ATHENS DURING THE GOLDEN AGE

1. ATHENS DURING THE GOLDEN AGE

2. Site One: The Parthenon GREEK ARCHITECTURE You are at the Parthenon, a beautiful temple built in honor of Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and Art. Carefully read the information below about Greek architecture. Then, list five (5) important facts about Greek architecture in your “Walking Tour” journal. The Greeks were among the most talented architects of the ancient world. They built their most famous structure, the Parthenon, during the rule of the statesman Pericles. The Parthenon, a temple in honor of the Goddess Athena, was built to celebrate the end of Athens’ war with Persia. Although only partially intact, the Parthenon is considered the most glorious building from the ancient world—a stunning reminder of Athens’ cultural achievements. It stands atop the Athenian Acropolis overlooking the city. Constructed almost completely out of marble from a nearby mountain, the Parthenon is 237 feet long, 110 feet wide, and 60 feet high. It features 8 columns in front and back, and 17 columns along each side. The architects and sculptors who created the building spent more than 12 million units of Greek currency, called drachmas (pronounced DRAHK-mahs), on its construction, over four times the annual budget for all of Athens. This huge, marble-columned structure—part of which is still standing today—has survived for nearly 2,500 years because of its superior workmanship. The architects designed the Parthenon to allow for optical illusions. The height of each column was five times its diameter so that the columns appeared slender. Builders also slanted the roof of the building, creating a triangular piece on either end of the building called a pediment. The east pediment showed a scene of the birth of Athena. The west pediment depicted the contest between Athena and Poseidon, the God of the Sea, which determined who would be the patron of Athens. Another distinctive feature of the Parthenon was a 525-foot band of sculpture, or frieze, which surrounded the top of the temple. This frieze depicted the Panathenaic Procession, an annual Athenian festival that celebrated the birthday of Athena. The Parthenon also contained a 35-foot-high gold and ivory statue of the Goddess Athena. Athenians believed that worshipping and leaving offerings at the foot of the statue would ensure Athena’s protection of Athens and its people.

3. Site Three: Drama (Theater of Dionysus) You are at the Theater of Dionysus, a place where dramatic plays are performed in Athens. Carefully read the information below about Greek drama. Then, list five (5) important facts about Greek drama in your “Walking Tour” journal. Theater was an important part of Athenian social life. In the 400s and 500s B.C.E., Athenians developed two types of plays that we still have today: tragedy and comedy. Tragic plays presented the downfall of a great hero. Extreme arrogance toward the Gods, or hubris(pronounced HEW-briss), usually caused this downfall. The somber lesson of the tragic plays was that humans should act with respect toward the Gods, and that dishonorable behavior had severe consequences. Comedy did not contain serious messages, and it provided entertainment for Athenian audiences. Comic plays made fun of, or satirized, Athenian politicians and other well-known personalities. Athenian plays were staged in outdoormarble theaters, which were built into the sides of hills. In a typical theater, stone rows, or tiers, of seats were arranged in a semicircle around the stage area. Behind the stage area, wooden or marble columns, which were draped with cloth, formed a tent. Actors changed their costumes and masks in this tent, and extra scenery was stored when it was not in use. Sometimes painted scenery was hung in the front of the tent to provide the backdrop for a play. During ancient Greek plays, two or three male actors performed both male and female roles on stage. They were joined by a chorus of 15 to 24 men who stood at the side of the stage and helped explain the action of the plays. The actors and chorus wore huge masks with exaggerated expressions to indicate the personalities of their characters. The feelings of the characters were shown through the use of colored costumes. Bright colors indicated happiness, and black showed despair. Many plays were staged at the Theater of Dionysus, built in honor of the God Dionysus. This theater could hold more than 14,000 people. All classes of society, except slaves, attended the performances. Athenian playwrights presented their new plays in competitions held during the spring religious festivals. A panel of nobles judged each play for excellence and quality of performance.

4. Site Two: Commerce and Trade (Shop in the Agora) You are at a shop in the Agora, the place where Athenians gather to buy and sell various goods. Carefully read the information below about trade and commerce in ancient Greece. Then, list five (5) important facts about Greek trade in your “Walking Tour” journal. Athenians conducted most of their commerce at the Agora(pronounced AH-gorah), the huge marketplace at the base of the Acropolis. On the eastern side of the Agora, merchants sold their goods from small stands. Citizens could purchase foods such as lettuce, onions, cucumbers, sardines, olive oil, and wine. They could also buy household items such as pottery, furniture—chairs, chests, and sofas—and clay oil lamps, which provided the only source of light in Athenian homes. While most Athenians made their clothes at home, leather sandals and jewelry were popular items at the market. In addition, Athenians bought and sold slaves at the Agora. In an effort to make commercial transactions more efficient, the Greeks began using coins in the 600s B.C.E. Each city-state had its own system of coinage, though they all used metals such as gold. silver, bronze, and a gold and silver mixture called electrum(pronounced eh-LEK-trum). Initially coins were stamped on one side, but later Athenians imprinted images on both sides. The most popular coin in Athens was the tetradrachin (pronounced TET-rah-drom), which was worth four drachmas (a unit of Greek currency). It had an image of Athena on one side and Athena’s bird, the owl, on the other. Athenians engaged in a great deal of trade with other Greek city-states and foreign lands to obtain many goods and resources. This was necessary because the Attica plains were not fertile enough to provide sufficient food for the Athenian population. Farmers could raise only olives, so Athenians had to trade for their essential food items. One major Greek trading partner was Egypt, from which the Greeks obtained valuable grains grown in the Nile Valley. Another important trade good, timber, was imported from Sicily, Thrace, and the northern Black Sea coast. In exchange for the goods they imported, the Greeks traded their beautiful painted pottery, their woolen goods, and olives.

5. Site Five: Pottery (Pottery Workshop in Ceramicus) You are at a [pottery workshop in Ceramicus, an industrial area in which Athenian artisans use advanced techniques to produce beautiful pottery. Carefully read the information below about Greek pottery. Then, list five (5) important facts about Greek pottery in your “Walking Tour” journal. Because of its beauty and utility, Greek pottery was valued throughout the Mediterranean in ancient times. Greek artists created ceramic vessels----such as storage jars, drinking cups, mixing bowls, and plates—for both functional and decorative purposes. Potters made these vessels by shaping wet clay on a potters’ wheels and baking it in ovens, or kilns, at about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat hardened the pots and set the painted designs permanently into the clay. The history of pottery in ancient Greece can be divided into several distinct periods. One of the earliest periods, the Geometric, occurred between 900 and 700 B.C.E. Pottery created during this period was painted and carved with simple, repeating shapes. Potters created vases with designs such as circles or half-circles, triangles, right angles, and squares. Along horizontal panels around the vase, artists created stick figures in silhouette that represented animals or humans. Around 700 B.C.E., Greek potters abandoned the stylized geometric shapes. They began creating vases with realistic black figures painted upon the red clay of the pottery. These designs were more realistic than previous depictions. They showed figures from mythical scenes, as well as scenes from daily life, such as farming and seafaring. This style of pottery is often referred to as the Black-Figurestyle. By about 500 B.C.E., Athenian artists were using new production methods to create red figures on black backgrounds, a style that became known as the Red-Figurestyle of pottery. The human and animal figures were left in the original red color of the clay, while the background of the vessel was painted black and fired. Using this method, the artist was able to create more realistic figures, showing a variety of poses, human muscles and facial features, and precise details of clothing.

6. Site Four: Education (Gymnasium) You are at a gymnasium, a place where many Athenian children complete part of their education. Carefully read the information below about Greek education. Then, list five (5) important facts about Greek architecture in your “Walking Tour” journal. A proper education was highly valued by the people of Athens. By approximately 600 B.C.E., the majority of Athenian male citizens were able to read and write. Young children were taught at home until the age of 6 or 7, when they began school. Both boys and girls attended school, but they were schooled separately. Schools for girls were not as numerous, and the schoolwork was not as demanding. Since schools were private, parents were required to pay for the education their children received. For this reason, many children from poor families left school immediately after they learned basic skills, which usually took 3 or 4 years. Children from wealthy families continued their education for as long as 10 years. Athenian children attended three different schools. At one school, teachers called grammatistes (pronounced gram-a-TEE-stees) taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and literature. Students memorized long passages from the epic poems of Homer, and from tragic plays. At a second school, coaches, called paidotribes(pronounced peh-doh-TREE-bees), taught sports such as wrestling and gymnastics to strengthen the students’ muscles. At the third school, kitharistes(pronounced kih-theh-REEstees) taught music—specifically singing and playing the seven-stringed lyre (pronounced LY-ur) to accompany the reading of poetry. At the age of 18, Athenian males began two years of military training. After this service, a wealthy young male might resume his education by studying with traveling philosophers, called sophists(pronounced SOFF-ists). These tutors charged high fees, and they gave lessons in debate and public speaking to young men eager to enter politics.

7. Site Six: Sculpture (Marble Workshop) You are at a marble workshop south of the Agora, a place where Athenian artisans create beautiful sculptures out of bronze and marble. Carefully read the information below about Greek sculpture. Then, list five (5) important facts about Greek sculpture in your “Walking Tour” journal. Some of the most remarkable artistic achievements of the ancient Greeks were in the area of sculpture. Greek artists began carving life-size statues in the seventh century B.C.E. These early figures—nude males called kourai, and clothed females called korai—were strongly influenced by Egyptian styles of art. Just as the Egyptians had done, Greek sculptors created figures slightly larger than life-size in positions facing front, with arms held stiffly at the sides and the left leg forward. Artists created these works as dedicated offerings in a God’s temple, or for wealthy families, who placed them at a young person’s grave. By the fifth century B.C.E., Greek sculptors began to create works that showed the human body in more realistic form and more natural postures. They created figures that depicted bodies in movement or in emotional poses. Athenian artists created brilliant marble statues of Gods and heroes that filled the Parthenon. While most sculptors worked in marble, many artists also used metal to create figures. In the early 400s B.C.E., a new method of casting bronze allowed artists to create hollow metal figures around wooden cores rather than just solid metal ones. Using this method, artists could create much more realistic details of a figure’s muscles, clothing, and hair. The new metal-casting method allowed the Athenian artist Phidias to create two of the most famous Athenian works of art: the gold and ivory statues of the Goddess Athena and the God Zeus. The statue of Athena stood inside the Parthenon. The statue of Zeus stood outside of Athens, in Olympia, and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

8. Site Seven: Women (Home of a Wealthy Family) You are at the home of a wealthy Athenian family, a place where men and women are rarely allowed to interact with each other. Carefully read the information below about the lives of Greek women. Then, list five (5) important facts about Greek women in your “Walking Tour” journal. Women had very specific roles in Athenian society. It was believed that all women were under the protection of Hera, the queen of the Gods, and Hestia, the Goddess of home and hearth. An Athenian woman was also under the guardianship of a man—either her father, her husband, or her brother. Young girls were often raised together, apart from the male members of the household. Most Athenian women married at a young age—as early as 14—in marriages arranged by their parents. They bore several children, and were often trained as midwives and nurses to help their sisters, cousins, or female servants give birth. Married women were expected to wear more loose-fitting clothing than unmarried women. They also wore their long hair pinned up with elaborate hairpieces, while unmarried women often wore their hair loose in long curls. According to Athenian society, a respectable woman’s main responsibility was overseeing the household. Wealthy wives were responsible for the care and education of their children, tending to their husbands, supervising and nursing the servants, spinning wool, and weaving cloth for the family’s use. Wealthy women often had female slaves to gather produce from the garden as well as to buy food from the marketplace. These slaves were also responsible for cooking and cleaning in the household. Women in less wealthy households often worked at humble jobs outside the home, in addition to performing household tasks themselves. They sold goods at the market or baked loaves of bread. Few skilled trades were open to women, but there were female potters arid leatherworkers. Athenian women from all classes participated in the religious celebrations in the city. Some women were religious figures, or priestesses. These priestesses conducted religious rituals, recited prayers, and looked after the sacred objects stored in the sanctuaries. Priestesses had high social and legal status, and were not under the guardianship of their fathers, husbands, or brothers.