THE GREEKS

1. THE GREEKS 5TH CENTURY BCE

2. Greeks Value: • Virtue • Arete • Service to the Polis • Courage • Honor • Glory

3. Intelligence • Reason • Balance • Harmony • Nothing in excess • Man is the measure of all things • Family and tradition

4. Justice • Pride • The individual • Retribution • Fate • Devotion to the gods • Control of emotions

5. Beauty • Wealth • Compassion • Taking an interest in public affairs • Democracy • Excellence • Drama

6. THE ROMANS ROMAN EMPIRE 30 BCE – 476 CE

8. Characteristics • Borrowers • Realists – Stoics • Idealists – Neoplatonists • Twelve Tables of Law (450 B.C.E.)

9. Stoics • Ethical view of life • Goal: bring individual will into harmony with nature • Impersonal intelligence governed nature—Providence or Divine Reason • Rejected emotional attachments • Reason over emotions • Detachment allowed them to accept the worst of life’s circumstances—true happiness

10. Consul of Rome

11. Bust of Julius Caesar

20. Corinthian order

21. Pediment Frieze Metopes

22. Neoplatonists • Plotinus = 3rd C (neoplatonist) • Union with One: ascent through series of levels of spiritual purification (Dante) • Soul is eternal and divine • Universe is layered in ascending degrees of perfection

23. Egyptian and Southwest Asian influence • Roman emperors were theocratic monarchs • 2nd C: imperial cult; living emperor is divine • Growing social, political, economic unrest • Distrust of reason • Growing impulse toward mysticism

24. Zoroaster • Persian prophet 628-551 BCE • Life is cosmic battle between light and darkness (people ae free to choose good or evil • Ahura-Mazda is sole god (Wise Lord) • Last judgment (good works, good thoughts, good deeds) • Evil to darkness • Good to pairidaeza (or paradise) (beauty and light)

25. Mystery Cults • Greece, Egypt, Southwest Asia • Less intellectual than neoplatonism • More personal than religious philosophy • Promise of personal immortality • Cult of Isis – Egypt • Cybele in Phrygia • Dionysus in Greece • Mithra in Persia

26. Isis and Horus Enthroned

27. Heritage back to Neolithic times • Agricultural • Birth, death, rebirth of gods and goddesses associated with regeneration of crops • Initiates acted out symbolic rituals • Spiritual death and rebirth • Ritual baptism • Communal meal of flesh or blood of deity in spring • Cult of Isis: Queen of Heaven and Earth Mother

28. Cult of Mithra (Persia) • Associated with sun and forces of Light and Goodness • Man-god Mithra released forces of cosmic life and energy by slaughtering Bull of Fertility • Mithra’s followers • Sought regeneration and personal attachment to this hero-god

29. Celebrated Mithra’s virgin birth on December 25 (after sun’s rebirth at winter solstice) • Mithraism excluded participation of women • Strict initiation rites, periods of fasting, ritual baptism, death and resurrection, communal meal of bread and wine, deliverance from evil • Favorite religion of Roman soldiers

30. Roman Empire • Octavian tried to restore old Roman values of duty and civic pride • Germanic tribes invaded • Oppression and poverty • Constantine 313 CE • Edict of Milan (by end of 4th C. Christianity is official religion).

31. Christianity • 36 books in Hebrew Bible • Sadducees – Jewish aristocrats; cultural and religious solidarity; denied that soul survived • Pharisees – more influential Jewish teachers; interpreters of Hebrew law; believed in advent of messianic redeemer (a shepherd); human soul is imperishable; wicked will suffer eternal punishment

32. Essenes • Monastic communities near Dead Sea • Renounced worldly goods • Practiced asceticism • Believed in immortality of the soul • Anticipated coming of teacher of truth • Dead Sea Scrolls (Essenes lived near Dead Sea) • forecast final apocalyptic age

33. Jesus 0-33 CE • Gospels – 40 years after his death • No biography, no writings • Jewish rabbi • Ethical concerns; moral lessons • Pacifistic message • Antimaterialistic message • Temptations of temporal world distract

34. Cimabue Madonna Enthroned

35. Evils of material wealth (classical world was materialistic) • Faith over ritual • Spirit of Hebrew law, not the letter • Love of God and neighbor • God was stern, but loving • Taught cultivation of compassion, righteousness, trust in God

36. Sermon on the Mount • Blessed are the poor, the gentle, the mourners, the seekers of goodness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted because of their belief in Jesus. • His followers are the light of the world • Jesus came to fulfill the laws • Believers should follow his commandments • Followers should not judge others • The golden rule

37. Rewards in heaven • Moral intention is more important than outward behavior

38. Paul • Best known of apostles (d. 65) • Jewish tentmaker from Tarsus in Asia Minor • Greek and Hebrew language • Never met Jesus • Wrote 10-14 of 27 books of New Testament • Universalized Jesus’s message

39. Jesus taught Jews; Paul wrote to people of Greece, Asia Minor, Rome • Apostle to the Gentiles • Laid basis for Jesus as New Adam

40. Paul’s Teachings • Salvation by faith • Jesus: son of God • Jesus, sacrifice for human sin • Sin had entered world through Adam and Eve’s defiance of God • Jesus’s death was act of atonement • Jesus was New Adam

41. The Bible • Old Testament • 39 books in the King James Version) • written in Hebrew (with a little Aramaic) from 11th to 2nd century BCE. • The New Testament • 27 books in the King James Version) • written in Greek from 40 AD to as late as 150 AD)

42. Faith vs. Reason