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Lecture 2
Greek Civilization: History and Culture
The 3 most important early Aegean cultures
the Cycladic of the Aegean islands, the Minoan of Crete and the Late
Helladic of the Mycenaeans on the Greek mainland.
See page 43
About 1000 islands dotting the Aegean
Early Greek cultures had temperate maritime climate and ready access
to the sea
The sea provided protection against invasion, plentitude of fish, and
multiple highways for trade
The Early Greeks developed quickly because of the sea. Seaports are
urban areas, which are more susceptible to change. And frequent
travels to foreign ports exposed sailors to new customs and cultures…
Cycladic Culture (3000-2000 B.C.)
-In the Aegean Sea north of Crete lies the group of islands called the
Cyclades
-little more than some marble idols remained
see page 44
from a few inches to life size
primarily female with the arms folded across the midriff
found in tombs throughout the Aegean
-the culture was discovered in the last century only
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Minoan Civilization (2600-1100 B.C.)
Lived on the Island of Crete
Agrarian people colonized Crete around 6000 B.C.
But Minoan culture reached its peak between 2000 and 1800 B.C.
with the building of the splendid temples at Knossos, Phaistos,
Mallia and Zacro.
Named after King Minos who had ruled the island of Crete
British Archeaologist Arthur Evans and others excavated Knossos
There was no warfare for the Minoans had no natural enemies and
viewed it as unnecessary
Their trade empire was very productive, based largely on sea trade in
the Mediterranean
Minoan Religion:
-The chief Deity was an Earth Goddess
-Centered on nature worship (on the cycles of birth, death and
regeneration)
-The power lay with the Queen as the Earthly representative of the
Goddess
-Temple orientations indicate worship of the Earth Goddess.
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Temples:
3 to 5 story structures having hundreds of small rooms, rambling
corridors and staircases, running water, bathtubs, flush toilets, sewage
systems, and light wells…
See page 46
Functioned as religious as well as administrative centers
The most important temple is the Knossos Labrynth
-Evans discovered it
-The Customs House, page 46, was the main checkpoint for
visitors
-The Throne Room, page 47, was at ground level and contained
a throne surrounded by 3 walls…
Minoan art:
-Emphasizes aspects of agriculture and other aspects of the natural
world.
-no warfare or hunting themes
-playful depictions of Minoan life
-No divine monarch so no need for monumental sculpture
-the snake goddess is typical of Minoan sculpture. She symbolizes
regeneration. A major image in Minoan religion. See page 48 upper
right.
By 2400 B.C. the Minoans had mastered the art of goldsmith-ing. An
example is seen in the Gold Bee Pendant, page 48.
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The island of Thera
-An island seventy-five miles north of Crete
-A volcano 4500 feet high erupted and covered the island of Thera
with Ash. Twice in a 30 year span.
-The second eruption (about 1625 B.C.) lead to the collapse of the
volcano which caused a tsunami that was 300-400 feet high
-Since most Minoan civilizations were on Crete’s north and east
shores, virtually the entire culture was wiped away by the wave…
-The Minoans rebuilt after the Thera disaster. But around 1450 B.C.
the Mycenaeans invaded Crete…
Mycenaean Civilization (1600-1100 B.C.)
-From about 1900 B.C. tribes from Northern Europe had been
infiltrating Greece. They occupied all of the Greek mainland by 1600
B.C.
-on the Peloponnesus, at Mycenae, the Great King erected his palace.
Built of massive stones, which were placed, in legend, by the Cyclops.
-Were warlike people
-male dominated society that esteemed honor and courage as
evidenced in the Homeric poems.
-The ideal was the heroic life of the noble warrior. Important
was being a man of your word, telling the truth and keeping
faith with king and comrades…
-Invaded and occupied Crete
-Were true Greeks who spoke a Greek language and worshipped the
Greek pantheon of sky gods.
-Established themselves in small independent kingdoms. Each ruled
through officials who supervised the farmlands, collected taxes, etc.
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-all kings were equal but did owe allegiance to the great king at
Mycenae
-Trade was mainly between the Greek islands and Asia Minor
They bartered with gold, ivory, textiles and spices
Mycenaean dominance ended somewhere between 1200 and 1000 B.C. but
no one knows why…
Greece in the 5th century B.C.
-Called themselves Hellenes
-United by a common language, heritage and culture
-lived in independent city states each with its own form of
government.
-a milder climate than Mesopotamia, but sometimes harsh storms in
the winter.
-in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. colonists were sent out to develop
new lands which lead to Greek cities formed all over, from Byzantium
to western Mediterranean…
The Greek mainland
-Mountain ranges divided the area
-Little farmland available
-Valleys between the mountains: small plots of fertile land
where olives and grapes were grown
-Athens, Argos and Corinth were all seaports and no Greek city state
was far from the sea.
-Greek city states had more artists and artisans than peasants
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Greek religion
-The Gods were a race infinitely superior to human beings.
They were completely powerful, immortal and always young
and beautiful.
They had the same characteristics as humans but in a higher
category.
-The story:
-In the beginning was chaos of void, mass and darkness.
-Out of the void emerged a God, Ouranos, representing the
heavens and Gaea a goddess who represented Earth.
Ouranos (Yoor-uh-noos) was father heaven and Gaea
(Jee-ah) was mother Earth
-Their offspring included the Titans. They personified
earthquakes…
-Kronos was a titan. He led a revolt that overthrew Ouranos.
-He took Rhea, his sister, as his wife.
-From their union emerged the Olympian gods: Zeus,
Poseidon and Hades.
-Kronos knew of a prophecy that one of his children would
overthrow him.
-So Kronos swallowed his children at birth.
-But Rhea saved Zeus and lead him to Crete.
-Zeus then later lead the revolt against Kronos and
imprisoned him in the dark cave of Tartarus.
-Kronos regurgitated the other children including
Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Hestia.
-Zeus then took Hera as his wife from whom arose gods
and goddesses such as Apollo, Aphrodite and Artemis.
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The Pantheon of Gods
Page 57
-Zeus: leader and god of the thunderbolt, he is said to be amoral
-Hera: wife of Zeus, goddess of marriage; constantly strove to civilize
the force of the thunderbolt
-Poseidon: god of the sea
-Hades: God of the underworld
-Athena: goddess of wisdom, warfare, arts and crafts
-Apollo: sun god, archer, god of truth, light and healing. Son of Zeus
and Leto, daughter of the Titans Krios and Phoebe
-Artemis: sister of Apollo, virgin goddess of the moon and the hunt
-Aphrodite: goddess of love and physical beauty
-Hermes: god of commerce, traders, travelers and thieves. Son of
zeus and Maia, daughter of Atlas.
-Ares: God of war; son of Zeus and Hera, represented violence and
destruction
-Dionysos: son of Zeus. God of the theatre; God of ecstasy
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Other aspects of Greek religion:
-Mythical gods and goddesses were used to explain natural forces
-Their religion had no revealer, no Christ
-There was no sacred book, no bible
-the religion evolved as a collection of myths…
-Formal ceremonies were always feasts, animals were sacrificed;
Greeks ate and drank with the idea that the God was present…
-There was no permanent priesthood or even a priestly class.
-This lead to religious freedom and freedom of thought
-Each person was believed to have his own fate, which he fulfills.
-This fate was determined by one’s character, honorable,
courageous, etc.
-There are 3 forces at work in an individuals life: free will,
accident and divine intervention.
-The gods would punish, hubris, i.e. when one tried to exceed
human limits and aim for the realm of the gods.
-But the Gods weren’t omnipotent either. There was a force
more powerful than the gods: Ananke or natural law.
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The Archaic Period (750-500 B.C.)
-Mycenaean culture began its decline in the 12th century B.C. with the
arrival of Dorian invaders from the North
-The Dorians were forced south to the Greek mainland by their
own invasions
-a problem ensued: land poverty. There wasn’t enough land for the
expanding population.
-The solution was colonization: City-states sent bands of
adventurers to found Greek colonies throughout the
Mediterranean.
-this lead to increased trade among the Hellenistic cities and
expanding wealth to the mother cities…
-A large surplus of goods created by Greek artisans lead to a furthered
Greek economy and in turn lead to increased leisure time for other
pursuits such as philosophy or education or gymnastics…
Hesiod and Homer:
-Hesiod was a farmer who was famed for having bad luck
-Composed Works and Days during the later part of the 8th
century B.C. It described his own life and times…
-Homer composed his poems during the latter part of the 8th century
also. They celebrated the distant glories of the Mycenaeans…
-Was said to have composed the Illiad and the Odyssey…
-The stories weren’t Homer’s inventions but were a collection
of legends that originated in the songs and resuscitations of
bards…
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ATHENS
6th century Athens:
Tyrants arose…
-Maintaining authority required a majority of the population
-eventually lead to Democracy…
4 family clans, originally of the aristocracy, controlled the city’s
politics
Significant political change would come under 4 reformers:
Draco (621 B.C.):
The first of the reformers who published the first Greek code of
laws: Draco’s code.
Draco’s code was very severe as many offenses were
punishable by death.
But it offered a single standard of justice for all and accessible
by and to all.
Solon (640-558 B.C.)
-Member of the nobility like Draco
-His first reform freed all slaves who had failed to redeem their
land
-Limited the important government offices to aristocrats and
merchants but allowed members of the lower class to serve as
jurors
-Established an administrative council of 400
-All reforms must remain unchanged and in force for 10 years
-Adopted a much lighter coinage to encourage trade
-Imported skilled artisans, potters in particular, as this was a
prime export.
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Pisistratos (605-527 B.C.)
-Governed Athens from 546 until 527…
-The third reformer
-Broke up large estates and distributed land to the peasants
-Economic status determined voting privileges so this
broadened the voting class
-imported Sionides and Anacreon, two of the finest Hellenic
poet musicians of the time
-commisioned the first scholarly edition of Homer’s poems
Cleisthenes (507 B.C.)
-Democracy becomes a reality with his reforms
-created a new political structure:
-He divided the city into neighborhoods or demes
-the demes were selected at random to ensure fair
political process
-10 political tribes with membership based upon which
neighborhood you lived in rather than heredity
-50 members represented each of the new tribes and so
Solon’s council of 400 was replaced with a council of
500
-each tribe nominated a large slate of eligible
candidates for the council, 50 being chosen at
random
-The executive branch of government was a committee of
10 generals elected yearly by the council and headed by a
commander-in-chief on a year term also.
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Persian Invasions:
499 B.C. = Eastern Greek city states (on the shores of Asia Minor)
rebelled against Persian taxation. The Ionian Greeks refused to
pay tribute to Darius.
Athens sends 20 ships to defend against the Persians and burns Sardis
to the ground.
The Persians defeated the Greek rebellion then aimed to exact revenge
on Athens.
490 B.C. = General Miltiades was badly outnumbered on the plain
of marathon, north of Athens, but in a dawn attack outwitted the
Persians and drove them back to their ships. The Persians lost a
reported 6000 men while the Greeks had only minimal casualties…
480 B.C. = The Persian king Xerxes took an army of near 200,000 to
defeat Athens
Leonidas lead Spartan soldiers to meet the Persians at Thermopylae.
They met at a narrow pass between mountain and sea. 300 Spartans
met the entire Persian army. Although many Persians were killed the
Spartans were defeated and Leonidas slain.
This is the topic of the movie 300…
The Persians then meet the Athenians in a sea battle in the Bay of
Salamis and the Athenians defeat the Persians.
-Although the Persian ships far outnumbered the Athenians,
because the Bay of Salamis was narrow so the size of the Persian
fleet was a disadvantage…
At this time the Persians controlled Egypt and the entire eastern end of
the Mediterranean so this was a great victory against a mighty foe…
The Persians returned a year later to be defeated again by Athenian
and Spartan forces. As a result, Athens gains prominence and wealth.
Athens forms the league for the future defense of Greek lands
-Greek allies paid tribute for their protection
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-Athens ruled the sea which lead to their engaging in trade far and
wide
-As a result a merchant class grew and Athens became the center
of Greek cultural life
Pericles (495-429 B.C.)
-First elected general in chief in 461 B.C.
-ruled during the golden age of Athens
-stayed in office until he died of plague shortly in 429 B.C.
-there was little political change during his time because a fair and just
democratic system was in place already
-encouraged the free exchange of ideas by reconstructing the
marketplace of commerce and ideas
-commissioned the new temples on the Acropolis
-converted the Delian league, organized to fight the Persian Empire,
to an Athenian empire.
-shifted the treasury from the island of Delos to Athens which lead to
Athens shouldering the responsibility of protecting the League.
Thus, Athens would decide how the money was spent…
-The Sophists became the leading teachers of Athens during his time
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The Peloponnesian War
-Between the Greek city states of Athens and Sparta
-Occurred between 431 and 404 B.C.
-Death and killing was pervasive throughout, even among citizens of
the same city state
-Lead to the defeat of Athens and the beginning of the end of the
Golden Age of Greece
-As part of the terms of the peace treaty, Athens was to accept a
provisional government by a council known as the Thirty.
The Thirty:
-Were supported by Spartan men-at-arms
•Carried out a purge of criminals and wrong doers
•Executed criminals and persecuted many, often those they just
didn’t care for
•
-A reign of terror that lasted almost a year
The thirty were finally defeated and democracy was restored but
Athens would never recover
•
Results of the reign of terror on the people of Athens and Greece:
-Athenians lost confidence in their ability to control their own destiny
-The world and human affairs seemed chaotic, beyond
managing
-There arose a great discontent, disillusionment and disbelief in the
practice of Sophistry.
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-A Greek known as Aristophanes wrote ‘The Clouds’.
The clouds was a mockery of the art of Sophistry.
To Aristophanes, argument was nothing more than a contest
that the most persuasive will always win
-And this becomes a central concern of Socrates:
Can human beings, by discussing matters together, come to
know the truth OR is it always just a matter of who wins?
Alexander the Great
-Became king in 336 B.C. after his father’s assassination (King Phillip
of Macedonia)
-died at the age of 33
-Student of Aristotle
-The first great international culture of the west…
-In one campaign, Alexander brought Greece, Egypt, all of the
Persian Empire, and lands as far east as India into one vast
empire.
-See page 84
-Conquered people’s were allowed to retain their customs and a
certain amount of autonomy
Greek language was spoken throughout the empire
Hellenism was the name of the civilization. The politics
were Aritsocratic.
The culture was universal so one’s ethnic origins didn’t
matter. To be educated was the key to participating in
society…
-established new cities such as Antioch in Syria and about a
dozen Alexandria’s. The Alexandria built in Egypt supplanted
Athens as the cultural center and largest center of Antiquity…
-The Library of Alexandria possessed over 700,000
manuscripts by the first century B.C.
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The Greek Arts:
The Theatre
-The Greeks created tragedy, comedy, melodrama, mime,
ballet, the art of acting, costume and set design, and theatrical
structure itself…
-2 religious festivals held each year in honor of Dionysos.
Dionysos was the god of fertility, wine and patron of Athenian
drama
The Greater Dionysia festival, in 534 B.C., was the first
formal staging of tragedy…
The other festival was the Linaea…
Each play had a chorus of up to a dozen members
They reacted the play in a variety of ways
Casts were all male
Athens did have some restrictions concerning religion but the
stage was a totally uncensored forum of democracy
Theatres:
Out door and open air, spectators seats carved into a hillside
See page 70
Theatres were large: 13,000 seats at Epidauros, 18,000 at
Athens and 25,000 at Ephesos (in turkey)
One main stage
a mekhane was used to transport actors who played gods
Playwrights:
Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.)
Wrote about 90 plays
Wrote the trilogy Oresteia:
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Agamemnon, the Libation Bearers and the
Eumenides which is discussed in the book, pages
71-74
Relate the story of a system of justice, which
evolves from old traditions to one administered by
the law courts of a free society…
Added a second speaking actor to the stage, which
introduced the true dialogue
Sophocles (496-406 B.C.)
-A general, a priest and the most popular dramatist in
Athenian history
-wrote 123 plays and won first prize more than 20 times
-7 plays survived
-Oedipus the King is discussed on pages 75-76
the best known of all greek tragedies
a tale of patricide, murder, incest, suicide and self
mutilation
Euripides (484-406 B.C.)
-While Sophocles portrayed men as they ought to be,
Euripides portrayed them as they are…
-wrote 92 plays, only 4 first prizes
-19 plays have survived
-during the last 2 years of his life Euripides exiled
himself from Athens, choosing to live in Macedonia
where he died.
There he wrote the Bacchae: the story of the
rationalist society he had known had rejected him
and which he had spurned…
-Sophocles produced the play after Euripides
passed and it won a first prize…
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Archaic Period:
-700-480 B.C.
-Fascination of the human body led to creation of fully 3
dimensional sculpture.
-the individual was valued in greek society.
Naturalism:
This lead to a movement toward naturalism.
Naturalism is fidelity to the appearance of the
natural world.
There was an increasing concern with natural
details such as skeletal structure.
Greek artists were never interested in portraying
busts, their concern was the whole person.
The women always stand with feet together, one
arm at the side the other raised. (page 98)
The men are always striding forward with the left
foot, their hands at their sides. (page 100)
Idealism:
The ideal impelled artists. The ideal Greek “In
hand and foot and mind built foursquare without a
flaw.”
-sculpture:
-In the 6th century B.C. the subjects of sculpture
were the standing nude male and the fully clothed
female.
-page 95
-Sculpture wasn’t personified portrait but idealized
representations as between humankind and the
Gods…
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-Black Figure Pottery:
-very little painting survives because of its
perishable nature
-many more vases survive
-the black figure technique, page 98, consists of
silhouetted figures on a reddish background.
Classical Period (480-323 B.C.)
-Idealism continues: depicting people not as they were but as
they should be
-examples on 101-102
The High Classical, 450-400 B.C. best displays the values of
the Athenians of the Golden Age: optimism, freedom,
individuality, competitiveness…
Great works include:
Kritios Boy, page 100
Delphi Charioteer, page 101
Poseidon, page 101
Discobolus, page 102
-Red Figure Pottery
-About 530 B.C. vase painters began using this
technique
-red figures against a black background (page 92)
-this technique allowed markings such as
hair, muscles, details of dress, etc.
-became the dominant style of the classical
period
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Architecture:
Greek temples used a system of post and lintel
-Page 105
-After planting a post at each of the 4 corners of
the space to be enclosed, a lintel was placed on top
of and across the posts. Roof beams were then
placed at regular intervals…
-spaces between posts were filled with walls,
windows and doors…
The Acropolis
See page 107
-most ancient cities developed around a fortified
hilltop
-As cities grew more prosperous and powerful, the
acropolis or people’s high place became the center
of religious and civic activity.
-They were decorated with governmental
buildings, libraries and temples dedicated to the
gods
The Parthenon
See page 108
Created as the crowning glory of the Acropolis
A religious temple
Built with a massive gold and ivory statue of
Athena created by Pheidias.
The building has virtually no straight lines or right
angles
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Hellenistic Period
-323-30 B.C.
-Symbolized by the death of Alexander
-Artists were no longer concerned with idealized portraits and
classical harmony, but instead became increasingly interested in
actual appearances and in the infinite variety of human nature
and experience…
-Great works include:
The Dying Gaul, page 116
The Altar of Zeus, page 117
The Laocoon and His Sons, page 119
Greek Thought:
-Systematic investigation about the nature of the universe was
uniquely Greek
-pure thought about the nature of things
-due to the freedom of thought created by the nonauthoritarian nature of their religion…
-Their ideas were characterized by a lively skepticism
-values such as individualism, justice, beauty and truth took
precedence…
-the greeks thought systematically about the cosmos and their
relationship to it. This lead to the invention of philosophy and
science, the pursuit of objective knowledge of the material
world.
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