STUDENT STUDY GUIDE
CHAPTER 3: CLASSICAL GREECE AND THE
HELLENISTIC PERIOD
I. THE BIG PICTURE
Language and Literature
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Aeschylus, author of the Oresteia trilogy, was awarded the first prize in the drama festival of Dionysus in 458 B.C.E.
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Sophocles wrote Antigone in ca.440 B.C.E.
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Sophocles wrote Oedipus the King in ca. 429 B.C.E.
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Euripides wrote The Suppliant Women in ca. 421 B.C.E.
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Thucydides wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War in ca. 420-399 B.C.E.
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Aristophanes wrote The Birds in 414 B.C.E.
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Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata in 411 B.C.E.
Art, Architecture, and Music
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The introduction of contrapposto in the Kritios Boy , along with the sideward glance of the head, separate the Archaic period from the Classical period of Greek art.
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Myron sculpted the Discobolos (Discus Thrower) ca. 450 B.C.E.
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Ictinus and Callicrates designed and erected the Parthenon 448-432 B.C.E; Phidias completed the Parthenon sculptures.
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Polyclitus created his canon of proportions for statuary, and Ictinus applied mathematical formulas to achieve harmonious temple design. Polyclitus sculpted the Doryphorus ca.
440 B.C.E.
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Following a sacking by the Persians, Pericles rebuilt the Acropolis.
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Corinthian capitals were introduced in architecture.
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Music dominated dramatic performances ca. 400 B.C.E. Instrumental music became popular in the fourth century B.C.E.
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Late Classical sculpture created more realistic portraits of deities and heroes as, for example, in Lysippus’s depiction of Hercules as muscled but weary.
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The tholos and other new building forms appear 323-146 B.C.E.
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Hellenistic sculpture became yet more realistic, often choosing common people as subjects and portraying violence and emotion. Laocoon and His Sons was sculpted ca.
150 B.C.E.
Religion and Philosophy
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Socrates (ca. 469-399 B.C.E.) introduced his dialectic method of inquiry to examine central moral concepts such as the good and justice. He posed series of questions to help people understand their underlying beliefs and challenge them.

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Socrates questioned the apparent Athenian belief that might made right and spoke positively of Athen’s enemy Sparta; he was tried and executed in 399 B.C.E.
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Plato published the Republic before 387 B.C.E.; it is a Socratic dialogue which examines the concept of justice and lauds the rule of the philosopher-king.
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Plato founded his Academy in 387 B.C.E.
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Xenophon chronicled the teachings of Socrates ca. 385 B.C.E.
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Aristotle (ca. 384-322 B.C.E.) studied and taught at Plato’s Academy.
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Aristotle wrote the Poetics and Metaphysics .
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Aristotle tutored King Philip II’s son, Alexander.
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Aristotle founded the Lyceum in 335 B.C.E.
II. KEY TERMS
Acropolis
Amphitheater
Boule
Canon of proportions
Caryatid
Catharsis
Cella
Chorus
Chryselphantine
Contrapposto
Delian League
Dithramb
Doric
Dramatic irony
Ecclesia
Entablature
Entasis
Fourth
Frieze
Krater
Lekythos
Metope
Middle Relief
Mode
Pediment
Peloponnesian War
Peripteral
Satyr play
S curve
Soothsayer
Sophist
Stylobate

Tholos
Tetrachord
Triglyph
Trilogy
III. ART WORKS
Ictinus and Callicrates, the Parthenon, Acropolis (Fig. 3.4)
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Metope depicting a Lapith battling a centaur (Fig. 3.5)
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The Three Goddesses (Fig. 3.6)
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Equestrian Group (Fig. 3.7)
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Erechtheum with the Temple of Caryatids, Acropolis (Fig. 3.8)
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Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis (Fig. 3.9)
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Warrior (Fig. 3.11)
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Myron, Discobolos (Discus Thrower) (Fig. 3.12)
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Polyclitus, Doryphorus (Spear Bearer) (Fig. 3.13)
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Polyclitus the Younger, Theater of Epidaurus, Greece (Fig. 3.17)
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Niobid Painter, Artemis and Apollo Slaying the Children of Niobe (Fig. 3.14)
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Praxiteles, Aphrodite of Cnidus (Fig. 3.18)
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Praxiteles, Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus (Fig. 3.19)
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Athena Battling Alcyoneus (Fig. 3.25)
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