Download The Classical Greek Age

The Classical Greek Age
500-350 BCE
Theater of Dionysus
What is Aristophanes’s attitude
toward democracy?
How does he express this attitude
in the plays?
Approximately when does the
action in the play take place?
Why did the war start?
What sort of man is Dikaipolis?
Who were the Acharnians, and
what was their relationship with
Dikaipolis?
How does the play start?
A. With the main character having breakfast
in the agora with his friends
B. With the main character praying at the
temple of Athena in the Acropolis
C. With the main character sitting alone at the
pnyx
D. With the main character waking his
household
What prompted Dikaipolis to
introduce an action at the Assembly?
A. He sought compensation for his work for
the polis
B. He sought to end the war with Sparta
C. He sought to start a war with Persia
D. He wanted to practice his skills as an
orator
How does Dikaipolis explain the
outbreak of the war?
A. He blames Spartan aggression
B. He mentions the abduction of women
C. He refers to a prophecy by the Delphic
Oracle
D. He suggests that Socrates persuaded the
Athenians to undertake reckless policies
Cleisthenes
Father of
Athenian
Democracy
508-507
BCE
The Persian Empire
Persian Soldiers
Immortal
Lancers
Their pikes
were
approximately
2 feet shorter
than those of
the Greek
hoplites
The Persian Empire
Persepolis
Greek
Hoplites
Greek Trireme
Athenian Coinage and Patriotism
The Periclean Building Programs
• Named after Pericles (c. 495-429
BCE), the Athenian general/statesman
who championed the building
program
– Parthenon started in 447 BCE with
money from the Delian league
– Numerous temples built in the Parthenon
complex as well as around Athens
The Athenian Acropolis c. 430 BCE
The Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, 448-432 BCE
Concrete replica of the Parthenon in
Nashville, Tennessee's Centennial Park
Map of
Athens
c . 430 BCE
Acropolis from the Agora
Herodotus
& Thucydides
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
Aeschylus, Sophocles & Euripides
Theater of Dionysus
Spartan
Culture and
Architectural
Styles
Spartan
Women
Military Might of
Athens and Sparta
at the Beginning
of the War c. 330
Course of
the War
Overview
•
•
•
•
The Delian League
Public life and democracy in Athens
Greek Theater
Women & Greek society
Background
• Because Athens has left us the most abundant records
of life in classical antiquity, it is tempting to assume
that the Athenian experience was typical; however, in
analyzing life in classical Greece, we must keep in
mind that Athens was probably 30-50 times larger
than the typical Greek city-state; consequently its
cultural life was much richer and more varied than the
experience of most ancient Greek city-states
• With that caveat in mind, many city-states adopted
Athenian customs and traditions so that they
resembled the Athenian model in various ways
The Delian League
• After the removal of the Persians from Greece, the
Athenians established an alliance of Ionian city-states
(the Delian League) for the purpose of protecting the
Greek settlements along the coast of Asia Minor from
Persian retribution
– commercial purposes
– tax levies
– imperial purposes
• By 460, the League had successfully eliminated the
Persians from the Mediterranean.
• As revenues from the League continued to pour in,
Athens embarked on a major reconstruction program
Public Life in Athens
• The agora was the public marketplace where citizens
met to purchase goods, read public announcements,
and discuss politics
• Located on the other side of the acropolis, the
Theater of Dionysus was the scene of poetry and
theatrical contests
What does the opening scene at the assembly
suggest about the nature of Athenian democracy?
A. Athenians were corrupt and lazy
B. Pericles was an amazing orator
C. Peace with Sparta was popular
D. Panhellenism was on the rise by 430 BCE
Athenian Democracy Defined
• Direct and widespread participation of male citizens in
legislation - slaves, metics, and women excluded
• Random selection and rotation of membership in
– the council of 500
– jurors
– magistrates
• Elaborate precautions against malfeasance & corruption
• Equal protection under the law, regardless of wealth
• Ten generals with far reaching authority
The Expansion of the Popular Vote
• The Law of Pericles in 461 BCE removed property
restriction on the attainment of citizenship and
consequently expanded the number of people who
participated in Athenian democracy
• Critics of this development, including Aristophanes,
claimed that the law increased the influence of
demagogues who catered to the poorer, lazier, and
uneducated members of Athenian society, who sought
handouts from the government in exchange for political
support; this notion pervades the Aristophanic comedies
in his treatment of
– juries
– popular leaders, most notoriously Kleon & Kleophon
Greek Philosophy
• Literally the love of knowledge, philosophy in ancient
Greece was more akin to what we call education than the
pursuit that modern people associate with philosophy
– covered a broad range of subjects
– seen as essential for democracy to function properly
– gradually broke into separate movements or schools during the
fourth century BCE - see Hellenistic civilization
The Sophists
• In Athens they were often metics who came from Asia Minor
• Little or no influence in Sparta, which spurned outsiders who
talked a lot
• They appear frequently in the writings of Plato as the intellectual
rivals of Socrates; Plato contrasts the shallowness of their
rhetorical skills to Socrates’ quest for the truth
• A group of teachers who specialized in rhetoric and the art of
persuasion; they frequently traveled from town to town charging
for their services; eventually the term became derogatory as they
gained a reputation as “word twisters”
• Their success in Athens underscores the increasing importance
of public speaking in Athens
– Litigiousness
– Politics
• Frequently drew distinctions between nature and convention
Plato & Aristotle
• Plato (427-348 BCE)
– mystical understanding of the forms as ultimate reality; his allegory of the
cave is characteristic of his idealism
– our primary source about the life of Socrates
– his Academy was an influential school of philosophy
– glorification of the contemplative life
– tendency toward monotheism
• Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
– emphasized observation and the senses for discovery of the truth; this
approach typified his more pragmatic approach to discovering the truth
– student of Plato
– enormous influence on formative thinking in logic, rhetoric, biology,
physics, ethics, metaphysics
– teacher of Alexander the Great
– originally from Macedonia but spent most of his life in Athens
– extremely biased against women as rational thinkers
Herodotus & Thucydides
• Herodotus, 485-425 BCE
– Originally from Asia minor, he traveled broadly throughout the eastern
Mediterranean
– Our best source for the Persian War
– Interested in the rise and fall of empires
– Influenced by Greek tragedy and the tragic flaws of greed and arrogance
that accompany wealth and success
• Thucydides, 455-397 BCE
–
–
–
–
–
ostracized for his failure as an Athenian general
our best source for the Peloponnesian war
interested in the dehumanizing aspects of war
also influenced by Greek tragedy
sought historical causation in terms of human nature rather than the
influence of the gods
– Recorded great speeches such as Pericles’ funeral oration
Greek Theater
• The oldest form of theater were probably tragedies,
which usually invited the audience to contemplate the
dangers related to ignorance, arrogance, violence,
public responsibility, individual freedom, good vs
evil
• Athens had an elaborate outdoor theater of Dionysus
that could hold approximately 15,000 people
• productions usually took place in the afternoon
• By the fifth century, every Spring Athens hosted a
Dionysian festival that included a competition of
plays
Greek Theater
• Like tragedy Greek comedies were
–
–
–
–
written in verse
performed during festivals
subsidized by public funds
included a chorus
• unlike tragedy, comedies
– commented directly on contemporary events and public policy
– skewered political & intellectual leaders
• The comedies from the time of the Peloponnesian War
underscore the incredible freedom of speech that characterized
Athens even in time of war
• Most of the humor in the comedies concerned sex and bodily
functions and seems somewhat immature by modern standards
• Plays usually performed in the context of heavy drinking in front
of a predominately or entirely male audience
Greek Theater
• Aristophanes reached the height of his influence during
the Peloponnesian War
• He is generally associated with the Old Style of Greek
Comedy
–
–
–
–
chorus: parabasis
frequent use of a phallus recalls origins of Dionysian festivals
attacks on individuals; a roast
heavy drinking almost certainly took place during these
performances
Women & Greek Society
• in Athens women were considered citizens but they
were a subclass of the citizenry with no right to vote
• In many Greek city-states (except Sparta) women
were discouraged from appearing in public, except for
religious festivals, funerals, and domestic necessity
• because men were often involved in either military
training (Sparta) or politics and commerce (Athens),
women often exercised significant influence over the
administration of the estates, the household, and the
slaves
Women & Greek Society
• Rich women tended to powder their skin in order to
demonstrate their wealth, which allowed them to
stay out of the sun
• segregation between the sexes was more pronounced
among aristocrats; working women usually had to
interact with men to make a living
• the restriction of women’s movements to the
household probably originated with their concerns
about ascertaining the paternity of their children and
with the desire to ensure that daughters maintained
their virginity until marriage
Women & Greek Society
• The status of a married women increased dramatically
as she produced legitimate offspring, especially males
• A group of women, known as companions (aspasians),
defied the normal course of the Athenian family and
developed an alternative lifestyle
–
–
–
–
–
often foreigners
physically attractive and witty
able to sing and play music
often entertained men at symposia - parties without wives
engaged in conversations with men on topics of politics
Relations Between Athens and Sparta
• Immediately following the Persian Wars (c. 480),
Athens and Sparta enjoyed very warm relations
• By 460, relations had cooled considerably as the
popular faction gained increasing control of Athenian
politics
• Offering pay for jurors and an expansion of the voting
franchise, the popular party advocated imperialist
policies that eventually brought Athens into conflict
with the Spartans c. 430
Summary
• Although the Athenian experience was atypical of
many Greek city-states, records of the Athenian
experience yield a detailed view of Greek life during
the fifth century BCE
• The political and commercial advantages enjoyed by
the Athenians allowed them to develop popular
institutions and traditions related to
–
–
–
–
politics
culture
art
law
Summary
• Gradually during the fifth century BCE the citizens of Athens
began to believe in the superiority of their city-state to others,
and this belief led them to embark on the reckless imperialist
policies that brought their ruin
• During the same period, the Athenians increasingly devalued
both working with one’s hands and working for someone else;
increasingly they viewed both of these activities as
abridgements of one’s freedom and therefore vile
• Nevertheless, the intellectual achievements of Athens during the
fifth and fourth centuries BCE were nothing short of
extraordinary and continue to influence our preconceptions
about art, music, politics, law, and the hard sciences to this day