Greece

1
Greeces Cultural Contributions

• Mythology, Olympics, Culture, and Philosophy

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Objectives

• Essential Questions
• How did mythology help the early Greek
  civilization explain the natural world and the
  human condition?
• What impact did Greek mythology have on later
  civilizations and the contemporary world?
• What were some important contributions of Greek
  culture to Western civilization?

• Student will be able to demonstrate knowledge of
  ancient Greece in terms of its impact on Western
  civilization by
• Describing Greek Mythology and religion
• Citing contributions in drama, poetry, history,
  sculpture, architecture, science and mathematics

3
What is Mythology?

• A term that shows emphasis on exciting stories
  rather than precise moral laws
• Morals come from philosophies
• Greek Mythology is polytheistic

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Greek Gods

• Zeus Chief ruler of the gods
• God of the sky, lightening and thunder
• Hera
• wife of Zeus and protector of marriage
• Athena
• goddess of wisdom and crafts
• Apollo
• God of the sun and poetry
• Aphrodite
• Goddess of love
• Poseidon
• God of the Seas

• Hades
• God of the Underworld
• Artemis
• Goddess of the Hunt, Apollos twin sister

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Part of life

• Each city-state had a special guardian
• Guardian was celebrated with special prayers ,
  gifts, rituals, and festivals.
• Helpful to keep Gods in good moods
• No moral guidance or hope of happy afterlife

• Oracles
• Locations where you could ask the Gods questions
• Answers were interpreted by Priests

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A different religion

• Greek mythology differed from other religions in
  that it was more an attempt to understand human
  qualities than divine ones.
• The gods and goddesses represented human
  strengths and weaknesses
• Moral issues were left for the humans to solve
  themselves.

• No single source of written scripture such as the
  Quran or the Bible

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Mythology

• Myths gave the Greeks explanations to questions
  they couldnt answer
• Greek mythology still continues to influence the
  Western world in literature, art, architecture,
  and politics

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A way to honor to Gods The Olympics

• Athletic contests
• Several games
• Isthmos games held every two years at the Gulf of
  Corinth
• Pythian games held every four years at Delphi
• Most Famous held at Olympia, took place every
  four years
• The Ancient Olympics started roughly around 700
  B.C.E to honor Zeus

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The Ancient Olympics

• No women allowed
• Not even to watch
• Only Greek nationals could perform
• Performed nude
• Inside temple at Olympia was Phidias's statue of
  Zeus, an Ancient wonder of the World

• Originally a one-day festival of athletics and
  wrestling
• By 472 B.C.E it had expanded to five day and many
  more events
• One the middle day or third day of the festival
  100 oxen were sacrificed to Zeus

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Events

• Races
• The Stadion (oldest)
• A sprint one length of the stadium (192 m)
• 2- Stade Race
• Long distance
• Between 7-24 stades
• Race in full armor
• 2-4 stades
• Wrestling
• Had to throw opponent on the ground three times
• No biting or genital holds
• Boxing
• Vicious and brutal
• Leather and sometimes metal strapped over hands
• Continued until one opponent acknowledged defeat

• Horse-racing
• Confined to wealthy
• Had to own horse
• 6 laps of track
• Also had Chariot races
• Pentathlon
• A series of five events
• Sprinting
• Long-jumping
• Used stone weights to increase the length of
  their jump
• Javelin
• Long wooden stick with spear head
• Usually height of thrower
• Discus
• Circle-shaped stone, iron, bronze or lead
• wrestling

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Greek styles in Art

• Traditional style
• Parthenon
• Used for 200 years
• Set standards for future artists
• Sculpture
• Phidias
• Sculpture of Athena
• Figures that were graceful, strong, and perfectly
  formed
• Faces only showed serenity
• Classical Art
• Valued order, balance, and proportion

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Architecture

• Balance, Harmony
• Parthenon simple rectangle, tall columns, gently
  sloping roof
• Columns
• Doric
• Ionic
• Corinthian

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Art

• By 450 B.C. Greek Sculptors feature natural poses
• Carved gods, goddesses, men, women to most
  perfect and graceful form.

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Poetry

• Epic poems
• The oldest known Greek literary sources, the epic
  poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on events
  surrounding the Trojan War.
• Both written by Homer
• In these stories the Greeks interacted with the
  Gods
• Humans were differentiated by their lack of
  miraculous powers
• The stories of the Gods explained the sorrows and
  surprises of human life as the whims and actions
  of the Gods

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Greek Drama

• Greeks invented it
• Productions in Athens were both an expression of
  civic pride and tribute to the gods
• Actors used colorful costumes, masks, and sets to
  dramatize stories about leadership, justice, and
  the duties owed to the gods.

• Two kinds of plays
• Tragedy
• Comedy

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Greek Drama

• 1st plays out of religious festivals
• Performed in large outdoor theaters
• Chorus sang or chanted comments on the action
• Explored the relationships between people and the
  gods

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Tragedy

• Tragedies told stories of human suffering that
  usually ended in disaster
• Purpose to stir emotions of pity and fear

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Greek Tragedies

• Serious drama about common themes such as love,
  hate, war, or betrayal
• Featured
• Main character, or tragic hero
• Often had extraordinary talents and a tragic flaw
• Flaw led to heros downfall

• Three famous dramatists
• Aeschylus
• The Oresteia
• Wrote more than 80 plays
• Sophocles
• Oedipus, Antigone
• Wrote more than 100 plays
• Euripides
• Medea
• Sympathetic to women

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Oresteia

• Powerful family torn apart by betrayal, murder,
  and revenge
• Saw how pride could cause horrifying misfortune
  and how gods could bring down even the greatest
  heroes

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Antigone

• Explored what happens when an individuals moral
  duty conflicts with the laws of the state
• Young women whose brother killed in rebellion
• King forbids her to bury him, she does anyways
• She is sentenced to death
• Duty to gods is greater than human law

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Greek Comedies

• Contained scenes filled with slap-stick and crude
  humor
• Often satires
• Works that poked fun at the subject
• Customs, politics, respected people
• Aristophanes
• The Birds
• Lysistrata

• Allowed for free discussion and criticism

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Writing of History

• Herodotus
• father of history
• Visited lands, chronicled information
• Thucydides
• wrote about Peloponnesian war
• Lived through the war
• Vividly described savagery

• Set standards for future historians

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Revisit Objectives

• Essential Questions
• How did mythology help the early Greek
  civilization explain the natural world and the
  human condition?
• What impact did Greek mythology have on later
  civilizations and the contemporary world?
• What were some important contributions of Greek
  culture to Western civilization?

• Student will be able to demonstrate knowledge of
  ancient Greece in terms of its impact on Western
  civilization by
• Describing Greek Mythology and religion
• Citing contributions in drama, poetry, history,
  sculpture, architecture, science and mathematics