Chapter 6-Greece, Golden and Hellenistic Ages

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Chapter 6-Greece, Golden and Hellenistic Ages
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Golden Age of Greece

• Lasted from about 480BC-430BC, only 50 years
• Period between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars
• Athens was the center of Greek culture at this
  time

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Greek Architecture

• Temples had the finest architecture
• Surrounded by a colonnade
• 3 types of columns Doric, Ionic, Corinthian

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Temples

• Triangle shaped pediment with sculpture on top,
  which were painted with bright colors
• Had a shrine inside with a statue to honor one of
  the Gods

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Acropolis of Athens-Parthenon

• After the Persian Wars, Athens rebuilt the Temple
  of Athena Parthenos (virgin) the Parthenon-on
  its acropolis
• One of the most beautiful buildings in the world
• Built of white marble
• Perfectly balanced proportions 49
• Used counter-optical illusions, called optical
  refinements, to make it look perfect to the
  human eye
• Had a 38 ft. ivory gold statue of Athena inside
• Heavily damaged in 1687 when it was used as for
  ammunition storage during a war, and blew up!

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Vase Painting

• Best preserved examples of Greek painting are on
  vases.
• Scenes from mythology or everyday life, which
  tell us a lot about life in Greece
• Either black on red, or red on black red being
  the natural color of the clay

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SCULPTURE

• Original Greek statues are rare today we mostly
  know them from Roman copies
• Early Greek sculpture was stiff and straight,
  like Egyptian painting
• By 400s BC, figures were graceful, rounded,
  lifelike, but more beautiful and buff than a
  real person could possibly be. Often portrayed
  the nude male body.
• Examples
• The Discus Thrower Poseidon Funeral Stele of
  Hegeso

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Greek Art-General Characteristics

• Glorified the human individual and showed the
  individual at his best, physically and mentally.
• Was displayed in public for public enjoyment and
  the honor of the polis
• Showed harmony balance, order, moderation
• Much of Greek art was also useful for example,
  the vases.

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Greek Philosophy

• Literally-love of wisdom
• Study of the basic questions of reality and human
  existence
• Earliest Greek philosophers were interested in
  what the universe was made of, like theoretical
  physicists often called cosmologists
• For example Democritus theorized that everything
  is made of tiny indivisible particles he called
  atoms.

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Greek Philosophers-Socrates

• Roamed around the Athenian agora, talking to
  people
• Asked questions to force people to test their own
  ideas.
• Socratic method-teaching through asking questions
• Falsely accused of denying the existence of the
  Gods and corrupting the youth
• Put on trial and found guilty.
• Refused to escape was executed by being forced
  to drink poison.

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Greek Philosophers-Plato

• Student of Socrates, who wrote his own philosophy
  in the form of dialogues between Socrates other
  people in Athens
• Founded the Academy-a school of philosophy in
  Athens
• Theory of Forms-all material things are
  imperfect expressions of perfect, universal
  ideas, which he called Forms
• Allegory of the Cave-We are like prisoners in a
  cave the material things we see are like shadows
  on the wall of the cave the cave the real
  things, the Forms, are outside the cave
• Identified God with the Form of Goodness, the
  highest Form
• Believed our Souls are immortal, and are
  reincarnated.

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Greek Philosophers-Aristotle

• Student of Plato
• Unlike Plato, believed that material
• things are real
• Believed every field of knowledge should be
  studied logically studied wrote about almost
  everything
• Wrote scientific works, classified many things,
  including plants and animals, into systems
• Also studied wrote Ethics-what is good
  Poetics-analyzed drama Politics-analyzed
  different forms of government, and what makes a
  good government
• Teacher of Alexander the Great

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Greek Approach to Science

• Scientists of earlier civilizations explained
  natural events as the work of the Gods
• Greek scientists explained the natural world in
  terms of natural laws, that could be discovered
  through reason

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Greek Mathematics

• Pythagoras-philosopher who believed everything
  could be explained in terms of mathematics, and
  that mathematics was the ultimate reality
• Developed the Pythagorean Theorem (though others
  may have discovered it separately)
• Established a special community of
  mathematicians, who lived by strict rules and ate
  no meat (or beans!), which combined math with
  mystical religious teachings

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Greek Science- Hippocrates

• Regarded as the founder of medical science
• Wrote 60-70 medical studies, based on
  observation, experiment and experience
• Believed that disease comes from natural causes,
  not punishment from the Gods
• Believed in rest, fresh air, proper diet.
• Doctors still take the Hippocratic Oath, in
  which they pledge to follow a code of ethics
  based on the teachings of Hippocrates.
• From the Hippocratic Oath Use treatment to help
  the sick. . . never with a view to injury . . .

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HISTORIANS-Herodotus

• Called the father of history-First historian of
  the western world
• Traveled to Babylonia, Phoenicia Egypt and
  included descriptions of these countries in his
  writings
• Wrote the History of the Persian Wars
• Probably exaggerated at times, and
  fictionalized conversations
• However, he usually noted whether he had seen
  something himself or heard about it from others.

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HISTORIANS-Thucydides

• 2nd great Greek historian
• Wrote History of the Peloponnesian War
• Tried to be accurate and fair to both sides far
  less biased than the writings of Herodotus
• Tried to analyze the deeper causes of the war,
  and the causes of events during the war
• Believed that studying the past helps us
  understand human nature.

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• Greeks were the first to write drama-plays with
  dialogue and conflict
• 1, 2 or 3 actors also a chorus, a groups of
  12-15 performers, who spoke together and spoke or
  sang the lines

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• They performed wearing oversized masks of wood,
  cloth or leather.
• Plays were often performed in honor of the god
  Dionysus.

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• The theaters were usually semi-circular and built
  into a hillside.
• In Athens, there was an annual dramatic
  competition

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• The main types of plays were
• Tragedies
• Often the main character was punished for
  hubris-the sin of pride.
• Comedies
• Hilarious. Made fun of real people and
  institutions.

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Tragedy

• Most famous writers of tragedy
• Aeschylus-wrote about religion and the nature of
  justice
• Sophocles-wrote about the deeper Greek values
• What do you do when Gods law says do x, but
  mans law says to do y?
• Euripides-questioned accepted beliefs.
• The Trojan Women-Tragedy written to protest the
  cruelty of the Peloponnesian War

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• Most famous writer of comedy
• Aristophanes
• Absolutely hilarious.
• Clouds-made fun of Socrates for his theories
  about education.
• Lysistrata-comedy written to protest the
  Peloponnesian War

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