Classical Greece

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Classical Greece Hellenistic Period

• Chap 3 3 Periods 1. Classical Age
  (479-404B.C.E) 2. Late Classical Period(404-322)
  3. Hellenistic World (323-146)
• Conquered by Rome

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Golden Age of Greece

• Victory against Persia. Unity. Pioneers in most
  fields of science, philosophy and art
  (tragedies). Athens dominant force
• Late classical period (404 to 323) more varied,
  emphasis on philosophy
• Alexander the Great. Then Hellenistic period.
  Until conquest by Romans
• Macedonians (Greeks of North) and then Romans
  helped spread Greek Classical ideal
• Greek search for order vs. tumultuous reality of
  their political, national life. Balance over
  chaos

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The Classical Ideal

• Everything in moderation power of human reason
  and self-knowledge. Against hubris
• Parthenon built to glorify Athens and human
  achievement. Athens true democracy. Not
  representative. Ecclesia and Boule. Courts
• Delian league. Soon empire. Sparta, Thebes,
  Corinth suspicious. Funds transferred to Athens
• Peloponnesian war. Thucydides.(460). Impartial.
  History important for study of human motives, not
  just particularly people. Emphasis on reason
• Pericles by 443 leader of Athens. Died 429 (430
  plague). Pericles the one who started the lofty
  building of the Acropolis. The last temple
  (Erechtheum) to be completed was not finished
  until 406, which was 2 yrs before the fall of
  Athens in the Peloponnesian war.
• This reflects the gulf separating the classical
  high ideals and the bloody political realities of
  5th century B.C.E

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Drama festivals of Dionysus

• Uneasy peace of 421. Sicily. 411-404 last phase
  of war. Athens defeated.
• 6th ce Drama invented. Thespis. Chorus. In honor
  of Dionysus rebirth. Theater sacred ground.
• Trilogy and satyr play. Tragedy mythical plot.
• Chorus involved in Aeschylus, spectator in
  Sophocles, marks acts in Euripides
• Cant recreate whole experience today. When they
  tried in Florence in 1600 they invented opera

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Athenian Tragic Dramatists

• Aeschylus (525-456 BC) earliest dramatist. Human
  weakness, danger of power, but right will
  triumph. Recognize ones errors under Zeus
  divine guidance
• Oresteia. Bloody trilogy. Complete has survived.
  458 first prize. Growth of civilizationtransition
  from vendetta to rational society
• Agamemnon. Iphigenia (public over private).
  Clytemnestra. Aegisthus. The Libation Bearers.
  Orestes. The Eumenides (furies). Apollo god of
  reason defends Orestes. Athens. Athena. Progress
  achieved by reason and order

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Athenian Tragic Dramatists (2)

• Sophocles (496-406). Individual mistake, dignity
  of human race. Emphasis on character.
• Antigone. Creon. Polynices. Ethical law over law
  of land. Destiny, gods. Most traditionally
  religious dramatist. Oedipus the King. Aristotle
  used it as model. Freud. Hamartia. Flaw. Too
  self-reliant?
• Euripides most successful in his time. Skeptical
  towards gods. Understands women (Medea, Phaedra),
  social injustice. Hates war. The Suppliant Women.
  Widows, mothers grieve sons. (P. war) Theseus.
  Thebes. More realistic. Variety. Bacchae.
  Rationalist explains inadequacy of reason (Greek
  ideal) alone to explain life.

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Aristophanes (450-385) and Greek Comedy

• Political satire and fantasy. The Birds. (414).
  Two Athenians and birds build city, block
  offerings. Cloudcuckooland.
• Lysistrata. (411).Not simple escapism. Force men
  not to engage in war. Spartans and Athenians
• After fall of Athens, no one dominant force.
  Philip of Macedon (359) united Greece. Athens,
  Thebes tried to resist. All but Sparta finally
  joined. League of Corinth (338). 336
  Assassination. Alexander from 333-323 campaigns
  against Persia, as far as India. After his death
  empire divided.

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Philosophy in Late Classical Period

• 339 BC. Socrates (469) charged with impiety and
  corruption of the young.
• Did not leave records. No school (unlike
  Sophists). Public places. Associated with 30
  Tyrants. Hemlock. Xenophon Apology, Symposium.
  Plato Apology, Crito, Phaedro. Dialogues.
• Plato 428 BC. Academy. Sicily. Philosopher king.
• Theory of forms. Republic. Rigid, elitist. Ideal
  societycensorship, careful schooling, no private
  property.

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Plato and Aristotle

• Aristotle, Lyceum. Opposite philosophy. Peripatic
• Great systematizer. Metaphysics. Against Platos
  theory of remembering. Not two worlds.
• Poetics. Tragedy tragic flaw, catharsis.
  Physics. God is in nature. Rhetoric.
• Tutored Alexander. Works saved thanks to Cicero.
  Became philosophical basis for Christian
  philosophy. But Platos idea of a soul also found
  in Christian faith and other faiths.

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Greek Music in Classical Period

• By 4th ce not mere accompaniment
• Ethos. Music molds character. Plato. Music
  scales reflect proportions of cosmos
• Aristotle. Numerical relations. Works can imitate
  highest state of reason
• Pythagoras. Octave. Fourth (smallest interval).
  Intervals form scales (modes). Dorian mode
  serious warlike, Phrygian exciting emotional,
  Mixolydian plaintive and pathetic.
• Tetrachord. 2 tetrachordsa mode
• Harmonyjoining together. But tied to dance
  steps. Notationposition of fingers lyre, aulos

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Sculpture and Vase painting in 5th BC

• Balance order proportion, symmetry.
• Discus Thrower (450). Naturalism.
• The Canon. Polykleitos (440). Math formula for
  perfect male body depiction. Precise relationship
  between parts. Doryphoros. Chrisippus (280-207BC)
  
• Ideal beauty created by power of human intellect,
  not nature.
• P. war emphasis on individual. Death and
  mourning scenes and motifs dominate.

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Architecture in 5th ce BC

• Temple of Zeus at Olympia (470-456BC compl).
  Doric
• Pericles. Acropolis (Athens citadel). Delian
  league funds moved 454BC. 449BC Phidias
  (sculptor). Parthenon. Doric columns, Ionic
  features. No monotony or heaviness. Columns
  slightly tilted to one another
• 3 carving techniques Pediments freestanding
• Frieze (procession) low relief. Metopes high
  relief
• Ideal beauty represented in realistic terms.
• Propylaea. Erechtheum. Caryatids (young women
  statues) instead of south side columns

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Visual Arts in 4th ce BC

• Roman copies of lost originals
• More emotion, realism in that period (war
  effects)
• Praxiteles, Scopas, Lysippus (portraits of
  Alexander the Great)
• Praxiteles gentle melancholy. Hermes at Olympia.
  Aphrodite. Sensuality in female form for first
  time in western art.
• Scopas Pothos (desire) statue
• New cities (Rhodes), new building designs
  (Tholos). Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

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The Hellenistic Period

• Death of Alexander (323 BC) to 146 BC (Roman
  conquest)
• Syria, Egypt, Pergamon, Macedonia 4 kingdoms
• Hellenize spread Greek influence
• Alexandria. King Ptolemy. Library (47 BC Caesar
  set fire during siege).
• Gandharan. Hellenistic (first Buddhist monumental
  sculpture)
• Lighthouse at Alexandria. One of 7 wonders.
  Tallest building at the time

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The Hellenistic Period (2)

• Art no longer just for state (religion,
  politics). New techniques
• Marketplaces, theatres (instead of temples)
• Pergamum. Altar of Zeus. Drama, violence
• Athens. Tower of the Winds.
• Laocoon. (Trojan priest)
• Grammarians in Alexandria. Grammaletter. To help
  teach barbarians Greek. Not for native speakers