10. Panathenaic prize amphora showing footrace, from Vulci, ca. 530 b.c.e. Terracotta, height 24 ½ “, Euphiletos Contest of two warriors, ca. 540-530 b.c.e. amphora, ceramic by the “Botkin Class”
45. High Classical Period Prominent feature: capture the “idea moment” before action Depiction of more vigorous action Dynamically posed of the figures (Discus Thrower) ( Zeus/ Poseidon)
115. The Invasion of Persia War Machines Siege towers, catapults used effectively for first time Could hurl huge arrows, boulders 590 ft.(180 meters)
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118. Aftermath After his death, the Empire quickly fell apart and was divided among three powerful generals: Egypt and fringe lands went to Ptolemy Asia Minor and old Persian Empire went to Seleucus Macedon and Greece went to Antigonus
166. Etruscan, early 4th century BCE, Reclining Youth, Cinerary Urn , bronze , length of base 69 cm, height of figure 42 cm, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. See cinerary urn .
180. pottery Etruscan - Corinthian Amphora, Decorated With Friezes of Animals by the so-called Painter of the Bearded Sphynx, 7th B.C. Amphora, 600 B.C.
194. Death Leaning into the Face of an Old Man, 2nd B.C. Votive Statuette of Dionysos Enthroned, 2nd B.C. Votive Figures of Swaddled Babies with Bullae, 4th-1st B.C.
195. Head of a Man from the Votive Deposit of Manganello, Cerveteri, 100 B.C.
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Editor's Notes
Classicism describes a style of creative expression marked by clarity, simplicity, balance, and harmonious proportion – features associated with moderation, rationalism, and dignity. Pythagoras – tried to show that the order of the universe could be understood by observing proportion (both geometric and numerical) in nature. Vitruvius – a roman, who recorded many of the aesthetic principles and structural techniques of the ancient Greeks. In defining the classical canon, he advised that the construction of a building and the relationship between its parts must imitate the proportions of the human body. Without proportion, the correspondence between the various pars of the whole, there can be no design. And without design there can be no art. Humanism, realism, and idealism Black- and red-figured vase painting
refines nature in a process of idealization, While proportion and order are two guiding principles of the classical style, other features informed Greek classicism from earliest times. One of these is humanism. Greek art is said to be humanistic not only because it observes fundamental laws derived from the human physique, but because it focuses so consistently on the actions of human beings. Greek art is fundamentally realistic, that is, faithful to nature; but it refines nature in a process of idealization, that is, the effort to achieve a perfection that surpasses nature. Humanism, realism, and idealism are hallmarks of Greek art.
Because almost all Greek frescoes have disappeared, decorated vases are our main source of information about Greek painting. Above – Scenes from a warrior’s funeral dominate the upper register of a krater; the funeral procession, with horse drawn chariots, occupies the lower register.
In the 8th century BC, large-scale ceramic vessels were produced as grave markers. As these were originally decorated with just repeated angular patterns, the style became known as "Geometric" art. As time went by, small portions of the vessel might be filled with simple stick-figure people, often attending a funeral. The first image here is a funeray amphora, almost 6 feet tall, with a detail in the second image. The third image is a cross-section of the types of graves in which these vessels are found, showing their placement.
Scenes from mythology, literature and everyday life, came to inhabit the central zone of the vase. The primary technique of Archaic vase-painting (derived from the Geometric style) is known as the black-figure vase-painting technique. The first example below shows one of the very early examples, still somewhat rough and sketchy, but the second example shows the fully-developed technique. Note how the major figures are painted primarily with black paint (with a few details added in other colors) on a red-orange colored clay vessel. This does not necessarily mean that the people were black-skinned - it was merely the standard of this style of painting. Notice also that only the male figure is all black, and the two females on either side have their skin areas painted in white
The primary technique of Archaic vase-painting (derived from the Geometric style) is known as the black-figure vase-painting technique. The first example below shows one of the very early examples, still somewhat rough and sketchy, but the second example shows the fully-developed technique. Note how the major figures are painted primarily with black paint (with a few details added in other colors) on a red-orange colored clay vessel. This does not necessarily mean that the people were black-skinned - it was merely the standard of this style of painting. Notice also that only the male figure is all black, and the two females on either side have their skin areas painted in white
Amphora (greek vessel to hold wine or oil, both wearing traditional Greek and greaves (leg armor worn below the knee) Protected by handheld shields and one soldier is armed with a short sword, the other with a spear
the Greeks began to include mythical creatures like griffins (part lion and part bird) and sphinxes (part lion and part woman). During the Archaic Period, Greek art was influenced by art from other areas of the world. This is because the Greeks were trading goods with neighboring areas. They were also setting up colonies to their east and west. Contact with other cultures allowed Greeks to learn to cut gemstones for jewelry, work with metals, and carve ivory.
Artist replace the black-figured style with one in which the human body was left the color of the clay and the ground was painted black. By the Classical period (480-323 B.C.E.), artists had replaced the black-figured style with one in which the human body was left the color of the clay and the ground was painted black (Figure 2.6). They refined their efforts to position figures and objects to complement the shape of the vessel. However, a newly developed red-figured style allowed artists to delineate physical details on the buff-colored surface, thereby making the human form appear more lifelike. Although still flattened and aligned side by side, figures are posed naturally. Realism, that is, fidelity to nature, has overtaken the decorative aspect of the Geometric and Archaic styles. At the same time, artists of the Classical period moved toward aesthetic idealism.
The legendary warrior and Trojan ally, Sarpedon, was killed by Patroclus in the course of the war. He is shown being carried from the battlefield by the winged figures of Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (Death). Central to the lyrically balanced composition is the figure of Hermes, messenger of the gods, who guides the dead to the underworld. the Euphronios krater. A stunningly beautiful vase by one of the greatest artists of ancient Greece, it came to the Met under dubious circumstances in 1972 — court records say it had been excavated by a gang of tomb robbers in Italy. After a long, embarrassing fight, the museum sent the krater back to Italy last January, which then displayed it as part of an exhibition called “Nostoi,” a nod to the ancient Greek epic about the heroes’ return from the Trojan war.
Socrates is noted for having described the idealizing process: He advised the painter Parrhasius that he must reach beyond the flawed world of appearances by selecting and combining the most beautiful details of many different models. The artist must simplify the subject matter, free it of incidental detail, and impose the accepted canon of proportion to achieve the ideal form. Accordingly, the art object will surpass the imperfect and transient objects of sensory experience. Like Plato's Ideal Forms, the artist's imitations of reality are lifelike in appearance, but they improve upon sensory reality to achieve absolute perfection. Among the Greeks, as it had been among the Egyptians, conception played a large part in the process of making art; with the Greeks, however, the created object was no longer a static sign, but a dynamic reconstruction of the physical world.
New emphasis on personal emotion & individuality gave rise to portraits that were more intimate and less idealized.
Nowhere is the Greek affection for the natural beauty of the human body so evident as in Hellenic sculpture, where the male nude form assumed landmark importance as a subject. Freestanding Greek sculptures fulfilled the same purpose as Egyptian and Mesopotamian votive statues: They paid perpetual homage to the gods. They also served as cult statues, funerary monuments, and memorials designed to honor the victors of the athletic games. Since athletes both trained and competed in the nude, representation of the unclothed body was completely appropriate. Ultimately, however, the centrality of the nude in Greek art reflects the Hellenic regard for the human body as nature's perfect creation. (The fig leaves that cover the genitals of some Greek sculptures are additions dating from the Christian era.)
As in painting, so in sculpture, the quest for realism was offset by the will to idealize form. Achieving the delicate balance between real and ideal was a slow process, one that had its beginnings early in Greek history. During the Archaic phase of Greek sculpture, freestanding representations of the male youth (kouros) still resembled the blocklike statuary of ancient Egypt (see Figure 2.8). A kouros from Attica is rigidly posed, with arms close to its sides and its body weight distributed equally on both feet (see Figure 2.7).
THE SCULPTURED MALE FORM Greece was probably in close commercial Contact with ancient Egypt, which provided the model for the sculptured male form. The rigidity seen in both Archaic Greek statuary (Figure 2.17) and the earlier Egyptian imagery (Figure 2.18) may derive from efforts to carve organic forms out of rigid wooden tree trunks and obdurate blocks of stone. Details freed from the stone such as the nose, the genitalia, and the fingers were easily broken off, as we know from the remains of many Greek statues. Figure 2.7 (left) Dipylon Master, New York Kouros, from Attica, ca. 600 B.C.E. Marble, height 6 ft. 4 ih. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Figure 2.8 (right) Standing figure of Sepa, from Saqquara, Egypt, third dynasty, 2700-2620 B.C.E. Limestone with traces of paint, height 5 ft. 5 in. Louvre, Paris.
By definition, Kore (maiden) refers to statues depicting female figures, always of a young age, which were created during the Archaic period (600 – 480 BCE) either as votive or commemorative statues. Wealthy patrons commissioned them either to serve the deities in place of the patron, or as less often was the case, to become commemorative grave markers for members of a family. Many times their base (and sometimes on their dress) was inscribed with a short paragraph documenting the statue’s function, the patron, and the artist. According to the most accepted interpretations of the archaeological evidence, Kore statues never represented deities. Korai statues are the female equivalent of Kouros. There are several distinct differences between the two, with the most significant one being the fact that Kouros statues were almost always portrayed in the nude, while Kore were always clothed. Consequently, when studying the statues, we tend to focus on the development of anatomy in Kouros, and on the development of the dress for the Kore along with the facial expression. Most of the Kore statues are either life-size or a little smaller, and were developed with the same techniques and proportional conventions as the Kouros equivalents of the same era. With Kore statues, the human anatomy is acknowledged under the clothes but it is not emphasized. Instead, the lines of the drapery form smooth shapes that flow with ease creating a serene, almost hypnotic aura, which is duly complemented by the usual peaceful facial expression and the relative motionless body.
One fine example of early Kouros is the Calf Bearer. The statue is unique in that it does not depict a single figure, nor a group of figures, but a man and a calf closely bound in an exquisite composition. The arrangement guided the sculptor to depict the arms crossed across the chest of the man as he holds the calf’s legs in a large “X”. The calf is naturally settled by its weight on the man’s shoulder as it turns its head to face the viewer. While the statue is defined with the typical geometric planes of the Archaic era, certain areas of the figure are rendered in a much more smooth manner as the muscles of the forearms are described in stone. Produced some fifty years after the Attica kouros, the Calf-Bearer is more gently and more realistically modeled— note especially the abdominal muscles and the sensitively carved bull calf. The hollow eyes of the shepherd once held inlays of semiprecious stones (mother-of-pearl, gray agate, and lapis lazuli) that would have given the face a strikingly realistic appearance. Such lifelike effects were enhanced by the brightly colored paint (now almost gone) that enlivened the lips, hair, and other parts of the figure.
1.movement & plot 2.more realistic 3.abdominal muscles & bull calf 4.eyes:once inlaid with pearls
The Kritios boy belongs to the Late Archaic period and is considered the precursor to the later classical sculptures of athletes. The Kritios or Kritian boy was thus named because it is believed to be the creation of Krito, the teacher of Myron, from around 480 BCE. The statue is made of marble and is considerably smaller than life-size at 1.17 m (3 ft 10 ins). With the Kritios Boy the Greek artist has mastered a complete understanding of how the different parts of the body act as a system. The statue supports its body on one leg, the left, whiles the right one is bent at the knee in a relaxing state. This stance forces a chain of anatomical events as the pelvis is pushed diagonally upwards on the left side, the right buttock relaxes, the spine acquires an “S” curve, and the shoulder line dips on the left to counteract the action of the pelvis (contra-posto). The Kritios Boy exhibits a number of other critical innovations that distinguish it from the Archaic Kouroi that paved its way. The muscular and skeletal structure are depicted with unforced life-like accuracy, with the rib cage naturally expanded as if in the act of breathing, with a relaxed attitude and hips which are distinctly narrower. As a final fore bearer of the classical period, the “smile” of Archaic statues has been completely replaced by the accurate rendering of the lips and the austere expression that characterized the transitional, or “Severe” period from the Archaic to the Classical era.
Although the Doryphoros represents a warrior poised for battle, he does not don a suit of armor or any other protective gear. In fact, were it not for the actual spear that that statue originally held, it would have been difficult to identify him as such. A hallmark of classical Greek sculpture, male nudity or nakedness was understood as a marker of civilization that separated the Greeks from their “barbarian” neighbors. Many of the most influential Greeks of this period, including artists, writers, philosophers, and politicians, were obsessed with the notion that one should strive for perfection while recognizing that such perfection was unattainable. The face of the Doryphoros is devoid of individual features, which suggests that he is meant to represent an idealized version of the everyman, the perfect Greek male citizen (women were not citizens). Yet, his body—proportional, balanced, naked, strong, and exuding confidence—is one that the viewer might aspire to achieve, but never could.
By the mid-fifth century B.C.E., Greek sculptors had arrived at the natural positioning of the human body that would characterize the classical style: The human torso turns on the axis of the spine, and the weight of the body shifts from equal distribution on both legs to greater weight on the left leg-a kind of balanced opposition that is at once natural and graceful. (This counterpositioning would be called contrapposto by Italian Renaissance artists.) The muscles are no longer geometrically schematized, but protrude subtly at anatomical junctures. And the face is no longer smiling, but instead solemn and contemplative. The new poised stance, along with a complete mastery of human anatomy and proportion, are features of the High Classical style that flourished between ca. 480 and 400 B.C.E. At mid-century, Polycleitus brought that style to perfection with the Doryphorus (Spear-Bearer; Figure 2.20). Known today only by way of Roman copies, the Doryphorus is widely regarded as the embodiment of the canon of ideal human proportions. The figure, who once held a spear in his left hand, strides forward in a manner that unites motion and repose, energy and poise, male confidence and grace-the qualities of the ideal warrior-athlete.
Tall and poised, with small breast and broad hips. The evolution of the classical female figure (kore) underwent a somewhat different course from that of the male. Early korai were fully clothed and did not appear in the nude until the fourth century B.C.E. Female statues of the Archaic period were ornamental, columnar, and (like their male counterparts) smiling. Not until the Late Classical Age (400-323 B.C.E.) did Greek sculptors arrive at the sensuous female nudes that so inspired Hellenistic, Roman, and (centuries later) Renaissance artists. The Aphrodite of Knidos (Figure 2.9) by Praxiteles established a model for the ideal female nude: tall and poised, with small breasts and broad hips. Regarded by the Romans as the finest statue in the world, Praxiteles' goddess of love exhibits a subtle counterposition of shoulders and hips, smooth body curves, and a face that bears a dreamy, melting gaze. She is distinguished by the famous Praxitelean technique of carving that coaxed a translucent shimmer from the fine white marble.
Figure 2.9 Praxiteles, Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman copy of Greek original of ca. 350 B.C.E. Marble, height 6 ft. 8 in. Vatican Museums, Rome. This celebrated female nude is a Roman copy of a lost Greek original. The bar bracing the hip, probably added to give support to the freestanding marble figure, suggests that the original may have been executed in bronze (where no such support would have been needed). There exist today some sixty versions of this famous classical icon, ranging from full-sized statues to miniature figures.
This larger-than-life sculpture of Zeus (or possibly Poseidon) was made in bronze circa 460 - 450 B.C.E. It is 2.09 m (6' 10.5") high and 2.10 m (6' 10.75") fingertip to fingertip. It was found in the sea near Cape Artemisio. It is housed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Greece. There is some debate whether or not this sculpture depicts Zeus or Poseidon, but I think the most important aspect of this work is that it depicts a god in purely human form. It was most likely carved by a master craftsman (possibly Kalamis) using an Olympian athlete as a model. The muscles, the beard, the genitalia are all perfectly masculine and human . The gods interacted with the Greeks with their petty jealousies and arrogances - that is, their human frailties - fully intact. It has been said that the Greeks' interest in the gods was really only as an exploration of the human - the human psyche, the human body, the human soul. The name Zeus became Deus in Roman Latin and later Diós , or "God" in Spanish, giving us an explanation for words such as adiós : literally "to Zeus." We have the same sort of farewell in English with goodbye , a contracted form of "God be with you.“ There is little to distinguish man from god in the bronze statue of Zeus (or Poseidon) hurling a weapon (Figure 2.21). The work of an unknown sculptor, there is little to distinguish man from god. This nude, which conveys the majesty and physical vitality of a mighty Greek deity, might just as well represent a victor of the Olympic Games. The Greeks were the first to employ the ancient lost-wax method of bronze-casting for large-sized artworks. This sophisticated technique allowed artists to depict more vigorous physical action and to include greater detail than was possible in the more restrictive medium of marble. Dynamically posed-the length of the arms is deliberately exaggerated-the figure appears fixed at the decisive moment just before the action, when every muscle in the body is tensed, ready to achieve the mark. The sculptor has also idealized the physique in the direction of geometric clarity. Hence the muscles of the stomach are indicated as symmetrical trapezoids, and the strands of the hair and beard assume a distinctive pattern of parallel wavy lines.
Myron Discobolus (Discus Thrower), Myron was an ancient Greek sculptor working during the 5th Century BC. He is most famous for his bronze sculptures of athletes caught in a moment of action, though he did also produce statues of gods and heroes. His sculptures are notable for their sense of life and movement, for the realism captured in the athletes’ tensed bodies, and for their innovation of stance and posture. His work was greatly admired by the Greeks and Romans, and he has long been considered one of the great masters of classical art. The Discobolus ( Discus Thrower ) Myron’s most famous bronze sculpture is the Discobolus ( Discus Thrower ), a statue portraying an athlete caught mid-swing as he prepares to throw his discus. What makes the statue so unique and captivating is the specific moment Myron has chosen to depict. The discus thrower has been captured in the momentary pause between two actions – back swing and forwards throw. By choosing this particular snapshot of the action, Myron has gone further than simply exploring motion in his statue. With the Discobolus, he has managed to capture two separate and opposite movements, as well as to create a sense of potential motion in the tensed body. The statue looks as if it is merely pausing, about to burst into life at any moment. The statue’s composition also creates an interesting balance of opposites. The athlete’s arms and left foot create a neat curve down one side, broken by the jagged edges and right angles of his back and legs on the other. His chest faces towards the viewer while his legs are seen from the side. The top half of the statue is smooth and open; the bottom half closed and angular. The Discobolus is a statue that strives to break from any kind of symmetry, and in the process creates its own unique sense of balance and beauty. Few bronze sculptures survived the High Classical era, but some of the most treasured works come to us in marble copies made by the Romans. One such masterpiece is the Discobolus (Discus Thrower), originally executed in bronze by Myron around 450 B.C.E. Like the Zeus, the Discobolus captures the crucial moment in which intellect guides the impending physical action: here, the flight of the discus from the athlete's hand. Composed as a complex of two intersecting arcs (one created by the arms and shoulders, the other by the curve of the body from head to knee), the figure tempers physical vigor with reasoned restraint.
A careful study of Greek statuary from the Archaic through the Late Classical Age reflects increasing refinements to realism and idealism: All imperfections (wrinkles, warts, blemishes) have been purged in favor of a radiant flawlessness. The classical nude is neither very old nor very young, neither very thin nor very fat. He or she is eternally youthful, healthy, serene, dignified, and liberated from all accidents of nature. This synthesis of humanism, realism, and idealism in the representation of the freestanding nude was one of Greek art's great achievements. Indeed, the Hellenic conception of the nude defined the standard of beauty in Western art for centuries. The classical conception of beauty has had a profound influence on Western cultural expression. Its mark is most visible in the numerous neoclassical revivals that have flourished over the centuries, beginning with the Renaissance in Italy.
gave rise to portraits that were more intimate and less idealized. Apollo Belvedere, Roman copy of a Greek original, late fourth century B.C.E. Marble, height 7 ft. 4 in. Vatican Museums, Rome. The Apollo Belvedere became the symbol of classical beauty for artists of the High Renaissance, as well as for later neoclassicists, one of whom called it "the most sublime of all the statues of antiquity.“ In freestanding Hellenistic sculpture, the new emphasis on personal emotion and individuality gave rise to portraits that were more intimate and less idealized than those of Hellenic Greece. A marble portrait of Alexander manifests the new effort to capture fleeting mood and momentary expression (Figure 2.15). Hellenistic art is also notable for its sensuous male and female nudes, and fondness for erotic expression is especially evident in works carved in the tradition of Praxiteles. A landmark example of the new sensuousness is the male nude statue known as the Apollo Belvedere (Figure 2.16). A comparison of this figure with its Hellenic counterpart, the Spear-Bearer reveals a subtle move away from High Classical austerity to a more animated, feminized, and self-conscious figural style. One of the most popular icons of classical beauty, this Roman copy of a Hellenistic work was destined to exercise a major influence in Western art from the moment it was recovered in Rome in 1503.
One of the major discoveries of the Italian Renaissance, this sculptural grouping was lost for centuries but found in 1506 near Rome, by a farmer plowing a field in the ruins of Titus' palace. It depicts an event in Vergil's Aeneid (Book 2). Michelangelo (1475-1564) had been in Rome twice, (1505-06) to start work on the Tomb of Pope Julius II; on that visit he and the pope, upon hearing the news of the Laocoön discovery, rode by horseback through the countyside of Rome, to witness the unearthing of the ancient Laocoön Group. Realizing that the sculpture was indeed the long lost famous Laocoön, it was mounted on a special wagon and brought back into Rome with a traditional hero¹s welcome. Along with the city turning out for the 'ticker tape parade',there were three days of citywide celebrations. One of the major discoveries of the Italian Renaissance, this sculptural grouping was found in Rome in 1506 in the ruins of Titus' palace. It depicts an event in Vergil's Aeneid (Book 2). The Trojan priest Laocoön was strangled by sea snakes, sent by the gods who favored the Greeks, while he was sacrificing at the altar of Neptune. Because Laocoön had tried to warn the Trojan citizens of the danger of bringing in the wooden horse, he incurred the wrath of the gods. The theatricality and emphasis on emotional intensity is typically Hellenistic Greek--often called "Baroque" as well. Note the writhing serpents, one of whom bites Laocoön's left leg, and pained expressions. The furrowed brow and open-mouthed pain would be copied by Bernini and Caravaggio in the seventeenth century. Hellenistic artists broadened the range of subjects to include young children and old, even deformed, people. Refining the long tradition of technical virtuosity, they introduced new carving techniques that produced dynamic contrasts of light and dark, dramatic displays of vigorous movement, and a wide range of expressive details. All of these features characterize the monumental Laocoön and his Sons (Figure 2.17). This sculpture recreates the dramatic moment, famous in Greek legend, when Laocoön, the Trojan priest of Apollo, and his two sons succumb to the strangling attack of sea serpents sent by gods friendly to the Greeks to punish Laocoön for his effort to warn the Trojans of the Greek ruse—the wooden horse filled with the Achaean soldiers that would destroy Troy, bringing an end to the Trojan War. The writhing limbs, strained muscles, and anguished expressions of the doomed figures contribute to a sense of turbulence and agitation that sharply departs from the dignified restraint of Hellenic art. Indeed, Laocoön is the landmark of an age in which classical idealism had already become part of history.
The Venus de Milo was discovered on April 8, 1820 on the Aegean island of Melos, then a backwater under the indifferent rule of the Ottoman Turks but subject politically to the influence of France. Indeed, Olivier Voutier, an ensign in the French navy, whose warship had been idling in port, was searching for Greek antiquities when a local farmer, while removing stones from an ancient wall nearby, uncovered the statue. It was found in several pieces--a nude upper torso, a draped lower body, and part of the right hip that allowed both parts to be fitted together without toppling over. The arms, too, were missing but Voutier was convinced that the sculpture was a masterpiece and hurriedly returned with the local vice-consul to persuade him to buy it. The farmer had continued to dig and found a hand holding an apple, two herms standing on inscribed bases, and a fragment of an upper arm. The Venus arrived in Paris and was offered to Louis XVIII on March 1, 1821. (So obese was the king that it would be almost a year before he actually saw it.) Placed in the Louvre, its restoration would be supervised by the comte de Forbin. He had become director in 1816, the same year that the British parliament had voted to purchase the marbles (designed by Pheidias) taken from the pediment of the Parthenon by Lord Elgin. The year before, after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the Apollo Belvedere had been returned to the Vatican (although, a few years later, it would prove to be a Roman copy) and the Venus de' Medici to Florence. For the pride of France, the Venus de Milo had to rival the recent acquisition by the British Museum and compensate for those works of art reclaimed from the Louvre.
Made around 240 and 190 BCE, perhaps by Pythokritos of Rhodes. In 1863 it was found by M. Champoiseau in several pieces. It means ''Victory'' in Greek. The name is used by a modern company producing running shoes and other athletic wear. The Goddess Nike Nike is the Greek goddess of victory. According to legend, in the Battle of Marathon, news of the the successful battle by the Greeks was sent by messenger back to their home city, 26 miles away (the origin of the marathon). The messenger was so exhausted when he got there that he said one word: "Nike!"(Victory) and then died from dehydration and exertion. Further in Greek myth, when Zeus was gaining allies in the Titan War, Styx brought her four children, of which Nike (Victory) is one, the others being Zelos (Rivalry), Kratos (Strength) and Bia (Force). Nike was appointed his charioteer, and all four were appointed as sentinels standing beside the throne of the god. Beyond this Nike never acquired any distinctive mythology of her own. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_Nike_mean#ixzz1ZqERqJui
The island of Samothrace is located in the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Thrace, in north-eastern Greece. The island is a tall mountain that rises above the waves. On its northern side, in a gully carved by a torrent at the foot of the mountain, is a very ancient sanctuary dedicated to the Great Gods or Kabeirol. In March 1863, Charles Champoiseau, temporary French vice-consul in Adrianople – modern-day Edirne, in Turkey – set out to explore the ruins. He was a keen amateur archaeologist, and hoped to find some attractive relics for the imperial museum in Paris. On April 15, 1863, workers excavating the far end of the terrace overlooking the sanctuary to the west uncovered various parts of a large female statue. They continued digging to find the head and arms, but in vain. They did, however, find numerous small fragments of drapery and feathers, leading Champoiseau to the correct conclusion that the statue represented the goddess Victory. He sent the statue and the fragments to France, where they arrived at the Louvre a year later, on May 11, 1864. After careful restoration work, the main block, consisting of the legs and lower torso, was put on display in 1866. Alongside the statue, Champoiseau had discovered the ruins of a small building and a pile of large blocks of grey marble. He left them in place, thinking they were part of a tomb. In 1875, the architect of the Austrian archaeological mission working on the Samothrace sanctuary examined the blocks, producing drawings of them. He concluded that correctly assembled, they would form the prow of a ship constituting the base for a statue. He thought of Greek coins he had seen dating from the reign of Demetrius Poliorcetes, depicting Victory standing on the prow of a ship. Champoiseau heard about this discovery in 1879, and set about having the blocks from the prow sent to Paris, along with the slabs from the pedestal beneath. The first attempt to put the two parts together in the courtyard of the Louvre proved they were on the right track.
Félix Ravaisson Mollien, the then curator in charge of Antiquities, considered recreating the complete monument, following the model suggested by the Austrian team. The main features of this were as follows: the right side of the marble torso was placed in position on the body, the left side and the belt were recreated in plaster. The left wing was put together from several marble fragments and strengthened at the back by a metal frame before being put in place. As only two fragments of the right wing survived, it was replaced by a mirror-image cast of the left wing. Only the head, arms, and feet were not remodeled. The statue was placed directly on the ship, whose blocks were shaped and the gaps filled. Neither the ornamentation on the prow nor the rams were recreated. The restoration work was completed in 1884. The monument was placed at the top of the recently completed Daru staircase, creating a spectacular visual effect. To heighten the visual impact yet further, a modern block was added between the statue and its base during renovations in 1934.
The mythical followers of Dionysus, known as maenads (or bacchantes), were said to roam the forests singing and dancing with ecstatic abandon. This barefoot maenad holds a thyrsus, a fennel stalk ornamented with berries and ivy leaves, symbolic of vegetation and fertility The movement of the dance is suggested by the swaying motion of her diaphanous draperies.
Rosettes of gold filigree and enamel-colored buds ornament the couples of looped chains that hang from the disk. that shows Athena wearing a helmet bearing a sphinx, deer and griffin heads, and an elaborate triple crest . From Athena’s shoulders snakes spring forth, and by her head stands an owl (the symbol of wisdom) – both motifs recalling the powers of the Minoan priestess.
The English word music derives from muse, the Greek word describing any of the nine mythological daughters of Zeus and the goddess of memory. According to Greek mythology, the muses presided over the arts and the sciences. Pythagoras observed that music was governed by mathematical ratios and therefore constituted both a science and an art. As was true of the other arts, music played a major role in Greek life. However, we know almost as little about how Greek music sounded as we do in the cases of Egyptian or Sumerian music. The ancient Greeks did not invent a system of notation with which to record instrumental or vocal sounds. Apart from written and visual descriptions of musical performances, there exist only a few fourth-century-B.C.E. treatises on music theory and some primitively notated musical works. The only complete piece of ancient Greek music that has survived is an ancient song found chiseled on a first-century-B.C.E. gravestone. It reads: "So long as you live, be radiant, and do not grieve at all. Life's span is short and time exacts the final reckoning." Both vocal and instrumental music were commonplace, and contests between musicians, like those between playwrights, were a regular part of public life. Vase paintings reveal that the principal musical instruments of ancient Greece were the lyre, the kithara—both belonging to the harp family and differing only in shape, size, and number of strings (Figure 2.14)-and the aulos, a flute or reed pipe. Along with percussion devices often used to accompany dancing, these string and wind instruments were probably inherited from Egypt. From earliest times, music was believed to hold magical powers and therefore exercise great spiritual influence. Greek and Roman mythology describes gods and heroes who used music to heal or destroy. Following Pythagoras, who equated musical ratios with the unchanging cosmic order, many believed that music might put one "in tune with" the universe. The planets, which Pythagoras described as a series of spheres moving at varying speeds in concentric orbits around the earth, were said to produce a special harmony, the so-called music of the spheres. The Greeks believed, moreover, that music had a moral influence. This argument, often referred to as the "Doctrine of Ethos," held that some modes strengthened the will, whereas others undermined it and thus damaged the development of moral character. In the Republic, Plato encouraged the use of the Dorian mode, which settled the temper and inspired courage, but he condemned the Lydian mode, which aroused sensuality. Because of music's potential for affecting character and mood, both Plato and Aristotle recommended that the types of music used in the education of young children be regulated by law. As with other forms of classical expression, music was deemed essential to the advancement of the individual and the well-being of the community.
The Berlin painter, red-figure amphora, ca. 490 B.C.E. Terra-cotta, height of vase 163/8 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Accompanying himself on the kithara (the larger counterpart of the lyre), the young man sings ecstatically. The lyre was the primary instrument for the cult of Apollo. Inseparable from music, dance played an important role in communal ceremonial rites and in theatrical presentations. Dance was prized for its moral value, as well as for its ability to give pleasure and induce good health. For Plato the uneducated man was a "danceless" man. Both Plato and Aristotle advised that children be instructed at an early age in dancing. However, both men distinguished noble dances from ignoble ones-Dionysian and comic dances, for instance. These they considered unfit for Athenian citizens and therefore inappropriate to the educational curriculum. Nevertheless, the scantily-clad dancing maenad, a cult follower of Dionysus, was a favorite symbol of revelry in ancient Greece.
Achilles - The son of the military man Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis. The most powerful warrior in The Iliad, Achilles commands the Myrmidons, soldiers from his homeland of Phthia in Greece. Proud and headstrong, he takes offense easily and reacts with blistering indignation when he perceives that his honor has been slighted. Achilles’ wrath at Agamemnon for taking his war prize, the maiden Briseis, forms the main subject of The Iliad . Achilles, greater than any hero known to man was recruited for the Trojan expedition, he was the son of Thetis the nymph and Peleus, king of Myrmidons, it is prophesized that Thetis would bear a son greater than his father. Homeric heroes in Iliad exemplifies aristocratic virtues, dominantly honour, excellence and greatness, to do better than the rest (better than his father) Trojans equally responsive to heroic impulse, all about glory gain, honour, pride Aristocrats had to earn their distinguished social status through their fearless fighting on the battlefield, since we can’t avoid aging and death in a matter of forms, but as well join the fight and gain honour or have it for others to gain. Risk a glorious death as opposed to forgo glory for the sake of holding onto insignificant life, choice made wholeheartedly (charma: eagerness for battle) Hector: despite foreboding of his own death he gallops onto the battlefield as if confident to win. Achilles: supreme because of virtue, superior physical prowess but also choosing to be at Troy, his mother had told him to choose: long, undistinguished life or eternal fame if he stayed at Troy. Greatest glory at greatest price, heroic choice aware of ultimate cost.
one of a few known female poets of the ancient world. She was an aristocrat who married a prosperous merchant. Her wealth afforded her with the opportunity to live her life as she chose, and she chose to spend it studying the arts on the isle of Lesbos. An aristocrat, married and had a daughter. Settled on The island of Lesbos, where she led a group of young women dedicated to the cult of Aphrodite. At Lesbos, she trained women it the production of love poetry and music. Her homoerotic attachment to the women of Lesbos as reflect the realities of ancient Greek culture, in which bisexuality and homosexuality were commonplace both in life and as subject mater.
448-432 BCE, Two architects: Ictinus and Kallicrates, Sculptor: Phidas Dedication: Athena, Religious &Secular Purpose: to serve the living, not the dead (Egypt) , Human proportion(Golden Ratio), symmetry
Landmark architectural achievement of Golden Age Athens Designed by the architects Ictinus and Kallicrates Sculpture by Phidias Greek word parthenos (“maiden” or “virgin”) popular epithets for Athena Commissioned by Pericles, who freely drew on (Delian League) funds to restore the wooden temples burned by the Persians during their attack on Athens in 480 b.c.e. Greek architects used no mortar. Rather they employed bronze clamps and dowels to fasten the individually cut marble segments. Public meeting places Greek temple was a communal symbol of reverence for the gods Greek temples served as shrines for the gods and depositories for civic and religious treasures. Greek temple reunited religious and secular domains. Greek architects used no mortar. They employed bronze clamps and dowels to fasten the individually cut marble segments. There are virtually no straight lines in the entire building. Its Doric columns, for instance, swell out near the center to counter the optical effect of thinning that occurs when the normal eye views an uninterrupted set of parallel lines, all columns tilt slightly inward, the top step of the platform on which the columns rest is not parallel to the ground but rises four and a quarter inches at the center, allowing for rainwater to run off the convex surfaces even as it corrects the optical impression of sagging along the extended length of the platform. When work began on the Parthenon in 447 BC, the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. Work on the temple continued until 432; the Parthenon, then, represents the tangible and visible efflorescence of Athenian imperial power, unencumbered by the depradations of the Peloponnesian War. Likewise, it symbolizes the power and influence of the Athenian politician, Perikles, who championed its construction. Some historians believe that Athens concluded a peace treaty with Persia in 449, two years before work began on the Parthenon. The significance of this would be that the Delian League/Athenian Empire continued to exist, even after the reason for its existence (a mutual defense league against the Persians) had ceased to be valid. In other words it was now openly acknowledged that Athens was not just the head of the Greek defense league but actually an imperial master over other Greek states. The decision by the Athenians in 454 BC to move the League treasury from the Panhellenic sanctuary at Delos to the Athenian acropolis points in the same direction. Because the Parthenon was built with League funds, the building may be read as an expression of the confidence of the Athenians in this newly naked imperialism. But the piety of this undertaking should not be underestimated; the Persians had sacked the temples on the Athenian acropolis in 480, and rebuilding them fulfilled, in Bury's words, the Athenians' "debt of gratitude to heaven for the defeat of the Mede."
Chryselephantine statue of Athena ( overlaid with, gold and ivory) The Parthenon’s main function was to provide shelter for the monumental chryselephantine (made of gold and ivory) statue of Athena that was created by Pheidias and dedicated in 438 BCE. The statue stood approximately 9 or 11 meters (around 40 ft.) tall. It has not survived to our day, but we have enough accounts of its existence along with a number of smaller marble copies, including the one on exhibit at the National Museum of Athens. Athena stands holding a Nike (Victory) on her right hand that extends forward from the elbow, as if offering Nike to the Athenian citizens. With her left hand she supports her shield which shelters a snake as it rests on the ground, and her lance that rests on her left shoulder. She is dressed with an Attica peplos, and on her head she wears a richly decorated helmet with a sphinx at the apex and two Pegasi on each side. Her breastplate is adorned with snakes and the head of Medusa at the center. The statue was a hollow construction with a wooden armature that supported the outer surfaces of the golden drapery, and the ivory flesh of Athena. The statue was situated close to the south end of the cella and was surrounded by a procession of double-decked Doric columns on its flanks as well as the back. The floor of the cella in front of it was a shallow pool of water or oil, which added further drama to the statue’s context with its reflective surface.
so we can approximate the statue's original appearance. Slight variations appear between each copy.
The three main types of columns used in Greek temples and other public buildings are Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The truest and most basic difference among the orders has to do with proportions (Doric columns, for example, being thicker and shorter, Ionic columns taller and slimmer). As a shortcut, the orders may be distinguished most easily by their capitals (the tops of the columns). As you can see from the following examples, the Doric capital has the simplest design; the Ionic has the curlicues called volutes, and the Corinthian has the acanthus leaves:
Doric is not only a type of column, but an "order"; this means that temples of the Doric order not only have this type of column, but also have a certain structure at the upper levels. The different types of orders (column plus entablature) are illustrated by these diagrams, from Perseus: Doric order , and Ionic order. The Doric order is characterized by the series of triglyphs and metopes on the entablature. Each metope was occupied by a panel of relief sculpture. The Parthenon combines elements of the Doric and Ionic orders. Basically a Doric peripteral temple, it features a continuous sculpted frieze borrowed from the Ionic order, as well as four Ionic columns supporting the roof of the opisthodomos.
Post-and-lintel temple building among the Greeks Entailed a search for harmonious proportion, which came to fruition in the Parthenon. The plan of the temple a rectangle delimited on all four sides by a colonnaded walkway reflects the typically Classical reverence for clarity, balance, and harmonious proportion. Free standing columns make up an exterior colonnade, (each 34 ft tall) while two further rows of columns on the east and west ends of the temple provide inner porticos. The interior is divided into two rooms, a central hall (or cella) which held the 40 ft cult statue of Athena and a smaller room used as a treasury. It was here that the much-disputed Delian League funds were stored. The Parthenon is a Doric peripteral temple, which means that it consists of a rectangular floor plan with a series of low steps on every side, and a colonnade (8 x 17) of Doric columns extending around the periphery of the entire structure. Each entrance has an additional six columns in front of it. The larger of the two interior rooms, the naos, housed the cult statue. The smaller room (the opisthodomos ) was used as a treasury. Here is a plan of the temple: It was built to replace two earlier temples of Athena on the Acropolis. One of these, of which almost no trace remains today, stood south of the Parthenon (between the Parthenon and the Erechtheum). The other, which was still being built at the time of the Persian sack in 480, was on the same spot as the Parthenon. We know the names of the architects (Iktinos and Kallikrates) and also of the sculptor (Pheidias) who made the massive chryselephantine cult statue of the goddess.
The metopes of the Parthenon all represented various instances of the struggle between the forces of order and justice, on the one hand, and criminal chaos on the other. On the west side, the mythical battle against the Amazons (Amazonomachy); on the south, the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs (Centauromachy); on the east, the battle between the gods and the giants (Gigantomachy); on the north, the Greeks versus the Trojans. Of the panels the best preserved are those showing the Centauromachy. Here are South Metope 31 and 30 (compare the discussion in Pollitt, Art & Experience, 82-83):
The Lapiths ( Ancient Greek : Λαπίθαι) are a legendary people of Greek mythology , whose home was in Thessaly , in the valley of the Peneus [1] and on the mountain Pelion .They were an Aeolian tribe. Like the Myrmidons and other Thessalian tribes, the Lapiths were pre-Hellenic in their origins. The genealogies make them a kindred people with the Centaurs : in one version, Lapithes (Λαπίθης) and Centaurus (Κένταυρος) were said to be twin sons of the god Apollo and the nymph Stilbe , daughter of the river god Peneus . Lapithes was a valiant warrior, but Centaurus was a deformed being who later mated with mares, from whom the half-man, half-horse Centaurs sprang. Lapithes was the eponymous ancestor of the Lapith people, [2] and his descendants include Lapith warriors and kings, such as Ixion , Pirithous , Caeneus , and Coronus , and the seers Idmon and Mopsus .
These relief sculptures, larger than those of the metopes, occupied the triangular space above the triglyphs and metopes. Those at the west end of the temple depicted the contest between Poseidon and Athena for the right to be the patron deity of Athens (Athena's gift of the olive tree was preferred over Poseidon's spring). The eastern pedimental group showed the birth of Athena from Zeus' head. The pedimental sculpture suffered badly when the Parthenon was hit by a Venetian shell in 1687 and the powder magazine inside exploded. This reclining god (probably Dionysus) from the east pediment gives some sense of the quality of the sculpture:
The Parthenon frieze runs around the upper edge of the temple wall. Its relatively small size (3 feet 5 inches tall) and placement (inside from the triglyphs and metopes) made it fairly hard to see from the ground. Unlike the metopes, the frieze has a single subject on all four sides. On three sides (north, west, and south) it depicts a procession of horsemen, musicians, sacrificial animals, and other figures with various ritual functions. On the east side there is a scene centered on a child handing a folded cloth to an older man. On one side of them seated gods and goddess are in attendance; on the other, two girls are carrying something. Although the state of preservation is poor, the interpretation of the subject has hotly debated. Most scholars agree that it represents the Panathenaic procession, but some think it is a mythical, "original" procession, while others believe that it is the procession which took place in the same period as the temple was built, and that this illustrates the (over-)confident spirit of the Athenians, who dared to put themselves where ordinarily only gods and heroes might be found.
The 524-foot long sculptured band is thought to depict the Panathenaic festival , a celebration held every four years in honor of the goddess Athena, -a cavalcade of horseman, water bearers, musicians, and votaries- are shown filing in calm procession toward an assembled group of gods and goddesses the figures move with graceful rhythms, This holiday was believed to be an observance of Athena's birthday and honored the goddess as the city's patron divinity: Athena Polias ('Athena of the city')
The Propylaia were built as a monumental entrance to the Acropolis rock. It is an impressive building that surrounds the natural entrance to the plateau, and one approached it in ancient times through an inclining ramp that led visitors straight through the steps in front of the Propylaia. Later, the Romans built a more dramatic ramp that guided the visitors up towards the entrance of the Acropolis in a zigzag fashion. Mnesikles was the architect of the project, and he began building right after the main construction of the Parthenon was completed in 437 BCE, but construction stopped abruptly five years later when the Peloponnesian war began. The Propylaia was almost complete at this time, with the exception of some finishing work that remained undone, most notable of which are the protrusions of the stones (Bosses) in the NE wall of the building, and some parts of the marble roof on the west end. Some scholars believe that construction of the Propylaia stopped to save resources for the war. This theory might be simplistic however, because twelve years later, when the war was still in full swing Athenians allocated a great amount of funds for the construction of the elaborately ornate Erechtheion. The Propylaia is a building of the Doric order with few Ionic columns supporting the roof of the central wing. It was a complex structure to conceive and assemble, and was clearly designed to make a lasting impression for the approaching visitor. The visitor ascended a wide inclining ramp towards the central part of the Propylaia, and just below the massive doors he was engulfed by the six massive Doric columns that flanked the door, and the six smaller ones to the visitor’s periphery. To continue he had to either scale the four marble steps directly under the columns, or he could continue through the narrowing ramp at the center. Once past the steps, he would be walking inside the central hall that was considerably narrower than the ramp, but was lined on each side by three Ionic columns that supported the massive weigh of the roof. The roof was entirely made of large slabs of marble solely supported by the columns, and to reduce its weight decorative coffers (stepped, concave squares) were cut into it, which were in turn painted vividly and decorated with ornamental floral motifs and star patterns. At last, he would be confronted with a large central gate, which was flanked by two smaller doors on each side. The main hall divided the building into two wings, one to the east and one to the west. The east section of the Propylaia had an inner wing; the one so called Pinakotheke for apparently it housed paintings of mythological content as Pausanias informs us. The west wing, is on a slightly higher level than its east counterpart, and is built adjacent to the small temple of Athena Nike which protrudes diagonally towards the main ascending ramp, while the west wing now contains a massive pedestal (of Agrippas) which was constructed by two patrons from the city of Pergamon, Eumenes and Attalos in the Hellenistic era, and was used by Agrippas to support a complex of bronze statues depicting four horses pulling a chariot. Unlike other Greek sanctuaries of Ancient Greece, the Acropolis was built on a master plan with the buildings related to one another. Nowhere is this more evident than in the relationship between the Propylaia and the Parthenon. Several subtle features associate the two buildings. Both are structures with strong Doric flavor, although both incorporate Ionic columns in their interiors. They are also related in size, (the Propylaia width being equal to the length of the Parthenon), and in proportional ratios (4:9 for the Parthenon and 3:7 for the Propylaia). Both buildings are oriented similarly from North to South, with the Propylaia being a little to the East of the Parthenon Axis. Before the Propylaia was built there is evidence that another building stood in its place, a smaller one oriented on a northeast-southwest axis. Since the Propylaia controlled access to the Acropolis it became the subject of substantial fortifications by later rulers and invaders, and at one point in history it even functioned as the palace of the Franks.
Temple of Athena Nike The southwest of the Acropolis plateau, right next to the Propylaia, has been an important location of a sanctuary dating back to the Mycenaean era. It is a protruding tall mass of rock, strategically located in a way that protects the south flank of the most vulnerable access point and gate to the citadel. Early in its history it was a place of worship for deities associated with wars, perhaps Bronze Age “Nike” gods or goddesses, which with time fused with the cult of Athena Nike of later centuries. Excavations have revealed that on this location an open pit existed that Bronze Age Greeks used to pour libations and to deposit primitive figurines of the deities worshiped. During the Archaic era a small temple stood on the site that faced an altar to its east. This building was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BCE along with the rest of the Acropolis, and was not rebuilt until 435 BCE. The Classical temple that has survived was completed in 420 BCE. From several ancient accounts and by Pausanias we know the statue of Athena Nike in its cella was made of wood and held a pomegrade in the right hand and a helmet in the left. Since it had no wings, as it was customary for Nike statues of the time, the temple acquired the name Apteros Nike (wing-less victory). It is said that the statue was deprived of wings so it could never leave the city of Athens. The Classical temple is considerably smaller than the other temples of the Acropolis. It is the first building that greets the visitors who approach the Propylaia and its elegant Ionic features balance the dominating Doric character of the Propylaia. It faces to the east and its entrance is lined with four monolithic Ionic columns that support a shallow porch. The west end is similarly treated with four Ionic columns and a porch, but they preceded a blind wall. The inclusion of a tetrastyle (four columns) at the back of the temple was necessary for this side faced the entrance to the Acropolis. The temple was designed by Kallikrates and is 11 feet tall from the stylobate to the apex of its pediment. As was customary in Attica (but not in Ionia) the temple was decorated with a continuous frieze . The temple's ratio of the column height to its length is 7:1 instead of the customary 9:1 of other Ionic temples. The parapet of the Temple of Athena Nike surrounded the temple and acted as a guardrail to protect people from falling off the steep bastion. It was elaborately decorated by relief sculptures which were seen best by the visitors ascending the ramp towards the Propylaia. It depicted not a coherent story like the Parthenon frieze, but instead it was decorated with a number of Nike relief sculptures in various states of activity. The parapet was built after the temple was complete, perhaps as late as 410 BCE. Much later in its history in 1687, during Ottoman occupation the temple of Athena Nike was dismantled when the “Venetians” besieged the Turks at the Acropolis. The Turks used the stones from the temple to build a bastion next to the Propylaia. The “Venetians” finally forced the Turks to surrender after eight days of intense bombardment, and the temple stones remained as part of the bastion until the liberation of Greece. In 1834 during systematic excavations and rebuilding of the Acropolis by Ross and Hansen the bastion was dismantled and the temple was reconstructed during the next four years. In the late 1930s under the direction of N. Balanos and Orlandos the entire bastion along with the temple was dismantled in order to address structural problems with the sub-structure and was reconstructed by 1940. In 1998 the temple began a new cycle of reconstruction. The frieze was removed and placed in the Acropolis museum, and the temple dismantled completely once again to replace the corroded concrete floor and the iron beams that were present as the result of previous reconstructions.
While the Parthenon was the most impressive temple on the Acropolis, another building, the Erechtheion was built to accommodate the religious rituals that the old temple housed. Construction of the Erechtheion began in 420 while the Peloponnesian war was interrupted by the Peace of Nikias and continued through some of the most difficult times for the Athenians at war. During this time the Athenians suffered a devastating defeat at Syracuse, saw their empire unravel through consecutive revolts, had their cherished democracy replaced by a brief oligarchy, and endured major defeat. The Erechtheion construction was concluded in 406 BCE, and soon thereafter, in 403 BCE Athens fell to the Spartans. None of the dramatic events that marked the fall of Athens are present in the elegant Ionic lines of the Erechtheion. It seems that the cultural maturity of Athens as expressed through art was reaching a new apogee, just as the forces and institutions that made it possible were unraveling. The Erechtheion is an intricate temple. It sprang from a complex plan that was designed to accommodate the radically uneven ground on the site, and to avoid disturbing sacred shrines like the altars to Poseidon (Erechtheus), and Hephaestus, or the spot where Poseidon hit the Acropolis with his trident. Other shrines that needed to be accommodated included the sacred olive tree, a well containing sea water (the Erechtheian Sea), the tomb of Kekrops, and the Pandrosion sanctuary. The elegance and delicate forms of the Erechtheion contrast sharply with the neighboring Parthenon that counter-balances the architectural complex with its majestic, Doric presence. The temple faces east and its entrance is lined with six long Ionic columns. To the north and west the wall of the temple drops dramatically to almost twice the altitude of the front and south side’s. The temple is unusual in that it incorporates two porches (prostaseis); one at the northwest corner which is supported by tall Ionic columns, and one at the south-west corner which is supported by six massive female statues, the famous Caryatids. The Caryatids have become the temple’s signature feature, as they stand and seem to casually support the weight of the porch’s roof on their heads. Their identification, or the purpose for such elaborate column treatment is lost through the centuries, but it was by no means a new feature in Greek architecture. The Syphian treasury at the sanctuary of Delphi similarly substituted female figures for columns as far back as the sixth century BCE. All the Caryatids on site today are exact replicas, while the originals are protected by the corrosive air of modern Athens in the Acropolis museum. One of the six Caryatids can be seen in the London museum having been appropriated by Lord Elgin along with the Parthenon marbles. The exterior of the temple incorporated a continuous frieze, as did the north prostasis. The theme of the frieze is not known, but its form was unusual in that white marble figures, carved in relief were attached to a flat background of dark gray marble. Traditionally, a frieze would present vividly painted figures on a monochrome painted background. From ancient accounting inscriptions, and testimonies from Plutarch we can safely deduce that the entire building was lavishly decorated with wall frescoes, gilded rosettes, and an array of colored features and low relief sculptures. The Erechtheion was built as a replacement for the “Old Temple” (the foundations of which now lay between it and the Parthenon), and to house all the shrines and rituals that once took place there. The east end of the Erechtheion was dedicated to Athena Polias (protector of the earth and fertility) and housed the ultra-sacred wooden diipetes (fallen from the heavens) xoano (statue) of Athena. The west part of the building was devoted to Poseidon-Erechtheus, and sheltered the marks on the rock where Poseidon struck with his trident during his contest with Athena, the Erechtheian Sea fountain, and several altars to Hephaestus, and a legendary Athenian hero named Boutos. Of the interior plan of the Erechtheion we know very little. Many modern plans depict it as divided into two or more rooms, and one could guess that there were more than one levels in the original plan. The temple however has undergone major rebuilding phases through the centuries making its original interior make up a subject of conjecture. It was damaged first in classical times, perhaps even before it was finished, by a major fire before it was subsequently renovated. Later when it was converted into a Christian Basilica in the seventh century CE the interior walls were removed and new ones were built. During the Ottoman Empire the temple was converted to a harem and the north porch was walled up. During the excavations of 1886 an open pit at the northwest of the Erechtheion produced most of the Kore statues now exhibited at Acropolis museum. The building of the Erechtheion concluded the ambitious building program initiated by Pericles during a time that the Athenian empire enjoyed unprecedented political and cultural influence. Its completion found Athens at the mercy of Sparta, and its treasury depleted. By no means however did the splendor of the Athenian cultural achievements cease to shine as evident in their influence on the art and architecture of the next two and a half millennia.
Shallow relief of charioteer mounting the chariot. Tentatively attributed to the Old Temple frieze (Dontas)
Sculpture from the corner of a large temple (atributed to the Old Temple ). The deamon has three bodies and a twisted snake-like tail. The sculpture was painted in red, green, and blue. They hold from left to right a shape that looks like liqid (water?), corn(?), and a bird. The other side of the pediment depicted Herakles fighting a sea monster . Limestone, c. 550-540 BCE (Acropolis Museum)
The left side of the large temple pediment . The sculpture depicts Herakles wrestling with a sea deamon. The monster shows vividly painted scales in green, blue and red. Limestone, c. 550-540 BCE (Acropolis Museum)
Pediment sculpture from an unknown temple. A lion and a lioness killing a bull. according to an Immo Beyer reconstruction (Broadman), this was the center theme of the pediment which contained the three-bodied deamon sculpture to the right, and Hercules wrestling with a sea deamon on its left. Limestone, c. 550-540 BCE (Acropolis Museum)
Part of the Gigantomachy Pediment from the Old Temple (Dontas). Athena on the left, and fallen Giant on the right. Marble, c. 525-520 BCE
The oracle was very wealthy and very powerful, and, some would argue, very corrupt. First, the oracle gave answers to questions concerning military escapades in riddles. For example, the Lydian King, Croesus, might not have been so satisfied with the news that "a great empire would fall" after his battle with the Persians had he known that great empire would be his own. Secondly, how hard is it to forecast military defeat or victory if you are the confidant of all interested parties - all of whom have divulged their military secrets to you? Central among the number of imposing ruins that are interspersed on the Southern slopes of Parnassos mountain is the temple of Apollo. It is an imposing temple of the Doric order whose existence was woven through the turbulent history of the site, and endured numerous incarnations before it settled to the ruinous state we find it today, and which dates back to the 4th c. B.C. The temple of Apollo was first built around the 7th c. B.C. by the two legendary architects Trophonios and Agamedes. It was rebuilt after a fire in the 6th c. B.C.. and was named the "Temple of Alcmeonidae" in tribute to the noble Athenian family that oversaw its construction with funds form all over Greece and foreign emperors. This temple was also of the Doric order and had 6 columns at the front, and 15 columns at the flanks. This temple was destroyed in 373 B.C. by an earthquake and was rebuilt for the third time in 330 B.C. Spintharos, Xenodoros, and Agathon, architects from Corinth. The sculptures that adorned its pediment were the creation of Athenian sculptors Praxias and Androsthenes. It was built to similar proportions and size as the Alcmeonidae version of the temple, with a peristasis of 6 and 15 columns along the short and long edges respectively. The temple's foundations survive today along with several Doric columns made of porous stone and limestone which is fairly soft material, and have allowed for the temple's advanced decaying. Very little is known about the temple's interior arrangement.
at the center of the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia. The sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, and the Tholos. The tholos is a circular building which was created between 380 and 360 BC at the center of the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia. It is constructed with 20 Doric columns on its exterior diameter which measures 14.76m. The building stands 13.5 meters tal lat the center of the Athena Pronaia sanctuary, and its interior columns were of the Corinthian order.
Over 100 scholars lived at the Museum full time to perform research, write, lecture or translate and copy documents.
Here is a drawing of what we think it would have looked like. The statue sat in the naos of the temple of zeus at Olympia for approximately 800 years. The exact manner of its destruction is the source of debate: some scholars argue that it perished with the temple in the 5th century AD, others argue that it was carried off to Constantinople, where it was destroyed by fire in 475 AD
The great statue of Zeus at Olympia was sculpted by the Athenian artist, Pheidias. After completing his work on the Acropolis in 438 BC, Pheidias was commissioned by the Olympian priesthood to design and produce a chryselephantine statue of the god (P. Valavanis). The statue took Pheidias over 12 years to complete, and the result was so astounding that those who saw the statue marveled and placed it among the seven wonders of the world (J. Swaddling). Pheidias is said to have used verses from Homer’s Iliad as inspiration for his masterpiece (H. Schobel). The following lines served as a basis for his interpretation: The son of Cronos spoke, and bowed his dark brow in assent, and the ambrosial locks waved from the king's immortal head; and he made great Olympus quake. - Iliad, Book 1 - The statue itself was destroyed around the 5th century AD; therefore any knowledge of the statue comes to us through second hand descriptions and representations. Luckily, Pausanias described the statue in great detail. The following description of the statue is based on his observations. The statue sat on a throne in the middle of the temple of Zeus. At over 12 meters high, the statue nearly touched the ceiling. On his head, Zeus wore a crown of olive branches. In his right hand he held the goddess of victory, and in his left an eagle topped scepter. The god was clothed in a great mantle decorated with inlaid animals and lily-flowers. The crown, mantle and sandals were all made of gold. The throne on which the god sat was decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony and ivory. Figures of Victory adorned with legs of the throne, Sphinxes comprised the arms, and on the back of the throne were depictions of the Graces and the Hours: three on either side of Zeus’ head. In front of the statue, Pheidias placed a pool of oil to prevent the statue from being eroded in Olympia’s humid climate (Pausanias).
The drama of the structure itself, which more resembles a stage than a temple, is made emphatic in the frieze, were colossal high-relief figures writhe in rhythmic patterns, engaging each other in fierce combat. In the altar of zeus- Classical restraint has given way to violent passion.
The goddes athena, some 7 feet tall, grasps by the hair a serpent-tailed male, the son of the earth mother who rises from the ground on the lower right.
At daughter’s wedding celebration by one of his 7 body guards Assassin tripped over vine and was killed. League of Corinth
10 years old: Legend of Bucephalus, Fell in love with Greek culture Even though he was young, Alexander was destined to be an incredible leader. Tamed untameable horse Wanted to be like Achilles his hero Philip agreed to rebuild Aristotle's hometown, which he had razed, and to repopulate it by buying and freeing the ex-citizens who were slaves, or pardoning those who were in exile 4 th cen. B.C.E. was a turbulent era marked by rivalry and warfare among the Greek city-states. The failure of the Greek city-states to live in peace would lead of the spread of Hellenic culture. The word Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th Century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic Period did not exist in Ancient Greece. In the mid-19th Century, J. G. Droysen coined the term Hellenistic to be defined as the period when Greek culture spread in the non-Greek world after Alexander’s conquest. The major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the conquered world were more affected by the Greek and especially Macedonian influences than others. The term Hellenistic also implies that the Greek populations were of majority in the areas in which they settled, while in many cases, the Greek settlers were actually the minority amongst the native populations. The Greek population and the native population did not mix; the Greeks moved and brought their own culture, but interaction did not always occur.
4 th cen. B.C.E. was a turbulent era marked by rivalry and warfare among the Greek city-states. The failure of the Greek city-states to live in peace would lead of the spread of Hellenic culture. The word Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th Century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic Period did not exist in Ancient Greece. In the mid-19th Century, J. G. Droysen coined the term Hellenistic to be defined as the period when Greek culture spread in the non-Greek world after Alexander’s conquest. The major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the conquered world were more affected by the Greek and especially Macedonian influences than others. The term Hellenistic also implies that the Greek populations were of majority in the areas in which they settled, while in many cases, the Greek settlers were actually the minority amongst the native populations. The Greek population and the native population did not mix; the Greeks moved and brought their own culture, but interaction did not always occur.
Probably not an attempt to conquer the whole Empire
Phalanx was 16 men deep, 13 ft. used 4-meter-long spears
Granicus (334 BC) Army of 35 000 invades Asia minor at River Granicus Persians make their first stand Demolished by cavalry Near-death experience for Alexander 2. Issus (333 BC) Massive battle – Alexander faces King Darius for 1 st time, Equal forces but cavalry defeats Persians again, Darius flees – Alexander realizes he can conquer whole empire 3. Gaugamela (331 BC) Instead of chasing Darius, Alexander crushes Persian fleet Conquers: Phoenicia ,Damascus and Egypt Darius tries to bribe Alexander to stop, no deal Final showdown at Gaugamela: Alexander commands 45 000 against larger Persian army Cavalry wins again, Darius flees, is murdered 4. Hydspes (327BC) Wanted to conquer India! Greek army travels across Asia and fights King Porus at Hydspes Alexander’s superior strategy still Victorious Wants to continue East, but men refuse – have already travelled over 17 000 km!
Died in bablyon in king Nebuchadnezzar’s palace Never made it back to Greece Theories on death -alcohol poisoning -poisoned One story says he lay in bed unable to talk will soldiers filed past
Alexander didn’t leave an heir to succeed him
Windlass-A type of winch used esp. on ships to hoist anchors and haul on mooring lines and, esp. formerly, to lower buckets into and hoist them... A typical absent-minded scientist, who often forgot to eat; upon realizing that the water he displace in the bathtub explained the law of specific gravity, he is said to have jumped out of the bathtub and ran naked through the streets shouting “Eureka” (“I have found it!”)
Make the claim that prowess, not chance, leads to victory, which in turn renders the victor immortal. Most of his life was spent writing victory odes in honor of winners at various games for a fee, pæans and other hymns for religious festivals. Of his works, 45 victory Odes are still extant in full, grouped in four books based on the games in which the celebrated winner had competed. Learn what you are and be such. Not every truth is the better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed. The test of any man lies in action.
The ancient Greeks loved to compile lists of the marvelous structures in their world. Though we think of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as a single list today, there were actually a number of lists compiled by different Greek writers. Antipater of Sidon, and Philon of Byzantium, drew up two of the most well-known lists. It's 756 feet long on each side, 450 feet high and is composed of 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each averaging 2 1/2 tons in weight. Despite the makers' limited surveying tools, no side is more than 8 inches different in length than another, and the whole structure is perfectly oriented to the points of the compass. Even in the 19th century, it was the tallest building in the world and, at the age of 4,500 years, it is the only one of the famous " Seven Wonders of the Ancient World " that still stands. Even today it remains the most massive building on Earth. It is the Great Pyramid of Khufu, at Giza, Egypt.
Royal Gardens, Earthquake, 2nd Century B.C.E. The city of Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to the ancient traveler's eyes. "In addition to its size," wrote Herodotus, a Greek historian in 450 BC, "Babylon surpasses in splendor any city in the known world." Accounts indicate that the garden was built by King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the city for 43 years starting in 605 BC (There is an alternative story that the gardens were built by the Assyrian Queen Semiramis during her five year reign starting in 810 BC). This was the height of the city's power and influence and King Nebuchadnezzar is known to have constructed an astonishing array of temples, streets, palaces and walls. According to accounts, the gardens were built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar's homesick wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between the two nations. The land she came from, though, was green, rugged and mountainous, and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of Mesopotamia depressing. The king decided to relieve her depression by recreating her homeland through the building of an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens.
Shrine to Greek God Zeus, Fire 5th Century C.E. In ancient times one of the Greeks most mportant festivals, the Olympic Games, was held every four years in honor of the King of their gods, Zeus. Like our modern Olympics, athletes traveled from distant lands, including Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and Sicily, to compete. The Olympics were first started in 776 B.C. and held at a shrine to Zeus located on the western coast of Greece in a region called Peloponnesus. The games helped to unify the Greek city-states and a sacred truce was declared. Safe passage was given to all traveling to the site, called Olympia, for the season of the games.
Temple to Goddess Artemis , Largest in a series of temples to Artemis on this site. "I have seen the walls and Hanging Gardens of ancient Babylon, the statue of Olympian Zeus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the mighty work of the high Pyramids and the tomb of Mausolus. But when I saw the temple at Ephesus rising to the clouds, all these other wonders were put in the shade" - Philon of Byzantium The first shrine to the Goddess Artemis was probably built around 800 B.C. on a marshy strip near the river at Ephesus. The Ephesus goddess Artemis, sometimes called Diana, is not quite the same figure as was worshiped in Greece. The Greek Artemis was the goddess of the hunt. The Ephesus Artemis was a goddess of fertility and was often pictured as draped with eggs or multiple breasts, symbols of fertility, from her waist to her shoulders
the city of Halicarnassus was the capitol of a small kingdom along the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor. 353 B.C. Mausolus died, leaving his queen Artemisia, broken-hearted. As a tribute to him, she decided to build him the most splendid tomb in the known world. Artemisia decided that no expense was to be spared in the building of the tomb. She sent messengers to Greece to find the most talented artists of the time. In 377 B.C., the city of Halicarnassus was the capitol of a small kingdom along the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor. It was in that year the ruler of this land, Hecatomnus of Mylasa, died and left control of the kingdom to his son, Mausolus. Hecatomnus, a local satrap to the Persians, had been ambitious and had taken control of several of the neighboring cities and districts. Mausolus in his time, extended the territory even further so that it finally included most of southwestern Asia Minor. . It became a structure so famous that Mausolus's name is now associated with all stately tombs through our modern word mausoleum.
226 B.C.E. by an earthquake, Made in the shape of the island's patron god Helios . was the personification of the Sun in greek mythology. Homer often calls him simply Titan. The island of Rhodes was an important economic center in the ancient world. It is located off the southwestern tip of Asia Minor where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean. The capitol city, also named Rhodes, was built in 408 B.C. and was designed to take advantage of the island's best natural harbor on the northern coast. In 357 B.C. the island was conquered by Mausolus of Halicarnassus (whose tomb is one of the other Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) but fell into Persian hands in 340 BC and was finally captured by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. When Alexander died of a fever at an early age, his generals fought bitterly among themselves for control of Alexander's vast kingdom. Three of them, Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigous, succeeded in dividing the kingdom among themselves. The Rhodians supported Ptolemy (who wound up ruling Egypt) in this struggle. This angered Antigous who in 305 BC sent his son Demetrius to capture and punish the city of Rhodes.
Guide Ships to Alexandria's Harbor. 1303 C.E. by earthquake. Said to be the only ancient wonder with a practical application. In the fall of 1994 a team of archaeological divers donned scuba equipment and entered the waters off of Alexandria, Egypt. Working beneath the surface, they searched the bottom of the sea for artifacts. Large underwater blocks of stone and remnants of sculpture were marked with floating masts so that an electronic distance measurement station on shore could obtain their exact positions. Global positioning satellites were then used to further fix the locations. The information was then fed into computers to create a detailed database of the sea floor. Ironically, these scientists were using some of the most high-tech devices available at the end of the 20th century to try and sort out the ruins of one of the most advanced technological achievements of the 3rd century, B.C.
Many people have tried to argue that Oedipus brings about his catastrophe because of a “tragic flaw,” but nobody has managed to create a consensus about what Oedipus’s flaw actually is. Perhaps his story is meant to show that error and disaster can happen to anyone, that human beings are relatively powerless before fate or the gods, and that a cautious humility is the best attitude toward life.
The audience, familiar with the Oedipus story, almost does not want to listen to these self-assured lines, spoken by Jocasta, wherein she treats incest with a startling lightness that will come back to haunt her. What makes these lines tragic is that Jocasta has no reason to know that what she says is foolish, ironic, or, simply, wrong. The audience’s sense of the work of “fate” in this play has almost entirely to do with the fact that the Oedipus story was an ancient myth even in fifth-century b.c. Athens. The audience’s position is thus most like that of Tiresias—full of the knowledge that continues to bring it, and others, pain. At the same time, it is important to note that at least part of the irony of the passage does depend on the play, and the audience, faulting Jocasta for her blindness. Her claim that “chance rules our lives” and that Oedipus should live “as if there’s no tomorrow” seems to fly in the face of the beliefs of more or less everyone in the play, including Jocasta herself. Oedipus would not have sent Creon to the oracle if he believed events were determined randomly. Nor would he have fled Corinth after hearing the prophecy of the oracle that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother; nor would Jocasta have bound her baby’s ankles and abandoned him in the mountains. Again and again this play, and the other Theban plays, returns to the fact that prophecies do come true and that the words of the gods must be obeyed. What we see in Jocasta is a willingness to believe oracles only as it suits her: the oracle prophesied that her son would kill Laius and so she abandoned her son in the mountains; when Laius was not, as she thinks, killed by his son, she claims to find the words of the oracle worthless. Now she sees Oedipus heading for some potentially horrible revelation and seeks to curb his fear by claiming that everything a person does is random
Delphi: Site of the Oracle for the prophesy
Do not take Alexander seriously Persians had greater numbers
both have 30 000 Famous mosaic found in italy Never grew facial hair so it would not be pulled in battle
Enormous army, plus 200 elephants
Phoenicia (source of ships and sailors) Damascus (takes Persian war treasury) Egypt (crowned Pharoah) In egypt, egyptians see him as liberator, welcome him and crown him pharoah Travels to the desert to see oracle – tells him he is a god, the son of ra Starts thinking he is invincible, develops a god complex
Greeks (ca. 3000–332 B.C.E.) E truscan art (950 and 300 B.C.E.) Glory of Rome (ca.500 B.C.E.-500 C.E.) Before the days of ancient Rome’s greatness, Italy was the home of a nation called Etruria, whose people we call the Etruscans. Its civilization prospered between 950 and 300 BCE. in northwestern Italy — in a region between the Arno River (which runs through Pisa and Florence) and the Tiber (which runs through Rome). These people rose to prosperity and power, then disappeared, leaving behind many unanswered questions concerning their origin and their culture. Because little Etruscan literature remains and the language of inscriptions on their monuments has been only partially deciphered, scholars have gained most of their knowledge of the Etruscans from studying the remains of their buildings, monuments, vast tombs, and the objects they left behind, notably bronze and terra cotta sculptures and polychrome ceramics.
The Etruscan aristocracy held the keys to power in the Etruscan cities, and was largely made up of rich families of noble descent together with rich merchants and land owners with aspirations to enter the elite social order. Each of the cities in the Etruscan league of twelve, together with the Po Valley cities to the North of Italy were independent states. It may have been the fact that the ruling classes in each city were unwilling to join forces with other city states, that ultimately left the Etruscans vulnerable to attack from the Celts, and later the Romans, leading to the downfall of the civilisation.
The internal walls of Etruscan tombs such as those at Cerveteri and Tarquinii still contain the remains of magnificent murals which give us a considerable insight into the Etruscan way of life. A commonly recurring theme is the banquet, which in the case of the Necropolis paintings, carried a double meaning. For the banquet was also an intrinsic part of the religious ceremony at funerals. After all the formal funeral ceremonies were complete, the relatives of the deceased were treated to a sumptuous banquet, at which the spirit of the departed was believed to attend. In Etruscan daily life, the banquet was very much a status symbol, indicating to all and sundry that the hosts had "arrived" in the estimation of the Etruscan social elite. Certainly in the heyday of the Etruscan league, around the seventh century BCE a wide reaching trading network (the first EEC) had been well established with far flung parts of Europe. Etruscan bronzes have been found as far afield as Hassle in Sweden. Ships loaded with amphorae and the bounties of Etruscan mining and agriculture were traded throughout the Mediterranean and possibly into the Atlantic Ocean as far as Madeira. As a result of all this, life for the rich Etruscans was extremely pleasant. Lavish receptions were laid on, in which the guests; men and women of high social standing, reclined on couches waited on by numerous servants, and were entertained by musicians and dancers swaying to the hypnotic but strident rhythms of music played by Etruscan virtuosos. The tables were covered with elaborately embroidered table cloths, on to which the various dinner courses were arranged. The dishes included generous selections of fish such as Tuna, and meats such as hare, deer and birds (Wild boar was a particular favourite). Grapes were originally native to the Arabian peninsula, but widely grown by the beginning of the first millennium BCE. The Etruscans probably introduced grapes and wine to Italy around the 9th Century BCE.
The basis of Etruscan religion was the fundamental idea that the destiny of man was completely determined by the vagaries of the many deities worshipped by the Etruscans. Every natural phenomenon, such as lightning, the structure of the internal organs of sacrificial animals, or the flight patterns of birds, was therefore an expression of the divine will, and contained a message which could be interpreted by trained priests such as Augurs. Emerging from this basic concept the Rasenna scrupulously followed a complex code of rituals known by the Romans as the "disciplina etrusca". Even up to the fall of the Roman Empire, the Etruscans were regarded by their contemporaries with great respect for their religion and superstitions. It may have been the fact that Etruscan religious beliefs and practices were so deep-rooted among the Romans that led to the complete destruction of all Etruscan literature as a result of the advent of Christianity. Arnobius, one of the first Christian apologists, living around 300CE, wrote ,"Etruria is the originator and mother of all superstition" .When the Gothic army under Alaric was approaching Rome, the offer made to Pope Innocent I by Etruscan Haruspices was seriously considered by the senate, but finally rejected. The obvious Eastern Greek influence in Etruscan religion and art from the emergence of the civilisation in the 8th Century BCE, can be interpreted either as evidence of the Etruscan origins in Lydia, or as the influence of subsequent Greek settlement in the prosperous region of Etruria. However it is interpreted, the Etruscan religion was fundamentally unique to the region. The Etruscan Religion was, like Christianity and Judaism, a revealed religion. An account of the revelation is given by Cicero(On Divination 2.50) . One day, says the legend, in a field near the river Marta in Etruria, a strange event occurred. A divine being rose up from the newly ploughed furrow, a being with the appearance of a child, but with the wisdom of an old man. The startled cry of the ploughman brought lucomones, the priest kings of Etruria hurrying up to the spot. To them, the wise child chanted the sacred doctrine, which they reverently listened to and wrote down, so that this most precious possession could be passed on to their successors. Immediately after the revelation, the miraculous being fell dead and disappeared into the ploughed field. His name was Tages, and he was believed to be the son of Genius and grandson of the highest God, Tinia (or Jupiter as he became known to the Romans). This doctrine was known to the Romans as the disciplina etrusca, From the writings of the Etruscan haruspex Tarquitius around 90 BCE, we also get a glimpse of the prophesy of the nymph Vegoia (Latinised form of the name). This is bound up in the Gramatici veteres, in a corpus of Roman land surveys, We have a passage in which a divinity, the nymph Vergoia, speaks to Arruns Velturnnus: "You should know that the sea is separated from the earth. When Jupiter claimed the land of Etruria for himself, he decided and commanded the fields to be surveyed and the lands marked out. Knowing the covetousness of man and his worldly greed, he wanted the boundaries of everything to be marked by boundary stones. Those which at any time anyone has placed because of the greed of this eighth - almost the latest - saeculum, arrogating to themselves licence, men with wrongful deceit will violate, touch and move. But if anyone touches or moves a boundary stone, extending his own possessions or diminishing those of someone else, for this crime he will be condemned by the gods. If slaves shall do this, they shall be moved to a lower status by their owner. But if this is done with the knowledge of the master, the household will be immediately uprooted, and the whole of his family will perish. The people responsible will be afflicted by the worst diseases and wounds and their limbs will be weakened. Then even the land will be shaken by storms or whirlwinds and many landslips. The crops will be frequently laid low and cut down by rain and hail, they will perish in the heat of the summer, they will be killed off by blight. There will be civil strife amongst the people. Know that these things happen, when such crimes are committed. Therefore do not be either a deceitful or treacherous. Place restraint in your heart. ..." .
The Etruscans believed in predestination. Although a postponement is sometimes possible by means of prayer and sacrifice, the end is certain. According to the libri fatales as described by Censorinus , Man had allocated to him a cycle of seven times twelve years. Anyone who lived beyond these years, lost the ability to understand the signs of the Gods. The Etruscans also believed the existence of their people was also limited by a timescale fixed by the gods. According to the doctrine, ten saecula were allotted to the Etruscan name. This proved very accurate, and it is often said that the Etruscan people predicted their own downfall.
Among theories about the Etruscans' origins are the possibilities that they migrated from Greece , or from somewhere beyond Greece. Perhaps they traveled down from the Alps. Or, as their pre-Indo-European language might suggest, they may have been a people indiginous to today's Tuscany who suddenly acquired the tools for rapid development. The uncertainty is held unresolved. Theirs was an area of good farmland, forests and mineral resources, all of which the Etruscans exploited skillfully. In time, they became traders, their mariners often doubling up as pirates. And as wealth grew, a social pecking order followed, with a powerful aristocracy living in stone palaces and their serfs occupying wooden huts. Theirs was not, however, a centralized society dominated by a single leader or a single imperial city. Rather, towns and hill-top villages (many of which survive to this day, albeit with few traces of their Etruscan origins) appear to have enjoyed considerable autonomy. But they spoke the same language, which also existed in a written form. Further, their religious rituals, military practices and social customs were largely similar. For their Greek contemporaries and Roman successors, the Etruscans were clearly a different ethnic group. Cremation and the burial of ashes in clay urns was a common practice in this area before the advent of the Etruscan era. Among the objects we have that tell us much about the Etruscans are their cinerary urns.
The Etruscans went on to lay the foundation of the city of Rome, to clear the shepherds huts which once littered the Palatine Hill, to drain the swamps and transform what had been a collection of tribal sheep herders into a true city which would eventually dominate large tracts of Europe, Asia and North Africa alike. From the Etruscans came writing, and Roman history was born in the true sense.
Alexander the Great Alexander the Great became King of Macedonia when his father was assassinated in 336BC. King Philip had conquered most of the Greek peninsula. The Greeks believed they could free themselves of Macedonia rule, since the new king was a “mere boy.” Alexander proved them wrong by capturing the city of Thebes. He destroyed the entire city as a warning to the others. Alexander then conquered Persia, the longtime enemy of Greece, and the mightiest empire in the world. Alexander was a military genius, possibly the greatest warrior of all time. His troops were better trained and organized than the Persian army. His soldiers also admired Alexander because of his personal courage. Alexander led his soldiers in battle instead of remaining behind the lines. The troops saw that Alexander was sharing their danger, and was not asking them to take any risks he would not take himself. Once he conquered the Persians, Alexander quickly assembled a huge empire. In 332BC, he moved south to Egypt, where he rested his troops. The Egyptians welcomed Alexander as a hero because he freed them from harsh Persian rule. They crowned him Pharaoh and declared him a god. Alexander eventually created an empire that reached India. Aristotle taught him that the Greeks were the most advanced people in the world, and that all other cultures were barbarians. Once he defeated the Persians, he came to see them very differently. He saw that many Persians were intelligent people and were worthy of his respect. Alexander accepted many Persians into his army and married the daughter of a Persian king. In 323BC, when Alexander was only thirty-three years old, he fell ill from a fever and died a week later. Alexander had created a huge empire in less than thirteen years, but it quickly crumbled. Alexander’s mother, wives, and children were all killed in the struggle for power that followed his death. In the end, his empire was divided among his generals in three parts. Alexander changed the world, but not through his accomplishments on the battlefield. Alexander carried the ideas of the Greeks and their love of learning throughout his empire. He founded the great city of Alexandria, which became a center of learning and culture in Egypt. A library in Alexandria housed the accumulated knowledge of the Greeks. This would become very important in the centuries that followed because Greece and Rome would fall to barbarian tribes who could not read.
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