10/16 Aim: Which Contributions of Ancient Greece were Most Important to Western

Civilization?Do Now: Philosophers, or great thinkers, emerged in classical Greece and began

to question the world around them. Act like a

philosopher, and answer the questions on your handout,

which were asked by Socrates, in your own

opinion.

10/21 Aim: Which Contributions of Ancient Greece were Most Important to Western

Civilization? (Part 2)

Do Now: Take Your handout out from

yesterday! Thanks!

The PhilosophersSocrates – The first of the Athenian Philosophers. By the time he was 40, he began to think of the world around him. He wandered the marketplace asking people questions like “what is wisdom? What is beauty? What is the right thing to do?” He encouraged people to use logic and reason to understand the universe rather than simply explaining natural occurrences to be the work of the gods. Eventually, he was put to death for this. He was accused of corrupting the city’s youth and failing to respect the gods.

Plato – Student of Socrates and one of the greatest philosophers of all time. Like Socrates, Plato emphasized the importance of logic, reason and rational thought. He rejected democracy because he believed that people, in general, were pretty ignorant and therefore needed a “guardian” to regulate every aspect of their lives.

Aristotle- Studies at Plato’s school and also emphasized the importance of logic and reason. He agreed with Plato on the issue of government, but was different in that he was more interested in how the real world worked. He was very interested in biology and the classification of plants and animals in a way that would make sense.

DemocracyDemocracy was not the first type of government present in Athens. Before democracy, Athens was ruled by a few, wealthy elite called tyrants. This oligarchy limited the power to a very few people.

Democracy, on the other hand, was a government structured to serve the people. Unlike our representative democracy today, in which we choose representatives to vote on elections and issues, back in Athens, citizens would convene and openly vote directly. That’s why their democracy was known as a direct democracy

Democracy in Greece was limited, however. You must be a citizen to participate in the democracy, and in order to be a citizen, you had to be a man born in Athens. So unfair!

Poetry and DramaPoetry: Homer (750 B.C) – the author of the epic poems The Iliad and The

Odyssey. To people living in classical Greece, these epics play very much the same role as the bible. The Iliad is our chief source of information about the Trojan War, although the story involves godds, goddesses, and even a talking horse. For centuries, most people regarded the Trojan War purely as legend. Though most details still remain lost in legend, modern scholars agree that the Trojan War was an actual event!

Drama – Tragedy: Some of the greatest Athenian playwrights wroteTragedies, or plays that told stories of human suffering that usually ended in disaster. Fun! The purpose of tragedy, the Greeks felt, was to excited emotions of pity and fear. Sophocles, a tragic playwright wrote Antigone which explored what happens when an individuals moral duty conflicts with the laws of the state.

Drama – Comedy: Comedies were humorous plays that mocked people or customs. Through ridicule, they criticized society. Almost all surviving Greek comedies were written by Aristophanes. In Lysistrata he tells what happens when the women of Athens together force their husbands to end a war against Sparta. Hysterical!

A Somewhat Inadequate Retelling of The Illiad

The Greeks believed that the Trojan War lasted for ten years, and this story happens in the tenth year of the war, when both sides were really sick of being at war, and the Greeks were sick of being away from home. The Iliad begins with a fight between the leader of the Greeks, King Agamemnon of Mycenae, and the Greeks' best fighter, King Achilles (The Greeks lived in a lot of little city-states, and in the Bronze Age each one had its own king, but Agamemnon was leading them all during the war). The Greeks had won a battle and were splitting up the booty (the stuff they had captured). Everybody had a pile of stuff. Achilles had gotten a woman among his stuff, to be his slave, whose name was Briseis (brih-SAY-iss). But Agamemnon decided that HE wanted the pretty Briseis, and he just took her from Achilles, saying that he was the head of the army so he would do what he liked. Well, Achilles was so angry that Agamemnon took Briseis from him that he refused to fight for the Greeks anymore and just sat in his tent and sulked. Without their best fighter, the Greeks started losing battles.Finally Achilles' best friend, Patroclos, I’ll call him Pat thought of an idea. He put on Achilles' famous armor and went out to fight. Both the Greeks and the Trojans thought Achilles had come back to the battle and the Greeks won a big victory, but Pat was killed in the fighting: he might dress like Achilles but he could not fight like him. When Achilles heard that Pat was dead, he was ashamed of how he had been sulking. He agreed to fight again. Now the Greeks really started to win. So the best Trojan fighter, Prince Hector, came out from Troy to fight Achilles. They fought for a long time, but finally Achilles killed Hector. Hector's father, King Priam, came to Achilles at night to ask for his son's body back, and Achilles gave it to him.

The OlympicsOnce every four years, men from all over Greece came to compete in a great

athletic festival in in western Greece (Women were not allowed to compete). This was called the Olympic games because the place was called Olympia. It was a religious festival to honor the Greek gods Zeus and Hera and took place every 4 years. Like today!

Once all the men had arrived, they spent a month practicing and training together in a big palaestra, or gym, with a sand floor. They had to follow strict rules. Judges (also all men) watched the men train, and picked out only the best ones to actually complete in the races. They Olympics began with religious sacrificed of pigs and rams to Zeus.

Events of the Ancient Olympics included Chariot races, horse riding, running, discus, wrestling, boxing, and long jump. Of course, to show off the achievements of the human body, they competed in all of these events naked! Yikes! This is probably why married women were not allowed to be spectators at the games.

Art and Architecture Sculpture: Greek sculpture focused on the beauty and grace of the

human body; especially the bodies of young, athletic, naked men. Women, of course, were only sculpted with clothing on. They sculpted the “ideal” human form showing no imperfections.

Architecture: Architects in ancient Greece often built temples to the gods. Most famous is the Parthenon which was built for Athena, the goddess of wisdom. This temple is a perfect example of what classical Greek architecture entailed. Greek columns supported the roof structure which was almost always detailed with a triangular structure called a pediment. This style of architecture has been so admired that it has been copied by different architects from Ancient Rome through modern-day America!