The

Greeks
Topic Outline:
 Historical Background  Greek Literature
 Archaic Art -Asychylus
-Polyclitus -Sophocles
-Myron - Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy
-The Temple - Oedipus Tyrannus
- Euripedes
 Sculpture and Architecture - Aristophanes
of the Golden Age  Greek Philosophy
 The Fourth Century Ideal of - Socrates
Beauty -Plato
- Praxiteles -Aristotle
-The Erechtheum -Greek Philosophy in the Medieval Period
- Lysippus  Hellenistic Period
 Greek Music - Art
- Philosophy
- Cosmopolitanism
 The Roman Conquest

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Hello!
I am Honey

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“Where did all
begin?”

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Athens (500 BC)
-Athenians first
discovered how to
achieve happiness
using their minds

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Historical Background
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 Homer
- wrote the greatest epics ever penned and showed that he
already was aware of the difference between tragedy and
comedy
 Sappho
- celebrated lyrical poetess of the 16th century B.C.
- “Noonday Rest” ---as concentrated as a Japanese Haiku
 “Sound mind in a sound body” belief :
- cultivated play as systematically as their wars or politics
- invented all kinds of games and trials of skill in music and
poetry , also in wrestling and running
- Olympic Games from 776 B.C. to A.D. 393 in Olympia in
connection with religious festivals
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 Homer

Olympic
Games
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Head of a woman from
the Glyptothek in Munich
, identified as "probably" a
copy of Silanion's fourth-
century BC imaginative
portrait of Sappho
Most of Sappho's poetry is preserved in manuscripts of
other ancient writers or on papyrus fragments, but part of
one poem survives on a potsherd.The papyrus pictured (left)
preserves the Tithonus poem (fragment 58); the potsherd
(right) preserves fragment 2.
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 Olympic Victors awarded with laurel wreaths and honor
equal to that of the bravest warrior:

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 Olympic Victors awarded with laurel wreaths and honor
equal to that of the bravest warrior:

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 Pindar
- his poetry is difficult to read and more difficult to translate
- composed “ Victory Odes” to celebrate the heroes, in
which he praises the boy’s parents and hopes that in the
future he will bring honor to Greece.

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 Olympic games revived on an International levell in 1896,
continued every 4 years (except during the WW)

 Greek pratices:
- daily trip to some temple to offer sacrifice, though not
seriously
- never went to a priest for advice or guidance, though they
consult an oracle or soothsayer to know whether the time
was propitious for an important project.

 “School” – Greek word “leisure” ; if a man had leisure he

would use it in thinking and finding out about the world.

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 “Physicians” – healers

 Founded scientific method

 “ Man the measure of all things” – Athenian Motto

 Defeated the Persian forces under Cyrus the Great, Darius I,

and Xerxes.

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 Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.) – 1 st Greek victory

 Greeks won the ensuing naval battle in the Bay of Salamis

 Aeschylus – young Athenian soldier; his play, “The

Persians” is the only Greek tragedy based on a temporary
event.

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Archaic Art

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Archaic Period Influence: Ancient
Egypt c. 2600 BC
  Greek artists are primarily concerned with the
representation of the human figure.

 Egyptians : Head is always seen in profile, the torso strictly

frontal, and the feet again in profile.

 Archaic period
– from 8th to 6th century and extending to early 5th B.C. in Athens;
most astonishing revolution in the whole history of art.
- Nature was used as a model
- Studied anatomy of bones and muscles and effects on
representation
- Discovered that every part of the body does not have to be
shown, that a foot or hand is often concealed behind the
torso
- -discovered foreshortening

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 Kouros – free-standing figures which are young athletic
males, winners of athletic games

 Kore (korai in plural) – young women fully clothed with long

crimped locks of hair and corners of the mouth in a
stereotyped smile to look more “lifelike”

Archaic: Kouros c. 650 BC Archaic: Kouros 19

Archaic: Kore & Kouros

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  Polyclitus

– (early 5th century B.C.) demonstrated

the pattern figure called the
“Doryphoros” or “Spear-Bearer”

- wrote a book called “The Canon”

which sets forth the mathematical
proportions of the body.

Polyclitus Doryphoros
(Spear carrier) 440 BC
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  Myron – (460 B.C.) sculptor who worked out the canon of
movement.
- “Discobolos” (Discuss Thrower), his bronze work, showed
how convincingly the bones of the rib cage and the muscles of
the left leg, while representing the face in perfect repose .

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  The Temple
– In a form of small rectangular wooden box covered with a flat
roof
- Contained the statue of the god or goddess to whom it
was dedicated and is usually a small altar with a priest
in charge.
- Worshippers remained outside

Corinthian: The temple of Zeus at Athens 2 nd c. BC 23

 Doric: Temple of Athena
3 Basic orders of
columns:
 Doric Order
- Is plain, short, and thick
- Expresses strength and nobilitiy.
- No arches, since the Greeks knew
nothing about vaulting.
- Columns had to be put rather
close together to support the
entire weight of the stone
entablature as well as the slight
thrust of the gabled roof.
- Metopes, spaces between, offer
another opportunity for sculptural
figures

Doric:
Doric: Parthenon
Temple of Hera- temple of Athena
Parthenos
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3 Basic orders of
columns: Ionic: Temple of
Apollo and Didyma

 Ionic Order
- more slender and graceful,
with its capital imitating the
softness of a cushion.
- -represents the naturalness
and tender sentiment of the
4th century B.C.
- - less self-assured; a
continuous frieze of
sculptured figures takes the
place of triglyph and metope.

Ionic: Temple of Athena Nike –

Acropolis Athens c. 427 BC
 The temple of Zeus at Athens
3 Basic orders of Detail

columns:
 Corinthian Order
- highest, most slender, and
most decorative order
- uses Oriental decorative
elements like the acanthus
leaves at the top of the
column.
- -displays the exaggerated
sentiment and emotional
extravagance of the
Hellenistic period.

Corinthian: The temple of

Zeus at Athens 2nd c. BC
 Sculpture and
Architecture of
the Golden Age

Architecture Ionic
  The Acropolis
– a hill formerly used as a fortress, where the finest buildings can
be found

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  Propylaea
– the entrance hall; consisting of noble colonnades and
porticoes, beyond these, the visitor emerged on the level top of
the hill and surrounded by statues and temples

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  Bronze Statue of Athena the Defender
– the spear tip, glittering in the sun, guided the mariner far out at
sea

 Temple of the Athena Nike

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 Partenon and Erechtheum
- Two largest buildings; of white Pantelic marble put
together without mortar

Parthenon- most nearly

perfect building in the world

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 Erechtheum

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  The Acropolis
– chief scupltor of the Parthenon who designed and supervised
all its figures

Phidias Athena 438 BC 33

Hello!
I am Kassandra Jayme

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The Fourth-
Century Ideal
of Beauty
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 Praxiteles
- Praxiteles, pupil of phidias was now the chief sculptor.
We know that the statue of Hermes holding the infant
Dionysus was done by him.
- Was the first sculptor who dared to portray the
feminine body nude.
 The Erechthuem
- Considered the finest extant example of the Ionic order.
- It was dedicated to Erechtheus, a mythological king
who supposedly invented the four-wheel chariot, and
also dedicated to Poseidon and Athena.
 Lysippus
- The end of the fourth century B.C came the sculptor
Lysippus, whose faces not only look more animated but
also express personality.
- His head of Alexander the G
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PRAXITELES THE ERECHTHEUM LYSIPPUS

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GREEK
MUSIC

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 Two objects recquired of every Greek
schoolboy were mathematics and music.
 The word music has two meanings. First
was the mathematics of music: the laws
governing vibrations of tones and their
application in the seven scales used in
Greek music.
 We commonly use two scales, major
and minor.
 The Greeks formed a new scale or
tonal system on every degree of our
diatonic scale.

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GREEK
LITERATURE

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 Aeschylus
- Was a musician and a fighter.
- Took part in the Battle of Salamis which closed the
Persian Wars.
- The Persians, as noted previously, is the only extant
Greek tragedy based on a contemporary event.
 Sophocles
- At fifteen was a singer and leader of the chorus.
- He wrote 123 plays, of which seven remain.
- In the two decades, which had elapsed between the
writing of Aechylus and Sophocles, the spirit of Athens
had changed completely.

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 Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy
- A tragedy is an imitation of an action
which is serious, complete, and of
considerable magnitude, and it is
couched in poetic language.
- It should be long enough to show a
character passing gradually from
happiness to misery.
 Oedipus Tyrannus
- Was a king, surely, because he was the
son of King Laius, but the word means
moe than that. Tyrant is inaccurate
because he did not attain power
ruthlessly. Tyrannus means the man who
had overcome all obstacles by his own
intelligence and was master of his own
destiny. 42
AESCHYLUS SOPHOCLES OEDIPUS TYRANNUS

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