Chapter 1-3

KEY TERMS

Humanities

  • The cultural as distinguished from the scientific branches of learning

  • The study of the creative process of tradition as it occurred in the past and continues in the present

  • The study of everything but math

Culture

  • A particular form of civilization, especially the beliefs, customs, arts & institutions of a society at a given time

  • The sum total of things created & transmitted by humankind

  • The act of developing the intellectual faculties through education

ORIGINS

Paleolithic - Old Stone Age

Cave Art - Evidence of the earliest human communication & artistic endeavor

Mesolithic - Transitional Stone Age

Neolithic - New Stone Age

Megalith - Large Stone

Stonehenge - Most famous megalithic structure

Post & Lintel - Architectural structure of Stonehenge & other ancient stone structures with straight posts holding up the top lintel

Mesopotamia - The “Cradle of Human Civilization” - modern day Iraq. Home of the Sumerians

Myths - Stories that explained, in metaphoric or symbolic terms, the nature of the universe & human’s role & relation to the cosmos

Archetype - Universal mental images that appear in dreams, literature, & art. Examples might be heroes, villains, certain beasts, & deities

Polytheism - The belief in many gods or deities

Egypt - Great ancient civilization that lasted approximately 3000 years

Egyptian Pyramids - The Egyptians believed in the immortality of the spirit & built elaborate limestone tombs for leaders to live on after death. The greatest pyramids were the greatest of these tombs

CLASSICISM

Mycenaean Civilization - Pre-Greek civilization which lasted from 1600 BCE to approximately 1100 BCE from which the stories of the Trojan Wars inspired Greek Epic Poetry & storytelling

Dark Age - A time period from which all writing, artistic crafts & other cultural skills & knowledge were lost. Such a Dark Age occurred prior to the Ancient Greek civilization

Epic Poetry - Long narrative poetic works that recount deeds on a heroic scale, centered on a hero who defines a sense of ethnic or national identity

Lyric Poetry - Brief poems, often sung or spoken over music that expressed the speaker’s inner thoughts & feelings. Identified with Sappho. Named for the lyre

The Iliad & Odyssey - Epic poems written by Homer about the battles for Troy & their aftermath with Heroes like Achilles & Odysseus

Rationalism - The belief that human reason is primary source of truth & order in the world

The Classical Period - A period of Greek history marked by achievement unparalleled in the history of Western Civilization

Polis - City-state or the citizens themselves, including their civic values & aspirations

Tragedy - Drama involving mythic characters whose pride leads them into suffering & death. Athenian tragedy as we know it evolved by the early 5th century, BCE

Chorus - A group of 12-15 actors who chanted the songs of the play rhythmically to music (usually a flute) while engaging in a dance

Aeschylus - First playwright to add a second actor, making true dialog possible

Sophocles - Most prolific of the Greek tragedians. Added a third actor to the scenes

Oedipus the King - Sophocles most famous play

Euripides - Added realism & biting social comment to his tragedies. Sophocles’ plays showed people as they could be. Euripides plays showed them as they were

Comedy - Is a dramatic form that humorously portrays everyday theme & characters. Greek comic plots were usually fantastic, yet included bawdy dialogue, slapstick shenanigans & biting comment on the contemporary scene

Aristophanes - Greatest comedian of the Golden Age in Athens

Philosophy - The “love of wisdom”

Classical Humanism - A belief in the nobility of the human intelligence & action & the ability to control the world around them

  • “Man is the measure of all things” - Protagoras

Socrates - Created the Socratic Method of the philosophical thinking which is based on the question & answer

Plato - Used dialogue much the same way Socrates used questions & answers. Plato’s dialogues were initially Socrates speaking to his students. The dialogue provided Plato with an accessible & engaging form of philosophical exposition. Plato believed in idealist absolutes that existed in an idealistic realm that we constantly strive to understand & emulate

Aristotle - Wanted to analyze & describe the world as it actually was. He wrote treatises on science, ethics, logics, politics & literature among others. Aristotle believed that virtue lay at golden mean between extreme self-denial & utter self-indulgence. Balance. He believed that a subject’s ideal form existed within the subject itself rather than existing in some separate, idealistic realm

Naturalism - The artistic style the Greeks sought to capture throughout their civilization

Geometric Technique - The technique of using abstract geometric shapes for decoration

Kouros - An Archaic statue that of a nude human male youth that stood as a grave marker. The figure stands in a typical pose, with arms held stiffly at the sides, fists clenched & the left foot in front of the right. Very stylized geometry in early kouros

Acropolis - A hill in the center of an ancient city used originally as a fortress. In Athens, the home of the Parthenon & other classical Greek temples

Parthenon - A temple dedicated to the Athens’ patron deity, Athena

Alexander the Great - Leader if the united Greece who in 333 BC launched military campaigns against Persia & Egypt & conquered lands from Mediterranean to India. Thus began Hellenistic Age

Classical Orders - represented in Columns

  • Doric - simple base & capital - communicated a solid strength & simplicity

  • Ionic - more elaborate base & scrolled capitals - possessed an aura of refinement & sophistication

  • Corinthian - most elaborate base & sculpted capitals - developed in the Hellenistic Period, projected imperial wealth & grandeur

The Hellenistic Age - The result of the conquering of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic art spread throughout the empire & achieved new realism & emotional directness. Hellenistic scholars revered classical Greece

EMPIRE

Empire - A group of nations or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign or government: usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom

The Roman Empire - Stretched from England to Iraq & the Roman people sought to impose their laws on their subject peoples & civilize them in the Roman way. They absorbed the culture & art of the people they conquered & put their own practical spin on both art & architecture

Etruscans - a resourceful people of central Italy who dominated the Italian peninsula in the 6th century BCE

Romulus & Remus - The legendary founders of Rome

Republic - A government of representatives chosen to act for the people at large

Julius Caesar - A general, politician & the leading player during a turbulent era in Roman history which led up to his appointing himself dictator for life before his assassination

Caesar Augustus - Julius Caesar’s adopted nephew. Won the civil war sparked by Julius Caser’s assassination & became Rome’s new leader. Started the Pax Romana

Forum - Originally a marketplace, was the social & political center of a Roman City. Rome’s oldest forum was the Republican Forum. The grandest Forum was built by the Emperor Trajan

Basilica - Was a rectangular public hall usually with a flat ceiling

Column of Trajan - A sculpted column showing narrative scenes of the Emperor’s victories

Arch - Was superior to the Post & Lintel for the simple reason that the P&L system put too much weight on the lintel. The arch stones are compressed & not bent & much stronger

Vault - Multiple arches joined together to form an even stronger tunnel-like support structure

Dome - A dome uses the idea of the arch turning it in a circle to create a spacious interior space

The Pantheon - Was built by the Emperor Hadrian it was famed for its magnificent dome, rising above the interior in a perfect hemisphere

Mosaic - Pictures made from tiny bits of colored marble or ceramic cemented to a floor or wall

Virgil - Author of the epic poem the Aeneid

Diocletian - The Roman Emperor who divided Rome into 2 separate kingdoms

China’s Early Empire

  • Qin Dynasty (221-210 BCE) - A militant dynasty that, like the Romans, created an empire by defeating all rival states & assuming responsibility for maintaining order

  • Han Dynasty (210 BCE-220 CE) - Represented the high point & the classical phase of Chinese early civilization