Contexts and ConceptsClassical Greece

PERSIAN WAR• Xerxes I invades mainland Greece in 480 BC– 60,000 Troops • Medes, Persians, Assyrians, Arabs and Ethiopians

• Coalition army lead by the Spartans met with the troops at Thermopylae– They were betrayed and Athens was destroyed

• Themistocles and the Greek navy won a critical naval battle near the small island of Salamis

• Plataea – critical battle lead by the Spartans• Persian war officially ended 30 years later, but

the Persians never came back to Greece.

The “Golden Age” of Pericles• Athens claimed to be the Greek savior and set out to

liberate the rest of the country.• Delian League

– Formed in 478 BC– Band of city states and Athens who developed a common

foreign policy and contributed ships and money when Athens needed it.

– Became a highly prosperous Athenian empire.• Athens became the richest Greek city state

– Political decisions made by citizen majority• Golden Age lasted less than 50 years.• Pericles dominated Athenian politics from 450-429

Peloponnesian Wars• The Greeks never really existed peacefully. • Athens– Cultural society, democracy, and artistic

• Sparta– Old ways, militarism, and oligarchy

• Spartans won in 404– Athens was humiliated– Athens forced to tear down defense systems– Athens put under control of a council of

conspirators called the 30 Tyrants– Sparta did not assume cultural leadership and did

not have much long-lasting influence.

The Hellenistic Age• King Philip II seized the throne of Macedon and allied with the

Greeks. Two years later he was assassinated by his own men• Alexander– Pupil of Aristotle– More interested in a world order– Carried Greek culture to Asia– Defeated Darius and took over the Persian Empire– Founded Alexandria

• A city BY Greece not a city OF Greece• One of the most influential and important cities in Hellenism

• Syncretism – the fusion of diverse religious beliefs and practices– Intercultural relationships blossomed

Concepts• History• Sophistry• Stoicism

• Epicureanism• Cynicism• Skepticism• Mystery Cults• Ethics

• Aesthetics• Classicism• Hellenism

History• Pre 5th Century = Oral Tradition– More myth than fact

• Herodotus = Father of history– Wrote History of the Persian War (9 volumes)– Retained neutral stance– Examined the reliability of his sources– Wanted others to draw their own conclusions

• Thucydides– History of the Peloponnesian Wars

• Reveals an unbiased compilation that strives to show human motives to draw a larger picture.

• Sought to instruct readers so that they would be armed with knowledge when events of the past recurred.

Sophistry• The rise of Sophistic philosophy demonstrated the

contemporary concern of humankind, challenging the existence of truth.

• Reason had lead to deception• Persuasion and Practicality– Debating and rhetoric skills became necessary– Sophists – those who used the art of persuasion,

rhetoric, grammar, diction and logical argument.• Protagoras– Sophist who believed that man is the measure of all

things.– What seems true for one may not be true for another.– Truth is relative

Stoicism

• Founded by Zeno• Humans are the incarnation of reason which produces

and directs the world.• The good life follows reason, wisdom and virtue, but the

only way to achieve these goals is to renounce and accept simplicity.– Leave everything to God and accept whatever happens.– Approach life with apathy

• Happiness is the ultimate goal• The senses are important in understanding underlying

moral law and the divine plane for the world.• Took an optimistic viewpoint

Epicureanism• Founded by Epicurus• Life of strict quietude• Humans consisted of a temporary arrangement of

atoms that dissolved at death.• Because it was temporary the good life was an

untroubled life.– Avoid entanglements, maintain good health, tolerate

pain, and accept death without fear• The senses could be relied upon to give an

accurate picture of reality and the mind functioned as a storehouse for those observations

Cynicism

• Humans are animals– Good life is about having animalistic needs met– Needs are troublesome and a wise person will

have as few needs as possible.• If a person wanted nothing he needed nothing• “Society” kept them from pursuing freedom

and independence– Isolated themselves

• Had little appeal to the masses or aristocracy

Skepticism

• Founded by Pyrrho of Elis• Nothing was certain – Universal Doubt• The senses were completely unreliable as sources

of knowledge.• The only certainty = “Truth is unattainable”• Everything in life is relative• Even less popular than Cynicism

Mystery Cults• Hellenistic times were uncertain times• People developed a belief that fate will do whatever fate wants

to do.• People developed pietistic religious beliefs

– Emotionalism takes the place of intellectualism or rationalism.• Cult of Dionysus

– God of revelry and wine• Serapis

– New god invented by Ptolemy I to unite Egyptians and Greeks• Cult of Isis

– One of the most antagonist forces met by early Christians– Emphasized resurrection after death, which put it in direct conflict

with Christianity.• Appeal probably lies in the mystery of the cult

– Secret initiation rites gave the member a special status

Ethics• The general nature of morals and of the specific

moral choices to be made by the individual in relationship with others.

• Socrates = father of ethics– Condemned the Sophists for their lack of belief in a

universal moral order.– Called on others to examine their own lives– Psyche = the mind or soul

• Immortal and much more important than the body• Everyone had a responsibility to raise his/her psyche to the

highest level possible

– Knowledge created virtuous behavior• If you were evil it was because of your lack of knowledge

Aesthetics• Plato = inventor of aesthetics

– The study of the nature of beauty• Art derived from Techne

– The skill of knowledge and making– The ability of an artist to command a medium, to know what the end

result would be, and to know how to execute the artwork to achieve the results

– Fundamental principles = Proportion and Measure• Forms and Ideas are reality

– Everything on earth imitates reality– Ideas are not thoughts of an individual human or divine mind, they are

the objects of thought– They exist independently and we think of them no matter what

• The arts are practiced to create imitations of forms– Plato mistrusted the arts because the individual artist may fail to

understand the ultimate reality.• The artist must have artistic inspiration

Aristotle• Teacher of Alexander the Great• Set up the Lyceum (school)• Writings on nature make him the first real scientist.• All arts imitate nature.• Classicism

– Fundamentals: elements of composition must display symmetry, harmony, and definition

• Differs from Plato (artistic imitation fuels passions and misleads the seeker of truth)– Aristotle believed that the arts repair deficiencies in nature and

makes a moral contribution.– Rejects Plato's vie of the centrality of beauty and of metaphysical

idealism.– He agrees with Plato that art is a kind of Techne– The purpose of art is to give pleasure

Classicism VS Hellenism

• Classicism– Artistic style and cultural perspective based on

principles associated with the art and thought of ancient Greece and Rome.

– Striving for harmony, order, reason, intellect, objectivity, and formal discipline.

– Represent idealized perfection rather than real life• Hellenism– Anti-Classical principles– Moving toward reflections of emotions and

naturalistic (NOT Idyllic) depictions.

The Arts of the Classical and Hellenistic Ages

Painting• Classical Style– New idealization in figure depiction

• Stereotype vs real person

– Foreshortening issues were fixed• Figures have a new sense of depth

– Vase painting still an important source of art– Four Characteristics of Classical Style Vase Painting

• Portrayal of figures in simple line drawings• Monochromatic color scheme• Palette dependent on earthen tones (red)• Heroic and idealized subject matter continually changed

– Began spacing figures higher than others rather thank keeping them on a single base line

Vase Painting

Sculpture• Greek Classical Style sculpture continually changed.

– One artist’s work was very different than others• Greek philosophy reflect the idealized, vigorous, youthful

bodies that exhibit self control and physical perfection• Weight shift

– moving away from absolute symmetry– Contropposto – weight shift onto one leg

• Myron– The Discus Thrower

• Increasing vitality of figure movement (frozen pose of movement)

• Polyclitus– Developed a set of rules for constructing the ideal human

figure

Myron’s The Discus Thrower

Late Classical Sculpture

• Greater emphasis on motion• Praxiteles – Cnidian Aphrodite

• Lysippus– Scraper

Hellenistic Sculpture

• Increasing interest in the differences between individual humans

• Turned away from idealism toward sorrow or flights of technical vertuosity.– Powerful emotion, often tragic as if acting out a

drama on stage• Winged Victory – Nike of Samothrace• Laocoon and his Two Sons• Dying Gaul

Winged Victory

Laocoon and his Two Sons

Classical Architecture

• Doric Order– Ancient origins– Used in Classical Greece

• Ionic Order– Classical Greek column– Volutes

• Corinthean Order– Hellenistic style column with Greek elements