2. POPULATION OF CLASSICAL ATHENS
• By 430 BCE, there were about 150,000 citizens living in Athens.
• 43,000 were adult males with political power
• There were 35,000 foreigners, who received protection of the laws but
did not participate in creating laws.
• Around 100,000 slaves lived in Athens at this time
• Slavery was very common; most citizens owned at least one slave.
• Slaves worked in industries (manufacturing, making things)
• Slaves also worked in the fields
• Most slaves worked in homes as maids, cooks, or tutors
• The State of Athens owned slaves that worked on public construction
projects
3. ATHENIAN ECONOMY
The Greeks ate mainly the Mediterranean
triad, wheat (or barley or millet), wine, and
olive oil. They also grew
vegetables, especially legumes
(lentils, beans, peas, chickpeas). Possibly
they ate more fish than most other
Mediterranean people. Also, because of
their feelings about sacrificing meat, they
may have eaten meat less than other people
did. Because of the number of people and lack
of fertile land, Athens had to import between
50 and 80 percent of its grain
(wheat, barley, millet). This meant TRADE
was highly important to the Athenian
economy.
4. ATHENIAN ECONOMY
Trade was important to
the Athenians. They had
a major port at nearby
Piraievs, which was one
Piraievs Port
of the leading trade
centers in the Greek
world. Through the
Piraievs port, the
Athenians could trade
throughout the
Mediterranean.
5. GREEK FAMILY – ROLE OF WOMEN
• There was no marriage ceremony as we know it today. Your parents arranged
it, and then there was a party, and the girl's parents paid a dowry to the
man, and then the girl moved into the man's house. Girls were married at 14 or
15 and their primary role was to bear children (especially males) and run the
household. If they were both citizens, and she lived in his house, then they
were legally married. If she moved out of his house, then they were divorced.
• Wealthy Greek women hardly ever went out of the house alone. Mostly when
they went out it was to go to weddings and funerals and religious
ceremonies, or to visit other women. Poorer women, who didn't have
slaves, did go out to get water from the fountain, and sometimes to work in the
fields or to sell vegetables or flowers in the marketplace.
• Women were citizens who could participate in religious festivals.
Otherwise, they were excluded from public life. They could not own property
and always had a male guardian: father, husband, brother, uncle.
6. GREEK RELIGION
The Greeks were very religious; their
religion affected every aspect of their lives.
Greeks considered religion necessary for
the well-being of the state.
There were temples dedicated to the gods
and goddesses in every major Greek city.
The Greek gods and goddesses were
known as the Olympians, because the
Greeks believed they made their home on
Mt. Olympus.
8. GREEK GODS
• The Greeks believed the
Olympic gods were
descended from the Titans Zeus was the chief god, the “father” of
the gods. He was represented by
Chronos and Rhea. The lightning, as his weapon of choice was
sons of Chronos and Rhea the lightning bolt.
were:
Hades was the god of the Underworld.
• Zeus Zeus’s brother, he was envious of
Zeus’ role on Mt. Olympus.
• Hades
Poseidon was the god of the sea and
• Poseidon earthquakes. He is represented by the
horse, his gift to mankind.
9. GREEK GODDESSES
• Chronos and Rhea
also had three Hestia was the virgin goddess
of the home and hearth.
daughters:
Demeter was the goddess of
agriculture, horticulture, grain
• Hestia and harvest.
• Demeter Hera was queen of
marriage, women, childbirth, h
• Hera eirs, kings and empires. She
was both wife and sister to
Zeus
10. OTHER OLYMPIANS
• Apollo – God of truth, poetry and light; • Aphrodite – Goddess of love and
although he is associated with the beauty. Married to Hephaestus, she
sun, he is NOT the god of the sun (that had many adulterous affairs, including
is Helios, who drives the sun across with Ares.
the sky).
• Artemis – Virgin goddess of
• Ares – God of war and courage. He is hunting, childbirth, and plague.
the son of Zeus and Hera. Daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister
of Apollo.
• Dionysus – God of
wine, parties, festivals and chaos. • Athena – Goddess of
wisdom, warfare, and strategy.
• Hephaestus – God of
Daughter of Zeus, who birthed her
fire, metalwork, and volcanoes.
whole from his forehead.
Husband to Aphrodite.
• Hermes – God of Travel, trade, and
messengers. Son of Zeus and Maia.
11. ROLE OF RELIGION
• Very little religious doctrine, humans needed to please the gods
who could control them.
• The Greeks performed rituals in temples upon altars. They
sacrificed animals and made gifts of food. Rituals are
ceremonies or rites.
• The afterlife was gloomy, but the Elysian fields were available to
those who lived an exemplary life.
• The Greeks held many festivals to honor the gods, including
holding the Olympics.
12. ORACLES
• An oracle is a sacred shrine where a god or goddess revealed the future through a priest
or priestess. The Greeks would ask the oracle questions and receive answers channeled
through the god or goddesses’ priest or priestesses.
• The most famous of all the oracles was the oracle of Apollo located at Delphi. The
oracle’s responses to questions were interpreted by priests and given in verse (poetic)
form to the questioner. Heads of state often traveled to Delphi to consult with the Oracle.
Often the oracle’s responses could be puzzling
and difficult to figure out. For
example, Croesus, the king of Lydia, was told
that if he attacked the Persians, he would
destroy a mighty empire. When he attacked
the Persians, he lost his entire empire to the
Persians
13. GREEK DRAMA
Greeks created drama as we
know it today.
They wrote and acted plays
in outdoor amphitheaters.
The first Greek plays were
tragedies, which were
usually presented in a trilogy
– a set of three plays (think
of the great trilogies we see
in film today – those stories
are based on a concept
nearly 5000 years old!).
Only male actors were
allowed in the theaters.
14. • Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex, the
story of Oedipus. In this story, the
GREEK PLAYWRIGHTS oracle of Apollo at Delphi predicts
Oedipus will kill his own father and
marry his mother.
• Aeschylus wrote tragedies. He is the
author of the only trilogy that was • Despite all attempts to prevent
passed on complete from the Greeks. this, Oedipus does kill his father and
go on to marry his mother – a story of
• He wrote the Orestia, the story of misunderstandings, mistaken
Agamemnon, a hero in the Trojan identities, and tragedy.
War, and his family after his return
from the war.
• Euripides was also a playwright in
Greece. He wrote realistic characters
and stories, but he was controversial
because he used his plays to question
traditional values, war, and the nature
of good and evil.
Oedipus Rex
15. PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophy means “love of wisdom”.
• Early Greek philosophers were concerned
with the development of critical or rational
thought about the nature of the universe.
• Many philosopher / teachers tried to explain
the universe on the basis of unifying
principals, like math or science.
• Sophists were one group of traveling
teachers who rejected the unifying principles
of the universe. Instead they believed:
• There is no absolute right or wrong –
what is good/bad for someone might be
different for another
• Importance of persuasive speaking
(rhetoric)
• True wisdom occurs in the pursuit of
one’s own good and self improvement
16. SOCRATES
• Socrates was a sculptor who loved
philosophy.
• He left no writings behind, what we
know of Socrates was from the
writings of his students.
• Socrates used a teaching method
that is still used today and is named
after him – the Socratic Method.
• The Socratic Method uses questions
and answers to lead students to see
things for themselves by using their
own reason.
17. SOCRATES
• Socrates believed all knowledge is already present
in each person and could be brought forth with the
right questions.
• Socrates believed the “unexamined life is not worth
living” and that an individual’s ability to think and
reason was one of his most important contributions
to philosophy.
• Socrates liked to question authority, which led him to
trouble with the Athenian government. After the
Peloponnesian War, the Athenians were not as open
to public debate. Socrates was accused of
corrupting the youth of Athens by teaching them to
think for themselves.
• Socrates was sentenced to death by a jury; he drank
a poison, hemlock and died.
18. PLATO • Plato was a student of Socrates.
• Plato is considered to be one of the
greatest philosophers of Western
Civilization.
• Plato was a prolific (extensive) writer.
• He was fascinated by the study of
reality and endeavored to answer the
question:
• How do we know what is real?
• Plato believed a higher world existed in
which the form existence took never
changed. He believed these forms were
made of reality and that only a trained
mind could become aware of and
understand this higher form.
• To Plato, things we perceive with
our senses are really just
reflections of the ideal form – so a
tree really represents the higher
form of “treeness”.
19. PLATO’S REPUBLIC
• Plato explained his ideas about government in a work called The Republic.
• Plato did not think democracy was the best form of government.
• He believed people needed to live in a just and rational state in order to achieve a good
life; democracy did not suit achieving a good life.
• Plato’s ideal state was one in which people were divided into three groups:
• Philsopher-Kings: The upper class, they would rule based on wisdom that melded
political power with philosophy so that the ruler would make the best choices for mankind.
• Warriors made up the second class and were responsible for protecting society.
• The masses made up the third group and consisted of people not driven by wisdom or
courage, but instead tried to meet their own desires. These people included those who
produced art, tradespeople, and farmers.
• Plato believed men and women should have the same education and access to all positions –
which sets him apart from other men of his era.
20. ARISTOTLE
• Aristotle was a student of Plato’s.
• Plato established a school known as the
Academy.
• Aristotle studied at the academy for 20
years.
• Aristotle did not accept Plato’s theory of ideal
forms.
• Aristotle thought that by examining
objects we could perceive their true
form, but unlike Plato, he did not believe
that these forms existed in a separate or
higher world of reality.
21. ARISTOTLE
• Aristotle analyzed and classified things based on observation and investigation.
• He wrote about many subjects, including:
• Ethics, Logic, Politics, Poetry, Astronomy, Biology, Geology, Physics
• Until the 17 th century, most science was based on Aristotle’s ideas and
classifications.
• Aristotle also wrote about government. He wrote a work titled Politics that described
three ideal governments, depending on the people:
• Monarchy
• Aristocracy
• Constitutional Government
• Aristotle believed a Constitutional Government was the best form for most people.
22. GREEK HISTORY
• What we know of Greek history is • The other major Greek
primarily because of two historians. historian, Thucydides, is considered the
greatest historian of the ancient world.
• Herodotus was the author of The
History of The Persian Wars. This • He was an Athenian general who
work is considered the first real fought in the Peloponnesian War.
“history” of Western Civilization. • The Athenian Assembly exiled him
when he lost a battle against
• He wrote of the struggle between
Spartan forces.
the Persians and the Greeks.
• He wrote his History of the
• He traveled widely and Peoloponnesian War while in exile.
questioned many people to get
information for his history book. • Unlike Herodotus, Thucydides did
not blame the gods for human
• Herodotus credited divine forces events. He tried to be as accurate
(gods) as causing or participating as possible with his facts.
in the Persian wars.
• Thucydides believed the study of
history was important to
understanding the present.
24. GREEK ART
• Greece set the standard for art in the
Western world (Europe and the United
States).
• Greeks studied the human form and
produced sculpture and paintings to
represent humans.
• The classic style of Greek art was
based on the ideals of
reason, moderation, balance, and
harmony in all things.
• Greek sculpture developed a classical style
that included lifelike statues.
• Sculptors were after ideal beauty, not
realism.
• Used mathematics to find perfect/ideal
ratios and proportions
25. ARCHITECTURE
Greek architecture in its most important form
was the temple dedicated to a god or
goddess. The temples had walled rooms that
housed statutes and treasures of the deities.
The rooms were surrounded by a screen of
columns that made the temple an open
structure. In the 5th century BCE, the
Greeks started using marble for their
columns and temples.
The Parthenon was built in 447 BCE (it
was finished in 432 BCE) and was
dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess
of Athens. It demonstrates the pinnacle
of classical architecture: calmness, clarity
and freedom from unnecessary detail.
26. DECLINE OF CLASSICAL GREECE
• Remember after the
Peloponnesian War,
Athens, Sparta and
Thebes warred for
power
• Meanwhile, Macedonia (Northern Greece) was
becoming more powerful.
• Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia conquered all
of Greece and beyond.
