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“Golden” Athens
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Perikles ruled Athens for forty-five
years (469-429 BCE); he
promoted the arts and literature;
this was a chief reason Athens
holds the reputation of being the
educational and cultural centre of
the ancient Greek world. He
started an ambitious project that
built most of the surviving
structures on the Acropolis
(including the Parthenon). This
project beautified the city,
exhibited its glory, and gave work
to the people. Pericles was the
most passionate proponet of
Athenian Democracy and , so
historians called him “the first
citizen”.
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Perikles was determined to
spend the wealth of Athens on
the Athenian citizens and the
development of the city, which
resulted in the construction of
some of the most enduring and
artistically profound structures
ever to grace the Greek
landscape, masterpieces like:
the Parthenon, the Odeum, the
Propylaea and the protective
Long Wall (which went from
Athens to the nearby port of
Piraeus); these civic projects
employed vast numbers of
workers and gave opportunities
to otherwise underemployed
Athenians.
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A religious rock, a city
fortress, but more than
anything else, the reflection
of the city's changing
historical destiny. The house
of goddess Athena,
according to Homer, was, in
prehistoric times, palace of
king Erechtheus and then
citadel, fortress for the
Athenians when in the 12th
century people from the
north occupied the
Mycenaean citadels.
The duality was reflected on
the Acropolis hill with the
coexistence of Doric
(austere, masculine) and
Ionic (ornate, feminine)
elements.
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With the relocation of the
administrative center of the
Athenian life in the area of
the Agora, the Acropolis hill
was left to become a
religious center, yet always
incorporating political
messages. During the
period of the Athenian
Empire, the fusion of the
two orders (Doric-Ionic)
expressed the subliminal
political messages that
Athens wanted to convey
as the "leader" of all citystates (Ionian-Dorian). A
union that emphasized the
Athenian supremacy and
power.
Philosophy

Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and
inquiry. In many ways it paved the way both to
modern science and modern philosophy. Clear
unbroken lines of influence lead from Greek
philosophers to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment
and the secular sciences of the modern day.

Socrates (circa 470–399 BC) was
an ancient Greek philosopher who
is widely credited for laying the
foundation for Western philosophy.
The most important source of
information about Socrates is
Plato. Plato's dialogues portray
Socrates as a teacher who denies
having disciples, as a man of
reason who obeys a divine voice in
his head, and a pious man who is
executed for the state's own
expediency. Socrates disparages
the pleasures of the senses, yet is
excited by beauty; he is devoted
to the education of the citizens of
Athens, yet indifferent to his own
sons. He is often held to be the
founder of Western philosophy,
and its most influential
practitioner.

Ἐστὶν οὖν τραγωδία μίμησις πράξεως
σπουδαίας καὶ τελείας, μέγεθος ἐχούσης,
ἡδυσμένῳ λόγῳ, χωρὶς ἑκάστῳ τῶν εἰδὼν
ἐν τοῖς μορίοις, δρώντων καὶ οὐ
δι'ἀπαγγελίας, δι' ἐλέου καὶ φόβου
περαίνουσα τὴν τῶν τοιούτων παθημάτων
κάθαρσιν.
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The philosopher Aristotle
theorized in his work The
Poetics that tragedy results
in a catharsis (emotional
cleansing) of healing for the
audience through their
experience of emotions such
as pity, anger, disgust and
terror in response to the
suffering of the characters in
the drama who progress
through inner compulsionspsychological or religioustowards self-knowledge and
death.
He considers it superior
when a character passes
from good fortune to bad
rather than the reverse.
The Athenian democracy
(sometimes called classical
democracy) was the democratic
system developed in the Greek
city-state of Athens. Other Greek
cities set up democracies, most
but not all following an Athenian
model, but none were as powerful
or as stable (or as welldocumented) as that of Athens. It
remains a unique and intriguing
experiment in direct democracy
where the people do not elect
representatives to vote on their
behalf but vote on legislation and
executive bills in their own right.
The participants participated with
no reference to economic class on
a scale that was truly
phenomenal.
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Solon (594 BC), Cleisthenes (508 BC), and Ephialtes of
Athens (462 BC) all contributed to the development of
Athenian democracy. Historians differ on which of
them was responsible for which institutions, and which
of them most represented a truly democratic
movement. It is most usual to date Athenian
democracy from Cleisthenes, since Solon's constitution
broke down and was replaced by the tyrant
Peisistratus, whereas Ephialtes revised Cleisthenes'
constitution relatively peacefully.
The greatest and longest-lasting democratic leader
was Pericles; after his death, Athenian democracy was
twice briefly interrupted by oligarchic revolution
towards the end of the Peloponnesian War. It was
modified somewhat after it was restored under
Eucleides.
The standard format of Greek public
buildings is known from surviving
examples such as the Parthenon and
the Hephaesteum at Athens, the
group at Pasteum, the temple
complex at Selinunte (Selinus) and
the sanctuaries at Agrigentum. Most
buildings were rectangular and
made from limestone of which
Greece has an abundance, and
which was cut into large blocks and
dressed. Marble was an expensive
building material in Greece: high
quality marble came only from Mt.
Pentelicus in Attica and from a few
islands such as Paros, and its
transportation in large blocks was
difficult. It was used mainly for
sculptural decoration, not
structurally, except in the very
grandest buildings of the Classical
period such as the Parthenon.
The achievements of that age can be
observed even in our time! The
ancient Greek thinking is the root of
almost every modern art! They have
shown the way for the civilization to
pass in every nation!. The people who
have represented those who wanted
their freedom were based on the
writings of the Athenian philosophers
to express their will. From those
people we now have a great source of
knowledge and with it we can make
the world a better place. So it isn’t
really a surprise that the ancient
Greece is known in every corner of this
world since everyone deserves to
know it’s greatness and glory.