Classical Greek politics gradually evolved from a strong leader figure who represented the people to a collective rule where a group of elders or all

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Peregrine Clarke
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1 B.C.E.

Classical Greek politics gradually evolved from a strong leader figure who represented the people to a collective rule where a group of elders or all adult males would vote on major decisions.

2 Classical Greek politics gradually evolved from a strong leader figure who represented the people to a collective rule where a group of elders or all adult males would vote on major decisions. Athens was the epitome of Greek democracy in the Classical period. Sparta had an oligarchy which empowered a smaller group of men to make decisions for the whole city-state. Herodotus ( B.C.E.) (right) wrote a 9 volume History of the Persian Wars which is one of the earliest historical accounts. Athens and Sparta rivaled each other for influence in the region. Persian aggression under King Xerxes around 480 B.C.E. caused them to set aside their internal struggles to fight against this massive empire that spanned from Turkey to India. The Battle of Salamis ended in the Greeks favor, but not before the Acropolis in Athens had been burned. Greeks saw their victory as political and cultural. Persians represented the pride of Empire and the folly of monarchy. Following this war with Persia, Greece increasingly allowed for popular rule or rule by groups of leaders. A few key political principles emerged in this course of events to form a whole narrative. The pride (hubris) of Xerxes led to his downfall. Hubris leads to adversity (nemesis) in order to restore a sense of balance and moderation (sophrosyne). This cycle of events shaped Greek political thought. Leaders need to be careful of their pride lest they witness adversity and collapse. Athenian political life happened in the city-state (polis). Citizens lived within close proximity to the city center in order to facilitate participation. Urban growth and dense population naturally resulted from the expectation of political participation. Civic buildings, markets and temples were lavishly designed and decorated, but citizens houses were rather simple and practical. The Assembly included males over age 25 who had to serve the city-state through popular vote or random selection. The Council of the Five Hundred set the political agenda. This Council broke up into committees to handle daily issues. Each of the 500 members rotated throughout the polis. Slaves were not considered citizens. There were around 150,000 slaves in Athens including men, women and children. Slaves had the less desirable jobs in the household, in the markets, and in mines in order to provide time for the Athenians to participate in their governance. Slaves looked like citizens and they were not treated harshly.

Athens flourished from 480 B.C.E. until 404 B.C.E. The Peloponnesian War shifted the democratic nature of political life after Sparta defeated Athens. Thucydides (460-400 B.C.E.) chronicles this turning point in Greek History in his History of The Peloponnesian War written around 400 B.

3 Athens flourished from 480 B.C.E. until 404 B.C.E. The Peloponnesian War shifted the democratic nature of political life after Sparta defeated Athens. Thucydides ( B.C.E.) chronicles this turning point in Greek History in his History of The Peloponnesian War written around 400 B.C.E. His work is structured as a tragedy where the hubris of Athenian leaders leads to their tragic downfall and the suffering of his people. Pericles ( B.C.E.) (right) is one of the great leaders behind this civil war. As an Athenian he served his people and did what he thought best to consolidate Athenian power. He was a member of the Board of Ten Generals. He initiated audits to make sure monies were used for their intended purpose. Pericles helped form the Delian League 478 B.C.E. which unified the city-states and helped mediate disputes. Persian aggression made this League essential to continually ward off their efforts to rule Greece. Athens took a leading role in this union. In 454 B.C.E., it became the center for the treasury and the official meeting point. Pericles hubris entered in to play when he wrongfully used monies from the League to rebuild temples in Athens. This was a breach of trust and by 431 B.C.E. the city-states began fighting amongst themselves. The Greek civil wars eroded the structure of the Greek culture and brought an end to the greatness that flourished during the Athenian headship. Thucydides records Pericles Funeral Oration during a funeral for soldiers who died fighting for Athens. This speech illustrates the degree of pride and of honor Athenians had when speaking of their people. Pericles sees Athenians as model Greeks and as educators to the other city-states.

Greek society was very class based. Greek men were considered the highest class. Women did not function independently in Greek society. They were under male authority from birth until death.

Sappho is the best example of a female voice in Greek poetry, but her mentality, passions, and lifestyle is probably not representative of all Greek women.

Courtesans were usually upper class foreigners who were treated differently from Greek women. They were not expected to behave like the Greek women since they were born elsewhere.

4 Greek society was very class based. Greek men were considered the highest class. Women did not function independently in Greek society. They were under male authority from birth until death. Most Greek literature was written by men so it is very difficult to understand this voiceless majority who were poorly represented. Sappho is the best example of a female voice in Greek poetry, but her mentality, passions, and lifestyle is probably not representative of all Greek women. Prostitutes and courtesans (hetaerae) were given greater freedom in Greek society since they functioned as escorts. Courtesans were usually upper class foreigners who were treated differently from Greek women. They were not expected to behave like the Greek women since they were born elsewhere. They were educated and participated in Greek public discourse. The top painting inside a drinking cup (kylix) illustrates a hetaerae with her client. Greek women did not have voting rights, but they could indirectly influence their husbands decisions. There was no room for strong female political leadership. The physicality and violence in Greek life further undermined the role of women in society. Spartan women were warriors in addition to men, but most other women did not encounter the battlefields. Greek men usually had a wife who was the mother of their children and the keeper of the home and they had relations with other women socially and sexually. This was not a formal arrangement but a practical one. Men spent time together at political meetings and in the marketplaces discussing the latest philosophical developments, scientific speculation, inventions and big ideas. Same sex relationships were common in Greece. Women would often have close friends with whom they might explore their sexuality. The bottom painting shows two women in a sexual encounter at a drinking party (symposium). Men would usually have a younger adult male that would be their confidant and lover. The bi-sexual nature of Greek adults makes it hard to define these roles as clearly as most other societies. The bottom painting illustrates an older bearded man with his young male lover.

Every March and April Greeks honored Dionysus, god of wine, fertility and ecstasy, with theater performances. Playwrights competed with three submissions performed over three consecutive days.

Dialog was spoken by the actors and the Chorus would sing as narrators and dance to further develop plot lines. Tragedy means goat song.

It is possible the earliest tragedies were the result of a shift in the comedic dramas presented in satyr plays performed at the Festival of Dionysius.

5 Every March and April Greeks honored Dionysus, god of wine, fertility and ecstasy, with theater performances. Playwrights competed with three submissions performed over three consecutive days. Dramas included simple costumes and masks. Actors used their natural voices to perform in front of tens of thousands. Men performed both male and female parts. Dialog was spoken by the actors and the Chorus would sing as narrators and dance to further develop plot lines. Tragedy means goat song. This odd name suggests a connection to the half-goat, half-man figures typically mimicking the gods at feasts. It is possible the earliest tragedies were the result of a shift in the comedic dramas presented in satyr plays performed at the Festival of Dionysius. Thespis probably featured only one actor whose story would discuss the pathos (suffering) of the character. The chorus would play a hymn to the gods and the aulos (oboe) would play an elegy or lament for the character usually taken from Homer s works. This early form of presentation reworked the function and delivery of comedic performances. Aristotle developed the standard theory of tragedy. Aristotle s Poetics is the first literary critique. How the catastrophe occurs is key, not the events themselves. Motives leading to the climactic conclusion point to major themes. Tragedy evoked a catharsis (purification) as the audience would identify with the pain and loss of the protagonist. Spectators must engage the story to feel both fear and pity for the characters. As with philosophy and culture, balance was goal of Greek tragedy. The classical unities of action and time were used to heighten the degree of tragic downfall of the protagonist. Aeschylus ( B.C.E.) (top) is the earliest tragedian who wrote around 90 tragedies, but only 7 survive. He added a second actor to increase the tension and downfall of the protagonist. His Oresteia is a trilogy surrounding King Agamemnon, Queen Clytemnestra and their son Orestes. Sophocles ( B.C.E.) (middle) wrote 125 plays, but only 8 survive. He added a third actor. His three plays about the life of Oedipus are among the greatest written. Euripides ( B.C.E.) (bottom) wrote around 90 plays, but only 18 survive. He is the most complex playwright who broke with Classical simplicity. He has the most real depiction of his characters compared to the earlier idealism used by his predecessors. His characters possess more emotion and individuality. Euripides wrote a different Orestes, a myth of Phaedra, Medea, and The Women of Troy.

Greek comedy served the opposing purpose as tragedy. Comedies are rather vain and silly compared to the gravity and angst of the tragic protagonists.

Comedy (komos) means revel and points to the carefree nature of these presentations. Traveling comics would go from city to city with performances to provide entertainment to all Greeks.

7 Greek comedy served the opposing purpose as tragedy. Comedies are rather vain and silly compared to the gravity and angst of the tragic protagonists. Greek comedies poke fun at social standards and institutions. They were the one arena where everyone was a target, regardless of status. Even the gods would be targeted. Comedy (komos) means revel and points to the carefree nature of these presentations. Traveling comics would go from city to city with performances to provide entertainment to all Greeks. Singing and dancing often accompanied these comic performances. Phalluses were often used to get cheap laughs during Dionysian celebrations. Comic actors wore masks (top) to help accentuate their character. Aristophanes ( B.C.E.) is the only known comedic playwright. His 11 comedies survive. He uses the same conventions as comic groups including phallic humor. His characters are often dressed as animals as in The Birds and The Frogs. Lysistrata presents a sex strike by the women of Athens and Sparta in order to stop their wars. Menander ( B.C.E.) (bottom) is considered a new comic playwright who relies less on low brow subject matter to get laughs. Comic elements of these types better demonstrated in Roman comedies poke fun at situations of misunderstanding or confusion in relationships. New comedy typically ends in a happy ending or a marriage which is a tie to the fertility rites of the Dionysian frenzies.

Socrates (470-399 B.C.E.) (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) was born in Athens. He was the son of a sculptor and a midwife. Socrates married Xanthippe and was the father of 3 children.

8 Socrates ( B.C.E.) (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) was born in Athens. He was the son of a sculptor and a midwife. Socrates married Xanthippe and was the father of 3 children. He served in the military during the Peloponnesian Wars. His philosophical work is the basis for Greek ethics and epistemology the study of the nature of knowledge. Socrates taught about unchanging nature of the moral world. Unlike the Sophists, he attempted to press beyond skepticism a complete denial of knowledge. For him, virtue (Gk. areté) is fundamental to the human soul. The Delphic oracle proclaimed him the wisest man who ever lived. Socrates sought to discover what the oracle meant. Throughout his philosophical discourses he realizes the wisest people know themselves and their limitations. Know yourself is one of his most basic teachings. Socrates only knew that he didn t know. His wisdom lies in his humility to admit he didn t have all the answers but he continued asking them nonetheless. He never wrote anything, but his work can be found in Plato s dialogues. This leaves much room for debate where the line between Plato and Socrates actually lies. Four of Plato s dialogues are probably the closest to what he actually taught: 1) Euthyphro Socrates learns of his pending trial and conducts a discussion about piety. 2) Apology trial of Socrates where he s convicted of blasphemy and corrupting the youth. 3) Crito Crito visits Socrates in prison to persuade him to leave. 4) Phaedo final speech before Socrates dies. The Socratic method is an inductive system. Socrates proceeds from specific principles to general truths. His dialectics ask basic questions before discovering the primary virtue in each dialogue. This method does a better job of revealing error than exposing truth. He often shows his colleagues foolishness by their own admissions that he solicits in his line of inquiry. Other portrayals of Socrates include: Aristophanes The Clouds presents a deceiver and a cheat. Xenophon s Apology of Socrates, Symposium and Memorabilia defended his friend. Aristotle alludes to Socrates in many works derived from Plato s presentation.

Plato (427/8-347 B.C.E.) (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) was born in Athens and is the best known student of Socrates. He was a prolific writer of philosophical dialogues.

9 Plato (427/8-347 B.C.E.) (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) was born in Athens and is the best known student of Socrates. He was a prolific writer of philosophical dialogues. Socrates was his teacher and his character in his own dialogues. In 387 B.C.E., Plato created the Academy to develop philosophical speculation. Unlike Socrates, myth served a teaching function in Plato s dialogues. Plato s Republic is one of the more foundational dialogues which illustrates a substantial break from Socrates. Written around 375 B.C.E., the Allegory of the Cave develops his theory of the Forms. Plato uses the allegory (a symbolic story) as a picture of one s mental life according to Platonic ideals. Prisoners in cave are shown shadows from the fires burning behind them. Images projected on the cave walls are the only glimpse of life outside the cave. The prisoners perception of reality is based upon these illusions. Once a prisoners is allowed to leave, he will experience life in the sunlight. If he returns to the cave, his experiences will likely be questioned. Despite his petitions for others to join him, the majority live in shadows. The freed prisoner is a figure like Socrates who sees reality knowledge of the Forms. He returns to his old life with a renewed perspective and seeks to educate others. Platonic forms are truly real all else are shadows. Platonic psychology follows this pattern. Our body is like the cave. Our minds is the prisoner. Enlightened minds are freed from the body to explore the Forms. Everything material is based upon an ideal form. These forms are unchanging. One s innate knowledge of the forms can dull over time. The task of philosophers is to reawaken the knowledge of forms. The good life is one that is lived in community with apprehension of the forms. Plato s model also serves to illustrate the ideal state. In the Platonic government, education would be provided for all citizens in order to acquire knowledge of the good. Individual freedoms are to be sacrificed for the benefit of the whole society. Plato taught a philosopher-king should lead with absolute authority. He has seen the light and is a model to the community. The military enforces the laws established by the philosopher-king. Women would be empowered if they acknowledge the leadership of men. Plato s social structure is a merit based system where the brightest could advance and everyone else should fall in line.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) was the son of the court doctor to the King of Macedonia. His mother was from a family of doctors.

After being charged with impiety, rather than suffer the fate of Socrates, in 323 B.C.E. Aristotle fled Athens.

10 Aristotle ( B.C.E.) (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) was the son of the court doctor to the King of Macedonia. His mother was from a family of doctors. Aristotle was a Macedonian student of Plato. He traveled to islands of Assos and Lesbos to study zoology. From B.C.E. he served as tutor to Alexander the Great. In 335 B.C.E. founded the Lyceum in Athens. After being charged with impiety, rather than suffer the fate of Socrates, in 323 B.C.E. Aristotle fled Athens. Like Socrates, his teachings have been recorded by his students in fragments and lectures. Aristotle opposed Plato s idealism and held materialistic worldview like Democritus. He used an empirical method to observe and categorize natural world. This inductive approach was a return to Socrates in many ways. Aristotle concentrated upon natural order. For him, people are thinking beings, not souls trapped in bodies. There is debate about Aristotle s notion of the afterlife, but he clearly emphasizes life here and now. His works provide standards for physical sciences, ethics, metaphysics, logic, and poetry. The Aristotelian school was known as peripatetic or walking around due to his teaching style. Unlike Socrates he used deductive syllogisms (if A = B, if B = C, then A = C). He moved from particulars to universals in direct contrast to Plato s method of Forms by which the particulars are known. His theories of causation provided four reasons for being: 1) material physical nature, 2) formal structure or form of a thing, 3) efficient how things are made, 4) final function of a thing. The final cause is the goal of Aristotle s categories. Aristotle s Nicomachean Ethics are a manual of instruction edited by his son. The good life is the goal for humanity. Instead of virtue (Socrates) or the good (Plato), Aristotle taught happiness (eudaimonia) can be achieved by being true to one s essence or one s cause. The best English equivalency is the concept of flourishing. Friendship and virtue are seen as vehicles to promote eudaimonia. The Golden Mean is finding enough in life without succumbing to want or indulgence. This concept of sophrosyne is key to Aristotle and to Greek culture. In The Politics, the first political treatise in Western civilization, Aristotle sees government as essential to human development. He argues for male political rule based upon the family structure. His ideas limited the role of women in Greek and Roman political life. Aristotle s essentialism prevented pure democratic rule. Constitutional government is best. Regardless of rule by one or many, there must be firm laws to keep everyone in check. As within ethics, the middle strikes the balance in politics.

The Parthenon was built to honor Athena following the defeat of King Xerxes of Persia in 480 B.C.E. Ictinus and Kallicrates engineered and built it. Phidias sculpted the friezes.

11 The Parthenon was built to honor Athena following the defeat of King Xerxes of Persia in 480 B.C.E. Ictinus and Kallicrates engineered and built it. Phidias sculpted the friezes. A 40 foot statue of Athena was the primary feature inside. The Parthenon house the treasury of the Delian League. Seventeen columns were on the longest sides and six were on the shortest sides. In order to maintain visual symmetry and functionality Ictinus and Kallicrates used architectural oddities. Each column is larger in middle to account for optical illusion of thinning. They are also slightly tilted inward. The front step is sloped outward to allow rainwater to run off. The triangular spaces above the west pediment showed Athena s rivalry with Poseidon (see top picture on the next slide). The same space on the east pediment showed the birth of Athena. The metopes allowed for 92 scenes from Greek mythology including the Trojan War, the Battle of the Gods and Giants, Lapiths (Aeolians) and Centaurs, and Greeks and Amazons.

Kritios Boy (left) c.480 B.C.E. illustrates the early development of the nude Greek male form. There is a more natural appearance to his stance which is perfected during the Classical period.

This boy was athletic and handsome but not godlike in his stature.

13 Kritios Boy (left) c.480 B.C.E. illustrates the early development of the nude Greek male form. There is a more natural appearance to his stance which is perfected during the Classical period. His skin appears so smooth and real. His proportionality is much improved from the Archaic Greek Kouroi figures. His musculature is defined but not over exaggerated. This boy was athletic and handsome but not godlike in his stature. Contrapposto is the humanlike shift of the hips developed during the Classical Period which took sculpture to an entirely different place. The Kritios Boy was clearly an experimental project compared to later masterpieces. Polycleitus, a master Greek sculptor, created The Spearbearer (right) c B.C.E. which perfects the male nude form. His work draws out the movement and ease of a real standing male nude figure. It is effortless and beautiful despite its bronze weight and size. His musculature and definition accentuates the balance of power and grace. The Spearbearer s weight is planted on his front foot and his back foot rests on his toes. His face and slight head turn illustrate the sculptors command of human expression. Greek male nudes are never ashamed or self-conscious. They possess realism, idealism and humanism of the Classical Period, which makes them a visual depiction of Greek ideology.

This late Greek depiction would be copied by Hellenistic sculptors, Romans and Renaissance Italian sculptors over a one thousand year period.

14 In the Archaic and Early Classical periods, Greeks were much more reticent to depict goddesses or female figures in the nude. At the close of the Classical period, social standards changed and Aphrodite became the first subject to be presented in an idealized female form. This late Greek depiction would be copied by Hellenistic sculptors, Romans and Renaissance Italian sculptors over a one thousand year period. The Cnidian Aphrodite (left) is one of the first depictions of the female nude in Greece that bears the standard grace and beauty. Praxiteles sculpted this around 350 B.C.E. for a shrine to the goddess on the island of Cnidus. Her small breasts and wider hips were the ideal female depiction for the Greeks. Her unashamed nude form rivals that of Polycleitus masterpiece. Aphrodite of Cyrene (right) 100 B.C.E. likewise depicts her as a bather. Her head and arms have not been preserved, but it is evident Praxiteles proportions and stance have been emulated centuries later. Her stomach is slightly more defined and her legs have a softness and grace that rivals the first depiction.

Background notes on the society, religion, and culture of the era in which Oedipus Rex was performed for the first time.

Greek Tragedy Background notes on the society, religion, and culture of the era in which Oedipus Rex was performed for the first time. Oedipus Rex was performed for the first time in Athens, Greece in