Transcript Chapter 6-Greek Culture - Alabama School of Fine Arts

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
Optical refinements
• 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.
Optical refinements
Acropolis of Athens-Parthenon
• 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!
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; 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 physically fit than any real person . Often nude &
male
The Discus Thrower
Poseidon
SCULPTURE
• 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
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 Philosophy-3 greatest
• Socrates
• Plato
• Aristotle
Greek Philosophers-Socrates
• Roamed around
the Athenian
agora, talking to
people
• Asked questions
to force people to
test their own
ideas.
• Socratic methodteaching through
asking questions
I’m
Socrates. I
wander
around
Athens
asking
people
questions
and
driving
them
crazy.
Greek Philosophers-Socrates
• 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.
I’m
Socrates.
The
Athenians
put me on
trial and
executed
me!
Greek PhilosophersPlato
• 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”
• .
I’m Plato,
student of
Socrates. I
believe in the
“forms”.
Greek Philosophers-Plato
• 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”
Allegory of the cave:Ted-Talks
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;
• 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
• He was the tutor of Alexander the Great
I’m
Aristotle. I
classify and
categorize.
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
• Pythagoras believed that everything
could be explained in terms of
mathematics & that mathematics
was the ultimate reality
• Developed the Pythagorean Theorem
• 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”, a pledge to follow a code of
ethics
• From the Hippocratic Oath: “Use
treatment to help the sick. . . never
with a view to injury . . . “
I’m
Hippocrates.
1st rule of
medicine:
Do no harm!
HISTORIANS-Herodotus
• “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 Herodotus
• Tried to analyze the deeper causes of the
war and 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.
Greek Theaters
• The theaters were
usually semicircular and built
into a hillside.
• In Athens, there
was an annual
dramatic
competition
Main types of plays
• Tragedies
– Often the main character was punished for
hubris-the 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
Aristophanes-most famous
writer of comedy
– Absolutely hilarious.
– “Clouds”-made fun of
Socrates for his theories
about education.
– “Lysistrata”-comedy written
to protest the Peloponnesian
War
Ted Ed – Greek drama