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CHW 3M
 The arts – sculpture, architecture, pottery, literature,
and theatre – are often considered the crowning
achievements of Greek civilization
 Greek males had the leisure time to follow artistic
pursuits
 Greek city-states were open to outside influences and
welcomed new ideas
 Greeks learned from their near-eastern neighbours
and built on their accomplishments
Ancient Greek Art
Three distinct time periods.
1. Archaic (600BC-480BC)
• strongly influenced by Egypt
• stiff in appearance
2. Classical (480BC-323BC)
• art was a product
• meant to show “ideal
beauty”
3. Hellenistic (323BC-30BC)
• art was an expression
• realism
Early statues were done in wood. Later
sculptors used stone and bronze.
 Sculptors in ancient Greece excelled
in representing the human form
 Earliest Greek sculptures depicted
people in awkward, rigid poses
 These figures seem almost stiff or
ritualistic in their stance
 The hair looks unnatural, like a wig,
and folds in clothing are merely
suggested by a few simple lines or
patterns
An early Greek
statue, from the 7th
century BCE
 Artists in the classical period sought to
represent the ideal human form – the
most beautiful representation possible
 The great philosopher Socrates
described the goal of these sculptors
when he said, “It is so difficult to find a
perfect model that you combine the
most beautiful details of several, and
thus contrive to make the whole figure
look beautiful.”
 Paid attention to accurate representation
of natural movement and details of
appearance
 Sculpted the faces as dignified and
serene
 Focus shifted from idealism to
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realism
Human faces on these sculptures
displayed much greater emotion
Features may look contorted or
strained
One famous sculpture from
Hellenistic period, known as the
“Lacoon” portrays a mythical
event of the Trojan War, when
Apollo sent snakes to destroy
Lacoon, the priest of Troy, for
warning his fellow citizens about
the Trojan horse
Faces of figures reveal terror and
agony
 Most pottery was intended for everyday use and
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included drinking cups, mixing bowls, and oil jars
Corinth and Athens were among the most important
centres for pottery
After the 6th century, Athens became the dominant
manufacturer
The pottery industry flourished in Athens because
extensive beds of fine potter’s clay, containing a high
iron content, were located quite near the city
When the pottery was fired in a kiln, the iron content
gave it a rich reddish tinge, a distinctive quality of all
pottery made in Athens
 Mainland Greek pottery dating from the
late Dark Ages was simple, yet pleasing
to the eye
 The potters decorated the vessels with
abstract patterns of lines, circles and
bands of colour
 This style is now refferred to as
“geometric”
 Even when the artisans began to
represent human figures in the 8th
century BCE, they portrayed them in the
same geometrical, abstract way
 Potters moulded vessels using hand-operated wheels
 Once shaped, the pots, cups and vases were kept in a
damp room until ready for decorating
 At the first stage of painting, the potters covered the
surface with an ochre wash to heighten the colour of
the clay
 They then added a design to the pottery
 Once the potters completed the decorating, they fired
the painted pieces in a kiln to ensure a lasting finish
 During the 6th century BCE, Athenian potters used the
reddish colour of the clay as the background on their
vases
 They then added figures depicting events from
mythology and everyday life in black
 During the classical period, the reverse colours
became more popular. Potters glazed the background
black and added the figures in red. Black lines
provided the details.
Ancient Greek Pottery
Very few paintings have survived from the days of Ancient Greece
• must of what we know comes from pottery paintings.
Black-Figure Pottery
Red-Figure Pottery
Architecture
Most building were built with
vertical columns. Architects of
Ancient Greece built according to
strict mathematical rules and
careful proportions . This gave a:
• feeling of balance
• simplicity
• beauty
There were three main styles:
• Doric
• Ionic
• Corinthian
 Temples consisted of a long hall with rows of columns
on the outside supporting a low peaked roof
 A triangular piece was sent in the front and back above
the columns, under the peak
 This design is sometimes called post-and-lintel
construction, because the vertical walls of columns
(posts) held up the horizontal beams of the roof
(lintels) at right angles
 The Greeks did not use the arch in their buildings
 Symmetry and proportion were key principles in Greek
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architectural design
If you divided a symmetrical design in half with an
imaginary line, each half would appear to be the same
In proportional design, each part of the structure
would also stand pleasing in relation to the next
If a column was between 6 m and 9 m high, for
example, its width at the top would the six-sevenths of
its width at the bottom
If the column was between 12 m and 16 m high, the
width of the top would be sevent-eighths of the width
at the bottom
Temples were the most
important building is
Ancient Greece. They
focused on
• religious feeling
• local pride
The most famous
temple is the
Parthenon, which sits
atop the Acropolis in
Athens
 The decorated area between
the top column and the roof,
often carved of stone, is the
frieze
 In an Ionic temple, the frieze
might run continuously
around the whole building
 In a Doric temple, the frieze
was a series of individual
panels called metopes,
separated by stone slabs.
Each stone slab was decorated
with three carved vertical
lines
 Doric Capital: The Doric style was plain,
massive and dignified. This was the style
most favoured by the Athenians in the 5th
century BCE and was used in the
construction of the Parthenon
 Ionic Capital: The Ionic Capital curled
out on either side in volutes like a pair of
ram’s horns
 Corinthian Capital: The later Corinthian
style was rich and ornate. The capital was
carved to represent a bunch of acanthus
leaves
Ancient Greek Literature
The Greeks wrote a great deal, and a surprising
amount of what they wrote is still available to us today.
Their writing is traditionally divided into types:
1. The Epic
Two connected works written by Homer around
700BC. Major sources of inspiration and widely
quoted in ancient world.
The Iliad: The story of
the Trojan war
The Odyssey: Odysseus
journey home after the war
2. Poems
Usually very short and poked fun and government or
rival state. Often lyrically and meant to entertain guest
at a dinner party. Ex. Archilochus and the Spartans
3. Philosophy
First written as a dialogue between two people. Aristotle
later wrote volumes of books in prose.
4. History
Documented historically events written in prose. The two
most famous Ancient Greek historians were
Herodotus: Persian Wars
Thucydides: Peloponnesian Wars
 We could argue that no single writer had a greater
influence than Homer, the epic poet from Chios
 The Iliad and the Odyssey, written during the Dark
Ages, helped to create a “national literature” for the
ancient Greeks
 As part of every Greek boy’s education, the poems
became a unifying force in Greek culture
 Epics were long poems telling stories of heroic deeds
that often affected the fate of an entire city or people
 Not all poems dealt with major deeds or sought to
glorify the past
 The Poet, Hesiod, who lived just after Homer,
produced a popular poem called Works and Days in
which he detailed the daily life of the farmer in ancient
Greece
 Hesiod also wrote Theogony, an account of the
creation of the universe and the history of the gods
 Another popular form of literature
 Lyric poems are shorter and more personal than epics,
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expressing feelings of love
Most of them were written to be sung, accompanied by
the lyre
Sappho
Pindar, poems often celebrated the victors of the
Olympic Games, often performed in a precession for
the athletes as they returned in triumph
At dinner parties, guests often sang lyric poetry to
musical accompaniment
 Fable is another literary form that we associate with
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ancient Greece
Fables are short, concise tales that use animal
characters to convey a moral message
Many children today still read Aesop’s fables,
including such popular stores as “The Shepherd Boy
and the Wolf,” “The Fox and the Grapes,” and “The
Hare and the Tortoise”
No one knows the true identity of Aesop
The historian Herodotus claimed that Aesop was a
slave who had lived a century earlier
Today, historians consider it more likely that the
popular collection of fables was composed by a variety
of anonymous authors
 The ancient Greeks also enjoyed drama
 Greek tragedies and comedies attracted
thousands of spectators to annual drama
competitions
 Greek theatre was an outdoor event
Theatre at Epidauros
 The site chosen for the construction of a
theatre offered a slopping area where a
natural auditorium could be built
 The site allowed for banked tiers of audience
seats, an orchestra and a stage
Theatre at Delohi
Theatre at
Dionysus
 The circular area in the centre of the theatre was called
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the orchestra, a Greek word meaning dancing place
It was given this name because the 15 members of the
Greek chorus recited and danced in this area during
the performance of the play
Behind the orchestra was the stage, and behind the
stage either a building or a tent where the actors
changed and where properties were stored
The stage, which always represented either a temple or
a palace, had a central door with additional doors
opening to the sides
Properties were kept to a minimum because what was
said was considered far more important than what was
seen
 Playwrights wrote their dramas so that the leading actor never assumed
more than one role
 The other two actors portrayed all other characters
 Actors wore masks made of linen, cork or wood with highly
exaggerated features, designed to be seen from the back of the theatre
 When a performer switched masks, the audience knew that he was
changing roles
 Tragedians: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides
 Comedic playwrights: Aristophanes
 Aeschylus wrote about murder, revenge, divine justice,
and the relationships between humans and gods
 Sophocles chose moral and religious beliefs as his
themes and considered how destiny affected the lives
of individuals
 Euripides wrote of everyday life, and questioned the
moral and religious beliefs of his contemporaries
 Aristophanes ridiculed people, ideas, and social
customs
 Held in March called the City of Dionysia, dedicated
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to Dionysus
The four-day event opened with a procession, followed
by sacrifices to the god at an altar set up in the middle
of the orchestra
On each of the 3 days, the playwrights selected for the
competition presented their works
Most citizens attended and came prepared to view
several plays at a sitting, sometimes for 10 hours a day
Most of the plays were tragedies, but each day ended
with a comedy
A panel of 10 citizens judged the competition
At the end of the 4th day, a winner was determined by
vote
5. The Plays
Plays originated out of the festival for Dionysus
and became immensely popular with the Greeks.
There were two main types of plays.
Tragedy
Tragedies often were based around mythical stories and never
ended well for the hero. Their purpose was to bring the
audience member to a spiritual awakening that would help
them be fuller, more useful and responsible citizens.
Comedy
Comedy was supposed to be a mockery of people and situations, a criticism against
immorality, greed and corruption. The language used in comedy’s are very vulgar by
today’s standards.