Transcript Classical Greece and the Hellenistic Period

Chapter 3
CLASSICAL GREECE AND THE
HELLENISTIC PERIOD
CLASSICAL GREECE
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Classical Period: 479-404 BCE
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Begins with the defeat of the Persians led by Xerxes
Late Classical Period: 404-323 BCE
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Ends with the death of Alexander the Great
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Optimism and Unity – victories in the Persian Wars
Limitless possibilities
Self-confidence
Inspiration to our culture
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Golden Age of Greece
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Unparalleled in artistic and intellectual
achievement
DARK SIDE
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Athenians lived in a world of tension and
violence
 Could
not live in peace with the other Greeks,
despite their quest for noble ideals
 Led to war with the rest of Greece in 431 BCE and
to the fall of Athens in 404 BCE
THE CLASSICAL IDEAL
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Humans can achieve order by understanding
why people act as they do and by
understanding the motives for their own
actions
 The
Classical Ideal = quest for reason and order
 Human
order can triumph over the chaos of the natural
world
 Quest for a balanced society
HUBRIS
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Creating balance = staying within reasonable limits
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Hubris = haughtiness, pride, arrogance
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Aim of life should be perfect balance: everything in due
proportion, nothing in excess
Loss of contact with reality, overestimation of one’s own
capabilities
Greatest crime in Greek society (only crime)
People guilty of hubris generally shamed or humiliated their
victims for personal pleasure or gratification
Generally, those guilty of hubris eventually pay the price
AWESOME ATHENS
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Political and cultural center of Greece
 Democracy
 All
male citizens required to participate in government
Ecclesia (general assembly)
 Boule (directing counsel)
 Individual magistracies
 Serve on juries
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But Athenians may have had a bit too much
pride themselves…
DELIAN LEAGUE
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Organization of Greek city-states
 Defensive:
guard against future attacks
Treasury kept on Delos (politically neutral
island)
 Suspicions arose
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 Athens
was using Delian League to form an empire
of subjects
 Transferring money to Athens to help build….
THE PARTHENON!!!
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
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Athenian League vs. Spartan Allies
 431
BCE – 404 BCE
 Trying to control Athens from getting out of hand
 After a poorly planned attack on Sicily, Athens
surrendered
THUCYDIDES
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Great historian; author of History of the
Peloponnesian War
Detailed description of events
 Accurate and impartial (even though he was an
Athenian)
 Attempted to understand human emotions/behaviors
so that history wouldn’t repeat itself
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 Hoped
that future generations would understand why the war
occurred, allowing them to better understand themselves
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Universal principle of human behavior (emphasis on reason, not on
anecdotes)
CLASSICAL GREEK DRAMA
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Theaters = sacred ground
 Religious
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experience/ritual
Serious and dignified
 Masks,
elaborate costumes
 Music
 Beautiful
choreography
 Outdoor performance
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Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides
TRAGIC DRAMA
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Evolved from choral
hymns sung in honor of
Dionysus
Festivals of Dionysus
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Each author submitted 4
plays
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3 tragedies (trilogy)
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1 light-headed (satyr)
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Single story or different
stories with common
theme
Mythological figure: man
with animal ears/tail
Plays judged with prizes
awarded to the winning
author
AESCHYLUS (525-456 BCE)
Deep awareness of human weakness
 Dangers of power
 Belief that good will triumph in the end
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 The
process of being able to recognize what is right
is painful
 Humans
must suffer to learn of their errors
Dramas were bloody and violent
 Most famous: Oresteia trilogy
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SOPHOCLES (496-406 BCE)
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Most prosperous/successful
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123 plays, only 7 survived
Explored and developed individual characters
Combined tragic consequences of individual mistakes
with belief in the collective dignity of humanity
Major theme: Choice between good and evil is never
clear or easy, sometimes impossible
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Destiny/fate, hands of the gods
Respect the forces we cannot see
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Most religious of the dramatists
Most famous: Oedipus the King
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The story:
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Impacted ideas of Freud (Oedipus
Complex)
Aspects of our existence are beyond our
understanding
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Doomed to kill father, marry mother
Cannot avoid our destiny
Downfall of a tragic hero is a result of a
flaw (hamartia)
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OEDIPUS THE KING (OEDIPUS REX)
Understanding the helplessness of
humanity
Warning against self-reliance (hubris)
Weaknesses of Oedipus’s character
overcame his good points and destroyed
him
EURIPIDES (484-406 BCE)
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Most widely read, realistic view
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Closest to our times: exposing social, political, religious
injustices
Disillusioned by war-torn years
Characters pushed to the limits
 Hatred for war, senseless misery
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Gods not worthy of respect/worship
 Sympathy and understanding of women
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Challenged basic premises of contemporary Athenian
society
Most famous: Bacchae
GREEK COMEDY
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Aristophanes (comic poet)
 Futility
of war
 Combined political satire with fantasy
 The
Birds: men join with birds to form a society, cut off
the gods, Zeus hands over authority to the birds
 Lysistrata: women withhold
sex until peace is negotiated;
play ends with Athenians
and Spartans dancing
together in peace
MEANWHILE, IN PHILOSOPHY…
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Socrates – one of the most important figures in
Greek history
Wrote nothing!
 Most of what we know of him came from the writing of
Plato
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 Problems
of human behavior/morality
 Dialogues – how much is really Socrates?
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Took no money, founded no school
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Walked about Athens to talk and argue,
tested traditional ideas through a series
of questions
 “Following
the argument wherever it led”
DEATH OF SOCRATES
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Acquired many enemies
 People
don’t like to be proven wrong!
 399 BCE – put on trial for impiety and leading youth
to question authority
 Refused
to escape because of the strength of his
morality and his respect for the law
 Put to death by
drinking hemlock
PLATO
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Construction of an
“Ideal Society”
Founder of The Academy
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Devoted to education
and research
Forerunner of universities
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Focus on mathematics, law, political theory
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Produced experts for the service of the state
Theory of Forms
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In a higher dimension of existence, there are perfect forms
Phenomena around us are pale reflections
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Challenge to think about how our lives should be organized
ARISTOTLE
Plato’s most gifted student
 Started competitive school (Lyceum)
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 Agreed
to disagree (rival philosophy)
 Severed ties with Plato
 Lectured students in the morning
 Educated public in the afternoon
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Main focus: forms are
present in the world
around us, no alternate
perfect reality
Wrote on every serious
study of the time
Classified and
categorized life forms
CATHARSIS
According to Aristotle, the downfall of the tragic
hero is his undetected “tragic flaw”
 Audience experiences catharsis through
various emotional and intellectual connections
with the tragic hero
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 Catharsis
= cleansing of the soul
TRAGIC HEROES
CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
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Aristotle’s work is basis for Christian theology
 Official
philosophical position of Roman Catholic
Church
 St.
Thomas Aquinas’s synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy
and Christian doctrine
Art – Early Greece
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Strong Egyptian
influence
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Few subjects repeated
over and over again
Kore – Standing female
figure, clad in drapery
Kouros – Standing male
figure, nude
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Flat planes, rigid stances,
archaic smile
ART
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Early Classical works
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Interest in Realism
Showing a figure in
motion
Fully rounded
Careful study of human
anatomy
Ex. Kritios Boy
Natural expression
 Realistic movement of
hips and stomach muscles
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Myron
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Striving to create a new
standard of human beauty
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Principles of proportion,
symmetry, and balance
Ex. Discus Thrower
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Combined realistic
treatment of action with an
idealized portrayal of the
athlete
SHIFT IN FOCUS
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Late fifth century BCE
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During the Peloponnesian
War
Individual more important
than ideal
Emotional responses of
ordinary people to
life/death
Death/mourning
increasingly common
subjects
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Ex. Grave stele of Crito and
Timarista
ACROPOLIS
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Citadel of Athens
PARTHENON
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Temple to Athena
 “parthenos”
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Classical ideals = proportion,
theme of order
 Supreme
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= virgin = goddess Athena
expression
Represents the supremacy
of Athens, but is also
its downfall
ELGIN MARBLES
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Sculptures removed
from Parthenon
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British ambassador to
Constantinople, Lord
Elgin
Beginning of the 19th
century
Now housed in the
British Museum, London
Ex. Three Goddesses
ERECTHEUM
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Caryatid – female
statues used to support
a roof
Form vs. Function
Blurring lines of
traditional distinctions
between architecture
and sculpture
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Structure vs. decoration
HELLENISTIC PERIOD
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323 BCE – 146 BCE
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Death of Alexander the Great to the Roman Conquest
Generals could not name a successor
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Divided Macedonian Empire
 Four
most important kingdoms – Syria, Egypt, Pergamum,
Macedonia
 Continued to spread Greek culture
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“to Hellenize” – to spread Greek influence
 Combined
Greek intellectual ideas and artistic styles with
native Eastern ones
CLASSICAL ART
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Realistic figures
Calm faces, little emotion
Order
Restrained
Clarity
Balance
Work produced for state =
religious and political themes
Temples
Religious sanctuaries
HELLENISTIC ART
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Realistic portraits
Emotional, expressive
Freedom
Confusion, contrast
Light vs. dark
Work produced for individuals =
lavish decorations
Responsible to individuals, not
humanity or gods
Marketplaces, theaters,
technical buildings
CLASSICAL ART VS. HELLENISTIC ART
CLASSICAL ART
HELLENISTIC ART
CLASSICAL ART VS. HELLENISTIC ART
PERGAMUM
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Wealthy city of
Hellenistic Asia
Alter of Zeus – chief
religious shrine
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Decorated with drama
and violence of the battle
between the gods and
the giants
Intense gestures and
facial expressions
 Ex. Athena Slaying the
Giant
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LAOCOÖN
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Freestanding sculpture
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Intended to impress a wide
public
Trojan priest, Laocoön,
punished by the gods for
his attempt to warn his
people against allowing
the Trojan horse to enter
their gates
Apollo sent two sea
serpents to strangle him
and his two sons as
punishment
ROMAN CONQUEST
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Hellenistic kingdoms did not work together
 Caused
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Roman began to take them over individually
 Ended
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their fall
with Corinth in 146 BCE
Greece made into Roman province
 Greek
art and culture dominated much of Roman
cultural life and was passed on into Western
tradition