1. The Culture of Classical Greece Chapter 4 Section 4

2.  Olympus  Twelve gods and goddesses were thought to live on Mt Olympus  Zeus – chief god  Athena – wisdom  Apollo – sun  Ares – war  Aphrodite – love  Poseidon – seas

3.  Greek religion did not focus on morality  No matter what people did in life they went to a gloomy underworld ruled by a god named Hades  Rituals – involved prayers and combined with gifts to the gods  Romans adopted many of the Greek gods and goddesses but changed the name

4.  Architecture and Sculpture  Temples – dedicated to a god or goddess  Parthenon (447 BC) - dedicated to Athena Shows classical architecture  Favorite statues in Greece Male Nudes Searched for an ideal beauty

5.  Drama  Tragedies Presented in a trilogy – set of three plays around a common theme Sophocles – Oedipus Rex Kills his own father and marries his mother Euripides Questioned traditional values Portrayed war as brutal and barbaric Greek Tragedies dealt with problems as the nature of good and evil, rights of individuals, and nature of divine forces

6.  Herodotus – first historian in Western Civilization  History of the Persian Wars  Thucydides- seen as the greatest historian of the world  Saw politics as the activities of human beings not gods

7.  Philosophy is an organized system of thought  Early Greek Philosophers tried to explain the universe on the basis of unifying principles  Pythagoras – taught the essence of the universe can be found in music and numbers

8.  Sophists  A group of traveling teachers who believed people like Pythagoras were foolish in their beliefs  Argued that it was beyond the human mind to understand the universe  Stressed the importance of persuasive speaking  Goal – Argue effectively, not to promote particular beliefs  People believed this group was harmful to society

9.  Socrates  Left no writings but his student, Plato wrote about him  Believed that education was only to improve the individual  Live your life by a code of ethics Socratic Method – uses a question and answer format to lead pupils to see things for themselves  Questioned authority After the Peloponnesian War Athens no longer trusted open debate Sentenced him to die by drinking hemlock (Poison)

10.  Plato  Student of Socrates  Questioned Reality – How do we know what is real?  The Republic – distrusted the workings of democracy Divided people into three basic groups 1. Upper class of philosopher-kings 2. Warriors 3. Rest of people driven by desire

11.  Aristotle  Studied under Plato  Believed that people’s happiness is tied to their behavior Happiness resulted from living a life filled with virtue Virtue is the midpoint between two extreme behaviors  Loved to define entire categories of study – logic, biology, physics  Began the scientific method  Aristotle is seen as the most influential thinker in the Western World