Download Greek Golden Age (mid 400`s BC)

Greek Golden Age (mid 400’s BC)
•Occurred under rule of Pericles between the Persian (Athenian victory) and the
Peloponnesian Wars (Athenian defeat)
•Pericles extended democracy; most adult males had equal voice.
•Pericles had Athens rebuilt after destruction in Persian Wars; the Parthenon is an
example of this reconstruction.
Contributions of Greek culture to Western civilization
Poetry
• Homer – earliest poet, was blind
–Iliad and Odyssey
Drama
•Aeschylus –The earliest
–Main characters suffer and
some tragic end (Oresteia)
–Orestria details the events of the
Trojan War
writer of tragedy
eventually die or suffer
The end of Aeschylus..?
•Sophocles – wrote the tragedy Oedipus Rex
–Pulled from his experiences in the Peloponnesian War
–Details a man who was prophesized to kill his dad and marry his mom
Philosophy: the Love of Wisdom
Socrates: the first philosopher
•Used the Socratic Method to question knowledge and the process of learning
•Asked questions and then questioned the answers
–His questioning was applied to the concept of Greek Religion (whoops)
–Arrested for corrupting minors
– was forced to drink poison
•Plato:
Student of Socrates
–Founded the world’s first university, The Academy
–Wrote the Republic , (first political science book) discussed the ideal government
•Gov. should limit freedoms to keep order
•People should not rely on the senses to find the truth; use reasoning and logic
Aristotle- studied physics + politics
–Tutored Alexander the Great
Hippocrates – “The Father of Medicine”
–Theory of Natural causes of disease
•Sickness not due to gods
–“The Hippocratic Oath” taken still by doctors
History
•Herodotus – “Father of History”
–Wrote about the Persian War
•Thucydides – Better organized facts
–Wrote of the Peloponnesian War
The World to Herodotus
Science
Archimedes –Inventor and Mathematician
•Discovered:
–Principle of the lever and compound pulley
–Buoyancy “Eureka!”
–Water Screw
Mathematics
•Pythagoras – Described the world in mathematical terms
–The nature of numbers
–Pythagorean Theorem
• Euclid – Organized all facts of Geometry
–Considered the “father of geometry”
New Leadership
•Background: Greece was weak due to the Peloponnesian War
King Phillip II of Macedon
•Conquered most of Greece
•Was assassinated by a noble
•The Noble tripped and was killed on the spot by family friends
King Philip’s Kingdom
Alexander the Great
•Established an empire from Greece to Egypt to Persia to India
•Extended Greek culture
•Died of Malaria
Hellenistic Age
•Began at Alexander’s Death (323BC)
•Blend of Greek and oriental elements
•Spread of Hellenistic culture through trade
•an example of Hellenistic Culture
–Columns: look at the types below
–Note that the Parthenon, whose statue of Athena was sculpted by Phidias had the first
type
-Doric
-Ionic
-Corinthian