Ancient Greece Ancient Greece Culture and Society Culture and Society

Foundations of Foundations of the Modern the Modern WorldWorld

OverviewOverview• Greek Society• Literature• Philosophy• Religion and Mythology

The Rise of HumanismThe Rise of Humanism

• "Man is the Measure of all Things"- Protagoras of Abdera (c. 480 - 410 B.C.)

• Importance of the individual– Early communities were based on family– Colonists were rugged individuals

• Humanism: individual’s– Uniqueness– Potential– Prerogatives (rights)

• Athenian Democracy developed around the fifth century BC in the Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. Athens is one of the first known democracies.

Greek SocietyGreek Society• The flaw in Athenian democracy: only

for true citizens– Adult males, Athenian ancestry (15 %)

• SlavesSlaves– Foreigners, about 30 %– Worked shops, farms

• Some special skills e.g. sculpture• Some mining, hard labour

– Provided freedom to owners for politics & philosophy

• WomenWomen– Sparta - public freedom– Athens - confinement

Athenian MarriageAthenian Marriage• Men absolute household

authority– Families arranged marriages,

usually older man to young woman– Custom deemed necessary to

protect male property & citizenship rights

• Women no formal education– Learned weaving, cooking

• Patterns of the elite– Records written by upper classes

School boy - kylix 480 BC

Woman at home - kylix 480 BC

Separate LivesSeparate Lives• Elite womenElite women

– Had female slave attendants– Were confined to homes except

for• funerals, festivals, visits to female

relatives• Thesmophoria festival

– 3-day camp– Mystery & ritual

• Plays– Antigone, Lysistrata– About assertive women

• Elite menElite men– Work, politics by day– Dined, slept in men’s quarters

Daughters of Demeter - krater 440 BC

Hunting the lion

The PhylaeThe Phylae• “tribes”: largest political

subgroups in polis– Athens: 10 phylae

• Kin groups– All citizens belonged

• Religious– Own priests, temples

• Military– Trained and served as hoplite

units

• Political– Own officials, representatives

to Assembly and Council

SymposiumSymposium• Means "drinking together"

– Aristocratic social institution– After meal, men only– Private association of individuals– Slaves, musicians, dancers,

prostitutes, young boys

• Role of Conversation– Aristocratic males expected to

participate– Debates on political &

philosophical issues, recitations of speeches & poetry

GymnasiumGymnasium““School for naked exercise”School for naked exercise”

– Public institution for training athletes (opposite of palaestra - private school for physical training)

– Staff: 10 gymnasiarchs, one from each tribe• Maintained gymnasium, paid

athletes in training, held athletic festivals, supervised training staff

– Facilities• dressing rooms, baths, training

quarters, stadium, covered porticos for exercise & lectures in philosophy, literature, and music

– Athens: three great public gymnasia: Academy, Lyceum and Cynosarges

Greek LiteratureGreek Literature• Lyric poetry:Lyric poetry: celebrating the

individual– e.g. Sappho

• Pre-Socratic Thinkers– Questions about nature– Air, earth, fire, & water– Atomic theory

• HistoryHistory– Logographers: wrote historia, accounts of

geography, cities, families– Herodotus 485 - 425 BC

• First modern historian• Greek war with Persia, analyzed causes

Sappho &Alcaeus

Herodotus ofHalicarnassus

Greek ThinkersGreek Thinkers• SophistsSophists (“wise men”)

– Traveling teachers– Taught logic, public speaking– Rhetoric: constructing

persuasive arguments

• Belief in ReasonBelief in Reason– phusis (nature): amoral,

inhuman, often lethal– nomos (culture): custom,

power of mind to order & control

SocratesSocrates• 470 - 399 BC

– Sculptor by trade

• Life– Teacher, thinker– Company of young men

• Deflated pretensions, challenged people to think

• Socratic method: asking probing questions

• Death– Charged with

• Corrupting youth• Not believing in gods

– Condemned to death by drinking hemlock

• Young men withdrew from public life

PlatoPlato• 428 - 347 BC• First truly literate generation• Founded school for young men

– The Academy– Higher education, especially

philosophy and mathematics

• Wrote Dialogues– Socrates uses question and answer

method– Meaning of justice, excellence,

freedom– Best known Dialogue: The Republic

• Theory of Forms: particular vs. ideal• Political Utopia: philosopher kings

AristotleAristotle• 384 - 322 BC

– Born in Macedon, father physician to king– Educated at Plato’s Academy in Athens– Tutored Alexander the Great

• Founded school in Athens, Lyceum– Peripatetics: walking while lecturing– History, biology, zoology

• Works: De Anima, Poetics, Metaphysics– Covered every field of knowledge, established

modern arts & sciences– Only lecture notes survive: remarkable range,

sophistication, originality, systemization– Approach is empirical, pragmatic, worldly

Greek ReligionGreek Religion• EusebiaEusebia

– Piety, reverence for traditional gods– Concern for family, clan, polis– Public display to foster peace, avert

disfavour of the gods– Rite of animal sacrifice, feasts of

music drama dance sport

• Philosophy Philosophy – Cosmology: origin of universe– Theology: gods’ nature & function– Psychology: study of soul– Ethics: man in society

• MysteriesMysteries– Secret cults of individual gods– Two Goddesses of Eleusis, Dionysus

Sacrifice to Vesta - Goya

Wine for Dionysus

Public WorshipPublic Worship• State-sponsored festivals

– Civic pride & personal piety– Central ritual: sacrifice of animals

• Temple: gods’ residence in town– Gifts for favours

• Cake, wine at altar• Luck, protection

• Oracles– Sacred sites where gods spoke with

humans about future– Sought by individuals, city-states– Oracle of Apollo at Delphi most

sought

Temple ofAthena

Temple ofApollo

MythologyMythology

• Living our myths– Not our history– Need for origin story

• Literature is displaced mythology– Basic stories of our culture– Repeated in modern forms

• Anthropomorphic gods– Looking & acting human

Principal DeitiesPrincipal Deities• Titans

– Cronus & Gaia• Olympians

– Zeus and Hera– Apollo & Artemis– Aphrodite & Athena– Poseidon & Hades– Ares & Hermes

• Other Gods– Dionysus, Eros, Pan, The

Muses

Zeus and Titan

Aphrodite & Adonis (David)