The Classical Period: A Golden Age of Greek Achievements

1. Chapter 3

2. Classical Period: 479-404 BCE • Begins with the defeat of the Persians led by Xerxes • Late Classical Period: 404-323 BCE • Ends with the death of Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) • Optimism and Unity – victories in the Persian Wars • Limitless possibilities • Self-confidence • Inspiration to our culture • Golden Age of Greece • Unparalleled in artistic and intellectual achievement

3. Athenians lived in a world of tension and violence • Could not live in peace with the other Greeks, despite their quest for noble ideals • Led to war with the rest of Greece in 431 BCE and to the fall of Athens in 404 BCE

4. Humans can achieve order by understanding why people act as they do and by understanding the motives for their own actions • The Classical Ideal = quest for reason and order • Human order can triumph over the chaos of the natural world • Quest for a balanced society

5. Creating balance = staying within reasonable limits • Aim of life should be perfect balance: everything in due proportion, nothing in excess • Hubris = haughtiness, pride, arrogance • Loss of contact with reality, overestimation of one’s own capabilities • Greatest crime in Greek society (only crime) • People guilty of hubris generally shamed or humiliated their victims for personal pleasure or gratification • Generally, those guilty of hubris eventually pay the price

7. Political and cultural center of Greece • Democracy • All male citizens required to participate in government • Ecclesia (general assembly) • Boule (directing counsel) • Individual magistracies • Serve on juries • But Athenians may have had a bit too much pride themselves…

8. Organization of Greek city-states • Defensive: guard against future attacks • Treasury kept on Delos (politically neutral island) • Suspicions arose • Athens was using Delian League to form an empire of subjects • Transferring money to Athens to help build….

10. Athenian League vs. Spartan Allies • 431 BCE – 404 BCE • Trying to control Athens from getting out of hand • After a poorly planned attack on Sicily, Athens surrendered

11. Great historian; author of History of the Peloponnesian War • Detailed description of events • Accurate and impartial (even though he was an Athenian) • Attempted to understand human emotions/behaviors so that history wouldn’t repeat itself • Hoped that future generations would understand why the war occurred, allowing them to better understand themselves • Universal principle of human behavior (emphasis on reason, not on anecdotes)

12. Theaters = sacred ground • Religious experience/ritual • Serious and dignified • Masks, elaborate costumes • Music • Beautiful choreography • Outdoor performance • Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides

13. Evolved from choral hymns sung in honor of Dionysus • Festivals of Dionysus • Each author submitted 4 plays • 3 tragedies (trilogy) • Single story or different stories with common theme • 1 light-headed (satyr) • Mythological figure: man with animal ears/tail • Plays judged with prizes awarded to the winning author

14. Deep awareness of human weakness • Dangers of power • Belief that good will triumph in the end • The process of being able to recognize what is right is painful • Humans must suffer to learn of their errors • Dramas were bloody and violent • Most famous: Oresteia trilogy

15. Most prosperous/successful • 123 plays, only 7 survived • Explored and developed individual characters • Combined tragic consequences of individual mistakes with belief in the collective dignity of humanity • Major theme: Choice between good and evil is never clear or easy, sometimes impossible • Destiny/fate, hands of the gods • Respect the forces we cannot see • Most religious of the dramatists • Most famous: Oedipus the King

16. The story: • Doomed to kill father, marry mother • Impacted ideas of Freud (Oedipus Complex) • Aspects of our existence are beyond our understanding • Cannot avoid our destiny • Downfall of a tragic hero is a result of a flaw (hamartia) • Understanding the helplessness of humanity • Warning against self-reliance (hubris) • Weaknesses of Oedipus’s character overcame his good points and destroyed him

17. Most widely read, realistic view • Closest to our times: exposing social, political, religious injustices • Disillusioned by war-torn years • Characters pushed to the limits • Hatred for war, senseless misery • Gods not worthy of respect/worship • Sympathy and understanding of women • Challenged basic premises of contemporary Athenian society • Most famous: Bacchae

18. Aristophanes (comic poet) • Futility of war • Combined political satire with fantasy • The Birds: men join with birds to form a society, cut off the gods, Zeus hands over authority to the birds • Lysistrata: women withhold sex until peace is negotiated; play ends with Athenians and Spartans dancing together in peace

19. Socrates – one of the most important figures in Greek history • Wrote nothing! • Most of what we know of him came from the writing of Plato • Problems of human behavior/morality • Dialogues – how much is really Socrates? • Took no money, founded no school • Walked about Athens to talk and argue, tested traditional ideas through a series of questions • “Following the argument wherever it led”

20. Acquired many enemies • People don’t like to be proven wrong! • 399 BCE – put on trial for impiety and leading youth to question authority • Refused to escape because of the strength of his morality and his respect for the law • Put to death by drinking hemlock

21. Construction of an “Ideal Society” • Founder of The Academy • Devoted to education and research • Forerunner of universities • Focus on mathematics, law, political theory • Produced experts for the service of the state • Theory of Forms • In a higher dimension of existence, there are perfect forms • Phenomena around us are pale reflections • Challenge to think about how our lives should be organized

22. Plato’s most gifted student • Started competitive school (Lyceum) • Agreed to disagree (rival philosophy) • Severed ties with Plato • Lectured students in the morning • Educated public in the afternoon

23. Main focus: forms are present in the world around us, no alternate perfect reality • Wrote on every serious study of the time • Classified and categorized life forms

24. According to Aristotle, the downfall of the tragic hero is his undetected “tragic flaw” • Audience experiences catharsis through various emotional and intellectual connections with the tragic hero • Catharsis = cleansing of the soul

26. Aristotle’s work is basis for Christian theology • Official philosophical position of Roman Catholic Church • St. Thomas Aquinas’s synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and Christian doctrine

27. Art – Early Greece (Archaic Art) • Strong Egyptian influence • Few subjects repeated over and over again • Kore – Standing female figure, clad in drapery • Kouros – Standing male figure, nude • Flat planes, rigid stances, archaic smile

28. Early Classical works • Interest in Realism • Showing a figure in motion • Fully rounded • Careful study of human anatomy • Ex. Kritios Boy • Natural expression • Realistic movement of hips and stomach muscles

29. Myron • Striving to create a new standard of human beauty • Principles of proportion, symmetry, and balance • Ex. Discus Thrower • Combined realistic treatment of action with an idealized portrayal of the athlete • Ideal warrior

30. Late fifth century BCE • During the Peloponnesian War • Individual more important than ideal • Emotional responses of ordinary people to life/death • Death/mourning increasingly common subjects • Ex. Grave stele of Crito and Timarista

31. Citadel of Athens

32. Temple to Athena • “parthenos” = virgin = goddess Athena • Classical ideals = proportion, theme of order • Supreme expression • Represents the supremacy of Athens, but is also its downfall

34. Sculptures removed from Parthenon • British ambassador to Constantinople, Lord Elgin • Beginning of the 19th century • Now housed in the British Museum, London • Ex. Three Goddesses

35. Caryatid – female statues used to support a roof • Form vs. Function • Blurring lines of traditional distinctions between architecture and sculpture • Structure vs. decoration

36. 323 BCE – 146 BCE • Death of Alexander the Great to the Roman Conquest • http://www.biography.com/people/alexander-the-great-9180468/videos/alexander-the-great-mini-biography-126126147738#video-gallery • Generals could not name a successor • Divided Macedonian Empire • Four most important kingdoms – Syria, Egypt, Pergamum, Macedonia • Continued to spread Greek culture • “to Hellenize” – to spread Greek influence • Combined Greek intellectual ideas and artistic styles with native Eastern ones

37. HELLENISTIC ART • Realistic figures • Calm faces, little emotion • Order • Restrained • Clarity • Balance • Work produced for state = religious and political themes • Temples • Religious sanctuaries • Realistic portraits • Emotional, expressive • Freedom • Confusion, contrast • Light vs. dark • Work produced for individuals = lavish decorations • Responsible to individuals, not humanity or gods • Marketplaces, theaters, technical buildings CLASSICAL ART

38. HELLENISTIC ART CLASSICAL ART

39. Wealthy city of Hellenistic Asia • Alter of Zeus – chief religious shrine • Decorated with drama and violence of the battle between the gods and the giants • Intense gestures and facial expressions • Ex. Athena Slaying the Giant

40. Freestanding sculpture • Intended to impress a wide public • Trojan priest, Laocoön, punished by the gods for his attempt to warn his people against allowing the Trojan horse to enter their gates • Apollo sent two sea serpents to strangle him and his two sons as punishment

41. Hellenistic kingdoms did not work together • Caused their fall • Roman began to take them over individually • Ended with Corinth in 146 BCE • Greece made into Roman province • Greek art and culture dominated much of Roman cultural life and was passed on into Western tradition