ANCIENT GREECE & HELLENIC CIVILIZATION

1. Mr. Cistaro / Mr. C ANCIENT GREECE & HELLENIC CIVILIZATION

2. Our World

3. What do we know about the EARLY Greeks?

4. What do we know about the Ancient Greeks? • Did the ancient Greeks own slaves? • [True - even democratic Athens had no compunction about owning slaves] • Could women vote in democratic Athens? • [False - in fact, arguably, women had more power over their lives in Sparta] • Were most city-states actually cities? • [False - the vast majority were only small towns of a few hundred citizens] • Did the ancient Greeks have nobles and aristocrats? • [True - even in democratic Athens the aristocrats remained a force to be reckoned with] • Was the secret of ancient Greece's success its rich, fertile land? • [False - the mountainous terrain was only suitable for a few select crops like olives and grapes] • Did the ancient Greeks value wealth above all else? • [False - fame and honor meant much more to the average Greek citizen than wealth].

5. Greek/Hellenic Culture • No organized religion. • This is NOT the Catholic Church with a hierarchy and set of teachings. • Early religion focused on gods & goddesses which personified nature. • Demeter – earth & grain • Apollo – sun • Poseidon – ruled the waters/earthquakes

6. Greek/Hellenic Culture • Others were emotions or some other special functions: • Aphrodite – love • Dionysus – fertility & wine • Athena – wisdom & guardian of Athens • Since the time of Homer all the deities had human qualities and failings: malice, favoritism, jealousy, lust, etc. • Zeus reigns on high with his thunderbolt.

7. Greek/Hellenic Culture • After Homer, Hesiod comes along and tries to soften their image, weave all the different stories together into one coherent narrative and make the gods & goddesses arbiters of justice. • Rise of the Oracle of Delphi • Know thyself. • Nothing in Excess

8. Greek/Hellenic Culture • Thales of Miletus (636-546 BC) – insists that the physical world can be explained by natural causes. a.k.a. The Greek Miracle • Pythagorus (582 – 500 BC) – universe is made up of numbers, noted that musical harmony is based on arithmetic proportions. • Democritus (460 – 370 BC) – the world is made up of tiny objects called atoms.

9. Greek/Hellenic Culture • Socrates (470 – 399 BC) – would challenge EVERY ONE. Eventually killed for “corrupting the youth” • One thing I know is that I know nothing. • The unexamined life is not worth living. • Parodied in the plays of his time and featured in art, stories, and movies into the 20th century. • Claimed everything (every ANNOYING thing) he did was to help Athens be its best.

10. Greek/Hellenic Culture • Plato (427 – 347 BC) – student of Socrates, truth exists but only in the realm of thought. Hates democracy because it killed his beloved teacher, he describes the ideal government in The Republic. Hint, it’s NOT democracy. • Argues with Diogenes, the Cynic. • Known for the Allegory of the Cave

11. Allegory of the Cave

12. Allegory of the CaveChained in the cave • Plato begins by asking Glaucon to imagine a cave where people have been imprisoned from childhood. These prisoners are chained so that their legs and necks are fixed, forcing them to gaze at the wall in front of them and not look around at the cave, each other, or themselves. Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway with a low wall, behind which people walk carrying objects or puppets "of men and other living things" .

13. Allegory of the CaveChained in the cave • The people walk behind the wall so their bodies do not cast shadows for the prisoners to see, but the objects they carry do ("just as puppet showmen have screens in front of them at which they work their puppets“. The prisoners cannot see any of this behind them and are only able to see the shadows cast upon the cave wall in front of them. The sounds of the people talking echo off the shadowed wall, and the prisoners falsely believe these sounds come from the shadows.

14. Allegory of the Cave

15. Allegory of the CaveChained in the cave • Socrates suggests that the shadows constitute reality for the prisoners because they have never seen anything else; they do not realize that what they see are shadows of objects in front of a fire, much less that these objects are inspired by real living things outside the cave.

16. Allegory of the CaveDeparture from the cave • Plato then supposes that one prisoner is freed, being forced to turn and see the fire. The light would hurt his eyes and make it hard for him to see the objects that are casting the shadows. If he is told that what he saw before was not real but instead that the objects he is now struggling to see are, he would not believe it. • In his pain, Plato continues, the freed prisoner would turn away and run back to what he can see and is accustomed to, that is the shadows of the carried objects. He writes "...it would hurt his eyes, and he would escape by turning away to the things which he was able to look at, and these he would believe to be clearer than what was being shown to him."

17. Allegory of the CaveDeparture from the cave • Plato continues: "suppose...that someone should drag him...by force, up the rough ascent, the steep way up, and never stop until he could drag him out into the light of the sun." • The prisoner would be angry and in pain, and this would only worsen when the radiant light of the sun overwhelms his eyes and blinds him. • The sunlight is representative of the new reality and knowledge that the freed prisoner is experiencing.

18. Allegory of the CaveDeparture from the cave • Slowly, his eyes adjust to the light of the sun. • First he can only see shadows. Gradually he can see the reflections of people and things in water and then later see the people and things themselves. • Eventually he is able to look at the stars and moon at night until finally he can look upon the sun itself. • Only after he can look straight at the sun "is he able to reason about it" and what it is. • (DOES THIS SOUND LIKE THE PROCESS OF EDUCATION?) • (Especially with Mr. C…)

19. Allegory of the CaveReturn to the cave • Plato continues, saying that the freed prisoner would think that the real world was superior to the world he experienced in the cave; "he would bless himself for the change, and pity [the other prisoners]" and would want to bring his fellow cave dwellers out of the cave and into the sunlight.

20. Allegory of the CaveReturn to the cave • The returning prisoner, whose eyes have become acclimated to the light of the sun, would be blind when he re-enters the cave, just as he was when he was first exposed to the sun. • The prisoners, according to Socrates, would infer from the returning man's blindness that the journey out of the cave had harmed him and that they should not undertake a similar journey. • Socrates concludes that the prisoners, if they were able, would therefore reach out and kill anyone who attempted to drag them out of the cave. • Plato tells the story of how Socrates was killed by the Athenian democracy because he tried to hard to educate them. Do you think he was biased?

21. Greek/Hellenic Culture • Diogenes of Sinope (412/404? – 323 BC) – a.k.a. Diogenes the Cynic • Exiled for debasing the currency; politics. • Diogenes’ attitude was grounded in a disdain for what he regarded as the folly, pretense, vanity, self-deception, and artificiality of human conduct. • The term "Cynic" itself derives from the Greek word κυνικός, kynikos, "dog-like“. • He once reportedly said that a dog is the only animal that doesn’t bite a man who is kind to him.

22. Greek/Hellenic Culture • Diogenes the Cynic • Diogenes made a virtue of poverty. He begged for a living and often slept in a large ceramic jar in the marketplace. He became notorious for his philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. • He criticized and embarrassed Plato, disputed his interpretation of Socrates and sabotaged his lectures, sometimes distracting attendees by bringing food and eating during the discussions. • Diogenes was also noted for having publicly mocked Alexander the Great.

23. Greek/Hellenic Culture

24. Greek/Hellenic CultureDiogenes and Alexander • Have you ever gotten an email from Mr. C? • ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου μετάστηθι • "Stand a little out of my sun" – Diogenes • It was in Corinth that a meeting between Alexander the Great and Diogenes is supposed to have taken place. • The accounts of Plutarch and Diogenes Laërtius recount that they exchanged only a few words.

25. Greek/Hellenic CultureDiogenes and Alexander • While Diogenes was relaxing in the sunlight in the morning, Alexander, thrilled to meet the famous philosopher, asked if there was any favor he might do for him. • Diogenes replied, "Yes, stand out of my sunlight". • One of Alexander’s attendants shouted at Diogenes and Alexander stopped him. • As they walked away Alexander then declared, "If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes."

26. Greek/Hellenic Culture • Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) – student of Plato & teacher of Alexander the Great • At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven (c. 347 BC). • Nowadays we call this a “professional student.”

27. Greek/Hellenic Culture • His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and government – and constitute the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. • Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip of Macedon, tutored Alexander the Great starting from 343 BC.

28. Greek/Hellenic Culture • He believed all peoples' concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. • Aristotle's views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. • Their influence extended into the Renaissance and didn't end until the Enlightenment.

29. Greek/Hellenic Culture

30. Greek/Hellenic Culture

31. Greek/Hellenic Culture

32. Take a breath.

33. The Two Weird Ones • Sparta & Athens • Actually represent the extremes • Most city-states (polis – s., poleis – pl.) fell in the middle. • Both had a celebrated law-giver, though it is the general consensus that Sparta (Lakedaimon) made theirs up.

34. Sparta (Lakedaimon) • Lycurgus c. 900 - 800 BC) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. • All his reforms were directed towards the three Spartan virtues: equality (among citizens), military fitness, and austerity.

35. Athens • Draco was the first recorded legislator of Athens in Ancient Greece. He replaced the prevailing system of oral law and blood feud by a written code to be enforced only by a court. Draco's written law became known for its harshness, with the adjective "draconian" referring to similarly unforgiving rules or laws.

36. Athens and Sparta • During the 5th century BC (499-400), Greece was dominated by two main powers: democratic Athens and the military oligarchy of Sparta. • These city-states were very different. • Sparta was traditionally the great land power of the Greek world and controlled many neighboring territories whose populations were tied to the land as slaves. • “Helots” • Athens' power was based upon its command of the sea, and though it was officially only head of a naval alliance (the Delian League), in practice this amounted to an empire in all but name.

37. Athens - GOVERNMENT • Eventually the Athenian government developed into a direct democracy.  • In a direct democracy all citizens vote on major issues instead of electing representatives to do it for them. • As a result, this governmental system required frequent meetings of the Athenians to vote on important issues.  • These meetings often entailed debates among the citizens over policy decisions, such as going to war against another city-state. • Athens' direct democracy served as an important step toward individual freedom and the involvement of individuals in the decision-making process of the government.  • However, only FREE males, over the age of 18, could vote.

38. Athens - VALUES • Cultural advancement, balance, order, education, and debate were all very important as was citizen-participation in the government. • Even though Athens was a democracy there were slaves and women could not vote, hold office, or inherit property.

39. Sparta - GOVERNMENT • Sparta's government was basically an oligarchy, which is a government controlled by a small group of people.  • Often times at meetings the group that was able to shout the loudest would be the ones who won a vote or had their policy accepted. • The Spartan government was mostly concerned with ensuring that the city-state had a powerful military machine to protect itself from outside invasion and to conquer others. • The government also forbade its citizen to travel abroad and did not often accept visitors.  • They feared that outside contact would weaken the discipline of the population.

40. Sparta - VALUES • Above all, the Spartans valued strength and virility.  • Babies that did not appear strong were often discarded. • Since strength was valued over intellect and academic achievement the Spartans made few cultural contributions to Western Civilization. • BUT, the areas where they did influence have stayed with us till today. • ‘Spartan’ & ‘Laconic’ • Witty Comebacks • Governmental Structure • Military (Barracks, etc.)

41. Unique Things About Athens • Ostracism (ὀστρακισμός) • Under the Athenian democracy in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. • While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often used preemptively. It was used as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state or potential tyrant.

42. Unique Things About Athens • Ostracism (ὀστρακισμός) • Pericles • Cimon • Aristides

43. Ostracism (ὀστρακισμός) • Broken pottery, abundant and virtually free, served as a kind of scrap paper. • Each year the Athenians were asked in the assembly whether they wished to hold an ostracism. • According to Plutarch, the ostracism was considered valid if the total number of votes cast was at least 6,000.

44. Ostracism (ὀστρακισμός) • The person nominated had ten days to leave the city. • If he attempted to return, the penalty was death. • The property of the man banished was not confiscated and there was no loss of status. • After the ten years, he was allowed to return without stigma

45. Unique things about Sparta: Spartan Women • "Why are you Spartan women the only ones who can rule men?" • "Because we are also the only ones who give birth to men.“ — Gorgo, Queen of Sparta and wife of Leonidas, as quoted by Plutarch

46. Athens Education • Boys: • Schools taught reading, writing and mathematics, music, poetry, sport and gymnastics. • Based upon their birth and the wealth of their parents, the length of education was from the age of 5 to 14, for the wealthier 5 - 18 and sometimes into a student's mid-twenties in an academy where they would also study philosophy, ethics, and rhetoric (the skill of persuasive public speaking). • Finally, the citizen boys entered a military training camp for two years, until the age of twenty. • Metics (Foreigners) and slaves were not expected to attain anything but a basic education in Greece, but were not excluded from it either.

47. Athens Education • Girls: • What are girls?

48. Athens Education • Girls: • Girls received little formal education (except perhaps in the aristocrats' homes through tutors). • They were generally kept at home and had no political power in Athens. • The education of a girl involved spinning, weaving, and other domestic arts.

49. Sparta Education • Boys: • Boys were taken from parents at age seven and trained in the art of warfare. • They were only give a cloak - no shoes or other clothes, and not enough food so they had to steal (to learn survival skills). • At age 20 they were placed into higher ranks of the military. • Until age 30 they were dedicated to the state; then they could marry but still lived in barracks with other soldiers. • They were educated in choral dance, reading and writing, but athletics and military training were emphasized.

50. Sparta Education • Girls: • Girls were educated at age 7 in reading and writing, gymnastics, athletics and survival skills. • Girls could participate in sports. • Girls were treated more as equals.