Chapter Four Greece

Aegean Civilization Minoan Culture -- Crete (2) Mycenaean Greece -- Mycenae: home of King Agmemnon

Basic Greek Timeline ~ 2500 BCE 338 BCE Minoans (lived on Crete) Mycenaeans (mainland) Dorians – invaders (dark age) Ionians – “the Greeks” (brought back Mycenaean elements) 338 BCE

Minoan Civilization 2000-1400 B.C.E. King Minos’s “sea empire” The palace at Knossos

Daedalus, in Greek mythology, the Athenian craftsman, architect and inventor who designed for King Minos of Crete the labyrinth in which was imprisoned the Minotaur, a man-eating monster that was half man and half bull. The labyrinth was so skilfully designed that no one could escape from the maze or the Minotaur. http://www.daedalus.gr/DAEI/THEME/Knossos.htm

Illustration of the Palace of Knossos http://arapahoe.littletonpublicschools.net/Portals/7/Social%20Studies/Crosby/WesternCiv/Unit1/Unit%201.8%20Palace%20PPT.ppt

Palace at Knossos http://jade.ccccd.edu/Andrade/WorldLitI2332/Mino/minos.jpg

The Queen's megaron, Palace of Minos, Knossos, c. 1600-1400 B. C. E The Queen's megaron, Palace of Minos, Knossos, c. 1600-1400 B.C.E. Vanni/Art Resource, NY.

View of the "throne room," palace of Minos, Knossos, Crete, with a heavily restored fresco depicted griffins. Vanni/Art Resource, NY.

http://jade.ccccd.edu/Andrade/WorldLitI2332/Mino/blueladies.gif

Minoan Fresco : bull leaping http://faculty.evansville.edu/rl29/art105/img/minos_toreador.jpg

Boxing Children, from Akrotiri, Thera, c. 1650-1500 B. C. E Boxing Children, from Akrotiri, Thera, c. 1650-1500 B.C.E. Fresco, 9' x 3' 1" high. National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Nimatallah/Art Resource, NY.

Crocus Gatherer, from Thera, pre-1500 B.C.E. Fresco, appox. 35" x 32". National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Archaeological Society at Athens.

Blue Bird. Fresco from Knossos. Late Minoan IA, 1550 BC. http://www.ou.edu/finearts/art/ahi4913/aegeanhtml/minoanpainting3.html

Octopus Vase, from Palaikastro, Crete, c. 1500 B. C. E. 11" high Octopus Vase, from Palaikastro, Crete, c. 1500 B.C.E. 11" high. Archaeological Museum, Herakleion, Crete. Scala/Art Resource, NY.

“The Minoans seem to have been the first ancient culture to produce art for its beauty rather than its function. . . . Art in Mesopotamia and Persia served political and religious purposes; while compelling and aesthetically very sophisticated, the art served a larger purpose. The Minoans, however, not only decorated their palaces, they decorated them with art; they used art for pleasure. . . . Minoan art frequently involves unimportant, trivial details of everyday life . . . (rather than battles, or political events and leaders, and so on).” http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MINOA/MINOA.HTM

“This, perhaps, is the greatest Minoan legacy on the Greek world, for the great revolution in Greek art involves precisely this idea of producing art for pleasure only, that is, a purely aesthetic purpose for art: ‘art for art's sake.’ ” http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MINOA/MINOA.HTM

The Mycenaeans 1600-1200 B.C.E. Time of Homer’s epics Home of Agamemnon (conqueror of Troy)

"Goddess," from the citadel of Mycenae, c. 1200 B. C. E. Fresco "Goddess," from the citadel of Mycenae, c. 1200 B.C.E. Fresco. National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Scala/Art Resource, NY. http://www.ou.edu/finearts/art/ahi4913/aegeanhtml/mycptg1.html

The so-called Orpheus fresco from the Throne Room The so-called Orpheus fresco from the Throne Room. Palace of Nestor at Pylos, 1300-1250 BC. http://www.ou.edu/finearts/art/ahi4913/aegeanhtml/mycptg3.html

The Mask of Agamemnon http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/figure11.jpg

Rhyton in the shape of a lion's head, from Mycenae, c. 1550 B. C. E Rhyton in the shape of a lion's head, from Mycenae, c. 1550 B.C.E. Gold, height 8". National Museum, Athens. Nimatallah/Art Resource, NY.

Lion Gate, 1300-1250 BC http://www.ou.edu/finearts/art/ahi4913/aegeanhtml/framesetmycenaen.html

A fortified citadel http://www.ou.edu/finearts/art/ahi4913/aegeanhtml/framesetmycenaen.html

Ancient Greece

The Heroic (Homeric) Age Archaic Greece (1200-750 B.C.E.) Archaic Greece (750-480 B.C.E.) 750-650 BC Oligarchical 650-480 BC Tyrants Athenian Democracy (480-430 B.C.E.)

The Heroic Age (ca. 1200-750 BCE)

Homer Author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Depicted the emergence of aristocrats. Competition between aristocratic households led to hero cults, such as Achilles and Odysseus.

Archaic Greece (ca.750-480 BCE)

Rise of the Polis 750 BCE Each polis (city-state) was organized around a political and social urban center.

Colonization Expansion of the Greek world Magna Graecia Hellenism (Hellenes = Greeks) Panhellenism (all + Greeks) Oracle of Delphi Games at Olympia (776 B.C.E.)

The Persian Wars The Ionian Revolt (499-494 BCE) The Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)--the Athenians won without Spartans’ help • The Battle of Salamis (480-479 BCE)– Athens rises to the forefront of Greek culture because of victory over Xerxes (Persia)

The Golden Age (ca. 480-430 BCE)

Athens Acropolis

Solon’s Reform c. 640-559 B.C.E. Set up courts with citizen juries Eligibility for political office based on property not birth citizen assembly: landowning males over 18 would participate.

Pericles (ca. 495-429 BCE) • Democratic reforms The Assembly: central power of the state, consisting of all the free-born (no freed slaves) male citizens • Public buildings—public confidence • Glorified Athens’ democracy in his famous Funeral Speech

Pericles • The Athenian Empire: taking control of the Delian League • Anti-Spartan foreign policy • Advocated territorial expansion, a policy that eventually led to the Peloponnesian Wars.

Parthenon http://www.sikyon.com/Athens/Parthenon/parthenon_eg.html

Agora

Sparta A society organized for war Dual monarchy + an oligarchy of five officials Relied on helots (enslaved Messenians) for food and manual labor Population: helots : Spartiate = 10 : 1 640 BC revolt of helots

The Peloponnesian War Trigger: Athenian control of the Delian League 454 BCE Athens moved the treasury from Delos to Athens and began to keep 1/6 of all the revenue The Delian League became the Athenian Empire. 431- 404 BCE—27 years Sparta defeated Athens.

Aftermath 30 tyrants in Athens War brought demoralization and a questioning of former certainties Shows the limitation of the polis system?

The Hellenic Age (800 BCE - 323 BCE) The Hellenistic Age (323 BCE - 30 BCE) The Greco-Roman Age (30 BCE - 476 CE)

Greek Drama

The Origin of Greek Tragedies http://www.watson.org/~leigh/drama.html The great dramatic festival of Athens was held in the spring in the theatre of Dionysus, to the south-east of the Acropolis. The theatre in Athens never became an everyday amusement, as it is today, but was always directly connected with the worship of Dionysus, and the performances were always preceded by a sacrifice. The festival was only held once a year, and whilst it lasted the whole city kept holiday.

Masters Tragedy: Aeschylus (525-456 BCE) Sophocles (496-406 BCE) Euripides (485-406 BCE) Comedy: Aristophanes (ca. 448-382 BCE)

Format 2-3 actors (male) wearing masks, with a chorus of 12-15 members changing commentary on the action.

MASKS http://www.arlymasks.com/tragedy.htm None of the original masks survive from the days of the Greek theatre, however, marble masks like this are found as part of sculptural decoration of buildings, giving us a good idea of what the Greek masks looked like.

From M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms Key Terms From M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms

Tragedy In Poetics, Aristotle defined tragedy as “the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself,” in the medium of poetic language and in the manner of dramatic rather than of narrative presentation, involving “incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions.”

Catharsis Purgation, or purification Many tragic representations of suffering and defeat leave an audience feeling not depressed, but relieved, or even exalted.

Tragic Hero Able to evoke pity and fear Neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly bad, but “better than we are.” Such a man is exhibited as suffering a change in fortune from happiness to misery because of his mistaken choice of an action, to which he is led by his harmatia.

Hamartia Literally, “error of judgment,” or tragic flaw. One common form of harmatia in Greek tragedies was hubris, that “pride” or overweening self-confidence which leads a protagonist to disregard a divine warning or to violate an important moral law.

Elements of Plot Anagnorisis: discovery of facts previously unknown to the hero Peripeteia: a reversal of fortune from happiness to disaster Catastrophe

Philosophy

The Greek philosophers made the speculative leap from myth to logos, from supernatural to natural explanations of the unknown. (94)

The Pre-socratics

Cosmologists Natural philosophy The 6th century BCE In the Greek cities of Ionia in Asia Minor Believed that “some single, eternal, and imperishable substance . . . gave rise to all phenomena in nature” (Perry) 老子: “一生二, 二生三, 三生萬物”

Cosmologists Moving from myth to reason Materialists or matter philosophers Thales (624-548 BCE): Water Anaximander (611-547 BCE) and Anaximenes (586-525 BCE): the Boundless 混沌 (氣?)

Cosmologists Pythagoras (580-507 BCE) Lived in Magna Graecia in southern Italy Believed that the essence of things was not matter but number.

Cosmologists Parmenides (515-450 BCE) Lived in southern Italy Reality (the ONE) → known only through the mind (Plato), not through the senses (Aristotle) A precursor of Plato

The Sophists 智者 或 詭辯學派 Around 450 B.C.E. Moved from natural philosophy to the human world A group of traveling scholar-teachers Primary concern: language Profession: rhetoric // oratory

The Sophists Philosophical relativists No truth but opinions: Believed that perceptions and judgments are relative and subjective Abandoned philosophy’s claim to truth and gave priority to rhetoric

Protagoras (485-410 BCE) James Harmon Hoose Library of Philosophy, USC http://www.publicartinla.com/USCArt/Hoose/protagoras.html

Consequences The Sophists’ doctrines encouraged disobedience to law, neglect of civic duty, and selfish individualism.

Socrates (470-399 B.C.E.) “Know thyself”: The oracle at Delphi is said to have proclaimed Socrates the wisest man in Greece, to which Socrates said that if so, this was because he alone was aware of his own ignorance. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Socrates The rational god = the highest good Unlike the Sophists, Socrates believed in certainties. Truth is real. Absolute standards do exist. “Virtue is knowledge.” As we are all rational, once we know what’s the highest good, we want to achieve moral excellence.

Socrates Questioning received truth—examine everything The dialectical method: a dialogue

http://www.pima.gov/publicdefender/socrates.htm

Plato vs. Aristotle

Plato ca.428-347 BCE School: the Academy (in Athens)

The School of Athens, by Raphael

http://home.lbcc.cc.ca.us/~mlawrence/Phil%206/cave.htm

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/gnl2/cave.htm

Plato:Theory of Ideas A two-level reality Ideas // sense experience mind // body eternal forms // copies, shadows intangible // tangible

Plato: Ethics The guiding light of all individual and social action is the idea of the Good. Virtue is a form of knowledge; no one can act against his better knowledge.

Plato: the Just State Book: The Republic An elitist state Rule by the wisest: Philosopher-kings

Plato and the Poets Plato would ban poets from his republic. Why?

Plato and the Poets He believed that poets (1) lie, in other words, neither know the truth nor disseminate it; (2) lead children and young people astray with false notions; (3) present and copy not the ideas, but images of images

Aristotle 384-322 B.C.E. Universal Ideas could not be determined without examination of particular things.

Aristotle Through human experience with things themselves, the essence (Form, or universals) of these things can be discovered through reason.

Aristotle: Ethics Happiness comes from exercising reason in practical affairs. Virtue → “Nothing in excess”→pursuing the golden mean between two extremes

Aristotle: Politics To live the good life, a person must do so as a member of a political community. “[The] best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class”

Aristotle Limitations: 1. Barbarians = slaves 2. Women were excluded from the polis. 3. Aims to maintain the existing social hierarchy.

The End