Ancient
Greece
THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE / GOLDEN AGE OF PERICLES
Greece’s Golden Age –
Pericles’ Goals

Strengthen Athenian democracy
a. Direct Democracy  people speak for
themselves (no representatives)
b. Paid government officials – poor men
could now serve in the government

Strengthen the Empire – money from the Delian League
(alliance of Greek city-states led by Athens) to build up
Athens' navy
Greece’s Golden Age –
Pericles’ Goals

Glorify Athens – use money from the Delian League to
purchase gold, ivory, and marble and beautify Athens 
rebuilt acropolis, built new temples for the gods, built the
Parthenon, etc…
Athens  culture center of Greece
Greece’s Golden Age –
Greek Art

Architecture – Parthenon (dedicated to Athena), Design
(reflect the order and harmony of the universe), and Greek
columns (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian)

Sculpture – emphasized natural poses (athletes in motion),
realistic (lifelike), and idealistic (gods, goddesses, athletes,
etc…)
Greece’s Golden Age - Art

Phidias
1. Sculptor
2. Statue of Zeus
Greece’s Golden Age –
Greek Art

Vases and pottery

Images of Greek life on vases and pottery
Greek Columns
Doric
Corinthian
Ionic
Acropolis
Parthenon
Greece’s Golden Age –
Greek Drama

Aeschylus
1. Playwright
2. Tragedies
3. Pride could bring misfortune/the gods
could bring down even the greatest hero
4. The Oresteia (The Trojan Wars)
Greece’s Golden Age –
Greek Drama

Euripides
1. Playwright
2. People, not gods, were the cause of
human misfortune
3. The Trojan Women (showed suffering of
women during the Peloponnesian War)
Greece’s Golden Age –
Greek Drama

Homer
1. Poet (epics)
2. The Iliad and the Odyssey – journey of
Odysseus coming home after the Trojan
War

Sophocles
1. Playwright
2. Oedipus and Antigone
Literatuere

Homer (Epics)
1. Writer
2. Iliad & the Odyssey
Greece’s Golden Age Philosophy
Socrates
1. Examine one’s beliefs and ideas
2. Socratic Method  question and
answer technique to lead pupils to see
things for themselves by using their own
reason
3. Believed all real knowledge is within each
person – “the unexamined life is not worth
living”

Greece’s Golden Age Philosophy
Plato
1. Student of Socrates
2. Use reason to create the ideal society
3. State should regulate all aspects of a
person’s life – did not trust democracy
4. Wrote The Republic (ideal state)
a. Philosopher-king (rulers)
b. Soldiers (protectors)
c. Workers (producers)

Greece’s Golden Age Philosophy

Aristotle
1. Student of Plato
2. Did not trust democracy
3. Rule by a virtuous leader (moral example)
4. Reason  guided force for learning
Greece’s Golden Age Writers
Herodotus
1. Father of history
2. Stressed the importance of research
and bias
3. Wrote The Persian Wars
 Thucydides
1. History of the Peloponnesian War
2. Placed a lot of emphasis on accuracy and
precision of facts

Greece’s Golden Age Medicine

Hippocrates
1. Doctor
2. Hippocratic Oath  do no harm (rule of ethics for doctors)
Greece’s Golden Age Math & Science

Archimedes
1. Physicist
2. Lever and pulley for moving heavy and large objects

Euclid
1. Mathematician
2. The Elements – basis for modern geometry
Greece’s Golden Age - Math &
Science

Pythagoras
1. Mathematician
2. Pythagorean
Theorem