How did Greek thought dominate
Western inquiry for centuries to
come?
• It investigated the relationship between
individual freedom and civic responsibility
• The nature of the beautiful
• The ideal harmony between the natural world
and the intellectual realm
• This body of thought was produced by the polis
• The pursuit of what Aristotle called eudaimonia,
the good life, resulted in a culture of astonishing
sophistication
What is the polis?
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•
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Isolation from one another
Fierce sense of independence
Cultural center
Polis of Athens consisted of an urban center,
surrounding a citadel or acropolis
• Agora- large open space that served as a public
meeting place
• Stoa – principle architectural feature –
• open arcade supported by colonnades
The Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 4th c. BCE
After the Persians destroyed Athens in 479 BCE, the entire city had to be
rebuilt. This afforded the Athenians an opportunity to create one of the
greatest monumental pieces in Western architecture.
The Stoa of Attalos, Athens. 150 BCE
Who were the Greeks?
• Later Greeks thought of the Bronze Age
Aegean peoples as their ancestors, using the
word archaiologia to describe their
knowledge of the past
• Aegean culture developed on the more than
100 islands in the Mediterranean Sea around
mainland Greece around 3000 BCE
• Trade was dominated by the Phoenicians
The city states of Ancient Greece
What are the Cyclades?
• A series of 100 islands between mainland
Greece and Crete
• They developed a culture that is evidenced by
findings on the island of Thera which included
plumbing, murals, and insulated houses.
• Thera was destroyed by a volcanic eruption
around 1623 BCE
Miniature Ship Fresco, Thera
The painting was discovered in 1967 on the island of Thera at Akrotiri, a
community that had been buried beneath one of the largest volcanic
eruptions.
Figurine of a woman from the Cyclades. 2500 BCE.
The figurine may have served a ritual purpose.
Minoan Culture in Crete
• The largest island of the Cyclades is Crete.
• A civilization called Minoan, after the
legendary king Minos, developed there
between 1900-1375 BCE.
• The Minoans worshiped one female goddess
associated with mountains, caves, snakes etc.
Snake Goddess from the palace of Minos at Knossos
How does the palace of Minos attest
to Greek prosperity?
• Unfortified
• Numerous store rooms
• The labrys (double axe) is a prominent decorative element in
Knossos
• The word labyrinth eventually came to mean a maze after the
complicated layout of the palace of Knossos
• The founding myth of Theseus and the Minotaur
• Rather than narrating the origin of humankind in general, it tells the
story of the birth of one culture out of another
• The palace of Knossos was abandoned around 1450 BCE.
• Deforestation
• Volcanic eruption at Thera
• Power of the Mycenaeans
Reconstruction drawing of the palace at Knossos
Bull Leaping, Toreador Fresco, palace at Knossos
The emphasis on the bull is unique to Crete. Three almost-nude figures
appear to toy with a charging bull.
Who were the Mycenaeans?
• Occupied Crete
• Flourished on mainland Greece around 1500 BCE
• German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann
discovered the ruins of Mycenae
• Carried out trade with Africa
• Vast accumulation of wealth
• The walls of the city were built from huge blocks
of rough-hewn stone, in a technique called
cyclopean masonry
Lion Gate, Mycenae, Greece
The lions are carve on a triangle of stone that relieves the weight of the
massive doorway from the lintel.
What are the Homeric epics?
• Homer, a Greek bard, 800 BCE
• Iliad – narrates an episode in the Trojan War, which
began when the Greeks launched a large fleet of ships
under King Agamemnon of Mycenae to bring back
Helen, the wife of his brother Menalus of Sparta, who
eloped with Paris, son of Priam of Troy
• Vivid picture of war and arete (virtue)
• Odyssey –recounts his return voyage home to his wife
Penelope
• Invocation of the muse
• In medias res
Funeral mask of Agamemnon, Mycenae, Greece
Botkin Class Amphora, 540 BCE.
The amphora is a Greek jar used for storing oil or wine – embodies the
concept of arete.
The Temple of Hera, 460 BCE, Paestum, Italy.
Doric order
Delos and Delphi
• Sacred religious sites
• Delphi – here the Greeks believed, the Earth
was attached to the sky by its navel
• Apollo spoke, through the medium of a
woman called Pythia
Amphora showing a foot-race at the Games in Athens,
530, BCE.
Greek sculpture celebrated the male nude, kouros.