Ancient Greek Culture

Mount Olympus

Greek Gods

• Anthropomorphic

• Explain natural events

• Oracle at Delphi

Architecture

Greek Golden Mean

“Nothing in excess, everything in moderation

(proportion).”

The Parthenon

Replaced temple destroyed by Persians

The Parthenon

Architect: Iktinos Engineer: Phidias

Completed 431 BCE

228.6’ x 101.4’ : Entasis

Doric style

Acropolis: temple to Athena Parthenos “the Virgin”

Used to store tax records, as treasury for Delian League

•Athena 39’ high (pictured with Nike and snake: “renewal”)

•Made of wood plated with gold and ivory

•44 talents of gold = $12 million

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Parthenon-top-view.svg

Destruction of Parthenon

War against Turks, Venetians fired upon in 1687

Doric Ionic Corinthian

Sturdy, plain,

mainland Greece

Acanthus leaves,

Rome

Slender, scroll

design, used in

Eastern Greece

Greek Columns

Painting

Greek Pottery

Amphora Krater Lekythos

Sculpture

Winged Victory: Nike of Samothrace

Myron

The Discus Thrower

Phidias

Zeus

Temple at Olympia

Praxiteles

Hermes and the infant Dionysus

Venus de

Milo

Artemis of

Ephesus

Laocoon (160-20 BC)

Socrates469-399 BC

• Opposed the sophists

• Evil = ignorance

• Philosopher = lover of wisdom and truth

• Used Socratic inquiry

• “The unexamined life is not worth living”

• “Know thyself”

Plato 427-347 BC

• Academy in Athens

• Wrote Republic (ideal government, jobs suited to talents)

• Demos: stay in their place

Aristotle384-322 BC

• Student of Plato

• Organized

information into

“systems” (ex.

biology, zoology)

• Believed strong

middle class = strong

democracy

Math & Science

Pythagoras“father of numbers”

Archimedesinvented the lever

Hippocrates“the father of medicine”

Hippocratic Oath: “The physician shall do no harm.”

Aristarchas“heliocentric model of the

universe

Euclid“father of geometry”

HistoryHerodotus

“father of history”

Thucydides

“history repeats itself”

The Greek Stage

Greek chorus

Amphitheatre Greek masks

Aeschylus

• “Founder of

tragedy

• Wrote about great

heroes

• Agamemnon

Sophocles

• Wrote about traditional Greek values

• Oedipus trilogy

Euripides

• Wrote one of first anti-war works: The Trojan Women

Aristophanes

• Writer of comedy

• Sarcastic, biting satire

• Made fun of rich and famous

• For example: Clouds (about Socrates)