1. Aim: What was the greatest achievement of the Athenian Golden Age?
Do Now: Does truth exist, or is there only opinion?
NY State Standards 2, 3
Common Core RS 7, 9

2. I What led to the Athenian Golden Age?
Recall that in 479 BCE Athens, with the help of Sparta, won the Persian Wars. Athens emerged as the most powerful polis (Greek city-state) in Greece, and became head of the Delian League.
Pericles, a powerful Athenian ruler, used the money from the Delian League treasury to fund the arts and sciences in Athens, leading to the Athenian Golden Age.

3. II The Greek Philosophers
Philosophers are lovers of wisdom. They ask questions about humanity, reality, and existence. They then try to answer these questions with logic and reason.
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were the most influential Greek philosophers.

4. Greek Philosophers Continued…
Socrates 470 – 399 BCE
a) Born in Athens. In his 40s, he began to ask questions about the world around him, such as “What is wisdom?”. He lead open discussions to try and answer these difficult questions. He gained a following of young men, including his most famous student Plato.
Through these open discussions, Socrates developed the Socratic Method; you teach by asking questions, and having the students find the answer themselves.
Socrates never wrote down his own dialogues. Thankfully, Plato did.

5. Greek Philosophers Continued…
b) Socrates strongly disagreed with the Sophists. The Sophists charged money for their teaching, and believed that you can argue anything. Socrates never charged money for his teachings, and he believed that TRUTH does exist; therefore, not all arguments are correct.
Imagine a society today that believes a child must be sacrificed every year to ensure good health for all.
What would Socrates say? What would sophists say?

6. Greek Philosophers Continued…
c) 399 BCE Socrates was arrested for “corrupting” the youth of Athens. He had a trial in front of 501 jurors. He refused to defend himself, and was found guilty. He was encouraged by the Athenian government to go into exile instead of killing himself. (to make Socrates into a hypocrite to his students) However, Socrates decided to remain in Athens, and carried out his own sentence by drinking poison hemlock.

7. Greek Philosophers Continued…
2. Plato 427 – 347 BCE
Plato was the most famous student of Socrates, and wrote down the dialogues of his teacher.
Plato believed in a higher reality than the world in which we live in. He believed that ideas are always more ideal than physical objects.
- The ideal form of a man is his soul, not his body.
c) Plato wrote The Republic; in it he described his ideal society, ruled by philosopher-kings.
d) Plato founded The Academy, a school for the study of philosophy. It also was the first known university in human history!

8. Greek Philosophers Continued…
e) One of Plato’s most important dialogues was the Allegory of the Cave.
A group of people have lived in a deep cave since birth, never seeing the light of day. These people are bound [tied up] so that they cannot look to either side or behind them, but only straight ahead. Behind them is a fire, and behind the fire is a partial wall. On top of the wall are various statues, which are being manipulated by another group of people, lying out of sight behind the partial wall. Because of the fire, the statues cast shadows across the wall that the prisoners are facing. The prisoners watch these shadows, and because these shadows are all they ever get to see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world. A prisoner is freed from his bonds and ventures outside of the cave for the first time. He sees trees, flowers and other people. He realizes that what he had though was real were only shadows of reality. He looks to the heavens and sees the sun, realizing that the sun is the cause of everything he sees around him. The prisoner returns to the cave and excitedly tells the prisoners what he had seen. They laugh at him, thinking it ridiculous that anything more “real” lies beyond their cave.
What is the lesson of this story?
An allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a deeper meaning.

10. Greek Philosophers Continued…
3. Aristotle 384 – 322 BCE
Aristotle was not born in Athens, but he attended Plato’s Academy in 350 BCE.
Aristotle was very interested in science. He wanted to use Socrates’ methods of questioning to understand how the world works. *This is why Aristotle is often called the father of the scientific method.
Aristotle believed that to be moral is to follow the Golden Mean; at one end is excess, and on the other end is deficiency. One should strive for somewhere in-between.
Aristotle was the tutor of a future ruler of the world, Alexander the Great.

11. III Greek Architecture
A) The Egyptians were the first to invent columns, but the idea soon spread to Greece. The Greeks created 3 new types of columns, which are still used today!
Early Egyptian columns were not free standing; the Egyptian engineers were afraid that they would fall. The Greeks did not have that fear…

12. Greek Architecture Continued…
Greek Doric Columns
As seen in the Parthenon, Athens

13. Greek Architecture Continued…
Greek Ionian Columns
As seen in the Apollo Temple, Didyma, Turkey

14. Greek Architecture Continued…
Greek Corinthian Columns
As seen in the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens

15. Greek Architecture Continued…
B) The Parthenon was built between 447 and 432 BCE, on top of the Acropolis (the highest hill in Athens). It was a temple dedicated to Athena, the patron Goddess of Athens. It was made from limestone and marble. Inside was a statue of Athena. On the outside, it is decorated with Doric columns, as well as a frieze of statues, depicting a procession in honor of Athena. The columns are not all the same size; it is an optical illusion! The architects wanted to show order and symmetry, as they believed the universe to be ordered.
A frieze is a broad band of sculpted decoration.

16. Greek Architecture Continued…
Lord Elgin of Britain stole the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon’s frieze in the early 19th century. Today they are housed in the British Museum, and Greece is fighting to get them back!

17. IV Greek Art EGYPTIAN ARCHAIC GREEK Greek Sculpture
1. Early Greek sculpture (800 – 500 BCE) is known as archaic. It was similar to Egyptian sculpture; stiff, not very detailed or realistic.
EGYPTIAN
ARCHAIC GREEK

18. Greek Art Continued…
2. By 460 BCE Greek sculpture became more detailed and realistic. (This is known as the Classical Period.) This was due to the belief that the human body is beautiful.

19. B) Greeks decorated vases and amophorae (a vase with two handles).
Greek Art Continued…
B) Greeks decorated vases and amophorae (a vase with two handles).
Vases and amphorae had a practical purpose! They were used as storage vessels for liquids such as yummy Greek wine.

20. Actors would wear masks to convey their emotions.
V Greek Theatre
Ancient Greek theatre began as festivals to honor the gods. The most famous festivals honored Dionysus, the god of wine. Originally, the chorus was small, but overtime the singing chorus became much more important.
Over time, different genres (types) of theatre developed.
Tragedies: A hero suffers misfortune due to his own actions.
Comedies: A mockery or satire of society.
Actors would wear masks to convey their emotions.

22. VI The Olympics
The Olympics began in Athens in 776 BCE. The games were dedicated to the Gods, and held every 4 years until 393 CE.
The male athletes trained in gymnasiums.
Unlike our modern games, the male athletes had to participate in EVERY event. Women were not allowed to participate or to even observe, often with the punishment of death.

23. What is Sophocles telling us about human beings?
VII Greek Literature
Recall that Homer wrote the Iliad and The Odyssey (circa 800 BCE). Both were epic poems about the Trojan War.
B) Here is an excerpt from Antigone by Sophocles: “There are many wonders, and none is more wonderful than man... He turns the dirt with mules, as the plows go back and forth through the fields... And the birds, and the gangs of savage beasts, and the salty sea creatures, he catches them all in nets he weaves… And he figured out how to flee the frost-arrows, when it's too cold to stay outside under the clear sky, and how to get out of the rushing rain; yes, he can do anything.”
What is Sophocles telling us about human beings?

24. VIII Origin of Written History
In the 5th century BCE Herodotus “the father of history” wrote about the history of Greece, Egypt, and other civilizations.
“In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.”

25. Do not forget… Athens was the birthplace of democracy!
IX Government
Do not forget… Athens was the birthplace of democracy!

26. HW Questions
Draw a chart showing the 3 main Greek philosophers (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) and their main beliefs/achievements.
Do you agree more with Socrates or the Sophists? Explain your position.
If you were Socrates, would you have drank the poison? Why or why not?
What is the main idea behind Plato’s Allegory of the Cave? How do you know? Do you agree? Why or why not?
Describe any two other achievements of the Athenian Golden Age (not philosophers) and why they are important.

27. Key Vocabulary Allegory of the Cave Ionian Columns Amphorae Olympics
Archaic Greek Sculpture
Parthenon
Aristotle
Pericles
Classical Greek Sculpture
Persian Wars
Comedies
Philosophy
Corinthian Columns
Plato
Delian League
Red vs. Black Figures
Democracy
Socrates
Doric Columns
Socratic Method
Elgin Marbles
Sophists
Frieze
The Academy
Golden Mean
The Republic
Herodotus
Tragedies
Homer
Vases
Iliad and the Odyssey