Download Greeks - Humanities 191

Greece
Intro – The tradition of Greece is often the first in which Westerner’s feel they can recognize
themselves. They were the first to place human beings at the center of the universe. Other
civilizations focused on deities and godlike rulers – Greeks no longer saw mortals as the
inconsequential objects of divine whim. Men and women assumed some importance in the
scheme of things – they had some control over their own destinies and some moral responsibility
for their actions.
Greek poetry, sculpture and architecture became the standard against which later works were
judged. The Western tradition has inherited many of its political forms and practices, its views on
human behavior, its insistence on philosophical rigor and its approach to scientific inquiry. The
Greeks laid the foundation of Western civilization.
The Hellenic Civilization made 3 long lasting contributions to western civilization. (pg. 82)
1. Democracy
2. Humanism – humanistic learning – lit, phil, theater, music, arts
3. A skeptical spirit – Passion for questioning for inquiry
Greek Civilization
The Hellenic Age 479 BC to 323 BC
1st stage of classical civilization
The Greek world - several hundred city-states
Athens was the cultural center – dominated the Hellenic Age
Increasing urban lifestyle
Greek gods – Mt. Olympus
Government
City-states – had many commonalities: language, ancestry, history and Homer yet never were
politically united. Athens functioned as a democracy – no other poleis did.
The culture that flourished in Greece was know as Classic or Classical
First, best….
Greek culture was the highest moment in the entire history of the humanities.
Permanent and recognized significance the classics are the works that have survived from
Greece and Rome.
Classicism – Specific principles impressed through the art and literature of Greece and Rome
Emphasized simplicity over complexity, balance/symmetry over asymmetry,
restraint/excess
At the heart of this movement: the search for perfection for the ideal form.
Theater
The Tragedy
Dramatic form that reached a state of perfection during this time. “Tragedy” in Greek means
“goat song” – may relate to prehistoric religions ceremonies in which competing male choruses
sang and danced while intoxicated – in homage to the god of wine.
Thespis (whose name we get “thespian” or actor) introduced an actor with whom the chorus
could interact. Theater was born.
By 5th century BC the chorus achieved its classical function as mediator between actors and
audience. By 4th century BC – actor became the focus of the drama and the chorus’s importance
declined.
The chorus performed in a circular area called an orchestra or “dancing place” in the center of
which was a functioning altar – serving as a reminder that tragedy was a religious right.
The realistic setting not important – ideas and language were. All men wore masks, platform
shoes, robes = otherworldly quality.
The essence of Greek tragedy – the belief that mortals cannot escape pain and sorrow.
The plots dealt with fundamental human issues with no easy solutions – such as the decrees of the
state vs. the conscious of the individual; or divine law vs. human law.
Humans were forced to make hard choices without being able to foresee the consequences of
their decisions. All tragedies had 3 parts with a 4th satire.
Aristotle felt that the purpose of tragedy was to work a cathartic or purging effect the audience,
to arouse pity and terror so that these negative emotions could be drained from the soul. The
tragic heroes were warnings, not models.
Plato
Republic 4th century BC
Aeschylus
earliest
Sophocles
496-406 BC
Oedipus Rex (429 BC) and Antigone (442 BC).
Wrote 125 plays only 7 survive.
Euripides
480-406 BC
Aristophanes Lysistrata – Captured the antiwar spirit and bawdy humor.
The women of Athens and Sparta withheld sex from their husbands until they signed a
peace treaty.
Pre-Socratics Natural
The Sophists Philosophy
The Socratic Revolution
Plato/Platonism
Aristotle
Pre-Socratics (515 BC - ??)
Concerned with determining the nature of the physical world.
Debated over materialism and idealism
Atomists: another school of thought in the Pre Socratic thinkers – believed that everything was
composed of atoms – eternal, invisible bodies of varying size that could not be divided into
smaller units. Sufficient to explain every aspect of the physical world – feelings, tastes, sight,
ideas, etc. (movement and shape of atoms)
The Sophists
From the Greek word “Sophia” meaning wisdom.
Scorned Pre-Socratic speculation @ atoms and elements as irrelevant and useless. Focused on
humanistic values/practical skills such as public speaking and logic.
“Man is the measure of all things.” Humans, as the center of the universe, have the power to
make judgments about themselves and their world.
They helped free the human spirit to be critical and creative.
But this ideal caused problems – undermined the traditional Greek views that the gods controlled
everything.
The Socratic Revolution (470-399 BC)
Socrates launched a new era in philosophy. What separated Socrates from the Sophists was his
passionate conviction that an enduring moral and intellectual order existed in the universe. His
method at arriving at true moral and intellectual values is known as the Socratic Method. He
asked step-by-step questions – compelling his students to begin a quest for knowledge in light of
their confused ignorance. He believed the psyche (mind/soul) was more important than the mortal
and doomed body. Those who want wisdom must protect the psyche by giving their minds the
maximum amount of knowledge through stimulating conversations and debates (Socratic
Method). “Virtue is knowledge” – A person who knows the truth, acquired through personal
struggle to self-enlightenment, will not commit evil deeds. Those who do wrong do so out of
ignorance.
The Athenians of this era began to perceive Socrates as a threat to their way of life.
Tried Socrates by a jury – found him guilty of impiety and corrupting the Athenian youth –
sentenced to die.
Plato 427-347 BC
One of Socrates students.
Through his dialogues we have learned most of what we know about Socrates.
Plato’s philosophy is the fountainhead of Western idealism.
Idealism: a thought system that emphasizes spiritual values, and makes ideas rather then matter
the basis of everything that exists.
Plato favorer the invisible world of the Forms, or Ideas, in opposition to the physical world. The
psyche’s true home was the world of the Forms, which it inhabited before birth and after death –
the time when the psyche was lost in wonder among the eternal Ideas. In contrast, the body lived
exclusively in the material world, completely absorbed by the life of the senses. Once trapped
inside the body, the psyche could glimpse the higher reality, or Forms, only through
remembrance.
He thought a set of mental exercises the psyche would be able to recall the Ideas to which it had
once been exposed. The best training for the psyche was the study of math, since math required
signs and symbols to represent other things.
One major implication of Plato’s idealism is that the psyche and the body were constantly at war.
The psyche’s attempts to remember the lost Ideas meet resistance from the body’s pursuit of
power, fame, and physical comforts – Dualism.
At death the psyche would return to the world of the Forms.
Plato – emphasis on mathematic/forms
Aristotle 384-322 BC (focused on biology/nature)
Had the most comprehensive mind of the ancient world. Studied everything but math and science.
Studied philosophy under Plato.
Opened the school, the Lyceum (walking or strolling school) that rivaled Plato’s Academy.
Aristotle felt the only world was the natural world (as opposed to Plato’s psyche/ideals) No
separate invisible realm of Ideas existed. Nature could be studied and understood by observation,
classification, and comparison of data – the empirical method. He rejected Plato’s forms – felt
that form and matter were inseparable; both were rooted in nature. His belief: potential evolving
into its final form/its purpose. Thus he concluded that everything had a purpose and end.
To achieve happiness, he advised striking a mean or a balance between extremes of behavior
Example:
Foolhardiness
Courage
/\
Cowardice
Thought the best form of government was a constitutional regime ruled by the middle class. He
felt that the middle class (mean) would excite neither envy from the poor nor contempt from the
wealthy. They would honor and work for the good of all.
His influence on Western Civilization is immeasurable. His writings formed the core of
knowledge that Christian scholars later studied as they struggled to keep the light of civilization
burning after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Jewish and Moslem thinkers ranked his books just below their own religious scriptures.
Today Aristotelianism is embedded in the official theology of the Roman Catholic Church.
Architecture
The temple was the supreme architectural achievement of the Greeks
Apollo’s Shrine at Delphi (fig 3.13)
Delphi thought to be the center of the earth was hallowed ground to the entire Greek world. Inside
was Apollo’s oracle – the only woman permitted at Delphi – to whom people journeyed from all
over Greece with their questions.
The Parthenon (fig 3.15) pg. 73 Eastern- style
Doric
Temple on Athens’s Acropolis dedicated to Athena.
Established a new standard of classicism with 8 columns on the ends and 17 on the sides.
Early eastern style architecture influenced by the Pythagorean quest for harmony through
mathematical rules.
Eastern style builders had standardized 6 as the perfect number of columns for the ends of
temples and 13 (twice 6 plus 1) as the perfect number of columns for the sides.
Balanced, harmonious, restrained.
Sculpture
Hermes with the infant Dionysus
fig 3.26 pg 81
Poseidon (or Zeus)
fig 3.21 pg 78
Doryphoros
fig 3.22 pg 79
Both exemplify the classical ideal of balanced repose.
Musculature
Praxitelean curve – a mimic of the contrapposto poise. Shows more natural pose – places the
body’s weight on one leg and uses the other leg as support.
This posture along with the mastery of the representation of the musculature helped to make the
classical revolution.
Greece – The Hellenistic Age 323 – 146 BC





Dominated by large metropolitan centers linked by trade and commerce.
More radically mixed and ethnically varied (called Hellenistic because of the role Greece
played in its development)
More eclectic: Several key motifs grew from oriental roots: 1. the concept of a ruler who
is also divine 2. New religious cults that promised immortality 3. The aesthetic ideal that
identifies grandiosity with earthly majesty.
Alexander dreamed of a world community united by a common leader – multiracial and
multicultural (i.e. the USA)
Hellenistic kingdoms replaced the Hellenic poleis.
Period reflected a growing cosmopolitanism.
The economic order rested on specialized luxury crafts and professional occupations,
international trade and banking and an abundance of cheap supply of slaves.
Class divisions were pronounced.
For the rich: life was luxurious
Middle Class: trades people, skilled artisans – struggled.
Poorest Free Class: laborers, unskilled workers, small land owners, life offered little.
Slaves: expected to bear the brunt of all hard labor
Philosophy in the Hellenistic Age
Cynicism
Skepticism
Epicureanism
Stoicism
Cynicism – had least impact. Denounced all religions and governments, shunned
physical comfort
Skepticism – argued that nothing could be known for certain – felt the senses were
unreliable sources of knowledge.
Epicureanism – Began with Epicurus who started a school in Athens where pupils
(including women and slaves) would gather to discuss ideas. The best way to keep one’s
wants simple and thus achieve happiness was to abstain from sex and instead focus on
friendship. Felt senses offered accurate view of physical world. Saw universe (like
others) determined by the behavior of atoms moving in empty space. But he argued that
because atoms on occasion swerved from their set paths, and made unpredictable
deviations, it was possible for humans to make free choices. Also advocate of freedom of
fear – fear of gods, death, the hereafter. Thought that the gods existed, but felt they did
not care about human beings.
Hellenistic World – Legacy
Athens and its culture achieved the status of an inspiring model to be honored and
emulated. Set a basis for all of history of the Western World.
But


Had no interest in democracy
Nor did the kings of this time want to further humanism (art, literature, poetry,
speech, philosophy) the kings felt these aspirations were irrelevant to their
imperial goals or were subversive of (went against) them and their goals.
The great cultural centers – Alexandria and Pergamum – with their libraries, poets, scientists,
artists, schools of philosophy, marble buildings and monuments were thought to be politically
useful for the rulers. Use of propaganda only – not the development and celebration of humanity.
Hellenistic sculptured architecture – more life-like and realistic – expressed emotion and
individualism. Female nudity 1st introduced. Still today. Rome adopted and modified the Greek
temples. Used them as a standard.
Schools of Philosophy
 Stoicism – Advocating a restrained way of life – being tolerant of others – resignation to
disappointment.
 Epicureanism – Highest goals – development of mind and no demands
 Skepticism – Nothing can be known for certain
 Cynicism – Denounced society and its institutions as artificial
Stoicism was the most popular Hellenistic philosophy that appealed to many Romans and had an
impact on early Christian thought.