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Chapter 5: Ancient Greece
Preview: Ancient Greek culture forms the cornerstone of Western cultural tradition. Though the
ancient Greeks inherited some practices and forms from Egypt and Mesopotamia, they developed
a distinct artistic and architectural identity that had profound impact on every Western culture
since their time. Ancient Greek culture spans from ca. 900 BCE to ca. 30 BCE, and is divided into
periods—the Geometric and Orientalizing, the Archaic, the Early and High Classical, the Late
Classical, and the Hellenistic—marked by the development and refinement of artistic styles and
architectural form. The ancient Greeks excelled at vase painting and produced highly refined
sculptures, but among the greatest Ancient Greek achievements is the perfection of the temple
form, exemplified in the Parthenon, the High Classical-period temple dedicated to Athena on the
Acropolis in Athens. The Hellenistic Period witnesses a transforming cultural sensibility in Greece,
one marked by influence from Eastern cultures as well as an increased freedom of expression. The
Roman Empire is in its ascendency by the end of the Hellenistic Period in 30 BCE, and its art and
architecture reflect the profound influence of Greek culture.
Key Social & Political Terms: Polis, demos/democracy, Hellas/Hellenes, Dorians, Ionians
Key Place Names: Mt. Olympus, Athens, Acropolis, Peloponnesos, Macedonia
Key Heroes, Gods & Goddesses: Athena (Minerva), Zeus (Jupiter), Herakles (Hercules), Apollo,
Aphrodite (Venus)
Lecture Notes:
Introductory Notes:
Geometric and Orientalizing Periods:
Dates _____________
Key Terms: krater, amphora, meander or key pattern, centaur, siren, black figure painting, slip,
Daedalic Style
Key Figures: Daedalus
Introductory Notes:
Geometric Art:

Geometric krater, from the Dipylon cemetery, Athens, Greece, ca. 740 BCE
o Materials:
o Scale/size:
o Subjects represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
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Dipylon Painter, Geometric funerary amphora, ca. 750 BCE
o Description:
o Subjects & stylistic features:
Hero and centaur (Herakles and Nessos?), from Olympia, Greece, ca. 750-730 BCE
o Materials:
o Scale/size:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Orientalizing Art:
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Mantiklos Apollo, statuette of a youth dedicated by Mantiklos to Apollo, from Thebes,
Greece, ca. 700-680 BCE
o Materials:
o Scale/size:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Corinthian black-figure amphora with animal friezes, from Rhodes, Greece, ca. 625-600
BCE
o Materials:
o Scale/size:
o Subjects represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Lady of Auxerre, ca. 650-625 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Scale/size:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Temple A, Prinias, ca. 625 BCE (plan)
o Description:
o Architectural features & location on plan:
Lintel of Temple A, Prinias, ca. 625 BCE
o Description & subjects:
o Stylistic features:
Archaic Period:
Dates _____________
Key Terms: kore (p. korai), kouros (pl. kouroi), Archaic smile, peplos, chiton, himation, gorgon,
apotropaic figure, encaustic, black- and red-figure painting, bilingual painting, foreshortening,
gigantomachy
Greek Temple Terms: naos or cella, pronaos, opisthodomos, anta/antai, columns in antis,
colonnade (types: prostyle, amphiprostyle, peristyle, peripteral, dipteral), cult statue, treasury
Doric and Ionic Order Terms: elevation, pediment, stylobate, columns (shaft, flutes, capital, base,
entasis, caryatid), capitals (echinus, volutes, abacus), entablature (architrave, frieze, cornice,
triglyph, metope)
Key Figures: Kleitias, Ergotimos, Exekias, Andokides Painter, Euphronios, Euthymides
Artworks:
Statuary:

Kouros, from Attica, Greece, ca. 600 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:

Calf bearer, dedicated by Rhonbos on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 560 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Kroisos, from Anavysos, Greece, ca. 530 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Peplos Kore, from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 530 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Kore in Ionian dress, from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 520-50 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
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Architecture and Architectural Sculpture
Plan of a typical Greek peripteral temple:
o General Description:
o Architectural features and location on plan:
The Canonical Greek temple:
o Elevation:
o Stylistic features:
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o Materials and construction method:
Elevations of the Doric and Ionic Orders:
o Structural features:
o Stylistic features:
Temple of Hera I (“Basilica”), Paestum, Italy, ca. 550 BCE
o General Description:
o Plan:
o Elevation:
o Stylistic features:
West pediment, Temple of Artemis, Corfu, Greece, ca. 600-580 BCE
o Subjects represented:
o Stylistic features:
Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi (looking north)
o Description:
Restored view of the Siphnian Treasury, Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi, Greece, ca. 530 BCE
o Structural features:
o Stylistic features:
o Function:
Gigantomachy, detail of the north frieze of the Siphnian Treasury, Delphi, Greece, ca. 530
BCE
o Subject/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
Vase Painting
Exekias, Achilles killing Penthesilea, ca. 540-530 BCE
o Description, subject, & stylistic features:
Kleitias and Ergotimos, François Vase (Athenian black-figure volute krater), from Chiusi,
Italy, ca. 570 BCE (with detail of the centauromachy)
o General description:
o Style of vase:
o Style of painting:
o Subjects/narrative represented:
o Significance:
Exekias, Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game (detail of an Athenian black-figure amphora),
from Vulci, Italy, ca. 540-530 BCE
o Subjects/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
Andokides Painter, Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game (Athenian bilingual amphora),
from Orvieto, Italy, ca. 525-520 BCE
o Subjects/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
Euphronios, Herakles wrestling Antaios (detail of an Athenian red-figure calyx krater),
from Cerveteri, Italy, ca. 510 BCE
o Subjects/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
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o Significance:
Euphronios, Death of Sarpedon, ca. 515 BCE
o Description, subjects & stylistic features:
Euthymides, Three revelers (Athenian red-figure amphora), from Vulci, Italy, ca. 510 BCE
o Subjects/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
Onesimos, Girl preparing to bathe, ca. 490 BCE
o Description, subject & stylistic features:
Aegina and the Transition to the Classical Period
Temple of Aphaia (looking southwest), Aegina, Greece, ca. 500-490 BCE
o General description:
o Structural features:
o Significance:
Model showing internal elevation and plan of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece
o Description:
o Architectural features:
Guillaume-Abel Blouet, restored view (1828) of the façade of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina,
Greece
o Decorative features:
Dying warrior, from the west pediment; Dying warrior, from the east pediment of the
Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece, ca. 480 BCE
o General description:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
Early and High Classical Periods:
Dates______________
Key Terms: Severe Style, contrapposto, bronze hollow cast/lost wax process (investment,
chaplets), Canon of Polykleitos, centauromacy, Amazonomachy, white ground painting, lekythos
Key Figures: Libon of Elis, Myron, Pythagoras, Polykleitos, Kresilas, Iktinos and Kallikrates,
Phidias, Mnesikles, Achilles Painter, Polygnotos, Niobid Painter, Phiale Painter, Lord Elgin
Early Classical Artworks:
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Early Classical Architecture & Architectural Sculpture:
Temple of Hera II or Apollo, Paestum, Italy, ca. 460 BCE
o Structural features:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
Chariot race of Pelops and Oinomaos (with figure of a Seer), east pediment, Temple of Zeus,
Olympia, Greece, ca. 470-456 BCE
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o Subjects/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
Apollo, from the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece, ca. 470-456 BCE
o Subject/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
West pediment, Temple of Zeus, Olympia, ca. 470-456 BCE
o Description:
o Subjects:
Athena, Herakles, and Atlas with the apples of the Hesperides, metope from the Temple of
Zeus, Olympia, Greece, ca. 470-456 BCE
o Subjects/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
Early and High Classical Statuary:
 Kritios Boy, from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 480 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Stylistic features:
o Function and significance:
 Warrior, from the sea off Riace, Italy, ca. 460-450 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Stylistic features:
o Subject/narrative represented:
o Function and significance:
 Charioteer, from a group dedicated by Polyzalos of Gela in the Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi,
Greece, ca. 470 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Stylistic features:
o Function and significance:
 Diagram: Two stages of the lost-wax method of bronze casting
o Description & notes:
 Zeus (or Poseidon?), from the sea off Cape Artemision, Greece, ca. 460-450 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Stylistic features:
o Subject represented:
o Function and significance:
 Myron, Diskobolos (Discus Thrower), Roman copy of a bronze statue of ca. 450 BCE
o Stylistic features:
o Subject/narrative represented:
o Function and significance:
 Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), Roman copy from the palaestra, Pompeii, Italy, of a
bronze statue of ca. 450-440 BCE
o Stylistic features:
o Function and significance:
The Athenian Acropolis:
 Kresilas, Pericles. Roman herm copy of the head of a bronze statue of ca. 429 BCE.
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
 Periclean Acropolis
o Dates of construction:
o General description:
o Names of structures & locations:
The Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 447-438 BCE
 Parthenon Architecture
o Architects:
o General description:
o Significant structural features:
 Plan of the Parthenon
o Description:
o Architectural features and location on plan:
 Athena Parthenos, cult statue in the cella of the Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca.
438 BCE
o Sculptor:
o General description & original materials:
o Subject and symbols represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function and significance:
 Centauromachy, metope from the south side of the Parthenon
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
 Parthenon, east pediment sculpture: Helios and his horses and Dionysos (Herakles?); Three
goddesses (Hestia, Dione, and Aphrodite?)
o Compositional arrangement:
o Stylistic features:
 Parthenon, Ionic Frieze:
o General subject of frieze:
o Specific representations:
o Stylistic features:
Other Acropolis Structures & Related Artworks
 Propylaia, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 437-432 BCE
o Architect:
o Structural features:
o Stylistic features:
o Location on the Acropolis and function:
 Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 421-405 BCE
o Structural features:
o Stylistic features:
o Location on the Acropolis and function:
 Plan of the Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens, Greece
o Description:
 Caryatids of the south porch of the Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 421-405 BCE
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 427-424 BCE
o Architect:
o Stylistic features:
o Location on the Acropolis and function:
 Nike adjusting her sandal, from the south side of the parapet of the Temple of Athena Nike,
Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 410 BCE
o Subject represented:
o Location on Temple:
o Stylistic features:
 Grave stele of Hegeso, from the Dipylon cemetery, Athens, Greece, ca. 400 BCE
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Classical Painting
 Achilles Painter, Warrior taking leave of his wife (Athenian white-ground lekythos), from
Eretria, Greece, ca. 440 BCE
o Materials/medium:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Niobid Painter, Artemis and Apollo slaying the children of Niobe (Athenian red-figure calyx
krater), from Orvieto, Italy, ca. 450 BCE
o Materials/medium:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Reed Painter, Warrior seated at his tomb, ca. 410-400 BCE
o Description & subject:
o Stylistic features:
 Phiale Painter, Hermes bringing the infant Dionysos to Papposilenos (Athenian whiteground calyx krater), from Vulci, Italy, ca. 440-435 BCE
o Materials/medium:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Youth diving, cover slab of the Tomb of the Diver, Tempe del Prete necropolis, Paestum,
Italy, ca. 480-470 BCE
o Materials/medium:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Late Classical Period:
Dates______________
Key Terms: hydria, apoxyomenos, strigil, pebble mosaic, tessera mosaic, Corinthian capitals,
tholos
Key Figures: Praxiteles, Skopas of Paros, Lysippos, Glykon of Athens, Alexander the Great,
Philoxenos of Eretria, Polykleitos the Younger, Theodoros of Phokaia, Kallimachos
Late Classical Sculpture:

Praxiteles, Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman copy of a marble statue of ca. 350-340 BCE
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Head of a woman, Chios, ca. 320-300 BCE
o Description & stylistic features:
 Praxiteles(?), Hermes and the infant Dionysos, from the Temple of Hera, Olympia, Greece.
Copy of a marble statue by Praxiteles of ca. 340 BCE or an original work of ca. 330-270 BCE
by a son or grandson.
o Subjects represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Artist painting a statue of Herakles, ca. 350-320 BCE
o Description & significance:
 Herakles, Temple of Athena Alea, Tegea, ca. 340 BCE
o Description & significance:
 Mausoleum, Halikarnassos, ca. 353-340 BCE
o Description:
o Function & significance:
 Grave stele of a young hunter, found near the Ilissos River, Athens, Greece, ca. 340-330 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Subjects/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Lysippos, Apoxyomenos (Scraper). Roman copy of a bronze statue of ca. 330 BCE
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Lysippos, Weary Herakles (Farnese Hercules). Roman statue from the Baths of Caracalla,
Rome, Italy, signed by Glykon of Athens, based on a bronze statue of ca. 320 BCE
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Alexander the Great and Macedonian Court Art:
 Head of Alexander the Great, from Pella, Greece, third century BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:

Gnosis, Stag hunt, from Pella, Greece, ca. 300 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Hades abducting Persephone, detail of a wall painting in tomb 1, Vergina, Greece, midfourth century BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Subjects/narrative depicted:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Philoxenos of Eretria, Battle of Issus, ca. 310 BCE. Roman copy (Alexander Mosaic) from the
House of the Faun, Pompeii, Italy, late second or early first century BCE.
o Medium/materials:
o Subject/narrative depicted:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Architecture:
 Polykleitos the Younger, theater, Epidauros, Greece, ca. 350 BCE
o General description:
o Structural features:
o Significance:
 Theodoros of Phokaia, Tholos, Delphi, Greece, ca. 375 BCE
o General description:
o Structural features:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Choragic Monument of Lysikrates, Athens, Greece, 334 BCE
o General description:
o Structural & stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Hellenistic Period:
Dates______________
Key Terms: hypaethral, stoa, portico
Key Figures: Paionios of Ephesos, Daphnis of Miletos, Hippodamos of Miletos, Pergamon,
Epigonos, Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander, Polyeuktos, Demosthenes, Athanadoros,
Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes
Hellenistic Architecture:

Paionios of Ephesos and Daphnis of Miletos, Temple of Apollo, Didyma, Turkey, begun 313
BCE
o General description:
o Structural features:
o Function & significance:
 Plan of Temple of Apollo, Didyma
o Description:
o Architectural features and location on plan:
 City of Priene, Turkey, fourth century BCE
o General description:
o Features & significance of plan:
 Stoa of Attalos II, Agora, Athens, Greece, ca. 150 BCE
o Architectural features:
o Function & significance:
Pergamon:
 Altar of Zeus, Pergamon, Turkey, ca. 175 BCE
o Architectural features:
o Function & significance:
 Gigantomachy frieze (with detail of Athena battling Alkyoneos), Altar of Zeus, Pergamon,
Turkey, ca. 175 BCE
o Subjects/narrative depicted:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
 Epigonos, Gallic chieftain killing himself and his wife. Roman copy of a bronze statue from
Pergamon, Turkey, of ca. 230-220 BCE.
o Subjects/narrative depicted:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Epigonos(?), Dying Gaul. Roman copy of a bronze statue from Pergamon, Turkey, ca. 230220 BCE.
o Subject/narrative depicted:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Hellenistic Sculpture:
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Nike alighting on a warship (Nike of Samothrace), from Samothrace, Greece, ca. 190 BCE.
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander, Aphrodite (Venus de Milo), from Melos, Greece, ca.
150-125 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Aphrodite, Eros, and Pan, Delos, ca. 100 BCE
o Description & stylistic features:
Sleeping satyr (Barberini Faun), from Rome, Italy, ca. 230-200 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Sleeping Eros, from Rhodes, ca. 150-100 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Seated boxer, from Rome, Italy, ca. 100-50 BCE
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Old market woman. Roman copy (?) of a marble statue of ca. 150-100 BCE.
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Polyeuktos, Demosthenes. Roman copy of a bronze original of ca. 280 BCE.
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Hellenistic Art under Roman Patronage:
 Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes, Laocoön and his sons, from Rome,
Italy, early first century CE.
o Materials/medium:
o Subject/narrative represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes, head of Odysseus, from the villa of
Tiberius, Sperlonga, Italy, early first century CE.
o Materials/medium:
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Polyeuktos, Demosthenes. Roman copy of a bronze original of ca. 280 BCE.
o Subject represented:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Concluding notes:
Exercises for Study:
1. Enter the approximate dates for these periods, and identify key characteristics of the art and
architecture of each:
Geometric and Orientalizing Art:
Archaic Art:
Early and High Classical Art:
Late Classical Art:
Hellenistic Art:
2. Compare and contrast the following pairs of artworks, using the points of comparison as a
guide.
A. Corinthian black-figure amphora with animal friezes, from Rhodes, Greece, ca. 625-600 BCE
(Fig. 5-5); Andokides Painter, Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game (Athenian bilingual amphora),
from Orvieto, Italy, ca. 525-520 BCE (Fig. 5-21).
 Materials
 Stylistic features
B. Kouros, from Attica, Greece, ca. 600 BCE (Fig. 5-7); Kritios Boy, from the Acropolis, Athens,
Greece, ca. 480 BCE (Fig. 5-34).
 Periods
 Stylistic Features
C. Temple of Hera I (“Basilica”), Paestum, Italy, ca. 550 BCE (Fig. 5-14); Temple of Hera II or
Apollo, Paestum, Italy, ca. 460 BCE.
 Periods
 Architectural features (plan, elevation, use of Orders)
 Stylistic features
D. Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Fig. 5-40); Lysippos, Apoxyomenos (Fig. 5-65):
 Periods
 Stylistic features
E. Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens, Greece (Fig. 5-52); Altar of Zeus, Pergamon, Turkey (Fig. 5-78):
 Periods
 Architectural features
 Stylistic features of sculpture
 Function & significance
F. Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander, Aphrodite (Venus de Milo) (Fig. 5-83); Sleeping satyr
(Barberini Faun), from Rome, Italy (Fig. 5-84):
 Subjects
 Stylistic features