GREEK ART OF THE GOLDEN
AGE
Section 1
ARCHITECTURE AND ART
The Athenians surrounded themselves with
beauty.
 400s B.C. – golden age of Greece
 Many public buildings
 Showed admiration of the human body

Victorious athlete from Bénévent
Louvre
The Discus Thrower by Myron
Greek vase painting
Vase painting depicting Greeks marching against Greeks, in the
Peloponnesian War
THE NATURE OF GREEK ART
Glorified human
beings
 Symbolized the
Greek’s pride in their
city-states
 Expressed Greek
beliefs in harmony,
balance, order, and
moderation
 Expressed the Greek
belief in combined
beauty and usefulness

Bronze statue of Poseidon from
450 BC in the National Museum
of Athens
GREEK PHILOSOPHERS
Used observation and reason to find causes for
what happened
 Explored many subjects (mathematics, music,
logic, and rhetoric)
 They questioned accepted traditions and ideas

SOCRATES
 Most
of what we know
comes from his student
Plato
 Lounged around the
marketplace, asking his
fellow citizens what they
believed
 Used a series of questions
(called the Socratic
Method) to help people
seek truth
 Was condemned to die by
an Athenian jury, death
by drinking hemlock
"The Death of Socrates" by Jacques-Louis David (1787)
SOCRATIC METHOD
Who is most
able to do
good to his
friends and
harm to his
enemies in a
time of
sickness?
Or when they
are on a voyage,
amid the perils
of the sea?
a
doctor
The sea
captain.
 When
 Yes.
 And
a man is well, do you still need doctors?
if you aren’t on a voyage do you still need
ship captains?
 Yes.
 Then in time of peace do you still need laws ?
 Of course.
See how Socrates proved his point by
asking questions?
Socrates asked the question as a way of
summing up his argument. The only
answer the other person could give, when
examining the argument Socrates
presented, was Yes.
PLATO
The execution of Socrates left Plato
with a lifelong distrust of democracy
 He fled Athens
 Wrote The Republic, describing the
ideal state
 He felt the state should govern every
aspect of people’s lives
 Divided society into 3 classes
(workers, soldiers, and philosophers)
led by a philosopher king.

“Dictatorship naturally arises out of
democracy, and the most aggravated
form of tyranny and slavery out of the
most extreme liberty.”
--Plato
“As the builders say, the larger stones do
not lie well without the lesser.”
--Plato
ARISTOTLE
Plato’s most famous student
 Analyzed all forms of
government
 Set up a school, the Lyceum,
for the study of all branches of
knowledge
 1,500 years later, the first
European universities would
rely heavily on Aristotle’s
writings.
 Taught Alexander the Great

Lyceum, the school of Aristotle
POETRY AND DRAMA
Plays began as religious festivals
 Performed in outdoor theaters
 Greek literature began with the epics of Homer
 Tragedy - plays that tell of human suffering,
usually end in disaster
 Comedy – Humorous plays that mocked people or
customs

Delphi Theater
The theater at Delphi is build further up the hill from the Temple of Apollo
and it presented the seated audience with a spectacular view of the entire
sanctuary below and the valley beyond. It was built in the 4th c. B.C. our of
local Parnassus limestone and was remodeled several times subsequently.
Its 35 rows can accommodate around five thousand spectators who in ancient
times enjoyed plays, poetry readings, and musical events during the various
festivals that took place periodically at Delphi.
HERODOTUS
Father of History
 He went beyond listing
names of rulers or retelling
ancient legends
 Wrote about the Persian
Wars

THUCYDIDES
An Athenian, wrote about the Peloponnesian war,
tried to give an accurate account.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
TIMELINE
Alexander was born on 356 B.C. He was born in
Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia, was the
son of Philip II, king of Macedonia, and of
Olympias, a princess of Epirus.
 His tutor was Aristotle, who trained him in
rhetoric and literature and stimulated his
interest in science, medicine and philosophy.

United the Greek city-states after the
death of his father, Philip of Macedon
 He was 20 when he became king
 Led conquests that formed an empire
 Considered one of the greatest military
strategists of all time.
 Conquered Persia, Egypt, Mesopotamia
 Traveled all the way to India

HELLENISTIC CULTURE
Alexander encouraged a mix of cultures wherever
he went, and married several foreign women
himself
 His conquests led to a mix of Persian, Egyptian,
and Greek culture

DEATH
On the afternoon of June 10–11, 323 BC,
Alexander died of a mysterious illness in the
palace of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon. He was
just one month shy of turning 33.
 Because he never named an heir, the Greek
empire quickly disintegrated.
