 Chapter Two:
Early Greece
Cultures and Values, 7th Ed.
Cunningham and Reich
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
History of Early Greece
The Heroic Age
The Age of Colonization
The Archaic Period
[Image 2.1]
Zeus (Poseidon?)
 Homer and the
Heroic Age
 Significance of the Polis
 Religion, Mythology and
Folklore
 Art & Literature vs.
Prayer
 The Iliad & The Odyssey
 “the Homeric question”
 Oral Tradition
 Epithets, Elaborate
Similes
 Iliad
 Theme of Human
Responsibility
 Odyssey
 Return of the Epic Hero
 Art and Society
 Painted Vases
 Protogeometric (1000900 B.C.E.)
 Concentric circles, semicircles
 Geometric (900-700 B.C.E.)
 Linear designs, the meander
 Human Forms (~800 B.C.E.)
 Amphoras
 Age of Colonization
 Prosperity of CityStates
 Competition, Image
 Wealth + OverPopulation =
Colonization
 Italy, Sicily, Egypt, Asia
Minor
 Trade and Cultural
Exposure
 Orientalizing
 Visual Arts
at Corinth and
Athens
 Corinthian Art
 Eastern Motifs
 Commercially Successful
 Athenian Art
 Narrative style (Myth,
Daily Life)
 Trade Rivalry: Corinth vs.
Athens
 The Beginnings of
Greek Sculpture
 Near Eastern and
Egyptian influences
 Kore, Kouros
 Increasing Realism,
Naturalism
 Careful study of human
anatomy
 Representation of Life
and vigor
 Sculpture and
Painting in the
Archaic Period
 Solon’s Legal
Reformations
 Tyrants / Artistic
Patronage
 Artistic Developments
 Freestanding Figures
 High & Low Relief
Carvings
 The “Archaic Smile”
 Vase Painting
 Black- and Red-Figure Styles
[Image 2.9]
Calf-Bearer
[Image 2.10]
Peplos Kore
[Image 2.13]
Kritios Boy
[Image 2.15]
Euphronios, painter,
Euxitheos, potter, redfigure calyx krater
 Architecture:
The Doric Order
 Simple dignity
 No Base/20 flutes
 Capital
 Echinus, Abacus
 Entablature
 Architrave, frieze,
triglyphs/metopes
 Cornice, Pediment
[Image 2.16]
Basilica at Paestum
 Architecture:
The Ionic Order
 Ornate, fanciful
 Tiered Base/24 flutes
 Capital
 Volutes
 3-D Architraves
 Running Frieze
 Music and Dance
in Early Greece
 Doctrine of Ethos
(Musical Theory)
 Dorian, Phrygian modes
 Music=Primarily vocal
 Paean, dithyramb
 Instrumentation
 Cithera, aulos
 Significance of
Narratives
 Music and Dance
 Literature and
Philosophy
 Hesiod
 Theogony, Works and Days
 Lyric verse vs. Heroic verse
 Sappho
 Presocratics
 Materialists, Pythagoreanism,
Dualists, Atomists
 Herodotus (Father of History)
 Right over Might
 Chapter 2: Discussion
Questions
 What significant differences exist
between the cultures of the iron
age and those of the bronze age?
Explain.
 Consider the role of religion in
Early Greece. What does Early
Greek theology suggest about the
concerns of the society? Explain.
 What were the causes for and the
results of Greek colonization? Cite
specific examples.
 Explain the new directions of art in
the Archaic Period. What do these
changes suggest about the culture
that was producing and patronizing
this art?