ArHi 201 Greek Classical Age

Battle of Marathon

490 BCE Athenians rout the troops of Darius I

Xerxes’ Return

480 BCE Xerxes comes with 90’000 troops, defeats Spartan army at Thermopylae, and takes and sacks Athens

Greeks defeat the Persians

480-479 at Salamis and Platea

Classical Greek Sculpture

characterized by realism, motion, and “doughy” or fleshy faces, solemn expression, and solemn drapery

Kritios Boy. 480. One of the marks of the change to the Classical from the Archaic Period

Contrapposto

Italian word for “set against.” A composition developed by the Greeks to represent movement in a figure. The parts of the body are placed asymmetrically in opposition to each other around a central axis, and careful attention is paid to the distribution of weight.

Doryphoros

Ideals of proportion and harmony

Arete

Excellence and Virtue

Temple of Zeus at Olympia West Pediment. Shows the story of the Lapiths, a Tribe from Thessaly. Represents a battle between human and beast, civilized and uncivilized. Apollo is in the center

The Parthenon. Dominant temple on Akropolis. Dedicated to Athena. May not have been used directly for cult practices. Doric style with hints of ionic. Architects: Iktinos and Kallikrates.

Perikles

A political leader of Athens who made the beauty of the city a priority. The Parthenon, the Erechtheion were two projects he commissioned. 

West Pediment of the Parthenon. Portrayed the struggle between Athena and Poseidon to be Athen’s patron deity. 

Temple to Athena with Nike in the pediment. Ionic style. Likely from the same architects as the parthenon. First structure to greet a visitor of Akropolis. 

Erechtheion. A larger temple next to the Parthenon. Likely built by Mnesikles, who built the Parthenon. Held up by caryatids

Chryselephanitine

Usually referring to a sculpture in Classical Greece, signifying that it is made of gold and ivory. Pheidias’ cult statues of Athena in the Parthenon, and Zeus at Olympia, were chryselephantine.

Dellian league found(defensive alliance against the Persians)

478 BCE

Aeschylus writes Oresteia trilogy

458 BCE

Perikles orders the construction of the Parthenon

447 BCE

Polyponnesian war

431-404 BCE