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Chapter 6-Greece, Golden
and Hellenistic Ages
“Golden Age of Greece”
• Lasted from about 480BC-430BC, only 50
years
• Period between the Persian and
Peloponnesian Wars
• Athens was the center of Greek culture
at this time
Greek Architecture
• Temples had the finest
architecture
• Surrounded by a
colonnade
• 3 types of columns:
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian
Temples
• Triangle shaped
pediment with
sculpture on top,
which were painted
with bright colors
• Had a shrine inside
with a statue to
honor one of the
Gods
Acropolis of Athens-Parthenon
• After the Persian Wars, Athens
rebuilt the Temple of Athena
Parthenos (virgin) –the
Parthenon-on its acropolis
• One of the most beautiful
buildings in the world
• Built of white marble
• Perfectly balanced proportions
4:9
• Used counter-optical illusions,
called optical refinements, to
make it look perfect to the human
eye
• Had a 38 ft. ivory & gold statue of
Athena inside
• Heavily damaged in 1687 when it
was used as for ammunition
storage during a war, and blew
up!
• This is the idea: A “perfect” building will
not look perfect, due to natural optical
illusions. So the Greeks deliberately
compensated for the natural optical
illusions with “counter” optical illusions.
Vase Painting
• Best preserved
examples of Greek
painting are on
vases.
• Scenes from
mythology or
everyday life, which
tell us a lot about
life in Greece
• Either black on red,
or red on black; red
being the natural
color of the clay
SCULPTURE
• Original Greek statues are rare today; we mostly know them from
Roman copies
• Early Greek sculpture was stiff and straight, like Egyptian painting
• By 400’s BC, figures were graceful, rounded, lifelike, but more beautiful
and “buff” than a real person could possibly be. Often portrayed the
nude male body.
• Examples
The Discus Thrower Poseidon Funeral Stele of Hegeso
Greek Art-General Characteristics
• Glorified the human individual and showed
the individual at his best, physically and
mentally.
• Was displayed in public for public
enjoyment and the honor of the polis
• Showed harmony, balance, order,
moderation
• Much of Greek art was also useful; for
example, the vases.
Greek Philosophy
• Literally-”love of wisdom”
• Study of the basic questions of reality and
human existence
• Earliest Greek philosophers were interested in
what the universe was made of, like theoretical
physicists; often called cosmologists
• For example: Democritus theorized that
everything is made of tiny indivisible particles he
called “atoms”.
Greek Philosophers-Socrates
• Roamed around the Athenian
agora, talking to people
• Asked questions to force
people to test their own
ideas.
• Socratic method-teaching
through asking questions
• Falsely accused of denying
the existence of the Gods
and corrupting the youth
• Put on trial and found guilty.
• Refused to escape; was
executed by being forced to
drink poison.
Greek Philosophers-Plato
• Student of Socrates, who wrote his own philosophy in the form of
dialogues between Socrates & other people in Athens
• Founded the Academy-a school of philosophy in Athens
• Theory of “Forms”-all material things are imperfect expressions of
perfect, universal ideas, which he called “Forms”
• Allegory of the Cave-We are like prisoners in a cave; the material
things we see are like shadows on the wall of the cave ; the “real”
things, the “Forms”, are outside the cave
• Identified God with the “Form of Goodness”, the highest “Form”
• Believed our Souls are immortal, and are reincarnated.
Allegory of the cave:Ted-Talks
Allegory of the cave:clay-mation
Allegory of the cave-funny version
Video-Plato
Greek Philosophers-Aristotle
• Student of Plato
• Unlike Plato, believed that material
things are real
• Believed every field of knowledge should be
studied logically; studied & wrote about almost
everything
• Wrote scientific works, & classified many things,
including plants and animals, into systems
• Also studied & wrote: Ethics-what is good;
Poetics-analyzed drama; Politics-analyzed
different forms of government, and what makes
a good government
• Teacher of Alexander the Great
Video-Aristotle
Greek Approach to Science
• Scientists of earlier civilizations explained
natural events as the work of the Gods
• Greek scientists explained the natural
world in terms of natural laws, that could
be discovered through reason
Greek Mathematics
• Pythagoras-philosopher who believed everything
could be explained in terms of mathematics, and
that mathematics was the ultimate reality
• Developed the Pythagorean Theorem (though
others may have discovered it separately)
• Established a special community of
mathematicians, who lived by strict rules and ate
no meat (or beans!), which combined math with
mystical religious teachings
Greek Science- Hippocrates
• Regarded as the founder of medical science
• Wrote 60-70 medical studies, based on
observation, experiment and experience
• Believed that disease comes from natural
causes, not punishment from the Gods
• Believed in rest, fresh air, proper diet.
• Doctors still take the “Hippocratic Oath”, in which
they pledge to follow a code of ethics based on
the teachings of Hippocrates.
• From the Hippocratic Oath: “Use treatment to
help the sick. . . never with a view to injury . . . “
HISTORIANS-Herodotus
• Called the father of history-First historian
of the western world
• Traveled to Babylonia, Phoenicia & Egypt
and included descriptions of these
countries in his writings
• Wrote the History of the Persian Wars
• Probably exaggerated at times, and
“fictionalized” conversations
• However, he usually noted whether he had
seen something himself or heard about it
from others.
HISTORIANS-Thucydides
• 2nd great Greek historian
• Wrote History of the Peloponnesian War
• Tried to be accurate and fair to both sides;
far less biased than the writings of
Herodotus
• Tried to analyze the deeper causes of the
war, and the causes of events during the
war
• Believed that studying the past helps us
understand human nature.
• Greeks were the first to write “drama”plays with dialogue and conflict
• 1, 2 or 3 actors; also a chorus, a groups of
12-15 performers, who spoke together and
spoke or sang the lines
• They performed
wearing
oversized masks
of wood, cloth or
leather.
• Plays were often
performed in
honor of the god
Dionysus.
• The theaters were
usually semicircular and built
into a hillside.
• In Athens, there
was an annual
dramatic
competition
• The main types of plays were:
– Tragedies
• Often the main character was punished for hubristhe sin of pride.
– Comedies
• Hilarious. Made fun of real people and institutions.
Tragedy
• Most famous writers of tragedy
– Aeschylus-wrote about religion and the nature
of justice
– Sophocles-wrote about the deeper Greek
values
• “What do you do when God’s law says do x, but
man’s law says to do y?
– Euripides-questioned accepted beliefs.
• “The Trojan Women”-Tragedy written to protest the
cruelty of the Peloponnesian War
• Most famous writer of
comedy
– Aristophanes
– Absolutely hilarious.
– “Clouds”-made fun of
Socrates for his theories
about education.
– “Lysistrata”-comedy written
to protest the Peloponnesian
War