Greece Classical Greek Culture study guide summary

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Greece Classical Greek Culture study guide summary

Greece

B. Classical Greek Culture

1. Quest for Beauty and Meaning

Greek civilization reached its cultural peak
- mid – 400s BC
- particularly in the city – state of Athens
- Greece’s Golden Age
- artists of the Golden Age excelled in architecture, sculpture, & painting
- works characterized by beautiful simplicity and graceful balance
- artistic style called classical
classical Greek art
- copied soon after in Roman artistic styles
- lasting standards of beauty
- writers & thinkers made achievements in literature & drama

a) Building for the Gods

Greek worship
- homes or at outdoor altars
- did not need large sanctuaries
- places of worship
- built temples as places
- where their deities would live
Greek city – states tried to turn its acropolis into an architectural treasure

(1) Parthenon

temple to Athena
- built on the summit of the Acropolis in Athens
- best exemplified classical Greek architecture
- begun in 447 BC & finished in 432 BC
ingeniously simple design
- rectangle
- surrounded by 46 fluted columns
extremely beautiful
- gleams a soft gold against the blue sky
- in the right light
- because of iron in its white marble
graceful proportions
- perfectly balance width, length, & height
- represented the ideal of ‘nothing to excess’
- ideal sometimes called the golden mean
- midpoint between two extremes
optical illusions & perspective
- artistic showing of distances between objects as they appear to the eye
- temple’s columns
- thicker in the middle
- thinner at the top
- appeared straight when viewed from a distance
- steps leading up to the Parthenon
- lower in the center than at either end
- appear straight
- wanted to create the impression of perfection

b) Greek Arts

Greek love of beauty
- expressed in the fine arts & architecture
- emphasized the individual
- excelled at portraying the human form

(1) Pottery

Greeks designed their pottery with different shapes & functions
- red on a black background
- black on a red background
- varied subjects of the paintings
- depended on the size and use of the vase
- adapted their designs and decorations to the curves & shape of the vase
krater
- small two – handled vase
- wide mouth
- easy to mix win with water
leythos
- narrow neck
- oil could be poured out slowly and in small quantities
amphora
- usually decorated with scenes from mythology
- large vase
- storing oil and other bulk supplies
kylix
- wide shallow two – handled drinking cup
- showed scenes of everyday life
- children attending school
- shoemakers and carpenters plying their trades
- farmer guiding the plow behind a team of oxen
- merchant ship braving the winds

(2) Sculpture

Greek sculpture
- height in Athens during the time of Pericles
Myron
- one of the greatest sculptors of Greece’’s Golden Age
- portrayed in his statues idealized views
- what people should look like rather than actual persons
- Discus Thrower
- poised to hurl the discus
- carved the lines of the body
- indicate an athlete’s excellent physical condition
- mental control over what he was doing
Phidias (FIH-dee-uhs)
- in charge of the Parthenon’s sculptures
- carved the towering statue of Athena
- placed inside the Parthenon
- made of gold & ivory plates attached to a wooden framework
- showed the goddess in her warlike aspect
- carrying a shield, spear, and helmet
sculptures of Myron and Phidias
- full of power and striving for perfection
- people who had defeated the mighty Persian Empire
- carved only deities and heroes
Praxiteles (prak-SIH-tuhl-eez)
- hundred years after the Golden Age of Athens
- reflected the changes that had occurred in Greek life
time of Praxiteles
- Greeks had suffered through the Peloponnesian War
- lost their self – confidence
- favored life – sized statues
- rather than massive works
- emphasized grace rather than power
- carved ordinary people too

c) Drama and Theater

Greeks explored the human condition through theatrical dramas
- first people to write and perform plays
- presented twice a year at festivals to honor Dionysus
- god of wine and fertility

(1) Aeschylus

tragedy
- lead character struggles against fate
- only to be doomed – after much suffering – to an unhappy, or tragic, ending
- earliest Greek plays
Aeschylus (EHS-kuh-luhs)
- first of the great writers of tragedies
- 400s BC
- wrote 90 plays
- 7 have survived
Oresteia
- trilogy
- set of three plays with a related theme
- famous for the grandeur of its language
- consequences of one’s deeds are carried down from generation to generation
first play
- return of King Agamemnon from the Trojan War
- his murder by his wife Clytemnestra
- revenge for Agamemnon’s sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia before the Greeks sailed for Troy
second play
- Agamemnon’s son Orestes avenges his father’s death by killing his mother
third play
- Orestes standing trial in Athens for his bloody deed
- jury splits six to six
- goddess Athena intervenes
- casts the deciding vote in favor of mercy
moral of the trilogy
- law of the community, not personal revenge, should decide punishment

(2) Sophocles

served as a general in the Athenian army
- lived through most of the Peloponnesian War.
accepted human suffering
- unavoidable part of life
- stressed human courage and compassion
Oedipus Rex
- plight of Oedipus
- king who is doomed by the deities
- kills his father
- marry his mother
- Oedipus’ efforts to avoid his fate
- deities’ decree comes true
- Oedipus discovers what he has done
- blinds himself in despair
- goes into exile

(3) Euripides

rarely dealt with the influence of the gods and goddesses on human lives
- focused on the qualities human beings possess that bring disaster on themselves
hated war
- many of his 19 surviving plays show the misery war bring

(4) Aristophanes

comedies
- plays with humorous themes and happy endings
Aristophanes (ar-uh-STAH-fuh-neez)
- most famous writer of comedies
- created imaginative social satire
- witty comments about leading figures & issues of his day
The Clouds
- character named Strepsiades ask where Athens was on a map
- polis’ location was pointed out to him
- Strepsiades replied: ‘Don’t be ridiculous, that can’t be Athens, for I can’t see even a single law court in session.’

d) The Olympic Games

healthy bodies
- best use of nature’s gifts
- ancient Greeks stressed athletics in their school curriculum
- Greek men usually spent all or part of their afternoons practicing sports in their polis’ gymnasiums
Olympic Games
- in Olympia
- every four years
- religious festival in honor of Zeus
- trading and fighting stopped
- Greek calendar began with the supposed date of the first Olympic Games: 776 BC
- probably ended in AD 391
- Roman emperor Theodosius I abolished the worship of pagan gods
athletes
- from all over the Greek – speaking
- only male athletes were allowed to take part
- women were not permitted even as spectators
Heraia
- games that honored the goddess Hera
- held at a different location than Olympia
- gave Greek women an opportunity to participate in races
- compete in running races
Olympic competition
- individual rather than team events
- consisted at first of only a footrace
- broad jump, the discus throw, boxing, and wrestling were added
- pentathlon
- combined running, jumping, throwing, the discus, wrestling, and hurling the javelin
Olympic winners
- crowned with wreaths of olive leaves
- held parades in their honor
- some city – states even excused outstanding athletes from paying taxes

2. The Greek Mind

Greeks believed the human mind capable of understanding everything
- philosophers of ancient Greece produced some of the most remarkable ideas the world has ever known
- thinkers
- philosophy means ‘the seeking of wisdom’
- foundations for such disciplines as history, political science, biology, & logic
- science of reasoning

a) The Sophists

higher education
- 400s BC
- provided by professional teachers
- took money for their teaching
- Sophists
- ‘knowers’
Sophists
- traveled from polis to polis
- many gathered in Athens
- freedom of speech
- find the answers to all questions
challenge certain traditional Greek beliefs
- seemed intent on teaching young men how to win a political argument & get ahead in the world
- rejected the belief that the gods and goddesses influenced human behavior
- did not believe in absolute moral & legal standards
- asserted that ‘man is the measure of all things’
- truth is different for each individual
many Greeks criticized the Sophists severely
- Socrates & Plato

b) Socrates

born to a poor Athenian family
- 470 BC
- sculptor by trade
- spent most of his time teaching

(1) Beliefs

main interest did not lie in teaching rhetoric or in imparting information
- attracted to the process by which people learned how to think for themselves
Socratic method
- to encourage his students to clear away mistaken ideas
- discover the truth
- ask students pointed questions without giving them answers
- oppose the students’ answers with clear logical arguments.
- forced his students to defend their statements
- clarify their thinking
absolute rather than relative truth
claim of virtue
- accepted Greek notion of virtue and justice
- virtue is a value conferring properties
- makes thing better
- rational action to extent self interested
- impossible for someone to knowingly act against their self interest
- something is virtuous that it makes it better

(2) Trial

some prominent Athenians viewed Socrates’ teaching as a threat to the polis
- accused him
- ‘corrupting the young’
- ‘not worshiping the gods worshiped by the state’
- brought to trial
- 399 BC
argued in his own defense
- person who knew what was right would always do what was right
- intellectual search for truth was the most important thing in the world
jury of citizens found him guilty
- sentenced him to death
- had the right to ask for a lesser penalty, such as exile
- lived his life under the laws of his polis
- would not avoid obeying them now
- carried out the sentence of his fellow citizens himself
- drank poisonous hemlock juice

c) Plato

born an Athenian aristocrat
- thought at first of entering politics
Socrates’ death
- Plato was 40
- became a teacher
- opened his Academy
- school that remained in existence until AD 539
recorded dialogues
- conversations
- from memory Plato
- between Socrates & fellow Athenians
- wrote the earliest book on political science
- The Republic
- presented a plan for what he considered would be the ideal society & government
disliked Athenian democracy
- preferred the government of Sparta
- gave more importance to the state than to the individual
believed that each person should place service to the community above strictly personal goals
- result of people having too much freedom is social disorder
- distrusted the lower classes
- wanted only the most intelligent and best – educated citizens to participate in government
search for ‘truth’
- rejected the senses – seeing, hearing, touch, smell, and taste – as a source of truth
- many things that could be perceived by these sense
- only ‘appearance’
- reality, the ‘real’ world, was constructed from ideas, or ideal ‘forms’
- could be understood through logical thoughts & reasoning

(1) The Republic

traditional thought in pol
- search for justification and on what terms
what exactly is entailed w/ justification
- can base on organizing principle
- sense of moral concept
- whether its good for the indiv or state
Ancient Greek notion of virtue
- coincides w/ what its capable of
- properties of it make it a perfect example of its kind
- everything has its own natural tendency
- discussion of something purpose
conception of justice
- cant simple saying it is just because it is just
- need independent reason besides general notion of just
- justice is something people posses
- recognize something is just or unjust & act accordingly
- justice & self interest will join and coincide
- act moral and just based on sake of justice itself
- justice is things playing their proper roles and not meddling in affairs of
justice as role
- sense of what our proper roles are
justice & happiness linked
- true justice
- can rank diff forms of justice

d) Aristotle

wrote more than 200 books
- ranging from astronomy to political science
Athenian school
- Lyceum
- taught the golden mean
- ethical principle that affirmed living moderately and avoiding extremes in one’s actions
influenced later philosophers with his work on logic
- developed the syllogism
- means for presenting an argument in such a way that one can determine whether or not the conclusion follows logically from the premises, or basic statements

(1) Science

stressed the value of knowledge gained through the senses
Physics
- physical world’s most striking feature is change
- change basically consists of the same matter taking on new form
first person to observe facts
- classify them according to their similarities and their differences
- develop generalizations form his data

(2) Government

did not theorize about idealized principles of government
examined the political structure of various city – states
- analyzing their advantages and disadvantages
- conclusions in a book called Politics
ideal form of government balanced monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy in one system
- preferred to have power rest with the middle class,
- they knew both how to command and obey

(3) The Nicomachian Ethics & The Politics

Virtue and happiness, justice w/ relationship to friendship, typology of political regimes
Virtue and happiness
- Systematically bound w/ each other
- Impossible to understand unless see people look to society and politics for how to live
- Today’s moral ethics is based on rules (Thou shalt not…) and to follow them in absolute manner
- Being virtuous isn’t simply following the rules
- acquired characteristic by repetition
- not something innate in everyone
- not simply evolutionary / program into us
- do right thing because you want to do it
Typology of regimes
- 1) # of people involved in ruling
- Democracy as people ruling because it their turn to rule
- Oligarchy is rule by the rich
- 2) inequality / equality
- Understood via quality of being able to rule, eco, etc
- 3) moral
- correct and deviated / defective constitution
- Deviates when rulers rule for themselves as opposed to ruling for the common good / state
- 4) question of feasibility
- how realistic can it begin & exist over time
Aristotle and Plato seeking same research
- 1) perfection
- Conditions in which human lives and wellbeing
- 2) continuity of ethical standards and rationality
- Ration as what we have reason to do
- Not w/ morality
- Ethical standards derived from how its rations for use to behave
- And indirectly promote our wellbeing
- 3) continuity of individual and soc welfare
- Individuals cant receive wellbeing by themselves
- act in a rational way, must act in a community
- Public & private good locked together
Big shift was development of Christianity ideology
- Humans too riddled w/ sin so they cant get that far
- Humans cant reach perfection
- Use of force and sword to promote owns cause
- Restart pol on a sec basis cerca 1700s

e) Writers of History

(1) Herodotus

first Greek historian
- decided to separate fact from legend
- ‘the father of history’
subject was the Persian Wards
- the Historia
- ‘investigation’
- Herodotus traveled throughout the Persian Empire
- visited many Greek colonies
- asked questions, recorded answers, & checked the reliability of his sources
- accepted some statements that were not true
- especially exaggerated numbers
- many Persians died at Marathon
- sometimes offered supernatural explanations of events
did not limit himself to describing military & political events
- wrote about outstanding individuals, social customs, & religious beliefs and practices

(2) Thucydides

second noted historian of ancient Greece
wrote about the Peloponnesian War
- regarded as the first scientific historian
- completely rejected the idea that the deities played a part in human history
- only human beings make history
- as accurate and impartial as possible
- visited battle sites
- examined documents
- accepted only the evidence of actual eyewitnesses to events
- did not simply recite facts
- offered explanations for why events took place
- what motivated political leaders
- believed that future generations could learn from the past

f) The First Scientists

Ancient Greeks believed that the world is ruled by natural laws
- human beings can discover these laws by using reason
- discoveries by observation and thought
- went on to develop general theories

(1) Mathematicians

first people to distinguish mathematics as pure science
- apart from everyday practical uses
- constructed systematic methods of reasoning
- prove the truth of mathematical statements
- believed that they could find absolutely certain and eternal knowledge

(a) Thales

first prominent Greek scientist
- from Miletus, a Greek city – state in Ionia
- born in the mid – 600s BC
studied astronomy at Babylon & mathematics in Egypt
- could foretell a solar eclipse
formulated a theory that water was the basic substance of which everything in the world was made

(b) Pythagoras

tried to explain everything in mathematical terms
- 500s BC
- explored the nature of numbers
- whole numbers and their ratios
geometry
- Pythagorean theorem
- relationship of sides of a right – angled triangle
world was round
- revolved around a fixed point

(2) Doctors

(a) Hippocrates

‘the father of medicine’
- late 400s BC
- diseases had natural, not supernatural, causes
- body could heal itself
- first doctor to view medicine as a science
based work on observation
- diagnosed & treated illness all over Greece
- urged fellow doctors to record their cases
- exchange information with one another
- advocated proper hygiene, a sound diet, & plenty of
drafted a code for ethical medical conduct
- guided the practice of medicine for more than 2,000 years
- doctors today recite the Hippocratic oath when they receive their medical degree

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