1. Contexts and Concepts Classical Greece

2. 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.

4. 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

5. 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.

7. 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

8. Concepts History Sophistry Stoicism Epicureanism Cynicism Skepticism
Mystery Cults
Ethics
Aesthetics
Classicism
Hellenism

9. History Pre 5th Century = Oral Tradition Herodotus = Father of history
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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Aesthetics Plato = inventor of aesthetics Art derived from Techne
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

18. 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

19. Classicism VS Hellenism
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.

20. The Arts of the Classical and Hellenistic Ages

21. 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

22. Vase Painting

23. 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

24. Myron’s The Discus Thrower

25. Late Classical Sculpture
Greater emphasis on motion
Praxiteles
Cnidian Aphrodite
Lysippus
Scraper

26. 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

27. Winged Victory

28. Laocoon and his Two Sons

29. Classical Architecture
Doric Order
Ancient origins
Used in Classical Greece
Ionic Order
Classical Greek column
Volutes
Corinthean Order
Hellenistic style column with Greek elements