Greco Roman Crap Midterm

"the past is a huge stream of crap that happened" -Weaire

Dates of Mycenaean period:

c. 1600 – 1100 BC

Dates of Dark Age Greece:

c. 1100 – 750 BC

Protogeometric period:

c. 1050 – 900 BC

Dates of Archaic period:

c. 750 – 480 BC

Dates of Geometric period:

c. 900 – 700 BC

Dates of Orientalizing period:

 c. 730 - 580

Dates of Classical:

480 – 323 BC

Xerxes’ invasion of Greece:

480 – 479 BC

Xerxes’ invasion of Greece:

480 – 479 BC

Death of Alexander the Great:

323 BC

Dates of Hellenistic period:

323-31 BC

Archaic Period c. 750 – 480:

• A time of political ferment (indicated by lyric poetry) 

• First written Greek laws 

• Radical political development 

• Beginnings of philosophy and historiography 

• Two reactions to myth: allegory and rationalization 

• Sculpture begins to move towards naturalism 

• Attic vase painting 

• Archaic smile sculpture 

Classical Period: 480 – 323 BC

• Euripides and Sophocles as active writers of tragedy

• Much more naturalistic sculpture (frozen moment in time)

• Idealized calm expression sculpture 

• Attic red-figure widespread 

• White-ground vase painting

• Increased literacy (orality still very important)

• Democracy/literacy as mutually reinforcing phenomena

• Parthenon built

Philosophy (presocratic): 

• Presocratic 

• Inquiry into the beginning of all things with one form of matter 

• Thales 

• Anaximander 

• Anaximenes

Historiography: 

• Begins with Hecataeus 

• Beginning of significant prose literature

• Coming out of orientalizing, extends into classical period

Sweeping generalization:

Italy was multilingual and polyethnic in a way that Greece was not 

Literacy in Italy:

no written Etruscan or Latin until after c. 700 BC

Literacy in Greece:

• The earliest writing in Greece is Minoan (Linear A) on Crete (not Greek)

• Earliest written Greek in mainland Greece is Mycenaean Greek (Linear B)

• Greek alphabet adapted from Phoenician alphabet; earliest evidence from Italy 

• Greek alphabet adapted for Etruscan by c. 675 BC

• Greek alphabet adapted for Latin by c. 630 BC

Literacy in Classical Athens (Socrates) 

• Sophists appear (speak but also write) 

• Herodotus’ massive prose history appears 

• First appearance of people who make a living writing speeches for others 

• First known person writing a speech before delivering it 

• Increase in Athenian inscriptions 

• Commercial market in books

• Democracy/literacy as mutually reinforcing phenomena  

• Partial transformation from a "public of hearers” to a “public of readers”

Mycenaean Civilization: 

• c. 1600 – c. 1100 BC

• Linear B was used only for records

• Called Mycenaeans after palace site Mycenae

• Important formative period for many Greek myths

• Archeological finds show that Mycenaeans had wide-ranging Mediterranean contacts

• Ended when many palaces were destroyed

• Increased regionalization of pottery suggests increased isolation

• Replaced by a less complex but more egalitarian civilization

Wanax:

overall ruler 

Basilees:

local figures 

Later Greeks, Basileus:

aristocratic leader, chieftain– eventually, king

Mycencaean Pottery: 

• Octopus jar 

• Loopy designs

Protogeometric Pottery:

• c.975-950 BC

• Concentric circles on only part of the jar

• Athens

Geometric Pottery: 

• The dipylon vase 

• Rectilinear decoration 

• Decoration seems to cover entire surface 

• Figures appear

• Athens

Etrusco-Corinthian Pottery: 

• imitation of Corinthian

• loose and sloppy

Orientalizing/Corinthian/Protocorinthian Pottery:

• c. 730 – 550 BC

• Begins c. 730 BC

• Typically small vessels

• More important than Athenian pottery

• Reflects Corinth’s engagement with networks during this period 

• Animal Frieze

• Adoption of near-eastern tradition

• Also Etruscan orientalizing pottery

• Rosettes

Attic black-figure 

• twisting bodies and attempts at depth

• Mythological scenes

• emphasis on drama

Attic red-figure 

• Red-figure invented at Athens 

• 530 BC

• Takes over completely in 475

• Widespread distribution indicates Athens’ influence 

• desire for naturalism

• Ceases production in 300 BC

• wider range of scenes

White-ground vase painting

• Funerary vessels 

• classical period

Archaic Greek Sculpture: 

• Kouros and Kore 

• Very stiff; archaic smile 

• Movement word greater naturalism 

Classical sculpture: 

• Freestanding bronze rarely survives 

• Most sculptures we have are Roman copies 

• Movement toward greater realism 

• Frozen moment in time 

• Idealized calm expression 

• Complex depictions of drapery 

• Mid 4th century (350): unclothed female

Transition to Hellenistic sculpture: 

• Raised arm sculpture (breaks the box)

Kouros: 

• “Young man”

• Nude

• left leg forward

Kore

• “Young woman” 

• Clothed

Facts about Dark Age Greece: 

• “Dark” because there is no writing, only archeological evidence 

• Towards the end of the Dark Ages:

  • Increased social complexity 

  • Increased archaeological visibility 

• Geometric period entirely overlapped

Palaephatus:

• Greek writer 

• 3rd or 4th century BC

• Paradoxographer 

• Rationalizes myths 

Troy: 

• City in NW Asia Minor

• Important Bronze Age center

• “Wilusa” from hittite texts

Homeric poetry: 

• Oral poetry techniques 

• Composition based on inherited formulae 

  • “and to him answering spoke” … “___” 

• Tradition of poetic performance dating back to Mycenaean period

Thucydides:

• Athenian historian 

• c. 400 BC

The Odyssey:

• The story of Agamemnon is a foil for the main story 

Agamemnon = Odysseus 

Aegisthus = suitors 

Clytemnestra = Penelope 

Orestes = Telemachus 

• Both stories are about the dangers to the family of the absence of the male head 

• Male aristocrat must leave home to acquire kleos, especially through xenia 

• Books 9-12 are not like the rest of the poem: fantastical and told by Odysseus

• Poem presents Odysseus’ reclaiming of his position in his home as the recovery of his identity/kleos. 

  • Ties identity to social relationships within the family and household 

• Odysseus’ absence destabilizes the household and community

Polyphemus:

• Opposite of a polis 

• Lives in the oros

• Cave episode combines thematic elements: 

  • Travel

  • Xenia

  • Self-control 

  • Tension between glory & survival 

  • Ambiguous relationship between deception and glory 

  • Personal identity

Xenia: 

• Guest-host relationship 

• Well-defined customary rules 

  • Stranger waits outside the house 

  • Stranger given meal before being asked a name 

• Violations of xenia are serious 

  • Aegisthus kills Agamemnon while hosting him at a feast 

• Xenia under the protection of Zeus 

• Gift exchange in Xenia tied to memory (identity)

Controversy on when the Iliad and Odyssey came into existence:

• During a time that Greek colonization and network of cities forms 

• 800 BC

  • Development of Greek alphabet during this time

• 650 BC

• 550 BC

Hesiod 

• Works and Days 

• Theogany 

• Around the same time as Homer but slightly later

Theogany 

• By Hesiod 

• Myth of coming-into-being of the universe 

• Generational succession 

• Close parallels in Hittite (Bronze Age) Song of Emergence 

  • Interaction between Greek and Near Eastern myth

Greek City-State

• Astu: urban center

• Acropolis: defensible high point, often fortified and with temples  

• Agora: public space; politics, festivals, commerce, self-display

Key Roman Concepts:

• Populus: “people”

• Res Publica: “the public thing” “the people’s thing,” politics, public affairs

Greek and Italian City-State Comparison:

Greek acropolis = Latin arx 

Greek agora = Latin forum

Lydia: 

• Non Greek 

• Western Asia Minor 

• First coins

  • India, China

Literature?

• Greeks and Romans did not make strong distinctions between “literature” and other language 

• They did stress the distinction between poetry and prose 

  • Loads of Archaic Greek poetic literature 

  • But prose literature develops later

Delos: 

• Panhellenic sanctuary of Apollo and Atremis 

• One of the earliest life sized statues is from here

beginnings of democracy (Greece): 

• 510 BC

• Beginnings of radical democracy fill a power vacuum

Persian Empire: 

• The largest political entity the world had ever seen 

about the Persian War: 

• Vastly outnumbered Greeks vs numerically superior Persians 

• Freedom vs slavery 

• Greeks vs foreigners 

• Critical event for Greek notions of Greekness and Panhellenism

• Athenians defeat Persians at Battle of Marathon 

Herodotus and the History:

• From Halicarnassus 

• History is pioneering type of large-scale prose 

• Written in 420s BC

• Criticism and causation

• Source for Persian war

Consequences of the Persian War:

• The rise of the Athenian empire 

• Revolt of Greeks in Asia Minor 

• Athenians increasingly dominate the league 

• Athens promotes democracy 

Pericles: 

• Key Athenian politician 

• did NOOTTTTT give his funeral oration in the agora

• Parthenon attributed to his building project

The Peloponnesian War 

• Sparta & allies vs Athenian empire 

• Thucydides’ topic 

• 431- 404 BC

• Prolonged by Athens’ naval superiority and Sparta’s superiority on land

• Sparta wins

• End of first Athenian empire

Democracy & Empire: 

• Athens = naval power 

• Democratic citizen body supplied manpower for navy 

• Athenian democracy was unusually good at preventing interior strife

Athenian Democracy in the Classical Period

• radical/real democracy 

• Women, slaves, metics have no political rights 

• Women at all stages under male guardianship 

• Egalitarian sharing of power among male adult citizens 

• Lot for appointment to office 

• Payment for civic functions

3 central institutions of public speech:

• Ekklesia: assembly 

• The courts 

• Dramatic festivals

Ancient slavery in general: 

• Universal institution 

• Chattel slavery 

• legal/social, not racial 

• Slave essentially without rights 

• Slavery helps define freedom

Athenian slavery: 

• Slaves doing a wider variety of work 

• Slave-owners a minority of the free population 

• Freeing of slaves: slaves become metic

Fifth century Attic tragedy: 

• From myths 

• About kings & their families 

• Not set in Athens

Dramatic festivals: 

• In honor of Dionysus

• Tragedy and comedy

• Free

• Competition among playwrights

Theater of Dionysus

• Some stone benches, mostly wood 

• Remodeled in Roman period 

• Slopes of acropolis 

• Most performance in the round space in front of stage building 

• Actors (esp. gods) could appear on top of the stage building 

• Crane for flying characters 

• Wheeled platform for interior scenes 

• Performances mostly in song

The City Dionysia 

• Most important dramatic festival 

• Presentation of tribute 

• Presentation of war orphans

Aeschylus: 

• Oristeia 

• Between Persian and Peloponnesian Wars 

• 458 BC

Euripides: 

• Electra 

• Probably after 430 BC

• Probably first performed during Peloponnesian War 

• Interaction with Sophists

• Small cult following

• Not many first prizes

• subversive, psyco-realistic take on myths

Sophocles:

• Electra 

• Date unknown 

• Probably first performed during the Peloponnesian War

• Gun to my head: written after Euripides’ Electra

• loads of first prizes

• writes for common athenian taste

Oristeia:

• Won first prize at City Dionysia in 458 BC

• Only surviving trilogy of tragic plays

Sophists:

• “Expert” 

• Second half of fifth century 

• Almost no Sophists were Athenian 

• Taught for money 

• Experts in various fields

• Interested in argument 

• Speeches on both sides of a question 

• Interaction with Euripides

Development of Sophists (traditional):

• Athenian democracy values persuasive speaking 

• Demand for professional teachers of rhetoric 

• Plato’s perspective

Development of Sophists (queer’s version)

• Rhetoric not a term before Plato

• Sophistic argument style not present in court records 

• Sophists have wide and varied interests

Development of Sophists (other)

• Athenian elite intellectual subculture

• Sophists were the equivalent of books 

The Parthenon:

• On the acropolis 

• 447 – 433 BC

• Part of the Periclean building project

• single most famous building

• during classical period

The Haphaisteion 

• c. 450 BC

• Near the agora 

• Doric temple 

• converted to a christian church

• best preserved

Characteristics of a Greek Temple: 

• No obvious frontality 

• Columns on all sides 

• Steps on all sides 

• Proportions comparatively long and wide compared to height

• Shallow pediment 

• Shallow base with three steps

Orders of architectural decoration: 

• Doric

• Ionic

• Corinthian

Doric columns: 

• Sharp, wide flutes 

• Directly to the base 

• Plain top 

Ionic columns:

• Narrow flutes 

• Decorative base 

• Spiraled top 

Socrates: 

• 469 – 399 

• Served as hoplite in Peloponnesian War 

• Served on the boule 

• Under the Thirty (refused to arrest innocent citizen) 

• Tried and executed for impiety a few years after democracy was destroyed

• He never wrote anything 

• Power struggle between followers after his death 

Three main sources for Socrates: 

• Aristophanes 

• Xenophon 

• Plato 

Aristophanes: 

• Clouds 

• Socrates = sophist 

• Teaches argument 

• Interest in natural philosophy

Xenophon: 

• Socrates is not a sophist 

• Scorates = the good citizen; traditional virtue 

Plato: 

• Most influential 

• Socrates is not a sophist

• Early Socrates: does not advance positive arguments 

• Late Socrates: advances positive arguments 

• Impossible to summarize

• Important theme: the search for real knowledge (manifests in theory of the Forms)

Isocrates:

• An “orator”

• Published written undelivered speeches

• Teacher of what he called “philosophy”

• Argued for value of opinion (opposes plato)

Aristotle: 

• Student of Plato 

• Founded his own school 

• Wrote exoteric dialogues and esoteric works 

Queer Weaire Facts:

• Plato was gay 

• So so many Greeks were gay 

• Latin has no word for polis

• Hymn to Demeter (Homer) offers a heightened mythic version of the female experience 

• Theater of Dionysus renovated in Roman period  

Submycenaean Pottery 

• After the palaces fall, we get crap pottery 

• Regionalized 

Characteristics of Dark Age Greece: 

• No writing, only archeological evidence 

• Increased social complexity toward the end 

• Geometric period comes at the end

First Greek writing found:

Pot with Greek letters found in Latium, Italy: 775 BC

800 — 580 BC

• During geometric period and archaic period

• Phoenician and Greek colonization

• network of cities forms

• very important because this network sets up the rest of history

  • Roman empire is the political unification of this network

  • Christianity spreads through it

Hoplites

• Very big shields, limited lateral movement

• effective as long as people don’t break and run

Early Greek law

• mostly procedural, not substantive

• allows for complexity, open ended

Hecataeus

• beginning of historiography

• says what he believes to be true (not just inheriting everything)

• His judgement

Aims of the Persian War:

• Personal vendetta against Athens: surrender or punish

• Get em all

The serpent column

Dedicated with names of Greek cities that fought in the Persian war