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Greece: Time: Civilizations
Acropolis in Athens – Before Christ – collection of people with a passion for
architecture. The buildings are remarkable. The workmanship. Pericles was the
leader of the Athenians. The goddess Athena – she was 39 feet high. Athens
flourished; he paid for it all by the taxes paid by city states. Our love is what is
beautiful – wealth should be properly used and not boasted about. Gross national
product was spent on buildings. For centuries beyond. The acropolis and the
Parthenon – magnificent enclosures.
City was completed within 50 years. Fiddius – workforce – all over the
Mediterranean – new energy and new ideas. Evening parties were occasions not just
to dance and to get drunk. Star guess was Socrates – foreign women – were captive
entertainers. Aphasia – Pericles married her. Socrates said he loved her company.
So much was being created in Greece – we still have. They were the first people
to calculate the earth moon and the stars. Most original minds: Aristotle,
Socrates, Plato, Math guy:
Some of the great minds that ever lived and all at the same time in the same town!
Pericles: All officers of the city were elected. Out lived the kings. Democracy of
the modern world. Majority rule. Public debate.
Athenian success in sports and government – spiritual commitment – this passion
of perfection. Temple of Athenian – wanted to serve, create something above
themselves. It wasn’t like a modern church. Smoke had to rise to the gods.
1928: aegean Sea – looking for sponges. Dived down and found Greek statue from
2000 years before. Rare bronze – Poseidon. Greek god of the sea. It was stolen
by the Romans.
37 miles from Athens – Poseidon is nature. Creates storms and helps seamen or
turns them to their death. Greeks were great at building temples – all gods could
live there.
Mount Olympus: Gods for everything, wisdom, anger, jealous. Zeus was the ruler
of the world and the gods themselves. They could interfere with humans or
vindictive. Anyone who offended them could expect
Delphi: Most important – temple Apollo – god of music, light, healing. Greeks
honoured him with
Great sporting events at the top stadium. Sacrifice goat to Apollo. Oracle of
Delphi – its proclamations – ordinary citizens would go there to ask questions –
should I go to war. The oracle was asked by the priest. Her answers were garbled
(hallunations). Should he attack the Persian Empire? The kingdom he destroyed
was his own. Priest would tell the people what the oracle had told him – which was
very ambiguous.
Delphi: Passing temples, statues. Pilgrims were asked to give whatever they could
afford. Honouring Apollo.
Women would dance on the mountain behind Delphi – abandon all inhibitions.
Harmless things – male imagination – orgies, eating raw meat etc. Private rituals –
beginnings of theatre. Dienesus – god of everything delicious – lead to poetry,
males in masks. Tragedy and comedy.
Amphitheatre – plays were produced that are still preformed today. Women were
kept at home. Women were running the house and the lives of their husbands. She
gives up everything for Jason – in a male dominated society. Traces of the tension
can still be seen today. Men demonstrate their masculinity. No women even
perform in this summer ritual. Women remain passive bystanders.
Athens: Boy’s club. Women were considered lesser beings. Men wanted to keep it
that way. Women work in the fields why the men watch.
Play: Medina – men and women get so angry with each other. Intensity of
emotion. Brings people to tears. Problems with relationships with men (husbands).
Sports: Original stadium – 20000 spectators. Officials would have been from
each city state. Ancient Greeks did not take weekends off – just religious holidays
(which were 50) or sporting events. Coins from different cheering sections from
different city states.
Starting line with holes in it. Ropes were held in front of athletes – that would
hold the runners. Women were not allowed to compete – so men had to compete
naked. Long Jump – carried weights. At home – drawn with chariots. Free dinners
for the rest of their lives if they were Athenian.
Olympia valley – every 4 years. First 776 BC – first to elevate athletics – athlos
(contest) that’s where we get athletics/athlete. Religious occasion first – oxen
were sacrificed. Every Greek athlete prayed by a statue before you competed.
Major scale: Hotel for V.I.P’s. States worked out their differences here. Great
temple of Zeus. Mind and body came together in the gymnasium. Speeches given.
Aesthetic, intellectual and athletic were what the Greeks wanted to see. Male
intimacy and beauty. Homosexuality was common and acceptable. As long as they
were first wooed with gifts and finished with marriage.
Tunnel Graffiti: Beautiful was emphasized.
Athletics – on pottery. Once every 4 years – nations of the world – come together
in open competition and forget their disputes. Just like the Greek city states used
to do.
Athenians – dominated in sports and everything else. Fate – cruel blows to come.
399 BC – Athenians did a strange thing. Put their wisest person on trial. Socrates
was put on trial. Pebble in an earn. He was accused of not believing in the gods and
corrupting minds of the young. Athenian ideal – he demanded definitions of his
fellow citizens. Socrates was found guilty and was put to death by poison. Would
have never happened after Pericles rule. Their willingness to explore was muted
and they became frightened.
Root in events of things that happened earlier. Plague that was said to have come
from Ethiopia. Disease that killed almost everyone that it touched. Pericles kids
both got it. Devasting morally – all the old laws that their society relied on were
shredded. People brought their dead into the temples. Horror would have been
unimaginable. Their thirst was unclenchable.
Pericles was blamed for the plague. He caught it and died. Style of leadership
died as well. Third of the population would die from Athens. It was considered
harder hit! The Athenians were lost. They made reckless decisions.
Athens battled Sparta – for domination of Greece. Athens sent navy into Sicily.
404 BC Athens was defeated by Sparta – b/c they over reached themselves.
Sparta had offered peace – they wanted to win (and ended up losing). The defeat
of Athenians by Sparta – it declined b/c aggressiveness, competitiveness, wore
them out (which was the thing that made them so good in the first place).
Mourning Athena – Socrates was the scapegoat b/c of it’s fall. But when he was
put in jail he tried not to escape. He was put to death. Athens at it’s best –
Socrates dying was really him changing. Plato recorded the last words: How much
would you give to meet Homer? Who is wise?
Socrates ideas live on to this day. But Athens came to other empires.
Macedonians,
The Parthenon – danger of final collapse. Now they are today putting the pieces
back together. Cannons had been shot their. It was 15 years to build it but the
restoration will take longer.
It has been pillaged – Turks – easily bribed – any passing person could pick
anything up and take it with them (story of the BC girl – 15 picking a pebble for a
photo and getting arrested and put in prison).
22 ships to carry the marble to Britain. Amazing
Exhibited in the British museum. Beauty was so powerful (Greek woman). Sad –
b/c couldn’t see the marbles in Greece. Not to have that in Greece (they would be
so excited about it) – they are so proud of their culture and their heritage.
Ruins – disappeared – universe without Beethoven (for example). Athens – city
light defined western intellectual thought without
Greek way of life – it was so effective and so courageous. 70000 influence the
world so dramatically.