ANCIENT GREECE
STUDY GUIDE
PHILOSOPHERS
 Early Greeks looked to gods for explanations of life & of how world worked
 By 6th century B.C., people desired more practical explanations
 Some started asking questions and making precise observations and
calculations about world around them
 Ancient Greeks were curious about themselves & world around them
 Made many important advances in science, learning & the arts
 Great thinkers were known as philosophers, no matter what subject they
studied
 Philosopher comes from Greek words “love of wisdom”
 Philosophers tried to find out how universe worked & how peoples should
best live their lives
 Many of Greek discoveries provide foundations of our knowledge & beliefs
 Greeks studied stars
 Learned that the earth floats freely in space & rotates on an imaginary line
called axis
 Correctly predicted the eclipses of the sun
Socrates (470-399 B.C.)
 Was one of the first great philosophers of Classical Greece
 Socratic Method
 Questioned many of the beliefs of the time
 Wrote about the right way to live
 Discussed best kind of government
 What makes a good citizen
 Critic of Sophists
 Believed in absolute right and wrong
 Believed that citizens should be allowed to question rulers
 Believed that citizens should have the right to speak freely
 Was eventually brought to trial & sentenced to death by poison because
he criticized the gov’t (bad influence on the youth)
Plato (427-347 B.C.)
 Student of Socrates
 Wrote down works of Socrates
 Wrote down detailed set of rules of best way to govern a state in Republic
 His ideas are still highly regarded today
 Founded school in Athens called The Academy
 Rejected idea of democracy
 Philosopher-kings should rule by logic and wisdom
 Taught Aristotle
Aristotle( (384-322 B.C.)
 Student of Plato
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Tutored Alexander the Great
Probably the 1st person to promote the scientific method of observation –
look carefully & then come up with a theory
Examined things in nature
Developed a way of thinking called logic
Golden Mean – people should do nothing in excess
Best form of government was mixture of oligarchy and democracy
Shaped modern day governments
MEDICINE
Hippocrates (460-380 B.C.)
 Father of Medicine
 Hippocratic Oath - All doctors take today; requires doctors to act ethically
 Practiced scientific medicine and studied the human body
 Was alive at the same time as Socrates
SCIENCE
Archimedes (287-212 B.C.)
 Discovered the law of physics: a body displaces its own weight in water
 Made discovery in the bath
 Pi
 Catapults
 Archimedes Claw
HISTORY
 Herodotus is known as the father of history
 First person to gather facts & write them down
 History of Persian Wars was the beginning of Western history writing
 Thucydides was greatest historian of ancient world
 Wrote History of the Peloponnesian War
 Herodotus and Thucydides both saw war and politics as work of humans,
not gods
LITERATURE
 Greeks were among the first to record their history as it happened
 Before this people relied on word of mouth
 Poetry was the earliest form of Greek literature
 Many of the stories were told about heroes & gods
 Homer – Iliad & Odyssey
 Wrote about the Trojan War
DRAMA
 Modern theater can be traced to ancient Greece
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In earliest form, theater was song & dance performed by group of men
called chorus
Later huge open theaters were built all over the Greek world
Plays were important parts of religious festivals & many of the theaters
were built next to temples
Two types of plays: comedies & tragedies
Tragedies were sad tales about gods, heroes, and legendary people; they
would many times have tragic endings
Examples of Tragedies: Antigone & Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (496-400
B.C.)
Comedies made fun of politics, religion, & important people
Comedies were also lighthearted plays that included a lot of clowning
around, insults, rude jokes, & slapstick humor
Characters were everyday people who commented on politics & on
famous people of the day
Greek actors wore masks to show their moods & expressions; the masks
had wide mouths so that their voice could be heard
GOD & GODDESSES
 Greek believed that gods controlled events, so they looked to the gods for
answers to their problems
 Some problems were solved by a soothsayer, who studied the weather or
remains of animals for answers from the gods
 Other problems required visit to an oracle who passed on messages from
the gods
 In Delphi, a priestess called Pythia went into a trance to receive
messages from the gods
ARCHITECTURE
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The Parthenon built between 447- 432 B.C. is considered by some to be
the most beautiful building in the world
Parts of it still stand, almost 2500 years later
Inside stood huge gold & ivory statue of Athena, patron of Athens
(Goddess of War)
On her right hand was small winged figure of Nike, goddess of victory
Styles of Architecture: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian
Doric – simple, sturdy, plain
Ionic – thinner columns than Doric & two swirls at top
Corinthian – elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves; these
weren’t most popular, but became popular in Roman times
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