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The Culture of Classical Greece
 Greeks considered religion to be important to the well
being of the state and it affected every aspect of Greek
life.
 Twelve chief gods and goddesses were believed to
reside on Mt. Olympus, the highest mountain in
Greece.
 Zeus was king of the
“Olympians”.
 Brother to Hades,
Poseidon, Hera,
Hestia, and Demeter
 Ruler of the sky and
often portrayed with a
lightning bolt.
 He had children with
“mortal” women
which were known as
demi-gods.
 Hera was the sister
and wife of Zeus.
 She was the goddess
of women and
marriage.
 A jealous goddess,
especially of the
children that Zeus
had with mortals.
 Poseidon was the god
of the sea.
 Often pictured with
his three pronged
“trident”.
 He was a popular god
of many Greeks as
they made a living on
the sea.
 Demeter was the
goddess of grains and
the harvest.
 Mother to
Persephone, the wife
of Hades.
 Demeter was the
goddess of grains and
the harvest.
 Mother to
Persephone, the wife
of Hades.
 Hades was the god of
the underworld.
 Married to Persephone.
 In order to cross into his
realm it was believed
you had to pay his
ferryman, Charon.
Greeks often place coins
on the eyes of the dead
because of this belief.
 His three headed dog
Cerberus helped him
ensure no one escaped
the underworld.
 Ares was the Greek
god of war.
 Son of Zeus and Hera.
 He represented the
physical violent aspect
of war.
 Hestia is the Greek
goddess of the hearth,
architecture, and the
order of the home and
state.
 She is commonly
associated with the
feeling of family or
belonging.
 Athena was the goddess
of wisdom, courage,
inspiration, civilization,
law and justice, just
warfare, mathematics,
strength, strategy, the
arts, crafts, and skill.
 Apollo has been
variously recognized
as a god of light and
the sun, truth and
prophecy, healing,
plague, music, and
poetry.
 Apollo is the son of
Zeus and Leto, and
has a twin sister, the
huntress Artemis.
 Aphrodite is the
Greek goddess of
love, beauty, pleasure,
and procreation.
 Dionysus was the god
of wine and fertility.
 Artemis was the
goddess of the hunt.
 The daughter of Zeus
and Leto and the twin
brother of Apollo.
 Hephaestus was the
Greek god of fire.
 Son of Zeus and Hera.
 As a smithing god,
Hephaestus made all
the weapons of the gods
in Olympus. He served
as the blacksmith of the
gods, and was
worshipped in the
manufacturing and
industrial centers of
Greece, particularly
Athens.
 Greek rituals and festivals were developed in the hopes
that the gods would look favorably on their activities.
 One of the main festivals held by the Greeks was at
Olympia. It was a contest of physical might and
athletic games first held in 776 B.C.
 To learn the will of the gods the Greeks would visit an
oracle, or sacred shrine, where the future was revealed
through a priest or priestess.
 The most famous oracle was at Delphi, dedicated to
Apollo.
 In terms of Greek architecture
the temple was the most
important.
 The center of Greek temples
housed statues of Greek gods
and goddesses and treasuries
dedicated to them.
 The most famous Greek
temple was built in Athens, the
Parthenon. Built between 447
B.C. and 432 B.C. it is regarded
as the greatest example of the
Greek temple.
 During the classical period in Greece sculptors
perfected their artistic work.
 Classical Greek sculptors did not seek to achieve
realism, but rather a standard of ideal beauty.
 Polyclitus wrote down systematic rules for proportions
that he illustrated in Doryphoros.
 He believed that the use of ideal proportions, based in
mathematical ratios found in nature, could produce
the ideal form.
 The western idea of
theatrical drama was
created by the Greeks.
 Plays were performed in
outdoor theaters as part of
religious festivals.
 Tragedies were Greek
drama’s (set of three- a
trilogy) built around a
common theme.
 The only complete trilogy
possessed today is the
Oresteia, written by
Aeschylus.
 Sophocles writer of
Oedipus Rex was another
great playwright.
 In the story accurately
foretells that Oedipus will
kill his own father and
marry his mother.
Despite trying to avoid
this he does commit these
tragic acts.
 Euripides created more
developed characters by
creating complex plots and
showed greater interest in
real life situations.
 He was controversial in his
writing; portraying war as
brutal and barbaric and by
showing compassion for
women and children who
suffered because of it.
 Greek comedies were
developed later than
tragedies and were used to
criticize politicians and
intellectuals.
 They were meant to both
entertain and provoke
reaction.
 One of the most famous
Greek comedic writers was
Aristophanes who wrote
plays full of puns and satire.
 In Western Civilization the
Greeks were the first to
present history as a
systematic analysis of past
events.
 Herodotus is viewed as
being the first historian
after he wrote History of
the Persian Wars.
 Herodotus traveled widely
and questioned many
people as a means of
obtaining his information.
 Thucydides is considered to
be the greatest historian of
the ancient world.
 An Athenian general who
fought in the Peloponnesian
Wars and would later write a
historical account of it.
 Thucydides saw war and
politics as the activities of
humans and not gods. He
examined the war clearly
and fairly.
 Philosophy refers to an organized system of thought.
The term comes from a Greek word that means “love
of wisdom.”
 Many Greek philosophers tried to explain the universe
on the basis of unifying principles.
 Pythagoras taught that
the essence of the
universe could be found
in music and numbers.
He is most famous for the
discovery of the
Pythagorean theory.
 The Sophists were a group of traveling teachers in
ancient Greece who rejected speculation as foolish.
They believed is was beyond the reach of the human
mind to understand the universe.
 They felt it more important for individuals to improve
themselves.
 The Sophists were professional teachers who stressed
the importance of rhetoric, which was valuable in
democratic Athens.
 The Sophists goal was to argue effectively, not promote
particular beliefs.
 To the Sophists there was no absolute truth or absolute
right or wrong.
 True wisdom consisted of being able to perceive and
pursue one’s own good.
 Because of many of the Sophists belief people viewed
their teaching as harmful to society.
 Socrates was a sculptor whose real love was
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philosophy.
He believed the goal of education should
be to improve the individual.
He taught is students to live their life by a
code of ethics. He believed people could
be happy living moral lives, and that they
could also be taught how to behave
morally.
Socrates used a teaching method
consisting of question and answers to lead
students to see things for themselves. It
would become known as the Socratic
method.
Socrates believed all knowledge is already
present within each person. Only critical
examination is needed to call it forth.
 Plato, a student of Socrates
and considered to be one of
the greatest philosophers in
Western civilization.
 He was fascinated with the
question of reality.
 Plato explained his ideas on
government in his work The
Republic.
 He believed people could
not achieve a good life
unless they lived in a just
and rational state.
 At Plato’s school in Athens, Aristotle
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was the most famous student.
He studied at Plato’s Academy for 20
years.
He did not accept Plato’s idea of ideal
forms. He believed forms were part of
things themselves.
Aristotle believed people’s happiness
was tied to their behavior and that
happiness was the result of living a life
full of virtue.
He was interested in analyzing and
classifying things based on
observation and investigation.
He believed, after much study, that the
best form of government for most
people was constitutional.