Golden Age of Greece

Global 9R

Classical Art• Greeks valued:

– Order– Balance– Proportion

These became the “standards” for what they called classical

art

Supreme Court Building – Washington, DC

Athena• Goddess of wisdom and protector of Athens•Greek sculptors tried to capture the grace of the idealized human body

Greek Drama• First Greek plays evolved

out of religious festivals (Ones held in Athens for Dionysus – Goddess of fertility and wine)

• Performed in outdoor theatres carved out of sides of hills

• Actors wore elaborate costumes and stylized masks

Theatre at Delphi

Greek Tragedy

• Stories that told of human suffering and usually ended in disaster

• Purpose of tragedy – excite emotions of pity and fear

Greek Playwrights

Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides

The Oresteia:

Based on the family of

Agamemnon, commander

of the Greeks at Troy

Antigone:Deals with when an

individual’s moral duty

conflicts with the laws of the state

Medea:Sympathetic portrayals of women in his

plays

Greek Comedy

• Many Greek comedies were satires or works that poked fun at a subject

• Playwrights often made fun of customs, politics, respected people or ideas of the time

Greek Playwrights

Aristophanes

Lysistrata:Portrayed the women of Athens forcing their

husbands to end the

Peloponnesian War

Greek Philosophers

• This was a time of questioning and uncertainty

• Determined to seek the truth, no matter where the search led them

• Greeks called these people…….

Philosophers: lovers of wisdom

Philosophers of Ancient Greece

Socrates(469-399 B.C.)

Plato(427-347 B.C.)

Aristotle(384-322 B.C.)

•EncouragedStudents to

Examine theirbeliefs

•Student of Socrates

•Wrote theRepublic

• Questionednature of theworld and of

human belief, thought andknowledge