Roman Architecture

Alexander the Great and Hellenistic Culture

View these video samples from top to bottom. They are from a much larger series hosted by Michael Woods (who we have seen before). If you are interested the other parts are viewable online.






As your textbook notes, Hellenistic culture grew out of the earlier Hellenic Age. While the former retained many characterisitcs of "classical" Greece, it also went beyond it. Note the exaggerated emotion and drama of the famous "Laocoon and His Sons" sculpture below.

Mystery cults at least partially "filled in" for the loss of civic participation and activism that ended under Philip, Alexander, and the successor kingdoms. Below are images of Serapis, a sort of "combination" god that blended Greek and Egyptian aspects. The new Greek rulers of Egypt wanted a deity that might bring the ruling elite and masses closer together--or at least make the latter more controllable.



Click on the video (above) and try not to freak out over the soundtrack. Just get the broad theme of Zeno's (below) philosophy. The video below--though amateur--is a good explication and explanation of Stoicism.

Ancient Greece

Watch Acropolis and the Parthenon of Athens, Greece in Intrepid Berkeley Explorer Clips  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com






















One of the interesting and fruitful ways to examine ancient Sparta and Athens is in terms of the
status of women
in the two cultures. There is some irony in the fact that the freer, more democratic Athens was much more restrictive than the militaristic Spartans in terms of the status of women.

Solon was a key figure in the development of Athenian democracy while the origins of the Spartan "way of life" are traced to the figure of
Lycurgus as the "lawgiver." There are some neat links on this site; click on Solon, Lycurgus, Pericles, Delian League, and others for more information on some of our more important study terms.


The intellectual discipline of Philosophy has been linked to Ancient Greece as one of its most important contributions to Western Civilizations. Its three more influential practitioners were
Socrates Plato Aristotle
The link provides a well organized essay on the three. Also click on to earlier lecture links (#7, #6, etc.) for more information about the Persian Wars, Athenian democracy, and other topics we have been examining in lecture

Ancient Greece Study Terms

Ancient Greece: History, Religion & Culture
(Chapter 4)

Geography: Isolation vs. Communication & A Shared Culture

Mycenaean Age
Homer and the “Cult of the (Aristocratic) Individual”
Illiad/Achilles/Trojan War/Arete & Hubris

Dark Age

Hellenic Age
Polis/Hoplite Phalanx (Army) and Trireme (Navy)
Rise in importance of the “common man”
Athens:
Monarchy/Oligarchy & Democracy
Solon
“Haves vs. Have-Nots”
Cleisthenes’ Reforms
Sparta:
Peloponnesus/Helots/”State Slavery”/Messenia/
Lycurgus
Militaristic Oligarchy/Dual Kingship
Communal Property/Social Equality/ Agoge/“messes”

The Persian Wars
1st-Darius I--Marathon/490BC
2nd-Xerxes--Thermopylae/Spartans & Leonidas/Salamis
Herodotus—The Histories

Inter-war Period
Delian League (Delos)
Pericles (Acropolis/Parthenon)

Peloponnesian War
Thucydides—The Peloponnesian War

Philip of Macedon
Alexander the Great













Greek Culture: Philosophy, Religion & Architecture

Religion
Zeus (nature-thunderbolts)/Apollo/Hera/Poseidon
Civic Patriotism/Athena in Athens/Cosmos & Chaos
Afterlife (Hades)
Mystery Cults/Dionysus-Serapis-Mithra (rebirth)

Philosophy
Confidence: “Man is the measure of all things.”
Natural Law/Empiricism/Hippocrates/”Scientific Medicine”
Socrates
The “Socratic Method”/Questioning-“Know Thyself”
Ethics, Morality and Truth
Plato
Republic/Workers, Warriors, and Philosophers
Laws/Mixed Government
Aristotle
Natural Philosophy
Politics/Mixed Government/Farming Middle Class/Defense of Slavery

History Writing/Herodotus & Thucydides

Greek Drama
Religion and Civic Festival
Sophocles/Antigone/Hubris & Fate

Greek Architecture
The Acropolis:
Balance/ Harmony/Arête
The Parthenon (Pheidias)
Athena Nike
The Propylaea


Alexander and Hellenistic Culture

Alexander the Great
Successor kingdoms
Diffusion of (Hellenistic) Greek Culture
Urbanism
Trade & slavery
Subjects vs. Citizens
Hellenistic Religious Culture & Philosophy:
Mystery Cults (e.g., Mithra, Serapis)
Stoicism/Zeno/ “Brotherhood of Man”
Noble Acts/Idealism/Virtue as Its Own Reward
Roman Ruling Class & America’s “Founding Fathers”