Chapter 2: Early Greece

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Chapter 2 Early Greece
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Dawn of Greek Culture

• Around 1000 ce GK civilization develops form the
  beginning divided into city-states with fierce
  rivalries
• For 200 centuries little contact with outside
  world
• Visual arts of period represented in pottery
  with geometric patterns
• Two epics produced during this period

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Age of Colonization 750-600 ce

• Contact with wide range of people, especially
  people of near Far East
• result of which pottery decorations show
  orientalizing effect
• Copying and evolving of large free-standing
  sculptures based on Egyptian models note not as
  massive as Egyptian sculptures, but large
• Imp Gk colonies in Italy and Sicily develop

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Archaic Period 600 -480 B.C.E

• Marked by political and cultural change
• New literary form lyric poetry develops Sappho
  principal practioner
• Pre-Socratic develop wide range of philosophical
  schools
• Sculpture and vase painting become increasingly
  naturalistic
• Aristocrats rulers replaced by tyrants rich
  merchants
• In Athens, Solons reform introduces a form of
  democracy which is later overthrown by tyrant
  Pisistratus

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Age of Persian Wars

• Democratic govt restored in Athens (510 B.C.E)
• Embroiled in conflict with eastern neighbor might
  Persian empire
• 499 Gk cities of Western Asia rebel against the
  Persians, Athens send help, Persians crush the
  revolt, Persian king Darius attempts attack Gks
  for their interference, against great odds
  Persians defeated at Battle of Marathon

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Persian Wars cont

• Darius humiliated forced to withdraw
• His son Xerxes (ZER-ksees) in 480 B.C.E mounts
  another attach on an even larger scale, defeats
  Spartan troops at Thermopylae(Ther-Mop-u-lee, and
  sacks Athens
• But Athenians take to their ships and destroy
  Persian navy at the Battle of Salamis
• Following year Gk army defeats Xerxes troops on
  land, causing the beginning of classical age -

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Bronze to Iron Age

• Change in Greece around 1000 BC
• Visual arts, architecture, literature,
  philosophy, writing all discoveries of iron age
  Greece (despite some continuity)
• First 300 years slow development. Epics of Iliad
  and Odyssey composed. Heroic epics. Era sometimes
  called Heroic Age
• Visual art of period used geometric style
• 750-600 Age of colonization (foreign influences)
• Absorbed in Archaic period (600-480 BC). Ends
  with Persian wars, 490-479 BC

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Homer and the Heroic Age

• After Mycenaean period (united), Greece was
  fragmented into polis (city-state) and its
  influence area
• Polis focal point of political, religious,
  social, artistic activities in the area
• Loyalty toward city greater than toward Greece.
  Cause of greatness and ruin of Greece
• Mythology variations of same story. Zeus imposes
  moral code but also immoral himself in some
  stories
• Myths mass of folktales, rituals, customs of
  Heroic age

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Homer and the Heroic Age (2)

• Greeks were motivated by good narrative more than
  sense of story codification
• Religion used to illuminate their own lives than
  offer divine guidance. Apollo (logic, order) and
  Dionysus (emotion, disorder).
• Gods did not represent supreme good or evil, but
  forces and traits. Also related to city
  (Athens-Athena)
• Art and literature sources of answers in life

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Homer and the Heroic Age (3)

• Homer first (and one of greatest) figure in
  western literary tradition
• Homeric question. Complex issue. Combination of
  shorter folktales into epics
• Before writing. Bards. Ready-made components
  traditional tales, stock incidents, repeated
  phrases and questions. Changes through retelling.
  But, Homeric epics show unity of style
  structure. 800 BC crystallized
• 600 BC first written version. Alexandrian scribe
  of second century BC currently used version

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Homer and the Heroic Age (4)

• Composer? Imposed artistic unity?
• Epithets. Achilles swift footed Odysseus
  cunning. Phrases repeated, minor
  inconsistencies in plot at times
• Elaborate similes of iron age life (forces, bees)
• Iliad somber, taut, direct. One major plot
• Odyssey digressive, lighthearted. More elaborate
  design
• Iliad final year of siege of Troy. Before Fall.
  Anger of Achilles and consequences. Human
  responsibility is theme

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Iliad and Odyssey

• Achilles leaves war after argument. Agamemnon
  eventually apologizes, Achilles refuses.
  Patroclus (best friend) dies, Achilles returns to
  war, kills Hector. Abuses dead body, finally
  hands it to Priam (king of Troy)
• Achilles violates human moral code
• Human-centered. Cannot choose death, but can
  choose how we live. Gods cannot influence history
• Odyssey voyage home, temptations. Penelope,
  suitors, Telemachus

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Geometric art

• Pottery 1000-700 BC. No other art form survived
• Abstract geometric designs. No vividness, realism
  like literature. Protogeometric (100-900) and
  Geometric (900-700) periods.
• Concentric circles, semicircles. Transition.
• Geometric linear designs, zigzags, diamond,
  meander (a maze pattern).
• Then human forms appear in art in realistic form.
  First time in human history. Gradual. First
  highly stylized. Vases over tombs as grave
  markers. Funeral ceremony scenes. Or processions
  of warriors

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Age of Colonization

• Aristocrats with wealth and power ruled cities,
  vases marked their graves (dipylon vase)
• Power of cities. Ruling class. Image. Patrons of
  arts and military leaders. Festivals at Olympia,
  Delphi. Competitions
• Economic power important. Coins (600 BC). Growing
  urban population, accumulation of wealth
  colonization 8th and 7th ce.
• Italy (sybaris) and Sicily (Syracuse) richer
  colonies than mother cities. Rivalries continued
• Egypt, Black Sea. But Asia Minor most important
  colonies
• Contact (and trade) with Phoenicians, Persians.
  Orientilzing late 8th to 600 BC. Artifacts,
  ivories, jewelry, metalwork

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Visual Arts at Corinth and Athens

• Corinthian style miniature style, eastern
  motifs sphinxes, floral designs over entire
  surface of vase. Variety of color and subject
• Exported in Italy, Egypt, Near East. Flasks.
  Corinthian style. Political, economic strength
• Athens vases bigger, depiction clumsy. Events
  from mythology (later Athenian art)
• Narrative style of Athens. Trade rivalry with
  Corinth

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Beginnings of Greek Sculpture

• Earliest Greek sculptures resemble Egyptian cult
  statues. Kore (standing female, in drapery) and
  Kouros (young male, nude). Break with loincloth
  Egyptian tradition
• After 700 BC Greek art changes. Spirit of
  independence, inquiry. Artists break with
  tradition. What do humans look like? Perspective?
  True nature of appearance?
• Reproduce human form true to Nature, not
  according to tradition

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Sculpture and Painting in Archaic Period

• Hereditary aristocrats losing status
• Solon reforms Athens legal system in 594 BC. All
  four classes of citizens debate assembly, take
  part in courts.
• Rich merchants, tyrants. Patrons of arts.
  Revolution in politics and arts.Pisistratus
  546-528 BC.
• Kouroi from flat panes and rigid stances to fully
  rounded figures. Anavysos Kouros careful human
  anatomy study.

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Sculpture and Painting in Archaic Period (2)

• Calf-bearer from Acropolis. Unity of man and
  beast. Female figures (Korai) also from Acropolis
• Large scale status (temples), carved stone slabs.
  Relief curving technique carved into stone. High
  Relief figures project (3 dim). Low Relief
  curving preserves flat surface of stone
• Temple/Architectural sculpture high relief.
  Individuals low relief. Archaic smile. By 6th ce
  fades
• Kritios boy somber expression. Turning point.
  Archaic to Classical. Head, upper body turned
  slightly. In motion. Exekias, vase paintings.
  Amasis. Red-figure style. Red color of clay.
  (earlier black). 525 BC all red. Euphronios Vase.
  Increased subtlety.

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Architecture Doric, Ionic Orders

• Archaic Doric. 600 BC. Tempe of Heraat Olympia,
  Apollo at Corinth. Ionic style Classical Greece
  (5th ce and later). Corinthian Roman.
• Doric simpler, grander. No base. Dignity.
  Weight, massiveness of temple
• Capital, echinus, abacus, architrave, frieze,
  triglyphs, metops, cornice, pediment
• Ionic more graceful, elaborate. Lightness,
  delicacy. Fanciful carving surface as important
  as structural design.
• Flutes, volutes (capitals). Three projecting
  bands

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Music and Dance in Early Greece

• Music of divine origin. Orpheus, Apollo lyre.
• Ethos doctrine. Series of modes (scale types)
• Dorian mode firm, powerful, warlike. Phrygian
  passionate, sensual. Olympus (Asia Minor)
• Terpanter (675 BC). Cithara. 7 string lyre
• Aulos. Double-reed instrument (like oboe).
• Vocal. Music accompanies lyrics. Narrative.
• Paean solemn invocation to Gods dithyramb
  choral hymn to Dionysus in public spaces
• Geranos dance. Labyrinth. Ritual

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Early Greek Literature Philosophy Lyric Poetry

• Heroic verse aristocracy. Leaders
• Lyric verse poets emotions, opinions. No longer
  heroes and battles the ideal. Simple man
• Sappho. First woman with literary record of
  personal experiences. Lesbos 612 BC. Affection
  for her students (young women)
• All we know about her comes from her poetry
• Rational philosophy scoffed at Gods portrayed in
  Homer and Hesiod.
• Philosophy love of wisdom. Inquiry into nature
  and ultimate significance of human experience
• Logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics,
  aesthetics, political philosophy

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First Philosophers Presocratics

• Before time of Socrates (469-399 BC). Hesiod.
  Theogony
• Materialists. Thales of Miletus. (585 BC) Water
  (change). World evolved naturally. Free
  discussion of ideas in marketplace
• Empedocles (495 BC). Fire, earth, air, water.
  Combinations and separations
• Anaxagoras (500 BC) infinite number of small
  particles. Unity. All substances (varied
  quantities)
• Pythagoras of Samos (550). Mathematics. Octave.
• Heraclitus Dualists. (500). Ideal. Not possible
  to step into same river twice Change

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First Philosophers Presocratics (2)

• Parmenides (510 BC). True reality reason. Senses
  deceive. Delusion. Zeno. Paradox
• Leucippus and Democritus. Atomists. (460 BC).
  Ultimate reality consisted of atoms (indivisible)
  and void. Heisenberg (quantum mechanics) derived
  inspiration from atomists
• Fragmentary texts.
• Man is the measure of all things, of the
  existence of those that exist, and of the
  nonexistence of those that do not Protagoras

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Herodotus

• 499 BC Greek revolt against Darius
• 490 BC invaded Greece. Persians defeated by
  Athens at Marathon
• 486 BC son Xerxes invaded. 480 defeated Spartans.
  Athens defeated navy at Salamis.
• 479 final Persian defeat. Herodotus (484-420 BC)
  History of the Persian Wars. First historical
  writing. Father of history. Great storyteller.
  Influenced by personalities, ignores strategy.
  Impartial. Tried to evaluate sources. Offered
  various versions. Hubris. Unity against common
  enemy. Classical period.

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Credits page

• Thanks to Dr. Vassillou for allowing me to borrow
  this presentation.
• Sept 05