Ancient Greece: The
Classical Spirit
Early Greece
Minoan Civilization
Crete (2500 – 1250 B.C.)
Palace of Knossos
Artisans: jewelry, figurines
Women: free and equal
Bull-leaping as athletic event
Mycenaean Civilization
Palace cities on Greek mainland
Warrior society
“Mask of Agamemnon”: one of the
treasures found in a grave in Mycenae
Trojans caused the fall of Mycenae
bringing on Greece’s “Dark Age.”
Early Greek Poetry
Homeric epics: long narrative poems;
heroic deeds; hero who brings pride to
country. Iliad and Odyssey: First
masterpieces of Western literature.
Heroes: Achilles and Odysseus
Despite man’s frailties, his life is noble
Sappho’s Lyric Poetry
Lyric poems: brief, expressing feelings,
often accompanied by a lyre.
Sappho’s poems expressed her love for
her women friends.
Lived her life on the island of Lesbos
Art in Early Greece
The Archaic period: 650-490 B.C.
Progression from the Egyptian models
Naturalism: attempt to represent objects
as they appear in nature
Vase painting: red-figure technique:
figures left unpainted
Greeks’ range of feelings and actions
Sculpture
Kouros: free standing nude male youth.
Shows ideal of youthful male beauty
Koré: softer or female version. Clothing
softened statue
Calf Bearer: naturalistic and shows the
idea of a sacrificial burden
Kritios Boy: more realistic and less rigid as
compared to Kouros with disappearance
of the Archaic smile
The Classical Period
Opens with Greeks’ victory over Persians
at Salamis in 490 B.C.
Golden Age: 480 B.C. and 404 B.C.,
Athens was defeated in the Peloponnesian
Wars. Culture lasted until death of
Alexander the Great.
Polis life: Human nature dictates life in
city
Pericles: Delian League
Women in Classical Athens
Excluded from public affairs
Household duties: organization,
supervision and labor.
Hetaera: foreign women who worked as
courtesans, entertainers and prostitutes.
Some hetaera highly educated
The Greek Temple
The Parthenon (447 B.C.) Dedicated to
Athena
Post-and-lintel form
Entablature: decoration of the vertical
column and horizontal beam
Orders: Styles of columns
Cella: enclosed inner room of temple
Refinements
Parthenon Sculptures
Phideas: Athena statue in cella and again
on the east and west pediments
Three Goddesses on East Pediment
Frieze
Cella frieze: low relief, Athenian
Horsemen, depict the heroism and nobility
of Athenian citizens.
Other Acropolis Buildings
Propylaea: massive gateway
Erechtheum: Ionic temple with two
porches
Caryatids: Porch of the Maidens
Classical Humanism
Belief that “Man is the Measure of All
Things” Protagoras.
Nobility of human intelligence and action
Human ability to understand and control
the world.
“Secular” humanism controversial today.
The Classical Style
Representing the human figure in motion:
turning point for Greek sculptors.
Idealized, yet moving toward naturalism
Greek Sculpture
Kritios Boy: Human figure in motion
Classical Style: naturalism and idealism
Myron’s Discobolus
Riace Warrior Phideas?
Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Cnidos
Contrapposto: S curve
Hellenistic Style
Emotionally charged realism of later Greek
sculpture
Alexander the Great Persia and Egypt
Individuality
Laocoön and his Two Sons
Greek Theater
Athens: Greek Theater
Forms: Tragedy and Comedy
Power of the gods
Course of human destiny
Nature of love and justice
Dyonisus patron god: wine, revelry and
intoxication. Dyonisian festivals
Greek Tragedy
Open-air theaters or amphitheaters
Wealthy citizens paid playwrights and
producers
Yearly competition
Actors in front of the skene
Chorus: actors who danced and chanted
on the orchestra, the area surrounded by
the theatron
Greek Playwrights
Thespis: One actor
Aeschylus: added a second actor and
dialogue. Suffering and guilt led to gods
Sophocles: Golden Age of Athens
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Hubris
Catharsis
Playwrights
Euripides: realism, social commentary
Showed people as they were, gripped by
violent passions
Medea
Greek Comedy
Humorous portrayal of everyday themes
and characters.
Aristophanes: Clouds and Lysistrata
Greek Philosophy
Philosophy: came from Greek’s
fascination with rational inquiry.
Materialists: substance of which all matter
was composed
Idealists: evidence of a divine and rational
plan for cosmos--Pythagoras
Sophists: professional teachers,
skeptics—Protagoras. Became cynical.
Socrates
Founded classical Greek philosophy and
never wrote a word.
Socratic Method
Gadfly of Athens—Morals worth more than
life itself.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Trial and death: Tried for religious and
moral offenses.
Plato
Student of Socrates
Wrote Socrates’ dialogues
Apology: Socrates’ trial
Phaedo: Socrates’ last conversation
The Republic: Ideal city-state/ Three parts
of soul: reason, moral courage, appetites
“Allegory of the Cave”
The Academy
Aristotle
Challenged Plato’s teachings
Tutor for Alexander of Macedonia
Ethics: Happiness is found in balance
between two extremes: Golden Mean
Poetics: Formal pattern of Greek drama.
Lyceum
Greek Music
Music: of the “Muses” Goddesses who
inspired creative arts.
Lyre
Aulos
Music could bring about feelings
Music lost forever
Pythagoras’ intervals: octaves
Hellenistic Age
Philip of Macedon subdued Greek citystates. Succeeded by son Alexander
Alexander loved Greek civilization and
spread it throughout his empire in Persia
and Egypt
Hellenistic: Greek-like
Hellenistic Legacy
Collected great classical manuscripts in
libraries.
Artists imitated forms and ideas of the
Greeks.
Playwrights copied Greek theater
Euclid: Planets revolve around the sun
Established Greek culture as the standard.