ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS

Architecture and Sculpture

• The ancient Greeks loved beauty, music, literature, drama, philosophy, politics and art.

• Their statues always represented perfect looking people, with muscles and perfect noses and eyes spaced just right.

• It was the ancient Greeks who invented 3 beautiful types of columns. These were used all over ancient Greece to hold up buildings and rooftops and temples.

– One column had a very simple design: doric style– One column was simple with scrolls: ionic style – One column was very ornate: Corinthian style

• Be it a vase or a pillar or a statue, the ancient Greeks wanted their art to be visually interesting.

• Greek potters were constantly changing the shape of their famous vases and pots. In ancient Greece, it was not enough to create something that was beautiful and comfortable.– If the vase, pot, or pitcher

had a handle, that handle had to be easy to hold and fit comfortably into the grip of your hand.

• The Greeks considered themselves scientists as well as artists. Everything had to be perfectly proportioned.

• The designs on their pottery told a story, some told stories of daily life, others told stories of wars and heroes.

• All designs, whatever they were, had to represent something that people would find pleasing. Geometric designs had to be familiar, a design perhaps that could be found in a temple.

Medicine• The Greeks made great

advancements in medicine.• Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)

introduced the idea of looking at disease as something that occurred naturally, instead of coming from the gods. He also believed that doctors should observe symptoms to determine how to treat a patient. He wrote over fifty books on the subject.

• The Hippocratic oath, to do no harm to a patient, is still used in medicine today.

Math and Sciences• The Greeks produced great

advancements in mathematics which are still used today.

• Euclid was known for the basic rules and terms of geometry.

• Pythagoras was famous for his theorem A² +B² = C² for a right triangle. Pythagoras also came up with the value of pie to calculate the circumference of a circle.

• Archimedes discovered the physical law of displacement.

Drama• The ancient Greeks loved live

theatre. Every town had at least one open air theatre. These theatres attracted crowds of 15,000 people. Each town bragged about how wonderful their plays were and how marvelous their actors were.

• The Greeks were very competitive. They had drama contests between towns. Winners were treated with great respect, nearly as much respect as the Olympic winners.

• Many Greeks tried to become famous playwrights. One of the most successful and famous was a Greek named Sophocles, he wrote 120 plays

• The Greek architects built theatres on hillsides. That let them position long benches in rows, one above the other, so that everyone could see what was happening on the stage. The stage was located at the bottom of the hill, also helping with the acoustics

• The ancient Greeks invented three types of plays.– Tragedies always had a sad

ending. – Comedies always had a happy

ending. – Satires poked fun at real

people and events. (In ancient Greece, it was illegal to poke fun at the gods. Punishment for mocking the gods was death.)

– Comedies and tragedies entertained, but a well written satire could sway public opinion.

• Each play was told in two different ways at the same time. – The story was told out loud

by a Greek chorus. – The story was acted out by

performers who did not speak. These performers, or actors, told story using masks and gestures. The same actor might play several different roles. All he had to do was switch masks.

• Thespis was one of the most famous and successful actors in all of ancient Greece. In his honor, actors today are called thespians.

Philosophy• Three of the greatest

thinkers of all time are Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

• Socrates (469–349 BC) was the teacher of Athenian youth, and the moral conscience of the city. He sought answers to such questions as, “What is justice? Truth? Beauty?” He believed that if man knew who he was, he would seek justice, truth, and goodness in his daily life.

• Plato (427–347 BC), a student of Socrates, was interested in what constituted an ideal society. He wrote a book, Republic, in which he described a society based on his belief that in man there are three sets of basic instincts.

• Aristotle (384–322 BC), a student of Plato, was most concerned with systematizing all fields of knowledge. He excelled at biology and zoology. He was the first to classify plants and animals. His approach was based on observation of people and their behavior.