 or 15 years have Greeks started to feel unthreatened enough by foreign domination or internal dictatorship to start solving our problems in a pluralistic way. And joining the European Union was crucial to that. When you have secure internal roots, you can adapt to a more complex identity. I am a European — and a Greek. That's the beauty of it. Things are getting better and better for us."
On the ledge of Doxiadis' large picture window sits a menagerie of sculptures made from odd bits of discarded computers. Doxiadis is fond of them because they show how the new technologies breed creativity in unexpected ways. Behind them, in the distance, you can see the rock of the Acropolis and the proud columns of the Parthenon — emblems of European culture spanning two and a half millennia. I gaze at them and wonder how much of our modern civilization — the Net, McDonald's, virtual reality — will be around 2,500 years from now. And what will become of our passions?
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New Heights
From virtual life in a Geneva lab via a bird's eye view of the Alps to a pavement perspective of old and new in Greece and Rome
Photo Gallery
Check out the photos from this leg of TIME's Fast Forward Europe voyage
Insect Power
Software that imitates the behaviour of ants could make highway and telecom traffic more efficient
Firm Foundation
Scarred by war and restoration, the Parthenon gets a facelift
Next Revolution
The Palais de Tokyo, site of Paris' first modern art museeum, will re-open to showcase young artists
Italy's Future
Will center-right media magnate and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi regain the title in the spring? He's up against Rome's Mayor Francesco Rutelli in the center-left corner
Speaking in Tongues
Films in local Italian dialects are a surprise box-office hit
Sky's the Limit
A sneak preview of Airbus' three-decker superjumbo with its casinos, shops and piano bars
Fascinated by Fire
Public spectacle designer Yves Pepin on the need for fireworks, fountains and mass celebrations
A Greek Sojourn
TIME's Paris bureau chief Thomas Sancton discovers the old and new Greece
Songs of the South
TIME explores the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland
City of the Future
Toulouse could well be a model of multi-culturalism
The City That Always Sleeps
A visit to Geneva's wild side
The Mouse That Roared
TIME travels to Andorra, one of Europe's smallest countries
The Eternal City
>A trip through the glory that is Rome
Pasta Bella
A visit to Barilla, pasta purveyors to the world
Top Gear
TIME test drives a Ferrari | Photos
A Second Life
TIME meets Hollywood star turned restaurateur Leslie Caron
My Dinner with Claude
TIME dines Claude Nobs, the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival
Thinking Outside the Sandbox
Innovative teachers in northern Italy are integrating technology into classroom life
Mind Trails
Forget Al Gore: TIME Speaks with the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee
A Brief History of the Higgs Hunt
Scientists in Switzerland may have solved one of the great mysteries of particle physics. Why should we care?
People To Watch: Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann | Amélie Nothomb | Mirko Nesurini | Michel Meyer | Neil Barrett
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