How did Greek thought dominate Western inquiry for centuries to come?

• It investigated the relationship between individual freedom and civic responsibility

• The nature of the beautiful• The ideal harmony between the natural world

and the intellectual realm• This body of thought was produced by the polis• The pursuit of what Aristotle called eudaimonia,

the good life, resulted in a culture of astonishing sophistication

What is the polis?

• Isolation from one another• Fierce sense of independence• Cultural center• Polis of Athens consisted of an urban center,

surrounding a citadel or acropolis• Agora- large open space that served as a public

meeting place• Stoa – principle architectural feature –• open arcade supported by colonnades

The Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 4th c. BCEAfter the Persians destroyed Athens in 479 BCE, the entire city had to be rebuilt. This afforded the Athenians an opportunity to create one of the greatest monumental pieces in Western architecture.

The Stoa of Attalos, Athens. 150 BCE

Who were the Greeks?

• Later Greeks thought of the Bronze Age Aegean peoples as their ancestors, using the word archaiologia to describe their knowledge of the past

• Aegean culture developed on the more than 100 islands in the Mediterranean Sea around mainland Greece around 3000 BCE

• Trade was dominated by the Phoenicians

The city states of Ancient Greece

What are the Cyclades?

• A series of 100 islands between mainland Greece and Crete

• They developed a culture that is evidenced by findings on the island of Thera which included plumbing, murals, and insulated houses.

• Thera was destroyed by a volcanic eruption around 1623 BCE

Miniature Ship Fresco, TheraThe painting was discovered in 1967 on the island of Thera at Akrotiri, a community that had been buried beneath one of the largest volcanic eruptions.

Figurine of a woman from the Cyclades. 2500 BCE.The figurine may have served a ritual purpose.

Minoan Culture in Crete

• The largest island of the Cyclades is Crete.• A civilization called Minoan, after the

legendary king Minos, developed there between 1900-1375 BCE.

• The Minoans worshiped one female goddess associated with mountains, caves, snakes etc.

Snake Goddess from the palace of Minos at Knossos

How does the palace of Minos attest to Greek prosperity?

• Unfortified• Numerous store rooms• The labrys (double axe) is a prominent decorative element in Knossos• The word labyrinth eventually came to mean a maze after the

complicated layout of the palace of Knossos• The founding myth of Theseus and the Minotaur• Rather than narrating the origin of humankind in general, it tells the

story of the birth of one culture out of another• The palace of Knossos was abandoned around 1450 BCE.• Deforestation• Volcanic eruption at Thera• Power of the Mycenaeans

Reconstruction drawing of the palace at Knossos

Bull Leaping, Toreador Fresco, palace at KnossosThe emphasis on the bull is unique to Crete. Three almost-nude figures appear to toy with a charging bull.

Who were the Mycenaeans?

• Occupied Crete• Flourished on mainland Greece around 1500 BCE• German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann

discovered the ruins of Mycenae• Carried out trade with Africa• Vast accumulation of wealth• The walls of the city were built from huge blocks

of rough-hewn stone, in a technique called cyclopean masonry

Lion Gate, Mycenae, GreeceThe lions are carve on a triangle of stone that relieves the weight of the massive doorway from the lintel.

What are the Homeric epics?

• Homer, a Greek bard, 800 BCE• Iliad – narrates an episode in the Trojan War, which began

when the Greeks launched a large fleet of ships under King Agamemnon of Mycenae to bring back Helen, the wife of his brother Menalus of Sparta, who eloped with Paris, son of Priam of Troy

• Vivid picture of war and arete (virtue)• Odyssey –recounts his return voyage home to his wife

Penelope• Invocation of the muse• In medias res

Funeral mask of Agamemnon, Mycenae, Greece

Botkin Class Amphora, 540 BCE.The amphora is a Greek jar used for storing oil or wine – embodies the concept of arete.

The Temple of Hera, 460 BCE, Paestum, Italy.Doric order

Delos and Delphi

• Sacred religious sites• Delphi – here the Greeks believed, the Earth

was attached to the sky by its navel• Apollo spoke, through the medium of a

woman called Pythia

Amphora showing a foot-race at the Games in Athens, 530, BCE.Greek sculpture celebrated the male nude, kouros.