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Chapter 2: The Greek World

Part III: The Golden Age--Pericles, Architecture of Acropolis

Pericles Greeks return after Persian invasion – 480 BCE

Pericles convinces them to rebuild Acropolis

 Democracy advocate

 Funeral Speech honoring fallen soldiers by recalling what principles and

institutions made Athens great prior to war:

o Democracy

o Quality of life: individual freedom and civic responsibility

o Example for all of Greece

 Rebuilds Acropolis

Architectural Program

at the Acropolis

Parthenon

High cost—>financed thru tributes from allies

Employed many Athenians and slaves, leading to general prosperity

The Parthenon – centerpiece of Acropolis

 Tribute to Athena for saving Athens/Greece in Persian Wars

 Sign of Athenian power/prowess

 Doric columns – swell at 1/3 from top (entasis) to counter eye’s

perception that a tall column narrows at the top

 Golden section

o Most beautiful proportion (~8:5)

o Can be broken down and sub-divided infinitely into golden

rectangles

o Parthenon floor plan

Sculpture Phidias created sculpture for the Parthenon. Influenced by kouros sculpture.

Natural poses.

 Figures twist around axis – contrapposto – “counterpoise” or weight-shift

– weight rests on one leg, relaxed pose, makes sculpture look alive,

dramatic

 Emphasis on proportions

Pericles, statesman, rebuilds Acropolis as memorial to Persian war soldiers. Builds Parthenon as tribute to

Athena for her support in the Persian Wars. Golden rectangles and Doric columns. Phidias creates sculpture

for Parthenon –contrapposto figures.

Cornell Notes Example

Chapter 2: The Greek World

Part III: The Golden Age--Philosophy and the Polis

Socrates

 Philosopher. Brought to trial (by oligarchic government set up by Spartans)

for charges of corrupting youth, subversive behavior, and introducing new

gods—charges probably politically motivated.

 Antagonized jury during trial by claiming to have benefitted Athens and lived

as good a life as any.

 Sentenced to death by drinking hemlock. Refused to flee.

 Crito details his reasons for submitting to his fate. Written by Plato, his

student.

 Socrates’ death marks end of Athens’ democracy experiment.

Philosophical Tradition

 Division existed between polis and philosophers

 Plato believed good government was only attainable if philosophers became

kings or kings became philosophers

 Philosophy split between two traditions: Pre-socratic and Sophist

o Presocratic: described natural universe, wondered what lies

beyond appearance and if there is a truth or core to the universe

 started with Thales of Miletus – water = essence of all

 Pythagoras – studied mathematics

 Leucippus – everything was made up of tiny atoms

 Democritus – sensation made by movement of atoms in

brain

 Heraclitus – impermanence of all things. Change is the

basis of reality. Logos (guiding force/form) guides the

process.

o Sophist: How do we know what we know? How can we trust what

we think we know?

 Humanism – the action of human beings, esp. political

 Protagoras – “Man is the measure of all things,” not the

gods. Would neither confirm nor dismiss gods’ existence.

 Sophists travelled and taught for money

 Pericles invited the best to Athens to teach political virtue

(arête), especially rhetoric, the art of persuasion/argument

 Sophism became synonymous with trickery

Socrates and Sophists

 Socrates didn’t like sophism other than its emphasis on rhetoric

 Used dialectic method – Q&A dialogue to elicit a clear, reasonable statement

 Used Inductive reasoning – moving from particulars to “universal truths”

Socrates was principal philosopher of Golden Age. Taught using dialectical method and inductive

reasoning. Pre-Socratics studied material causality and how universe worked. Sophists studied how we

know what we know, used rhetoric to prove absurdities, and demanded payment for their teachings.

Socrates was influenced by sophism and its use of rhetoric but refused to demand payment for his

teachings. Socrates was arrested and tried for charges of introducing new gods, corrupting the youth, and

subversive behavior. Sentenced to death by hemlock, he accepted his fate. Plato was his student.

Cornell Notes Example

Chapter 2: The Greek World

Part III: The Golden Age—Philosophy and the Polis

Plato’s Republic and

Idealism

 Only know Socrates through Plato’s writings

 Socrates and Plato agreed that the psyche is immortal and immutable, and all

are capable of remembering the psyche’s pure state

 Idealism – seeks the eternal perfection of pure idea, untainted by material

reality

 Invisible world of forms/ideas higher/more perfect than material world

 We can catch glimpses of this world through study of mathematics and

contemplation of the Forms of Justic, Beauty, and Love.

 Plato was disturbed by injustice of Socrates’ death – wrote The Republic as a

vision of how to create the perfect state

o Only highly educated are fit to rule—those with some

understanding of Plato’s Form of the Good

o “Allegory of the Cave”

 Group of mortal men chained in a cave their entire lives

 Only experience of outside world is shadows cast upon

wall in front of them lit by a fire at the back of the cave

 If unchained, man will believe that the shadows are truer

than the forms casting them because of his experience

 The Good is the universal author of all things good and

right in this visible world + source of reason and truth in

the intellectual world

 Those with understanding of the Good would appear

foolish to the people who haven’t any understanding of

such things, but must be the ones to rule

Plato’s idealism sought to define the perfect society by creating a theory of Forms—the ultimate Form

being the Good. If someone can develop some degree of understanding of the Good, then he is fit to

rule. Those without understanding of the Good are like slaves bound to their limited perception in a

cave in an illusory shadow reality.

Cornell Notes Example

Chapter 2: The Greek World

Part III: The Golden Age

§ 4: The Theatre of the People

The Theatre of the

People

 Greeks arguably invented theatre

 Satyr play – derived from participatory Dionysian festival/ritual. Full of

farce (comedic satire)

 Comedy – play designed to make its audience laugh. Mocks women,

politicians, and foreigners mercilessly. Aristophanes was one playwright.

 Tragedy – Most remaining plays were tragedy.

 Focused on conflict, action, consequence, and what the living can learn

from the dead. Interaction between actor and chorus, individual and

community, and community and its gods. Protagonist always has “tragic

flaw” that brings him into conflict with community, gods, and/or

antagonist. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides = only playwrights

whose texts survived.

Peisistratus and Plays

 Peisistratus set up competitive festival.

 Plays were performed in sets of four by the same playwright (tetralogies)

Music and Dance

 Music and dance central to plays

 Music divinely inspired by Euterpe, a muse

 Pythagoras developed scale of 8 notes (ratios) that reflected the cosmos

(order). Believed the movement of planets created a special harmony—

music of the spheres.

 Music developed into different modes – styles designed to provoke

specific emotions

o Dorian mode – favored by Plato, restrained, formal, dignified

o Lydian mode – sentimental and weak

o Phyrgian mode – satyr music. Wild and frenzied. Plato hated it.

 Music = reflection of the highest order of things. At its best, music was

believed to positively affect morals. At its worst, it could be socially

destructive. Plato believed music should be balanced, harmonious, and

dignified.

Three types of theatre – satyr plays, comedy, and tragedy. Satyr plays were farce; comedy was designed

to be light-hearted and make its audience laugh; tragedy focused on conflict, action, consequence, the

protagonist’s tragic flaw, and what the living can learn from the dead. Peisistratus held annual

competitive festivals. Music divinely inspired by muse. Pythagoras developed 8-note scale using ratios

that reflected the cosmos and music of the spheres (planets). Music reflected highest order of things and

modes believed to affect morality.