Ancient Greece Roxanne Plit, Samantha Edge, Lesley February and Simphiwe

Dumengane

Time periods• Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek

history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity (ca. 600 AD).

• Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era.

• Included in Ancient Greece is the period of Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Classical Greece began with the repelling of a Persian invasion by Athenian leadership. Because of conquests by Alexander the Great, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea.

• There were only a few historians in the time of Ancient Greece. Three major ancient historians, were able to record their time of Ancient Greek history, that include Herodotus, known as the 'Father of History' who travelled to many ancient historic sites at the time, Thucydides and Xenophon.

• Most other forms of History knowledge and accountability of the ancient Greeks we know is because of temples, sculpture, pottery, artefacts and other archaeological findings.

geography• Greece is known as a Southern European country.

• Located at the southeast end of Europe.

• It is almost completely surrounded by the Mediterranean sea.

• Its one of the most mountainous countries of Europe.

• 80% consists of mountains or hills.

• Cities in ancient Greece were usually located between mountains or on coastal plains.

• Its made up of about 3000 islands.

economy

Money in Ancient Greece

• Before 600 B.C. there was no monetary system in Greece, so they would barter. This was a system of trading goods or services for goods.

• By 500 B.C., each city-state began minting their own coin. A merchant usually only took coins from their own city. Visitors had to find a moneychanger to exchange their coins.

• Athens used a currency known as the drachma, often an Athenian coin could be used in other Greek cities and not have to be exchanged for the local currency.

• The Athenian monetary system was set up in the following way:

6 obols = 1 drachma

100 drachma = 1 mina

600 minae = 1 talent (or the equivalent of 57 pounds of silver)

• A worker in Athens could earn about two drachmas a day. Sculptors and doctors were able to make up to six drachmas daily. An unskilled worker would make around half of a drachma for one day’s work.

• The typical costs of goods in ancient Greece:

loaf of bread 1 obol

gallon of olive oil 5 drachmas

Shoes 8 to 12 drachmas

slaves 200 to 300 drachmas

houses 400 to 1000 drachmas

Societyupper class

• Upper class members had to be citizens and could not have a job.

• They got slaves to do all their work.

• Only about 300 families.

• To be considered upper-class a person needed 20 talents.

• The aristocrats of Athens felt that no man in a hurry is quite civilized.

• The middle class was made up of non citizens.

• The free men (non-slaves) of foreign birth, who was ineligible for citizenship, had spent their life in Athens.

• They were mostly merchants, contractors, manufacturers, managers, tradesmen, craftsmen, and artists etc.

• The non-citizens were forbidden to own land, or marry into a family of a citizen.

The Middle Class

• The lower class was partly made up of freed men, who had been slaves.

• Most of the time these people were not citizens of Athens, so the best they could ever be is middle class.

• The Greeks in general felt that all men were not created equal.

• The middle and lower classes outnumbered the upper class by an enormous amount.

The Lower Class

• The slaves were unransomed prisoners of war, victims of slave raids, infants rescued from exposure, and criminals.

• Only a very small number of slaves were Greek.

• The cost of a slave ranged between 50 to 1,000 dollars.

• Fairly poor citizens often had a slave or two, while the rich homes could have as many as fifty.

• Some slaves were treated well by their owners and others were treated very badly by people of higher classes.

• In no case could a citizen legally go as far as to kill his slave. As one philosopher noted, "God has sent all men into the world free, and nature has made no man a slave, but slavery goes on."

The Slaves

Relationships with others

• Prominent issues in Greek foreign policy include the enduring Cyprus dispute, the Aegean dispute with Turkey over the Aegean Sea and the Macedonia naming dispute with the Republic of Macedonia.

• Also the British government in 1816 purchased the Parthenon Marbles, forming a part of the collection known as the Elgin Marbles and placed on display in the British Museum

• The debate continues as to whether the Marbles should remain in the British Museum or be returned to Athens

Culturecustoms and traditions- carnival

• Carnival in greece is called “apokries”

• It is a two week feast from the Sunday of meat fare to the start of lent called “clean Monday”

• The most famous carnival parade takes place in the city of patra where everybody dances and drinks all day and night.

• The religious practices of the Greeks extended beyond mainland Greece, to the islands and coasts of Ionia in Asia Minor, to Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Italy), and to scattered Greek colonies in the Western Mediterranean, such as Massalia (Marseille).

•  Greek religion was tempered by Etruscan cult and belief to form much of the later Ancient Roman religion.

• Many Greek people recognized the major gods and goddesses: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Athena, Hermes, Demeter, Hestia and Hera

• Philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to posit a transcendent single deity. Different cities often worshipped the same deities, sometimes with epithets that distinguished them and specified their local nature.

RELIGION

spirituality

• Worship in Greece typically consisted of sacrificing domestic animals at the altar with hymn and prayer. Parts of the animal were then burned for the gods; the worshippers would eat the rest.

• Throughout the poems, the use of the ritual is apparent at banquets where meat is served, in times of danger or before some important endeavor to gain the favor of the gods.

• In Homer’s The Odyssey (circa 725 B.C.) Eumaeus sacrifices a pig with prayer for his unrecognizable master Odysseus.

• In Homer’s The Iliad (circa 750 B.C.), which may describe Greek civilization centuries earlier, every banquet of the princes begins with a sacrifice and prayer.

• Men ran government and spent most time away from home, when not involved in politics, they spent time in the fields

• For fun in addition to drinking they enjoyed wrestling, horse back riding and Olympic games.

• When at dinner parties women were not allowed to join.

GENDER ROLESMen

• Greek women had very limited freedom outside the home.

• They could attend weddings funerals and some festivals.

• They could visit female neighbors for brief periods of time.

• In their homes they were in charge.

• Their job was to run the house and bear children.

Women

•The arts of ancient Greece have had an enormous influence on the culture of many countries all over the world, particularly in the areas of sculpture and architecture.

•In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek models. In the East, Alexander the Great's conquests initiated many centuries of exchange between Greek, Central Asian and Indian cultures, resulting in Greco-Buddhist art, with ramifications as far as Japan.

•The art of Ancient Greece is usually divided stylistically into four periods:

The Geometric

Archaic

Classical

Hellenistic.

•The Geometric age is usually, although in reality little is known about art in Greece during the preceding 200 years (known as the Greek Dark Ages), the period of the 7th century BC saw the slow development of the Archaic style as exemplified by the black-figure style of vase painting. The onset of the Persian Wars (480 BC to 448 BC) is usually taken as the dividing line between the Archaic and the Classical periods, and the reign of Alexander the Great (336 BC to 323 BC) is taken as separating the Classical from the Hellenistic periods.

Greek Art

dwellings

• Greek houses usually consisted of two or more rooms and an open air courtyard.

• Wealthier families with larger homes might also have a kitchen a bathroom and various sitting rooms.

• Houses were built out of stone, clay bricks or wood.

• The Greek people were incredibly talented builders and created wondrous public structures such as bath houses, temples, market places and open air theaters.

• Places of worship were placed on high ground and were conceived as a ‘sculptural entity’ within the landscape, they were built to be admired from afar and at all angles.

Greek Classical OrdersA classical order is one of the ancient styles of classical architecture, each distinguished by its proportions and characteristic profiles and details, and most readily recognizable by the type of column used.

There are three different distinct ancient orders, these being Doric, Ionic and Corinthian.

Doric

• The Doric order originated on the mainland and western Greece. Of the three columns found in Greece, Doric columns are the simplest. They have a capital (the top, or crown) made of a circle topped by a square. The shaft is plain and has 20 sides. There is no base in the Doric order. The area above the column, called the frieze, had simple patterns. Above the columns are the metopes and triglyphs. The metope is a plain, smooth stone section between triglyphs. Sometimes the metopes had statues of heroes or gods on them. The triglyphs are a pattern of 3 vertical lines between the metopes. There are many examples of ancient Doric buildings, the most famous being the Parthenon in Athens.

Ionic

• The Ionic order came from eastern Greece. Ionic shafts were taller than Doric ones. This makes the columns look slender. They also had flutes, which are lines carved into them from top to bottom. The shafts also had a special characteristic: entasis, which is a little bulge in the columns make the columns look straight, even at a distance. The frieze is plain. The bases were large and looked like a set of stacked rings. Ionic capitals consist of a scrolls above the shaft. The Ionic style is a little more decorative than the Doric.

Corinthian

• The Corinthian order is the most ornate of the Greek orders, characterized by a slender fluted column having an ornate capital decorated with two rows of acanthus leaves and four scrolls. It is commonly regarded as the most elegant of the three orders. The shaft of the Corinthian order has 24 flutes. The column is commonly ten diameters high.

Examples of the greek orders

Doric- Parthenon - temple of Athena Parthenos ("Virgin"), Greek goddess of wisdom, on the Acropolis in Athens. The Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC, and despite the enormous damage it has sustained over the centuries, it still communicates the ideals of order and harmony for which Greek architecture is known.

Ionic- The Temple of Athena Nike - part of the Acropolis in the city of Athens. The Greeks built the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, Turkey (about 300 BC). The design of the temple was known as dipteral, a term that refers to the two sets of columns surrounding the interior section. These columns surrounded a small chamber that housed the statue of Apollo. With Ionic columns reaching 19.5 m (64 ft) high, these ruins suggest the former grandeur of the ancient temple.

Corinthian- most ornate of the classic orders of architecture. It was also the latest, not arriving at full development until the middle of the 4th cent. B.C. The oldest known example, however, is found in the temple of Apollo at Bassae (c.420 B.C.). The Greeks made little use of the order; the chief example is the circular structure at Athens known as the choragic monument of Lysicrates ( 335 B.C.). The temple of Zeus at Athens (started in the 2d cent. B.C. and completed by Emperor Hadrian in the 2d cent. A.D.) was perhaps the most notable of the Corinthian temples.

transport

• One of the most important methods of transportation was travelling by ship.

• Since Greece is mostly made of islands, the best way to travel was by boat. On land, mules were used as horses were not very common.

• Mules were used for light transportation and oxen for heavier transportation

communication• Around the 5th century the Greek

people used pigeons to deliver messages and letters, they didn’t invent this method of communication though.

• They would also send messengers to deliver letters.

• In war Greeks needed a way to communicate fast enough so they develop a variety of the telegraph methods.

• Most telegraph systems involved flashing a torch light or reflecting light off mirrors across long distance.

inventions

• They invented several items to be used in the art of warfare such as the cannon and catapult.

• The catapult was invented around 400bc and was used to hurl large heavy objects across long distances.

• The first cannons used compressed air to launch objects rather than gun powder.

• The Ancient Greek people also invented the art of cartography or making maps.

• A philosopher named Anaximander was the first person to create, draw and print maps.

• Anaximander is accepted as the creator of the first map of the world. The invention of the printed map hugely helped improve navigation as well as trade.

Clothing• Greek men mostly wore a sort of knee-

length wool or linen tunic that was often worn only over one shoulder.

• Greek women wore one large piece of wool or linen , wrapped around them and pinned in various ways to make it stay. The ways of pinning it changed over time.

• Young men often wore a chlamys (short cloak) for riding.

• Greek men occasionally wore a broad-brimmed hats and Greek women wore a flat-brimmed hat with a high peaked crown.

• Women and men wore sandals, slippers, soft shoes, or boots, although at home they usually went barefoot.

hair• Women wore their hair long and in curls,

sometimes plaited, sometimes with tresses draped over the shoulders.

• During mourning, women cut their hair short.

• Men grew their hair long. A boy cut his hair short (chin or jaw-length) when he reached adolescence and kept a short haircut until he became older.

• The beard was a mark of distinction and virility.

food

• The Greek diet was made up of foods that were easily grown in the rocky terrain of Greece’s landscape.

• Breakfast consisted of bread dipped in wine.

• Lunch was again bread dipped in wine with some olives, figs, cheese or dried fish.

• Supper consisted of vegetables, fruit, fish, and possibly honey cakes. Ancient Greeks did not know of sugar, so natural honey was used as a sweetener.

• Fish was the main source of protein for the Greeks. other meat was very expensive.

• Wine was the main drink in ancient Greece. They watered the wine down because drinking it straight was considered barbaric. Drinking milk was considered barbaric too. Water was the other choice of drink.

• The Greeks only used their hands…no utensils.

• Men and women ate meals separately.

jewellery

• Different types of jewellery were produced in the Hellenistic period of Ancient Greece such as necklaces, earrings, pendants, pins, bracelets, armbands, thigh bands, finger rings, wreaths, diadems, and other elaborate hair ornaments.

• Bracelets were often worn in pairs or in matched sets.

• Pieces were usually inlaid with pearls and dazzling gems or semiprecious stones-emeralds, garnets, carnelians, banded agates, sardonyx, chalcedony, and rock crystal.

• Artists would incorporate colourful enamel inlays that dramatically contrasted with their intricate gold settings.

• Elaborate subsidiary ornamentation drew plant and animal motifs or the relation between adornment and the goddess, Aphrodite, and her son, Eros.

• Popular designs for earrings included; Airborne winged figures, such as Eros, Nike, and the eagle of Zeus carrying Ganymede up to Mount Olympus.

• In Hellenistic times, jewelry was often passed down through generation. Occasionally, it was dedicated at sanctuaries as offerings to the gods.

• In ancient Greece, beads shaped as natural forms like shells, flowers and beetles were manufactured on a large scale. Beads were made by joining two flat pieces of gold and filling them with sand

• Greek jewellery was often simpler than in other cultures, with simple designs and workmanship. However, as time progressed, the designs grew in complexity and different materials were soon used.

• Jewellery in Greece was hardly worn and was mostly used for public appearances or on special occasions. It was frequently given as a gift and was predominantly worn by women to show their wealth, social status, and beauty. The jewellery was often supposed to give the wearer protection from the “Evil Eye” or endowed the owner with supernatural powers, while others had a religious symbolism.

• They worked two styles of pieces: cast pieces and pieces hammered out of sheet metal.

• It was made by casting the metal onto two stone or clay moulds. The two halves were then joined together, and wax, followed by molten metal, was placed in the centre. This technique had been practiced since the late Bronze Age.

• Sheets of metal would be hammered to thickness and then soldered together. The inside of the two sheets would be filled with wax or another liquid to preserve the metal work. Different techniques, such as using a stamp or engraving, were then used to create motifs on the jewellery. Jewels may then be added to hollows or glass poured into special cavities on the surface

• techniques remained basically the same as the earlier Egyptian and Assyrian styles though embossed or stamped plates of gold and silver became a predominant basic element. Granulation in gold continued and was developed in Etruria to a remarkable degree of delicate refinement.

• In the Classical Greek period , 5th and 4th centuries BC (480 BC – 338 BC) , granulation went out of fashion. Enamelling was re-introduced and filigree became predominant. Classic Greek jewellery was delicate and very refined.

What techniques did they use?

•They took images of who they believed in like their Gods and made cameo styled jewellery.

•Lots of their jewellery had religious elements in them

iconography

motifs

Greek jewelry of the Classical period continues Archaic types and decoration but the orientalizing figures and creatures are generally replaced with floral and geometric motifs

•Usually the upper class wealthier people wore jewellery.

•in Greece the wearing of (too much) jewellery was considered effeminate and foolish.

What was their attitude towards jewellery?