Monday, September 17

[5thAlexH]

Architecture of the Golden Age of the Athenians

Key Buildings

• Acropolis was the main group of buildings in Athens that looked over the city - it is a sacred area - one of the most recognizable monuments in the world
  
• Cost and time - $3 billion in today's money - took 9 years to build and was completed in 438 BC
  
• The Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis were all built between 460 and 430 BC under the leadership of Pericles - used for political and cultural achievements
  
• Cost and time - $3 billion - built between 447 BC - 432 BC - one of the biggest construction projects of the ancient world
  
• The Porch of Caryatids had six columns holding up the roof
• All female figures were each sculptured differently and engineered so that their slender necks could take the weight of the roof and still look real and elegant
  
• Cost and time - $130 million - started building in 421 BC and was completed in 406 BC
  

Greek Art in the Golden Age

• The most divine and complex structures of this time are the sculptures of the Athenian Acropolis
  
• The earliest of these are the Parthenon sculptures
  

Purpose of Buildings

• Buildings were build to show cultural and political achievements of Athens
  
• Others were used to honor gods and goddesses such as Athena and Nike
  
• Athens had walls that would surround the city for protection and defense
  
• Used for many reasons such as praise and worship, buy and sell items, drama, education and law making
  
• The famous Parthenon building is to worship the goddess, Athena
  
• A temple to honor and praise
  
• Celebrate the ending of the war against Persia
  
• Agora - towns people would come here to buy and sell their goods with each other
  
• Marketplace
  
• Food - lettuce, onions, olive oil and wine
  
• House items - furniture, pottery, chairs and sofas
  
• Theater of Dionysus - meant for dramatic plays, social life, big events and pure comedy
  
• Gymnasium - children would go their to be educated - left home at the age of 6 or 7 to go to school - boys and girls were separated - parents had to pay for private schooling
  
• Pnyx - Athenians would go to this building to gather around and decide on the laws and rules of the town
  

Key Players

• Perciles' plan for Athens was to get the greatest Greek architects to build things like the Parthenon - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
  
• Socrates - lived from 470 -399 BC - son of a sculptor - served in the Athenian army during the clash of Sarta - short and stout - not very handsome - attracted to a young boy soldier names Alcibiades
  
• Plato - lived from 437 to 347 BC - prized student in philosophy - Aristocles was his real name - pirates captures him and his friends tried to buy him back
  
• Aristotle - lived from 384 BC to 322 BC - born in a small Greek colony called Stagira - was a teacher of thirteen year old named Alexander for four years
  

Questions

• 3 Key Players - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
  
• Why did they build the Acropolis?  Political and cultural purposes
  

 

Military and Delian League

Tactics

• Phalanx
  
• Used in battle of Marathon around 500 BC
  
• One major downside to the phalanx is its use against cavalry
  
• The horses in the cavalry could quickly ride around the phalanx and attack the weak side
  
• Athenians used mountains and natural habitat to protect the weak side
  
• Naval Warfare
  
• Athens used it during the Peloponnesian War
  
• Shipped grain and food into the city - used ships called trireme - fought by ramming and boarding enemy ships - major naval force
  

Key Players

• Pericles
  
• Politician - democrat - Athenian general - ruled Athens from 461 to 429 BC - led victories in the Peloponnesian and Persian War
  
• Socrates
  
• Athenian philosopher - scrutinized
  
• Athens - praised Sparta - not well liked for that reason
  
• Plato
  
• Student of Socrates - wrote the dialogues that contain most of Socrates ideas
  
• Aristotle
  
• Student of Plato - teach to Alexander the Great later in life
  
• Archemides
  
• Well known mathematician - first to calculate pi
  
• Pythagoras
  
• Developed the Pythagorean Theorem
  

Delian League

• Coalition of Greek states and Athenians
  
• Founded in 478 BC
  
• Under the control of Athens
  
• Headquarters was in Delos
  

What did it do?

• Goals: Free Ionian Greeks from Persia and protect Aegean Sea
  
• Used sea power
  
• Athens was the leader
  
• Persia was run out of the Aegean Sea
  

Famous Battles

• Major battles of the Persian War: Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis
  
• Marathon - 25,000 Persians met 10,000 Athenians - Persians fled after hours of fighting - around 6,000 Persians died
  
• Thermopylae - 7,000 Greeks and 300 Spartans - stood up to the Persians for a long time - Persians found a way around mountains - Spartans let Greeks flee and stayed to fight - All 300 died
  
• Salamis - Greeks abandoned Athens - fought with their naval forces - Destroyed most of Persian fleet - Formed the Delian League to protect Greece
  

• Famous Battles of Peloponnesian War
  
• Broke out in 431 BC and went until 404 BC
  
• Battle of Pylos - 425 BC - Athenian naval forces were out attacking Zacynthus - over 2,000 Spartan troops - tried attacking sea side wall - Spartans failed to capture Pylos before the Athenian naval fleet could return
  

Weaponry and Armor

• Swords, iron knives, arrowheads, sling bullets (steel and clay), bronze shields, archery and spears

Who participated in the army?

• Certain requirements: male, 18 or older, land owner and two years of military training
  
• This system is much different than the old ways: rich and had to buy your weapons
• Poor men could not afford to fight in the war which resulted in rather small army
  

Different Kinds of Soldiers

• From 18 to 60 years old, all physically fit men went to the military
  
• Most of the soldiers were the heavily armored infantry called hoplites
  
• Young adolescent males (ephebes) trained for 2 years in a barracks
  
• Hoplite attendants: light armored men usually poor citizens or trusted slaves
  
• Most of the other wealthier citizens that could raise their own horse were part of the cavalry corps
  
• Scythian police archers
  
• Peltast
  

What were their roles?

• If they only needed a small force, they would take the people from 20 to 24 years old
  
• But if it was a crisis, they would summon everyone, even elderly
  
• The hoplite attendants carried the hoplite's shields (aspis) and other supplies of theirs until they fought
  
• The Peltasts were lightly armored and had javelins and a small shield (pelte)
  

Questions:

• Who was the leader of Athens during much of its golden age?  Pericles
  
• Name two famous battles of the Persian War.  Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis
  

 

Geography of Athens

Sea

• Greece borders the Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea and the East Mediterranean Sea
  
• Greeks that the sea was a beautiful element
  
• Gained many things/a freedom environment
  
• Shipping people traveled where they could always see land
  

Land

• The longest river in Greece is the Aliakmon
  
• Riverbeds tend to dry up
  
• Grew barley - the growing of barley was less demanding and more productive
  
• Olive plantations
  
• Grapes were very popular in Greece because of the rocky soil
  
• Houses on the land were made of wood
  
• Goats and sheep were the most common animal which provided fur, milk and meat
  
• Chicken and geese
  
• Oxen were rare
  
• Donkeys and mules were used for traveling, they were called "dry animals"
  

Climate

• Mild, rainy winters
  
• Relatively warm and dry summers
  
• Lots of sunshine all through the year
  
• The mountains adjusted to the climate changes
  
• Winters in the mountains can be rigorous and snowy
  

Ancient Greek Trade and Colonization

• Important role as the furthest outposts of Greek culture
  
• Bronze, silver and gold vessels
  

Farming

• Little soil and farmland
  
• 20% of land
  
• Barley, grapes and olives
  
• Small farming villages were set up by people who came from the north
  

Ancient Greek Agriculture

• Diet - based on cereals
  
• Home to many olive trees
  
• Augmented vegetable hardens and orchards

Mining

• Lavrion Mines
  
• Means narrow passage or tunnel describing the characteristics of mining galleries
  
• Decline of mines came during the Peloponnesian War
  

Natural Resources

• Iron, bronze, flax, clay, timber
  

Different Jobs

• Farmers, blacksmiths, craftsmen, doctors, merchants and bankers
  

Questions

• What part of geography helped the Greeks during the Battle of Salamis? Aegean Sea
  
• What was the main crop and when were they planted and harvested?  Barley, grapes and olives.  Planted in April and harvested in October

 

Aristotle

• Greek philosopher - name means "the best purpose"
  
• Wrote about physics, poetry, theater, music, logic, politics, etc.
  
• Born in 384 BC in Stageira, Chalcidice (North Greece)
  
• Died in 322 BC - around the age of 61
  
• Nicomachus, his father, was a personal physician to the king of Macedon
  
• Married Pythias, the adoptive daughter of Hermias
  
• First trainer in medicine
  
• At age 18, he went to Plato's Academy in Athens to continue his education
  
• Studied philosophy with Plato while there
• Best known for being a famous Greek philosopher
• "Granddaddy of the scientific method
• Relied on reasoning instead of experimenting
• Writing about philosophy
• Was taught by Plato and taught Alexander the Great
  
• Contributions: overall study and teaching of Physics and Astronomy - established a new school called Lyceum
  

Plato

• Born around 428 BC into distinguished, wealthy Athenian family
  
• Original name - Aristocles meaning "best" & "renowned", but weastling coach called him Platon in youth because of wide shoulders
  
• Traced ancestry to direct line to early king of Athens, Codrus
  
• 2 brothers and 1 sister
  
• Father died when young, mother remarried
  
• Outstanding as a youth in sports, music and academics
  
• Studied music and poetry at the gymnasium owned by Dionysios
  
• During war with Sparta, he won Athenian prize for bravery
  
• Student of Socrates at age of twenty in 407 BC
  
• Adopted style to philosophy and debate
  
• Believed that justice is the most important virtue
  
• Died in 347 BC either in his bed while a girl played the flute, at a wedding feast or in his sleep
  
• One of the greatest philosophers of all time
• Contributions: philosophy, mathematics and science - founded a school of learning called the Academy around 387 BC
  
• The Academy and Lyceum were rivals
  

Socrates

• Classical Greek Athenian philosopher
  
• One of the founders of Western philosophy
  
• Known for his contribution to ethics
  
• Born and spent all his life in Athens - 469 to 399 BC
  
• His father was Sophroniscus and his mother was Phaenarete, a midwife
  
• Attend School of Athens
  
• Military at age of 18 - hoplite soldier in Peloponnesian War against Sparta
  
• Son of a stonemason - poverty
  
• Completed two works of sculpture
  
• Spent time in market and gymnasium where he would converse with men of intellect
  
• People were charmed by his wit, humor and kindly disposition
  
• Wife - Xanthippe
  
• Served on legislative council of 500
  
• Accused of being an atheist and corrupting the youth of Athens - accepted death penalty and drank hemlock and died
  
• Known for endless questioning, never lecturing, obsessing over the truth and how to find it, using irony in teaching his students, taught Plato and committing suicide by force
  
• Contribution: fought in the Peloponnesian War - didn't charge for his schooling
  
• Most known for his devotion to ethics, method of reasoning, linking knowledge with happiness and rationalism (you can find the truth through reasoning)
  

Questions

• What is the meaning of Aristotle's name?  "the best purpose"
  
• Which of the three philosophers went into the military at age 18?  Socrates
  

 

Athenian Religion

Polytheism

• Many gods and goddesses
  
• Although gods were immortal, they were not all powerful - fate ruled over all
  
• Gods had human traits and emotions
  

Prayer

• Ceremonies and rituals performed for one particular god or goddess
  
• Sacrificing domestic animals
  
• Sacrificing formed a bond between humans and gods
  

Gods - Zeus

• Child of Cronus and Rhea
  
• Overthrew his father
  
• King of the Gods
  
• God of the sky, weather, law, order and fate
  
• Married to Hera
  
• Fathered many gods/heroes
  
• Symbols were thunderbolt
  

Poseidon

• Swallowed by Cronus at birth but was later saved
  
• God of the sea, earthquakes and horses
  
• Married to Amphitrite
  
• Father of Theseus
  
• Often changed into shape of a steed
  

Hades

• Oldest male child of Cronus and Rhea
  
• God of the underworld and precious metal under earth
  
• Obtained his wife Perephone through trickery and abduction
  

Hera

• Queen of all Gods
  
• Protected women and marriage
  
• "Lady"
  
• Amazon protector
  
• Married to and a sister to Zeus
  

Athena

• Born out of Zeus' head
  
• Zeus' favorite
  
• Daughter of Zeus
  
• Goddess of strategic war - wisdom and justice - city and agriculture
  

Apollo

• Son of Zeus
  
• Twin to Artemis
  
• God of music, light, healing and truth
  
• Drove the sun
  
• Never married but had children
  

Athemis

• Daughter of Zeus and Leto
  
• Virgin goddess of the hunt
  
• Twin to Apollo
  
• Could bring sudden death with one arrow
  

Ares

• God of war, battlelust, civil order and manly behavior
  
• Son of Zeus and Hera
  
• Had a long affair with Aphrodite during which he had 4 sons and 1 daughter
  
• The planet Mars is named after his Roman equivalent
  

Aphrodite

• Goddess of love, beauty and fertility
  
• Also a protectress of sailors
  
• Born from the sea foam
  
• Most beautiful woman
  

Myths

• Zeus was the son of Cronos who was destined to be overthrown by his son
  
• Zeus escaped and freed his siblings and imprisoned Cronos
  
• Zeus married Metis but his authority made him arrogant
  
• Medusa would flaunt her beauty for she was almost as beautiful as Athena
  
• Mudesa made Athena angry and turned her beloved hair into serpents
  
• Medusa looked into a living thing's eyes it would turn to stone