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The Greek Way

Humanism and the Western

Tradition

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The Lust for Life

Odysseus and Achilles

I would rather be a paid servant in a poor m an's

house and be above ground than king of k ings

among the dead.

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Greek Dark Ages 1200-800 BCE

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Heroes and History1. The Il iad and The Odyssey

800-700 BCE Archaic Period

- heroic individualism

Homer

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A Tale of Two Wars

The Iliad& The Odysseyca. 800-700 BCE

The Persian Wars 400s BCEHerodotus, Thucydides

History without myth

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Ionian philosophy

1. Rationalism

- nature composed of elements

- universe was not random (laws)

- gods in-active

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2. Thales of Miletus ca. 600 BCE

Change v. permanence

materialism

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Environment & Culture

Crossroads of civilization

Necessity and invention

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1. The pol is

- abstract; artificial

The stateaims at the highest good.

- Aristotle

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2. Tyranny

- anti-king, law-givers

- merit v. heredity

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Cultural life

Centrality of human existence to arts

Discobulus by Myron

400s BCE

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II. Hellenic Powers

Sparta and Athens

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A Hoplite Culture1. Citizen-soldiers

phalanx

Enfranchisement

Egalitarian

Patriotic

PatriarchalAthenian hopl i te

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B. Sparta

1. Conquest, class and conflict 600s BCE

helots

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2. Reforms of Lycurgus ca. 600 BCE

eunomia

- state support

kleros

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3. Service to the state- mentors

Delayed citizenship

Xenophobia

4. Liberated women

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C. Athens

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1. Draco 620 BCE

- written codes2. Along came Solon 594 BCE

wealth corrupted men

Militarism cowed men

Economic reforms

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3. Cleisthenes 508 BCE

- political reform

- demos the people

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III. The Hellenic

Achievement

Classical Age, 500-323 BCE

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A. The Persian Wars

1. Miletan Revolt 499 BCE

[ Cyrus the Great d. 530 BCE]

- Darius I d. 485

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2. Battle of Marathon 490 BCE

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3. Greek unity

- Thermopylae 480 BCE

Leonidas

- Salamis 479 BCE

Themistocles

Conclusion?- Go Greek

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B. Athens Advance

1. Pericles 495-421 BCE

- links freedom to expansion

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C. Limits of democracy

1. The Delian League 477 BCE

- prosperity / slavery rise

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2. Women and public life

- heirs v. wives

Aspasia, a hetaira

Teaching a woman to read and wri te? Likefeeding a vi le snake on more poison

- Menander the Athenian

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D. Peloponnesian War 431-404 BCE

1. War on land and sea

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2. War and democracy

- demagoguery- impatience

- slave revolt

Alcibiades

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3. Defeat of Athens

- Greece vulnerable to conquest

- dramatic reassessment of human nature,

politics

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IV. Age of Introspection

The heights of Classical thought*from external to internal philosophy*

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A. Philosophy

1. The Sophists

- radical skepticism / relativism

Man is the measu re of all things

- Protagorus

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2. Socrates 469-399 BCE

- Socrat ic Method dialogue or dialectic- knowledge (virtue) developed from within

Challenge all popular beliefs

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3. Plato 429-347 BCE

The Republ ic- why did Athenian democracy fail?

- Allegory of the Cave

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2. History

- Herodotus

lesson, or thesis

- Thucydidesobjective, investigative

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VII. The Hellenistic Period

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A. Macedonians

1. Philip II d. 336 BCE

- Hellenization

- showdown with Persia

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B. Alexander

1. War & legitimacy

- Calisthenes

- Granikos River 334; Gaugamela,

331

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2. Alexandrian empire 336-323 BCE

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C. The Hellenistic

Environment

1. Division

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2. Cultural fusion

- migration

- koine common Greek

3. Decline of the pol is

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D. Hellenistic philosophy

1. Aristotle 384-322 BCE

- empirical data, careful observation

- minimize errors of senses

- another early basis of scientific method

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2. Anti-Aristotle

Zeno- Stoicism

Epicurus- purpose is pleasure

Diogenes

- Cynicism

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Hellenistic Legacy

1. Language of the ancient world

2. Western achievement not confined to

Greeks

3. Accelerated the rise of Rome