Greek Pride Vs Christian Pride

ESSAY ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW

Write a short essay which require you to apply the knowledge you have gained in a creativeand subjective way. Please read the instructions thoroughly, so that you know the issues that need to be addressed. Essay assignment must be 275-325 words and needs to include the word count in parentheses. Use your own words as much as possible, but if you include sources, you must cite your sources in current APA format. Page numbers to the book is written in RED citing references and location. Other resources can be use and cited.  

INSTRUCTIONS

Essay: Greek Pride versus the Christian View of Pride

In chapter 8 (below) we read about the Greeks’ justifiable view of pride in superior accomplishments.

1.Compare the Greeks’ view of pride versus the Christians’ view of pride taught in Scripture.

2.Why did the Greeks view pride as they did? What does the Bible say about pride?

3.What do you feel is the cause of our present-day view of pride within Western Culture?

4.What about an individual’s achievements in sports?

5.Can pride be both good and bad? Is there a balance?

Choose 3-5 of the above questions to discuss

A Narrative of Western Culture

First Edition by Dennis E. Rawls, 2018

Chapter 8

Classical Greek Arts (page 129)

History Most Greeks of the Archaic period, like other peoples of that era, accepted as factual records the myths of epic poetry, with all their fairy-tale elements and heroic exaggerations. Beginning in the fifth century, however, the first true historians replaced the mythic tales with rational inquiries into the causes and course of human events.

Herodotus (page 129)

Herodotus (c. 484–c. 425 B.C.), the “Father of History,” was born in Asia Minor but lived at Athens and later at an Athenian colony in Italy. His History (from the Greek historia, meaning “inquiry” or “investigation”), though concentrating on the Persian Wars, is in addition a cultural survey of the Near East and Greece from the founding of the Persian Empire down to 478. Herodotus’s accounts of his own eyewitness experiences and of oral reports collected on his travels throughout the Near East and Mediterranean enliven his narratives. A wealth of anthropological detail enriches his many comparisons of Greek with non-Greek cultures. The History is full of believe it-or-not tales of amazing happenings, told in a leisurely and enjoyable style. It is also our best source of information about the Persian Wars. Herodotus combined the interests of cultural anthropologist, geographer, and naturalist with those of historian. Although Herodotus’s History marks a great advance in trustworthiness over the mythology of the epic poets, it is quite often unreliable. In particular, Herodotus naively accepted miracle stories, oracular pronouncements, omens, inspired dreams, and other instances of active divine interferences in human affairs. His chronology and statistics also are often faulty; for example, his number for the army of Xerxes—5,283,220—is simply ridiculous.

Thucydides (page 129)

Thucydides (c. 460–c. 400 B.C.) came much closer than his predecessor Herodotus to the critical standards of modern historiography. An Athenian by birth, he began his History of the Peloponnesian War immediately after its outbreak, “expecting it to be a great war and more worthy of recording than previous ones” [The Peloponnesian War, which occurred from 431 B.C to 404 B.C., was a war involving Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.] He himself served as general in 424, but was stripped of command for failing to relieve the besieged city of Amphipolis and exiled until the end of the war in 404. This freed him to work exclusively on his History.(page 130) Thucydides picked up the thread of Greek history just where Herodotus left off but differed from him by his greater concentration on political and military events and by his more responsible evaluation of documents and eyewitness accounts. In tune with the practicality of the Sophists, he believed history should offer real benefits and not merely entertainment. Thucydides believed history could teach about human nature and the hard realities of power. Individuals and states acted out of self-interest. Decency and morality counted for little. He admired Pericles and the Athenian Empire but realized that growth in the power of any one state inevitably upset the balance between states. Further, because states with power either used it or ceased to be powerful, war with its unforeseeable turns and brutalizing effects on men was inevitable.

Antigone Takes Her Stand (page 130)

ANTIGONE: Why are you waiting? Nothing that you say fits with my thought. I pray it never will . . . . What greater glory could I find than giving my own brother funeral? CREON: None of these others see the case this way. Antigone: They see, and do not say. You have them cowed . . . . CREON: And you are not ashamed to think alone?

Antigone:

No, I am not ashamed. When was it shame to serve the children of my mother’s womb? CREON: It was not your brother who died against him, then? ANTIGONE: Full brother, on both sides, my parents’ child. CREON:Your act of grace, in his regard, is crime. ANTIGONE: The corpse below would never say it was. CREON: When you honor him and the criminal just alike? ANTIGONE: It was a brother, not a slave, who died. CREON:Died to destroy this land the other guarded. ANTIGONE: Death yearns for equal law for all the dead. CREON: Not that the good and bad draw equal shares. • • •ANTIGONE:I cannot share in hatred, but in love.CREON:Then go down there, if you must love, and love the dead. No woman rules me while I live.Antigone believes, quite correctly in Greek religious practice, that the state’s demands must give way to the higher allegiance she owes to the restless soul of Polyneices (Eteocles has received a funeral with full honors). The difference in sex between the central characters intensifies the collision between individual conscience and civic duty.

Drama (page 131)

The invention of drama was one of the most important contributions of the Greeks to Western civilization. As performed in the ancient world, tragedy and comedy were much more than entertainments. They fulfilled essential religious, civic, and educational func-tions, bringing the masses into contact with supreme artistic masterpieces and contributing to pride in the glory of Athens. The extensive involvement of citizens and the high level of state support indicate the prestige of public theater in classical Greece.

The Theatre: A Greek Invention (page 131)

The Greeks created tragedy, comedy, melodrama, mime, ballet, the art and craft of acting, costume and set design, stage machinery, and the theatrical structure itself. All this began with the first formal staging of tragedy during the Athenian Greater Dionysia festival in about 534 BC. Thespis was the name of the actor who led that theatrical troupe and “thespians” is what we sometimes call actors today. The Greater Dionysia was the more important of the two religious festivals held each year in honor of Dionysos, god of fertility and wine and patron of Athenian drama. (Curiously, secular drama evolved out of religious rites twice: in Greece and later in medieval Christian churches.)Strictly speaking, drama is but one branch of literature, but Greek drama is far more than this. Encompassing poetry, music, dance, and such wide-ranging themes as the nature of truth, beauty, freedom, and justice, Greek theatre represented virtually the whole of that remarkable civilization. Theatres functioned as centers of education, enlightenment, and entertainment, probably in reverse order. No self-respecting Greek would tolerate a boring play, no matter how educational and enlightening. Simply stated, Greek drama can be defined as an alliance of moral passion and entertainment.The state took full responsibility for every aspect of the festivals from selecting judges to funding and supervising casting and production. A small admission fee partially offset expenses: those too poor to afford even this received the price of a ticket from a “seeing fund.” The prime government responsibility, though, was the location, design, construction, and maintenance of the theatre itself.

Theatres and Performances (page 131)

The climate enabled the Greeks to spend much of their lives out-of-doors, so naturally the theatres were in the open air, with spectators’ seats ascending an inward curving hillside. No theatre was ever “built”; it was carved into the side of a hill so that it became part of its environment. Chorus performed in the circular space (orchestra) that filled the flat area at the base of the hill. (Chorus was usually thought of as a single actor and was thus a singular noun.) Behind the orchestra and facing the audience was a long, low building (skene; SKAY-nuh) with a room at either end (dressing and storage) and a platform (stage) between the rooms.(page 132) Because they were important centers for the entire populace of a city-state, theatres were suitably large; seating was for 13,000 at Epidauros (fig. 8.1), 18,000 at Athens, 25,000 at Ephesos (in Turkey). The acoustics of these semi-circular stadiums were so fine that actors could be understood fifty rows above the stage. All-male casts wore large masks of easily identifiable character types. Violence took place off stage as described (usually) by a messenger though there were some exceptions in the comedies of Aristophanes. Each play had a chorus of up to a dozen members that reacted to the action in a variety of ways. Each play used one stage set, while the main stage machinery was the mekhane (me-KAY-nee), a crane that transported actors who played gods. This was the celebrated deus ex machina, the “god in a machine.”(page 132) Greek drama was to a considerable degree a musical experience, a unique amalgam for which there is no modern equivalent. Neither opera nor musical play, Greek dramas (both tragedies and comedies) moved on their own plane somewhere in between. Chorus was central as it chanted, sang, and danced to the pungent, plaintive sounds of the aulos (OW-los; a double reed-pipe, somewhat like the modern oboe). The instrument of Dionysos, god of the theatre, the aulos was intimately involved in the pace and mood of the drama, commenting, underscoring, highlighting. (Modern stage directions referring to “flute” or “flute-girl” always mean aulos and aulos-player.)(page 132) A single set, all-male cast, masks, chorus, music, dance, and off-stage violence were conventions that challenged spectators to use their imaginations to the fullest. What about the imaginations of the playwrights? Did state sponsorship limit what could be said or done? The Greek response to these issues is the key to the eminence and influence of the theatre.  (page 132) Athens did have some restrictions concerning religion but the stage was the totally uncensored forum of the democracy. The freedom for dramatists to write anything whatever (page 133) was protected by a society that delighted in the free expression of ideas and the airing of controversial topics. Playwrights, especially the comic dramatists, assaulted politicians, philosophers, civic leaders, and even other dramatists. As might be expected, corruption, hypocrisy, greed, politics, and war were favorite targets.(page 133) Compared with our ready access to theatre, the Greeks had limited opportunities to experience the artistry, wit, and wisdom of their playwrights. Athens had only two festivals a year—the Greater Dionysia and the Linaea. Consequently, the festivals were eagerly anticipated and heavily attended. What better way to hear what some of the foremost men of their time had to say? In terms of general interest one can roughly compare the two festivals with the World Series and the Superbowl but with significant differences in impact. The plays generated a year or more of passionate discussions/arguments about the issues, ideas, and controversies presented on stage. Whatever message a writer had to impart to the entire population of the city, drama was the nearly perfect vehicle.(page 133) Finally, critic-judges were selected from the ten tribes to award prizes to poets andactors. There were about 1,500 participants in the various religious activities and festival productions. Attendance at the performances was very large, perhaps 15,000–20,000, and included all social classes, women, and even slaves if their masters brought them. Admission fees were moderate and, in the time of Pericles, the state treasury paid for the seats of citizens. The funds went to private contractors who maintained and repaired the theaters.

Aeschylus (page 133)  

Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.) was the earliest of the great tragedians. In some ninety plays, of which seven written after the Persian Wars survive, he moved drama farther away from choral recitation by introducing a second actor. His chosen form was the trilogy, each play an act in a larger dramatic plot.Aeschylean tragedy is concerned with major moral and theological issues. Aeschylus asserted that evil would breed evil unless vengeance was tempered by wise deliberation. Excessive behavior, especially hubris (prideful behavior), called down divine retribution. Moderation was best. Though the human predicament was often painful, wisdom resulting from suffering ennobled the individual. The Olympian gods of light and reason ensured ultimate triumph over the forces of darkness and madness.The Oresteian trilogy, Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eumenides, is an extended example of Aeschylus’s interest in crime and appropriate punishment. In the first play, Clytemnestra avenges the sacrifice of her daughter, Iphigenia, by murdering the man responsible, her husband Agamemnon, the victorious commander-in-chief of the Greek forces at Troy. In the second play, Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, avenges his father’s death by killing Clytemnestra, thereby escaping the avenging spirits of his father but attracting the wrath of his mother’s Furies (avenging spirits, or Eumenides). The divinely mandated cycle of vengeance puts Orestes in an appalling double bind, resolved in the third play of the trilogy. The benevolent Athena duly authorizes a law court to hear arguments on each side of the issue and, after rational deliberation, to hand down a binding decision. Orestes goes free and, more important, vendetta has been eliminated, just as it had been historically under Draco.

Sophocles (page 134)

Sophocles (c. 496–406 B.C.) was the most successful of the Greek tragedians, winning first prize with 96 of his 123 plays and second with the others. His seven surviving plays differ from those of Aeschylus by the addition of a third actor, a decrease in the role of the chorus, and the absence of the trilogy format. In Sophoclean tragedy, the dramatic action arises from the personalities of the major characters, who are often subjected to wrenching changes in outlook and fortune. Sophocles believed that fate is irresistible and places human beings within certain limitations; to try to exceed them, especially by challenging the gods, was hubris and invited destruction. Life was full of unforeseeable suffering, even for the innocent. Inborn character traits, whether despicable or admirable, often led to disastrous decisions. The proper attitude was resignation before the superior wisdom of inscrutable deities. As in Aeschylus, moderation in all things was essential.(page 134)  In Oedipus the King, a man has unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. Oedipus is a conscientious ruler of Thebes, eager to rid the city of a terrible plague by apprehending the murderer of the previous king. Even after he suspects he is the guilty party, Oedipus doggedly pursues the truth. Others, including his wife, Jocasta, try to dissuade him, but he will not shirk his duty. His discovery of the truth destroys his wife/mother and drives him to blind himself. In a breathtaking turn of Sophoclean irony, the man who at first saw with his eyes but not with his mind later gains inner sight after losing his eyes. The man who loved his city more than himself is condemned by his own decree to leave it forever.page 134) In the Antigone, two strong personalities—Creon, the new king of Thebes, and Anti-gone, the daughter/sister of Oedipus—clash in deadly conflict. Antigone’s two brothers Polyneices and Eteocles, have killed each other in combat over the throne vacated by their father/brother Oedipus. Creon has forbidden the burial of Antigone’s brother Polyneices, whom he considers a traitor.(page 134) Antigone pays with her life for her convictions, but Creon suffers a worse fate as he alienates his son, Haemon, who kills himself in grief at the death of his fiancée, Antigone. Despondent at her son’s death, Creon’s wife Eurydice hangs herself. Creon is left alone and miserable to contemplate the error of his ways.

Euripides (page 134)

Euripides (c. 485–c. 406 B.C.) was far more attuned to philosophic trends of the sophistic movement than was Sophocles. Some nineteen of his ninety plays survive and show a wide range of subjects and interests, focusing on political, religious, and especially psychological topics. In these dramas, Euripides questioned traditional social and moral values in the critical spirit of sophistic skepticism. In this regard, he was closer to the comic poet Aristophanes than to Aeschylus or Sophocles. Plays like the Electra and Alcestis, for instance, implicitly criticize the double standard inflicted on women. Others show Euripides’ dislike of the ethics of exaggerated masculinity and aggressive war.

Comedy: Aristophanes (page 135)

The Athenians also invented the other dramatic genre, comedy, which originated in processions of outlandishly dressed men behaving and singing in a humorously obscene fashion as part of religious festivals. In the fifth century, comedies were supported and produced in the same way as tragedies and were performed at the City Dionysia and certain other festivals. The “Old Comedy” of the Classical period was strongly satirical in tone and content.Aristophanes (c. 450–c. 385 B.C.) is the only writer of Old Comedy whose works have survived. Most of his some forty plays, of which eleven survive, were produced during the Peloponnesian War. Aristophanic comedies are a delightful mix of serious satirical exposes and uproarious farce, often based on bodily function humor. Like musical comedies, they mingled social satire with burlesque slapstick. The twenty-four-member choruses often dressed as birds, frogs, wasps, or horses.Old Comedy was distinctive in its irreverently critical attitude toward contemporary social, intellectual, and political issues. Interspersed with low comedy were deeply felt opinions on society and morality. In the Clouds, for example, Aristophanes parodied the Sophists and natural scientists by an outrageous caricature of Socrates, whose eccentric looks, and behavior invited such attacks. In the Knights, Aristophanes mercilessly ridiculed the politician and general Cleon, who was then at the height of his success, as a contemptible demagogue and a blustering, vulgar, stupid upstart. Aristophanes’ antiwar sentiments were given free rein in the Acharnians, in which the central character secures a separate peace, symbolized as a quantity of fine wine, with the Spartans. In the Lysistrata, Athenian women attempt to end the war by a sex strike against their soldier-husbands, who appear in humorously obvious states of agonizing sexual arousal. In the Congresswomen, the women disguise themselves as men to pack the assembly and legislate a transfer of political power to themselves; the sexual implications of this are humorously explored. That Aristophanes could heap such savage personal abuse on intellectual and political leaders of his day without fear of reprisal is a tribute to the remarkable freedom of speech in classical Athens.

Classical Period, 480–323 BC (page 136)

Early Classical, 480–450 BCThe year 480 BC marked a critical turning point in Athenian history. Invaded and humiliated by Xerxes’ Persian forces, their city ravaged and in ruins, the Athenians and their allies struck back by destroying the Persian fleet at Salamis and defeating the army the following year. A resurgent Athens moved confidently toward power, prosperity, and a legendary Golden Age.

Severe Style (page 136)

The Kritios Boy (fig. 8.2), a prime example of the Severe style of early classicism, was created about the time that Aeschylus was gaining fame as a playwright. Somewhat like the innovations of Aeschylus, this statue represents a new principle in art. Wearing an expression of composed, classical solemnity (compare this with the archaic smile), this is truly a standing figure. Archaic sculptures were generally limited to a striding pose with an equal distribution of weight. Here is a formal composition with a fine balance of tense and relaxed muscles, the head turned slightly, one hip a bit elevated, the weight on one leg with the other at rest.Archaeological Museum, The Charioteer of Delphi, also known as Heniokhos), is one of the best-known statues surviving from Ancient Greece. phi Charioteer (fig. 8.3), which was once part of horses. Chariot races were entered by the owners of racing teams and driven by skilled charioteers, much as professional jockeys’ ride today’s thoroughbred horses. Overlooking the disheveled, dusty condition of a charioteer after a grueling race, the artist idealizes a proud champion, his khiton falling in fluted folds resembling a Doric column.(page 137) One of the finest original Greek bronzes, Poseidon (Zeus according to some; fig. 8.4) stands majestically, prepared to hurl his trident (thunderbolt?). The figure is stridently asym-metrical: arms, legs, even the head, turn in different angles from the torso, which in turn shows the competing muscular strains and tensions. More so than even the most naturalis-tic archaic statues, this body has muscles rippling beneath taut skin. The concavities and convexities of the bronze surface reflect a shimmering light that further animates the figure. It matters little that if Poseidon’s arms were lowered his hands would dangle at the knees; that the eyes are hollow sockets (once filled with colored stones); or that the hair, beard, and eyebrows are stylized; the work exudes a kinetic energy never achieved in earlier sculptures.The idealism of Greek art—depicting people not as they were but as they should be—applied also to the gods (fig. 8.5). Whether Poseidon the earthshaker or Zeus of the thun-derbolt, this is how a god ought to look. Compare this regal demeanor with the idealized faces of figures 8.6, 8.7, and 8.8 and gauge the difference.

High Classical, 450–400 BC (page 137)

More than any other style, the high classical boldly displayed the values of the Athenians of the Golden Age: optimism, freedom, individuality, competitiveness, the pursuit of excellence, and pride of achievement. This was the age of Pericles, Sophocles, Euripides, Socrates, and some of the most extraordinary sculptors, vase painters, metalworkers, and architects in the history of Western civilization.

Sculpture and Vase Painting (page 138)

Myron’s Discobolus (Discus Thrower; fig. 8.6) is intended to be viewed from the left of the figure, so one becomes totally involved in the moment before explosive action. Though a celebrated clas-sical statue, the figure follows some Egyptian con-ventions. It is designed on a frontal plane, with head and legs in profile and the upper torso turned toward the front. Balanced by the arc of the arms and the angle of the head and left leg, this is a Figure 8.6: Discus Thrower at National Roman Museum.formal composition with the harmonious proportion’s characteristic of the classical style. With simplified anatomical details and a stylized pose, all is in readiness for the athlete to wheel about and hurl the discus. Excellence of form counted for half the score with the distance counting for the other half, a procedure comparable to scoring today’s competitive diving or gymnastics. An athlete could win the olive wreath with a second-place throw, pro-vided he displayed form comparable to the Discobolus.The Riace Bronze (ree-AH-chee; fig. 8.7) is one of two original Greek bronzes dis-covered together in 1972 in the sea off Italy’s southern coast and named after Riace township in Calabria. Statue A originally had a shield and a small sword; the eyes are now without pupils; and a tuft of hair is missing. Otherwise, this is a stunning representation of a youthful warrior in the prime of his vigorous life. Bronze is the primary material, but the teeth are silver, the corneas of the eye’s ivory and limestone, and the lips, nipples, and eyelashes made of copper. The pose is fascinating, the right turn of the head and the steady far-off gaze express strength and resolution. Thrown-back shoulders strikingly fix the warrior in space. The creator of this splendid addition to the tiny Figure 8.7: Warrior, bronze, 450-400 BC Classical Greek, found Riace, Italy. treasure of original Greek art is unknown. Some scholars say the bronze is worthy of the great Pheidias of Athens (and it is) while others attribute it to the sculptor in Magna Graecia called Pythagoras. It could have been imported from Athens or made in Italy. Stylistically, the warrior stands somewhere between the Poseidon (fig. 8.4) and the canon developed by Polykleitos (polly-KLY-toss) of Argos, who is known today only through Roman copies of his work.(page 139) This copy of Polykleitos’ Doryphoros (dory-FOR-os; fig. 8.8) is of sufficiently high quality to demonstrate how it exemplified a “canon” (system of proportions), which became a model for several generations of artists. Displaying the powerful body of a finely conditioned athlete, the young man rests his full weight on the right leg, with the left bent at the knee and his toes lightly touching the ground. With the head barely turned to the right and the right shoulder dropped slightly, we can trace a long S curve from the feet to the head. At rest as no sculpted figure had ever been before, the composition is a dynamic equilibrium of tension and relaxation throughout the body. Harmoniously proportioned and with a classic balance of artistic and natural form, this is the confident style of the Golden Age.(page 139) The relief Victory Untying Her Sandal (fig. 8.9) Greek sculpture’s wet drapery effect. Sculptors apparently dipped a filmy material in a starchlike substance, draped the nude female model, and arranged (page 140) the folds for best artistic effect. Portrayed here is a rather awkward human action, but one accomplished so gracefully that the work is a marvel of softly flowing lines in a perfectly balanced design.(page 140) A sculptured gravestone known as the Stele of Hegesco (fig. 8.10) shows a serving maid offering her seated mistress, the commemorated deceased, a casket of jewels. Common to sculpture of the classical period is the serenity of the facial expressions, whether the subjects are participating in a procession, a battle, or a meeting of the gods. Note, also, that the heads of the standing servant and seated mistress are close to the same level. This isocephalic (i-so-se-FALL-ik) convention, the tradition of keeping all heads on approximately the same level, gives exceptional clarity to Greek relief art. It is so subtly executed that one’s sense of rightness remains undisturbed.(page 140) Vase painters of this period were just as skilled as the architects and sculptors, and their best work compares favorably with paintings by Renaissance artists such as Raphael or Leonardo da Vinci. Though most artists preferred red-figure paintings, some used a variety of colors on a white background in what is called the white ground technique. Before being fired in the kiln, a white clay was added in the area to be decorated and the painting done after firing. Though subject to fading because the color was not baked into the vase as in the red figure technique, white-ground paintings are similar to easel paintings, but with the additional complication of working on curved surfaces. Some artists chose the permanency of red-figure painting, while others, like the Achilles Painter (fig. 8.11), favored the color range of white-ground decorations. Though he did not sign his work, his distinctive style appears on more than 200 vases. Here, sitting quietly on the sacred mountain of the muses, Polyhymnia, the muse of solemn hymn and religious dance, reverently plucks her seven-string kithara. Lightly decorated at top and bottom, there is nothing to draw our attention from the solitary figure with a lone bird at her feet. Graceful line and harmonious composition make this a superb example of the classical style. Were the common people of Athens appreciative of these and other great art works? According to Aristotle, there are only two criteria for art: 1) it should entertain and instruct; 2) it should disclose not secrets to the few but treasures to the many. We have ample evidence proving that all the Greek arts served up treasures to a large and appreciative public.

Architecture (page 141)

Greek temples had evolved into their canonical form during the early archaic period (ca. 600 BC). Fundamental to the temple canon is the architectural system of post and lintel (fig. 8.12). After planting a post at all four corners of the space to be enclosed, the builder placed a lintel on top of and across the posts. Roof beams (joists) were placed at regular intervals to link the opposite lintels and then covered with a roof. Spaces between the posts were filled, as needed, with walls, windows, and doors. First employed in wood, then in brick, and eventually in stone construction, the post and lintel system was used for all major buildings. Though aware of the greater strength of/arches and the arched vault, architects used this technology for minor projects such as tunnels and sewers.page 141) A typical temple floor plan (fig. 8.13) shows a cella, a central room housing the statue of the deity. This basic core was provided with a columned porch at the front and, usually, one at the back, with the latter sometimes (page 142) enclosed to house a treasury. Large and important temples had exterior columns on all four sides forming a colonnade or peristyle. The plan appears to be simple, but a diagram of a facade (fig. 8.14) reveals a progression beyond the basic post and lintel system. Because the Mediterranean area is subject to heavy winter rains, a sloping or saddleback roof was developed to facilitate drainage. It was covered with terracotta or marble tiles, equipped with gutters and rain spouts, and adorned with sculpture. The triangular space at each end, the pediment, was usually decorated with large-scale high reliefs or freestanding sculpture. The architects constructed steps (usually three) on a stone foundation called a stereo-bate with the top level, the stylobate, forming the floor of the temple. From the stylobate rose columns (shafts with capitals) that supported the lintel, also called an architrave. The ends of the roof joists are called triglyphs, a term derived from the three vertical grooves that had become a decorative stone adaptation of the natural grain of wood joist ends. The spaces between the triglyphs were filled by plain, painted, or relief rectangles called metopes.

The Acropolis (page 142)

Most ancient Greek cities developed around a fortified hill-top (akra; “high place”). As cities grew more prosperous and powerful, this “people’s high place” (acropolis) became the center of religious and civic activity, suitably adorned with governmental buildings, libraries, and temples dedicated to the gods. According to legend, the Acropolis of Athens (fig. 8.15) was both the burial place of the fabled King Erechtheus and the site where Poseidon and Athena contended for authority over the city. Under the leadership of Pericles, the Athenians completed a building and art program on the Acropolis surpassing in splendor and artistic quality anything the world had ever seen. It signified the beginning of the Golden Age, in about 460 BC, when Pericles appointed Pheidias overseer of all works on the Acropolis. By 405 the Parthenon, Erechtheion, Propylaia, and Temple of Athena Nike had been built, and the brief period of glory was at an end.Summary (page 144)The Greeks yearned for reassurance that they lived in a rational and orderly universe in which there were certain eternal truths and, most important, an appropriate place for humanity. Their passion for beauty and order was manifested as early as the geometric period (900–700 BC) in which even the simplest utilitarian vase was meticulously deco-rated. During the archaic period (750–480 BC) there was a slow but constant evolution from the rigid sculpture early in the period toward a naturalism that characterized later works such as the Kore from Khios and the Anavyssos Kouros. The movement from formal-ism to realism also characterized vase painting as the stark and dramatic black-figure technique was superseded by the red-figure style. The classical period (480–323 BC) was the crowning glory of every aspect of Greek culture from the visual arts to music, poetry, drama, dance, vase painting, and the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Master-pieces of the Periclean age included the Poseidon, Discobolus, Doryphoros, the Riace bronze, the Parthenon pediments, metopes, and frieze, and the perfected temples: Parthenon, Erechtheion, Athena Nike, and Concord. Their achievements in red-figure and white-ground painting were not even approached until the Renaissance.

The Greeks themselves considered music the most important of all the arts. A proper balance of instruction in the visual arts, literature, music, and gymnastics formed the educational foundation of every citizen, with music education (in poetry and music) providing a rigorous ethical training according to the doctrine of ethos. Through the acoustics of music the Greeks determined the mathematical relationship of sounding bodies and con-structed a theory of unity and perfection symbolized by a vibrating string. This eventually led to a metaphysical concept of a universe that the human mind could comprehend.Poetry, dance, and music were allied arts in the Greek theatre, notably in the plays ofAeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. Lyric poetry was all poetry accompanied by the lyre, the instrument of Apollo. Dramatic poetry was declaimed, chanted, and sung on stage to the accompaniment of the aulos, the instrument of Dionysos. Whatever the art form, the ideal was to combine the rationality of Apollo, god of reason and invention, with the emotional drive of Dionysos, god of fertility and wine, but always with the rational mind in control. Although there was a gradual diminution in quality during the Hellenistic period (323–30 BC), Greek culture still gave the world such dynamic sculptures as The Dying Gaul, Nike of Samothrace, and the Laocoön, and such monumental buildings as the Temple of the Olympian Zeus. It was the latter that symbolized the passing of the cultural torch from Greece to Rome. Begun in the middle of the Hellenistic period, the massive structure was completed by an Italic architect during the reign of Emperor Hadrian.

Culture and Human Values (page 145)

The Athenian Golden Age lasted only one generation (ca. 460–430 BC) and yet its achievements, some of which are summarized above, are still among the most significant in human history. Why was this brief period so spectacular? The answer seems to lie in certain values directed to human ends that Athenians held in common. Athenians of this unique age valued optimism, a belief that anything and everything could be achieved or at least tried. Freedom was cherished by all, as were the rights of the individual to compete in a society in which vigorous competition was the norm. Excellence was the goal of every endeavor and the pride engendered by notable achievements was confirmed as an appropriate consequence. Let us examine each of these values.

Optimism (page 145)

Within a ten-year period the upstart Greeks, led by the Athenians, had twice defeated the mighty Persian Empire. For a loose confederation of highly individualistic citystates this was an incredible accomplishment, after which just about anything seemed possible. The truism that nothing succeeds like success carried a certain weight in Athens. Pericles com-missioned a noble temple honoring the city’s patron and the magnificent Parthenon rose on the Acropolis. Plans for a temple honoring Athena and Poseidon resulted in the remarkable Erechtheion. A tiny structure to house Victory became a perfect Ionic temple that charmed all who saw it. It was this kind of continuous reinforcement that inspired the Athenians and amazed their rivals.

Freedom (page 145)

The progressive political reforms of Solon, Pisistratos, and Cleisthenes were carried out at the highest effective level by the astute leadership of Pericles. Political freedom provided the necessary framework for the pursuit of truth, beauty, and justice. Citizens optimistically assumed that a free society best served the interests of all the people, which became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The most critical freedom was the unrestrained pursuit of knowledge in a society that valued learning for its own sake. With neither an organized religion nor a priestly caste with vested interests in the status quo, individuals were free to seek answers wherever they might be found. Ignorance and superstition were, as always, conspicuous but not threatening, because they were not institutionalized by creeds or dogmas.

Individuality and Competition (page 146)

That we know so many Greeks by name is not surprising for a society in which reality was the individual. The individual was paramount in Greece because personal achievements were the measure of all things.Emphasizing individuality characterized the city-states while it also prevented any long-term federation. Athens was an Ionian city in which life was sophisticated and elegant. Sparta was Dorian and life was lean and “Spartan.” Athens was a cosmopolitan seaport; Sparta was landlocked and provincial. Athenians loved to joke about Sparta. Spartans, they said, fought to the death on the battlefield so they wouldn’t have to go back to Sparta. Spartans didn’t make jokes; life was a serious business. Athens and Sparta were not only vastly different but, as might be expected, very competitive. Each thought its society supe-rior to the other leading, perhaps inevitably, to the war that drained all combatants.The Olympic, Delphic, and other athletic, poetic, and musical contests provided special arenas for head-to-head competition. Winning was all-important with one winner for each event and everyone else an also-ran. Drama contests were just as competitive with the eagerly sought prize awarded to the best intellectual creation. These contests were considered so vital that second-place dramatists were granted a return engagement.

The Pursuit of Excellence (page 146)

 As discussed earlier, the Greek word for skill is arete (ARE-uh-tay), best translated as “diligence in the pursuit of excellence.” Whether an artist, poet, politician, or athlete, each Greek assumed that he could be the best at whatever he chose to do and that, moreover, his accomplishment could be the best in its field. Greek artists, for example, competed against each other for pride of place, but they also competed against an unspoken standard of excellence known only to each artist.

Pride (page 146)

A justifiable pride in superior accomplishments was the hallmark of the Greek passion for excellence. Contrary to Judea-Christian doctrine, pride was not a vice but a virtue. The virtue of pride should not be confused, however, with the vice of hubris, which identified an excessive pride that could harm another human being (such as Oedipus). The proper balance was struck by observing the Greek motto “Nothing in excess.” For Pythagoras the standard was the “Middle way” and, for Aristotle, the “Golden Mean.” However stated, it was the sensible Greek approach to moderation in all things.

The Legacy of Greece (page 146)

The Greeks of antiquity established a superb foundation for the development of most of Western civilization. They constructed a rational, viable, and humanistic culture in which (page 147) the emphasis was upon the individual and each person’s pursuit of excellence. Their achievements were by no means limited to the arts and philosophy discussed in this text, for they also excelled in commerce, seafaring, medicine, coinage, engraved gems, decorative metalwork, painting and mosaics, glassware, furniture, and textiles. Adding up all of these contributions reveals a marvelously rounded culture that achieved, during the Golden Age, a quality of life never to be seen again. They established standards that serve as thesis or antithesis for contemporary judgments and achievements throughout our cultural life.It is important that the great age of Greece came before Christ. The stimulating, even subversive place of Greece comes from belonging within a Western world fundamentally based on Christianity.Skeptical, resilient, frequently cantankerous, the Greeks celebrated excellence and despised mediocrity. Constantly seeking an understanding of the world and everything in it, they asked not only “Why?” but also “Why not?” And they expected sane and sensible answers. There has never been anyone quite like them.

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