Download Objectives

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Why did the Persians attack Greece?
What famous battle started the Persian
wars?
Who were the father and son that led Persia
during the Persian wars?
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Identify Pericles's three goals for Athens
Describe Greek styles in Art
Explain the major conflicts in the Peloponnesian war
Identify the contributions of Socrates, Plato, and
Aristotle
SOL 5d. Evaluate significance of Persian and
Peloponnesian wars
SOL 5e. Characterize life in Athens during the Golden
Age of Pericles
SOL 5f. Cite contributions in drama, poetry, history,
sculpture, architecture, science, mathematics, and
philosophy
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Athens just out of Persian wars
Leading member of Delian league
Led to Golden Age
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Drama
Sculpture
Poetry
Philosophy
Architecture
science
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Led Athens through Golden Age
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461- 429 B.C.E.
Skillful politician, inspiring
speaker, respected general
 Three goals
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Strengthen Athenian democracy
Hold and strengthen the empire
Glorify Athens
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Increased # of public officials
Only wealthy could hold office before b/c
positions were unpaid
 Increased paid salaries
 Made Athens one of the most
democratic governments in history
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Introduction of direct democracy
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Citizens rule directly and not through
representatives
Males who served in the assembly
established all important policies
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Direct democracy
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Large number of citizens involved with
government (mass meetings)
Assembly was strong, 43,000 members
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Meetings every 10 days on a hillside
Only 6,000 present
Paid a stipend to men who held public officemeant even poor could take part
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Created Juries
10 generals ran day to day affairs
Practiced Ostracism
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Protected Athens from over-ambitious
politicians
Could banish them from Athens
Bannished for 10 years
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Pericles wanted to enlarge
wealth and power of
Athens
Used money from Delian
league to build Navy
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Strengthened safety of
empire
Prosperity depended on
waterways
Needed overseas trade to
obtain grain and other raw
materials
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Used money to beautify Athens
Buy gold, ivory, and marble
 Used to build
Parthenon
 Pay artisans
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Traditional style
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Parthenon
Used for 200 years
Set standards for future artists
Sculpture
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Phidias
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Sculpture of Athena
Figures that were graceful, strong, and perfectly formed
Faces only showed serenity
Classical Art
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Valued order, balance, and proportion
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Balance, Harmony
Parthenon: simple rectangle, tall columns,
gently sloping roof
Columns: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian
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By 450 B.C. Greek Sculptors feature natural
poses
Carved gods, goddesses, men, women to
most perfect and graceful form.
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Developed own style “classical”
Epics
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Greeks invented it
Productions in Athens were both an
expression of civic pride and tribute to the
gods
Actors used colorful costumes, masks, and
sets to dramatize stories about leadership,
justice, and the duties owed to the gods.
Two kinds of plays:
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Tragedy
Comedy
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1st plays out of religious festivals
Performed in large outdoor theaters
Chorus sang or chanted comments on the
action
Explored the relationships between people
and the gods
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Tragedies: told stories of human suffering
that usually ended in disaster
Purpose to stir emotions of pity and fear
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Serious drama about
common themes such
as love, hate, war, or
betrayal
Featured:
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Main character, or
tragic hero
Often had
extraordinary talents
and a tragic flaw
Flaw led to hero’s
downfall
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Three famous
dramatists:
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Aeschylus
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Sophocles
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The Oresteia
Wrote more than 80
plays
Oedipus, Antigone
Wrote more than 100
plays
Euripides
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Medea
Sympathetic to women
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Powerful family torn apart by betrayal,
murder, and revenge
Saw how pride could cause horrifying
misfortune and how gods could bring down
even the greatest heroes
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Explored what happens when an individuals’
moral duty conflicts with the laws of the
state
Young women whose
brother killed in rebellion
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King forbids her to bury
him, she does anyways
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She is sentenced to death
Duty to gods is greater than
human law
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Contained scenes filled
with slap-stick and
crude humor
Often satires
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Works that poked fun
at the subject
Customs, politics,
respected people
Aristophanes
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The Birds
Lysistrata
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Allowed for free
discussion and
criticism
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Herodotus “father of history”
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Thucydides wrote about Peloponnesian war
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Visited lands, chronicled information
Lived through the war
Vividly described savagery
Set standards for future historians
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“I shall go forward with my history,
describing equally the greater and the lesser
cities. For the cities which were formerly
great have most of them become
insignificant; and such as are at present
powerful, were weak…. I shall therefore
discourse equally on both, convinced that
human happiness never continues long in
one stay.”
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Herodotus
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Sparta declared war on
Athens 431 B.C.E.
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Sparta attacks:
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Called Peloponnesian
War
Advantages:
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Athens: Navy
Sparta: Infantry
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Sparta invades Athens
Burned countryside and
food supply
Pericles had everyone
come into city behind
walls
Problems for Athens:
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Plague in 432 B.C.E.
Navy defeated when they
attacked Spartan ally
Syracuse in 413 B.C.E.
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War continued for 9 years until Athens
surrendered
27 years of war
Athens loses empire
Confidence in democratic government wanes
Greece weakening, while Macedonia is rising to
power
History: Thucydides account of the war
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Set example for historians
Condemned atrocities
Objective approach
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Philosophers
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Based on two assumptions
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Lovers of wisdom
Determined to seek truth
Universe was put together in orderly way and subject to
unchanging laws
People can understand through logic and reason
Sophists
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Questioned unexamined beliefs
Protagoras- questioned existence of Greek Gods
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Said no universal truth
Three famous philosophers
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Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
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Beliefs:
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Quote:
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Absolute standards for truth
and justice
Question yourself and moral
character
Socratic method
“the unexamined life is not
worth living”
Trial:
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At age 70 brought to trial for
“corrupting the youths of
Athens”
Argued his defense
Was condemned to death
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Student of Socrates
Wrote The Republic
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His vision of a perfect
society
Not a democracy
Three groups:
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Artisans, warriors, ruling
class
Ruled by philosopherking
Lasting Importance
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Dominated European
philosophical thought for
1,500 years
Inspired by Socrates death
 Set up a school called
“the Academy”
 Emphasized reason
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What is reality?
What is good?
Men smarter than women
 Women should be
educated to serve state
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Beliefs:
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Questioned nature of the
world and human belief,
thought, and knowledge
Invented method of
arguing
Applied method to
psychology, physics, and
biology
Basis of scientific method
Famous student:
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Alexander the Great
Plato’s most famous student
 Good and bad examples of all
governments
 Suspicious of democracy
 Favored strong single ruler
 Should pursue the “golden mean”
 Introduced the thought processes of natural
science and the observation of nature into the
history of ideas
 Set up a school, the Lyceum, studied all branches
of knowledge
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Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal
injection?
Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
If the universe is everything and scientists say it is
expanding, what is it expanding into?
When you choke a smurf, what color does it turn?
Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?
Define success
The world would be a better place without what?
Can you prove to me that you exist?
Is money the root of all evil?
Would you kill one person to save a thousand?