WHY STUDY ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE

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WHY STUDY ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE?
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CONTRIBUTIONS OF GREEK CULTURE TO AREAS OF
CONTEMPORARY CONCERN Ideal of democratic
governance debate vs. coercion. Citizens rather
than subjects. Rational inquiry into the
processes of the natural world. Rational inquiry
into the nature of human thought and experience
Rational inquiry into the nature of truth,
beauty, and goodness. Rational inquiry into
historical events.
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CONTRIBUTIONS OF GREEK CULTURE TO AREAS OF
CONTEMPORARY CONCERN Rational analysis of
ethical and political life. Classical
architectural styles. Theater and
drama. Naturalistic art. Ideal of wholistic
education and the well-rounded life. Cultural
standards of physical human beauty. Athletics
and competitive sports.
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Map of Greece and its Colonies
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HISTORICAL PERIODS IN GREEK ARTS AND
HUMANITIES How the topic will be divided in this
class Geometric Period 950-700/ s Archaic
Period 700-490/ s Early Classical 490-450/
s Classical 450-400/ p Late Classical
400-323/ p
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• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• MINOAN CIVILIZATION (CRETE) 1600-1400
• MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION 1600-1200
• THE DORIANS 1200-750
• 1200-900 The DARK AGES
• Economic, political, cultural loss and
  instability
• Loss of written language
• Loss of figural art forms

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• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• 900-700 Recovery and Expansion
• Colonies
• Land-based wealth
• Monarch advised by few aristocrats
• War conducted in hand-to-hand combat
• Development of the polis (city-state) system

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• Greek Art and Literature
• Decorated pottery for elite use and for grave
  markers
• Bronze figurines, shields and tripods
• 950-750 Adoption of Phoenician alphabet to
  represent the sounds of their language in writing.

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HOMER
750-500 Greeks begin using their writing system
to record oral legends, myths, and stories from
the Mycenaean Period the Dorian Dark
Ages. Homer, thought to have been a blind Ionian
poet, produces two epic poems based on selected
material from this oral tradition. Iliad,
composed around 750 B.C. Odyssey, composed toward
the end of the 8th century or perhaps in the
early decades of the seventh century.
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• HOMER THE ILIAD
• Covers only about 1.5 months near the close of
  the mythical 10 year Trojan War.
• Assumes his audience already knows all about the
  war.
• Hence gives little background just starts in the
  middle of the action.
• Theme Achilles rage or wrath.
• READ PORTER SYNOPSIS

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HERO-WARRIORS FROM THE ENTIRE GREEK WORLD
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Basic ethical perspective The Heroic ethical
perspective. Based on honor and shame. Key
goods Honor timê and Fame kleos. The key
figures are tribal chiefs and their sons. They
are the elites of their time. The warrior ideal
superb fighter, excellent speaker, musician,
well-rounded leader, physically powerful
protector of his people.
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Mighty deeds and actions generate honor, which
must be acknowledged by others. The
acquisition and preservation of honor is the
highest pursuit. Honor is a zero-sum good. One
persons gain must be anothers loss. To refuse
to give honor where status demands it to slight
the honor of another person to dishonor oneself
or another to fail to protect the honor of
another who is entitled to itthese are shameful
and insulting actions.
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Hencethe value of your actions and of your worth
as a person rests uponrequiresthe recognition
of others. The Trojan War was fought over
honor. Paris (of Troy), taking Helen from
Menelaus, dishonored the latter. It is a matter
of honor that this insult be avenged.
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In turn, the ILIAD is about a manAchilleswho
refuses to fight in a war for honor (the Trojan
War) because his personal honor has been sullied
by the behavior his own leader, the leader of the
Greek forcesAgamemnon. Homer explores the
consequences and implications of this refusal.
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• Heres my take on the Iliad.
• The major theme of the Iliad is the exploration
  of the meaning and value of the ethics of honor.
• Homer sees the heroes as admirably and completely
  bound to this ethical code, but he unblinkingly
  and realistically reveals its costs for social
  and personal life.
• In other words

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Throughout his narrative, Homer continually
signals that this ethical code is too limiting of
human potential, that there are cracks in its
foundationsbut also that the heroes are unable
to extricate themselves from its destructive
power.
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Examples that not all is well

• In a test of their sense of honor, Agamemnon
  tells his soldiers that all is lost and its best
  to call it quits and go back home. He expects
  them to refuse and rally behind the war effort
  but, instead
• The duel between the offended individualsParis
  and Menelaus
• You could see their mood brighten,
• Greeks and Trojans both, with the hope
• That this wretched war would soon be over.
• They pulled their chariots up in rows,
• Dismounted, and piled up their weapons.
• There was not much space between the two armies.
  (III.110-120)

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Examples that not all is well
c. In his anger, Achilles points out how
Agamemnon uses the honor ethic to his own
advantage, to secure his own selfish interests.
How he uses the honor-based loyalties of his
associates to his own advantage. d. When Odysseus
forces the soldiers out of the ships and back to
the front, a rank and file soldier named
Thersites makes more or less the same allegations
that Achilles had made about Agamemnons
so-called honor. But Thersites is called a
blathering fool and is beaten into submission.
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ONE OF MY KEY THEMES IS THAT THE HEROIC ETHICS OF
HONOR CANNOT ENCOMPASS AND HENCE THWARTS THE
FULL RANGE OF HUMAN LOYALTIES, OBLIGATIONS,
RELATIONSHIPS, AND POSSIBILITIES.
Personal honor (timê) Household oikos
(oikoi) City polis (poleis) Comrades in
Arms hetairoi Hospitality xenia
(xenoi) The gods
HOMER
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Hector and Andromache I have learned to be one
of the best, he says, to fight in Troys first
ranks, defending my fathers honor and my own.
He will feel unendurable pain for the loss of
his city, the loss of his father (Priam), of his
comrades-in-arms But, he continues
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Hector and Andromache All that pain is nothing to
what I will feel For you, when some
bronze-armored Greek Leads you away in tears, on
your first day of slavery. And you will work some
other womans loom In Argos or carry water from a
Spartan spring, All against your will, under
great duress. And someone, seeing you, will
say That is the wife of Hector, the best of
all The Trojans when they fought around
Ilion. Someday someone will say that, renewing
your pain At having lost such a man to fight off
the day Of your enslavement. But may I be
dead And the earth heaped above me Before I hear
your cry as you are dragged away.
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Hector and Andromache Zeus and all gods grant
that this my son Become, as I am, foremost among
Trojans, Brave and strong, and ruling Ilion with
might. And may men say he is far better than his
father When he returns from war, bearing bloody
spoils, Having killed his man. And may his mother
rejoice. And he put his son in the arms of his
wife, And she enfolded him in her fragrant
bosom Laughing through her tears. Hector pitied
her And stroked her with his hand.
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2. Even Zeus cannot, ultimately, circumvent the
codein the case of his own son Sarpedon who
must be allowed to die, or be dishonored.3.
Diomedes (Greek) and Glaucus (Trojan)who decide
they cannot fight because of ties of hospitality
that bind their families.So we cant cross
spears with each otherEven in the thick of
battle. There are enoughTrojan and allies for me
to kill, whomeverA god gives me and I can run
down myself.And enough Greeks for you to kill as
you can.
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CONCLUSION OF THE ILIAD ACHILLES places his own
honor above all else until His comrade and
friend Patroclus is killedan event caused by
Achilles himself. Now Achilles fights again. But
his decision to enter the battle is not based on
honor, but uncontrollable rageor is it the need
to expunge his own guilt? over the death of his
friend.
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Hectors body dragged behind Achilles chariot
He finally kills Hector, who dies bravely with
only the request that his body be treated with
respect and delivered to his family a request at
which Achilles scoffs. Still controlled by his
rage, he proceeds to desecrate the body by
dragging it behind his chariot in full view of
the dead warriors family and comrades.
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Only at the end does Achilles suddenly have a
change of heartagain, not on the basis of honor,
because his intemperate actions have in fact not
brought about any resolution of his need for
revenge, nor expiated his own guilt and have not
brought him honor.
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Ratherhe suddenly sees Priam as a persona
father, a member of Hectors OIKOS and recalls
his own father.
He sees Hector not as a warrior, but as Priams
sonlike himself embedded in various
loyaltiesand together they weep over their
losses
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Priam gives his son a proper burial and the Iliad
comes to a close
But not the war which ends in the complete and
merciless destruction of Troy. Neither Priam nor
Achilles make it out alive. Andromache is
enslaved, and Hectors son is killed. Achilles
discovers, through suffering, the common humanity
he shares with his enemybut the battle then goes
on, destroying them all.
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CONCLUSIONS
The inadequacies of the honor ethic have been
exposed it is not expansive enough to unify
life, to give honor to all aspects of human
obligation and potential. It has threatened and
destroyed so much that is precious and creative.
Yet all feel bound to this ethic. There is no
alternative on their horizon. It seems to be just
the way things are. Sacrifice. Suffering.
Necessity. Loss. Fate.
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CONCLUSIONS
How do I bring order to personal and social life?
How do these parts fit into an ordered whole?

• Personal life
• Household
• City
• Comrades
• Friends
• Hospitality
• Gods

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THE ODYSSEY THE SECOND OF HOMERS EPIC POEMS
FOLLOWS ODYSSEUS JOURNEY HOME AFTER THE
WAR.HIS NAME CAN MEAN MAN OF TWISTS AND
TURNS, or MAN OF MANY PARTS.
Odysseus
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Odysseus oath initiates the Trojan War. His
famously deceptive horse ends it.He is the
only major hero to survive the war, and he is
the one who must find a new order for the future.
Odysseus
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Throughout his journey home, he straddles the old
and the new.On the one hand he engages in acts
of pointless piracy and slaughter and can
tolerate neither neglect of nor insult to his
honor.EX. Must tell Polyphemus his name
ruthlessly slaughters all who insult his honor
after his return home.
Odysseus
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On the other hand, he makes use of craftiness,
reason, and shrewd deception to escape danger
turns down opportunities to become immortal for
the sake of returning home to Penelope and
Telemachus and embraces the contraries of life
with a sense for all the ambiguities the world
has to offer.
Odysseus
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The swaggering herowho ties himself to a mast.
To hear the sirens song with out being harmed.
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ACHILLES TO ODYSSEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD No smooth
words about death to me, shining Odysseus! By
god, Id rather slave on earth for another
man Some dirt poor farmer who scrapes to keep
alive Than rule down here over all the exhausted
dead.