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Ancient Greece Culture and Society Foundations of the Modern World Overview • • • • Greek Society Literature Philosophy Religion and Mythology The Rise of Humanism • "Man is the Measure of all Things"- Protagoras of Abdera (c. 480 410 B.C.) • Importance of the individual – Early communities were based on family – Colonists were rugged individuals • Humanism: individual’s – Uniqueness – Potential – Prerogatives (rights) • Athenian Democracy developed around the fifth century BC in the Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. Athens is one of the first known democracies. Greek Society • The flaw in Athenian democracy: only for true citizens – Adult males, Athenian ancestry (15 %) • Slaves – Foreigners, about 30 % – Worked shops, farms • Some special skills e.g. sculpture • Some mining, hard labour – Provided freedom to owners for politics & philosophy • Women – Sparta - public freedom – Athens - confinement Athenian Marriage • Men absolute household authority – Families arranged marriages, usually older man to young woman – Custom deemed necessary to protect male property & citizenship rights • Women no formal education School boy - kylix 480 BC – Learned weaving, cooking • Patterns of the elite – Records written by upper classes Woman at home - kylix 480 BC Separate Lives • Elite women – Had female slave attendants – Were confined to homes except for • funerals, festivals, visits to female relatives • Thesmophoria festival – 3-day camp – Mystery & ritual Daughters of Demeter - krater 440 BC • Plays – Antigone, Lysistrata – About assertive women • Elite men – Work, politics by day – Dined, slept in men’s quarters Hunting the lion The Phylae • “tribes”: largest political subgroups in polis – Athens: 10 phylae • Kin groups – All citizens belonged • Religious – Own priests, temples • Military – Trained and served as hoplite units • Political – Own officials, representatives to Assembly and Council Symposium • Means "drinking together" – – – – Aristocratic social institution After meal, men only Private association of individuals Slaves, musicians, dancers, prostitutes, young boys • Role of Conversation – Aristocratic males expected to participate – Debates on political & philosophical issues, recitations of speeches & poetry Gymnasium “School for naked exercise” – Public institution for training athletes (opposite of palaestra - private school for physical training) – Staff: 10 gymnasiarchs, one from each tribe • Maintained gymnasium, paid athletes in training, held athletic festivals, supervised training staff – Facilities • dressing rooms, baths, training quarters, stadium, covered porticos for exercise & lectures in philosophy, literature, and music – Athens: three great public gymnasia: Academy, Lyceum and Cynosarges Greek Literature • Lyric poetry: celebrating the individual – e.g. Sappho • Pre-Socratic Thinkers Sappho & Alcaeus – Questions about nature – Air, earth, fire, & water – Atomic theory • History – Logographers: wrote historia, accounts of Herodotus of geography, cities, families Halicarnassus – Herodotus 485 - 425 BC • First modern historian • Greek war with Persia, analyzed causes Greek Thinkers • Sophists (“wise men”) – Traveling teachers – Taught logic, public speaking – Rhetoric: constructing persuasive arguments • Belief in Reason – phusis (nature): amoral, inhuman, often lethal – nomos (culture): custom, power of mind to order & control Socrates • 470 - 399 BC – Sculptor by trade • Life – Teacher, thinker – Company of young men • Deflated pretensions, challenged people to think • Socratic method: asking probing questions • Death – Charged with • Corrupting youth • Not believing in gods – Condemned to death by drinking hemlock • Young men withdrew from public life Plato • 428 - 347 BC • First truly literate generation • Founded school for young men – The Academy – Higher education, especially philosophy and mathematics • Wrote Dialogues – Socrates uses question and answer method – Meaning of justice, excellence, freedom – Best known Dialogue: The Republic • Theory of Forms: particular vs. ideal • Political Utopia: philosopher kings Aristotle • 384 - 322 BC – Born in Macedon, father physician to king – Educated at Plato’s Academy in Athens – Tutored Alexander the Great • Founded school in Athens, Lyceum – Peripatetics: walking while lecturing – History, biology, zoology • Works: De Anima, Poetics, Metaphysics – Covered every field of knowledge, established modern arts & sciences – Only lecture notes survive: remarkable range, sophistication, originality, systemization – Approach is empirical, pragmatic, worldly Greek Religion • Eusebia – Piety, reverence for traditional gods – Concern for family, clan, polis – Public display to foster peace, avert disfavour of the gods – Rite of animal sacrifice, feasts of music drama dance sport • Philosophy – – – – Cosmology: origin of universe Theology: gods’ nature & function Psychology: study of soul Ethics: man in society Sacrifice to Vesta - Goya • Mysteries – Secret cults of individual gods – Two Goddesses of Eleusis, Dionysus Wine for Dionysus Public Worship • State-sponsored festivals Temple of – Civic pride & personal piety Athena – Central ritual: sacrifice of animals • Temple: gods’ residence in town – Gifts for favours • Cake, wine at altar • Luck, protection • Oracles – Sacred sites where gods spoke with humans about future – Sought by individuals, city-states – Oracle of Apollo at Delphi most sought Temple of Apollo Mythology • Living our myths – Not our history – Need for origin story • Literature is displaced mythology – Basic stories of our culture – Repeated in modern forms • Anthropomorphic gods – Looking & acting human Principal Deities • Titans – Cronus & Gaia • Olympians – Zeus and Hera – Apollo & Artemis – Aphrodite & Athena – Poseidon & Hades – Ares & Hermes Zeus and Titan • Other Gods – Dionysus, Eros, Pan, The Muses Aphrodite & Adonis (David)