Unit 1 Flashcards
Timeline
Prehistory Mesopotamia -Sumerian (C.3500-2350 BC) -Semitic (C.2350-612 BC) Ancient Egypt (c. 10,000-2696 BC) Bronze age Agean (2500-1200 BC) Dark Age (c. 1200–750 BCE) Archaic Period (c. 8th c./ 750–500/480 BC) Classical Period (480–323 BC)
Paleolithic
Old Stone Age
Portable tools that they could take with them when gathering food.
Representational Art
Woolly Mammoth Hut
Neolithic
New Stone Age
Neolithic Revolution
Jericho
Newgrange and Stonehedge showed there was organized religion, astrological significance, settlement, working together to build structures, and increasing order
Neolithic Revolution
Agricultural Revolution, allows civilization to arise, the development os social hierarchy, and defense within settled communities (trade, economic system, save food for later)
Sumerian vs. Semitic
Sumeria: earliest bronze age culture, warring city states pop up (URUK). Ziggurat
Semitic:
Sargon 1 is the first to unify Mesopotamia, people are inspired by him to become imperial forces.
Babylonian Empire, Hammurabi’s Code, Mathematics, Assyrians, Astronomy
Mesopotamia
River valley civilizations during the Bronze Age. Means “Land between two rivers.” It was unstable, but writing, laws, religion, and city states began. The river didn’t flood easily and it was hard to defend.
Polytheistic
Enuma Elish
They believed that in the beginning water was the only thing that existed, from it came the gods and the universe.. Marduk was created, he disagreed with Tiamat and tore her apart, creating the earth and mankind.
Hammurabi’s Code
Babylonian code that created a united empire under more stable conditions.
Semitic Mathematics
Babylonians decided on 60 seconds in a min, 60 min in an hour.
Originated the Pythagorean thoerum.
Dozen
Assyrians
Brutal, efficient conquering. Profound influence in Biblical history. Massive libraries in royal palaces. Actively collecting stories from Mesopotamia, like the Epic of Gilgamesh (would’ve been lost without the Assyrians)
Epic of Gilgamesh
World’s first Epic
Inspired Illiad & Odssey
Semitic Astronomy
Star catalogues in cuneiform
Ancient Egypt
Longer and more stable than Mesopotamia. Dependent on the Nile. Dependable, stable culture -> less developments than Mesopotamia.
Ancient Egyptian Religion
Amun-Ra, Origin god.
Isis - becomes an important deity in Greco-Roman culture
Many Egyptian myths were passed down into Greek culture. Tried to answer, “What is the purpose of life? What happens when we die? Where does the sun go when it sets?”
Ancient Egyptian Afterlife
Once your body dies, your soul will continue to live on. Pharaoh is buried with materials to help them in the afterlife. Pyramids are burial sites for pharoahs, King Tut is the most famous, but not the most wealthy. Normal people weren’t buried this way.
Canon of Proportions
Egyptians mad all artwork look the same, they wanted uniformity. Abstracted the body, made the poses very stiff and rigid.
Monumental Structure
The Egyptian buildings were unified and symmetrical, with long pathways and staircases.
Egyptian Writing
Hieroglyphs: primary form of writing. Eventually they wrote on papyrus.
Bronze Age Aegean
The time period of the Minoans, who were peaceful and invented Linear A, and the Mycenaeans, who were warlike and invented Linear B.
Minoans
Crete, Knossos -> cities by the water
Peaceful people -> no fortified structures
Linear A -> writing system for trading goods that can’t be deciphered
Massive Volcano eruption & bad fortification led to the fall of the Minoans (the Mycenaeans might also have had something to do with it)
Mycenaeans
MYCENAE- Athens was here
Warlike culture -> strategic citadels on hilltops so they could see enemies from afar
Mask of Agamamnon -> thinly hammered gold
Linear B -> their writing talks about preparations for war (“King’s List”: gives supplies the king needed for war)
Dark Age
Time of cultural collapse where the “sea people” lived. There was evidence of great conflict.
Sea People
A group of people who wreaked havoc on the mediterranean during the dark age.
Why was power hard to acquire during the dark age?
Bones showed malnutrition -> signs of crops failing
Called the “Dark Age” because writing disappears.
Huge population decline, reduced by 90%
Loss of artistic skills and cultural achievements
Skilled artists, engineers disappear
Trade routes are disrupted, creating isolated societies.
Polis (pl. poleis)
Began in the Dark Age - City States/self governing towns.
“Frogs around the pond”
Where we get the word “politics”
Greek City States
Athens, Corinth, Olympia, Delphi, Sparta, Knossos
Archaic Period
Terracotta Krater Homer Hesiod Panhellenism Hellas Panathenaea Dionysia Olympic Games Hoplite Pre-Socratics Kouros Parthenon Democracy Persian Wars
Terracotta Krater
750 BC, from Kerameikos Cemetery in Athens Vase with drawings on it. Gravemarker that shows a dead man’s procession.
Homer
Wrote the Illiad, capturing the events of the Trojan war
Arete
excellence and virtue
Illiad
The Aehaean hero Achilles is moved to anger by an affront to his honor. Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae, took Achilles’ war trophy woman, so he refuses to join the battle against Troy alongside his comrades. Only after his friend Patroclus dies wearing his armor does he finally go to war. There, he strips Hector of his armor and drags his naked corpse around in a dishonoring way. Hector’s father Priam begs for his son’s body back. Both Achilles and Priam are feminine to beg and grieve.
Hesiod’s Theogony
5th c.
About the 12 olympians
Theogony means, “birth of the gods”
He was the first to establish a cohesive mythology.
“In the beginning there was chaos, which gave birth to Nyx, Erebus, Gaia, and Eros. Gaia and Eros gave birth to Uranus. Uranus and Gaia gave birth to the Titans (one is Cronus) and 3 cyclopes. Cronus gives birth to the gods- one is Zeus. Cronos kills his father and eats his kid. Zeus and his mother defeat Cronos.
Prometheus
Titan who brings fire to men, Zeus punishes him by chaining him to a rock and having a crow eat his innards every day. Punishes man by creating the first woman, Pandora, to tempt them.
Panhellenic Festival
“All-Greek” festival in honor of the Greek Gods that was one of the great religious centers of Greece. Located in Olympia
Panhellenic Sanctuaries
Olympia (Olympic Games in 776 BC) Delphi
Helens
Speak Greek, Worship Greek gods, specific cultural practices (festivals & competitions)
Hellenism
the national character or culture of Greece, especially ancient Greece. Everyone not Greek was a barbarian
Panathenaea
Greek festival honoring Athena
Dionysian
development of Drama, Greek festival honoring Dionysus
Panathenaic Way
Pathway through Athens
Hoplite
Army of all non-aristocratic men between 18-60 years of age who had to fight. They developed strong bonds with the men they fought with.
Phalanx
spear like weapon or a a body of Macedonian infantry with long spears, drawn up in close order with shields overlapping.
Sparta
The war state
Pindar
a lyric poet in 5th c. BC who wrote “Odes” celebrating sports
Pre-Socratics
Known as “the love of wisdom. “
Not interested in science, more interested in the rational order in which situations occur.
Thales of Miletus: water
Pythagoras: mathematical relations
Thales of Miletus
Produced a theory about a solar eclipse and advanced the study of deductive geometry. Water
Ionian Revolution
Philosophy began to move over to Athens and the Pre-Socratics began
Kouros
Archaic Greece, c. 600 BCE
Acropolis
Where the Parthenon was, a citadel or fortified part of an ancient Greek city, typically built on a hill.
agora
a public open space used for assemblies and markets.
Athena Parthenos
Model by Phidias in 440 BC
Parthenos = Virgin
Parthenon = House of Parthenos
Holding the goddess of victory in her hand, shows that Athena brought them victory after the Persian war.
Demos
“People”
Solon
594, instituted a series of reforms that begin to transform Athens
Solonian Constitution
500 bushel men
300 bushel men
200 bushel men
Thetes (everyone else)
Solon’s Assembly
(Ekkesia)
Council of 400
50 men from upper 3 categories
9 archonships
Pisistratos
Takes control as a tyrant. He could be a good tyrant, because he was patron of the arts, he cut taxes, and he changed Athens as an aristocrat.
Cleisthenes
Father of Democracy
Helped return power to the citizens
Member of a powerful aristocratic family
Created the Council of 500 and +66 assembly
Council of 500
Divided people into 10 new “tribes.”
Makes laws
Sets agenda for assembly
Anyone who is a citizen can attend assembly and vote.
Law passes if there are more “yeses” than “nos”
+66 Assembly
Ekklesia
Group of people that marked you in red paint to show that you were trying to get out of your duty
Tyrannicides
5th c. Bronze original, Roman copy in marble displayed in the Athenian agora, shows Harmodius and Aristogeiton
Ostracism
Is someone started gaining too much power and popularity, they could vote to diffuse their power. Put names in a pot and if enough people pick the name, the person is kicked out of the assembly.
Persian Wars
499-480 BCE
Persian Empire
Zoroastrianism made Persians different from the Greeks
Battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis
At the end, the Persians burn Athens and steal the statue of the Tyranicides, with it’s end the Golden Age and Classical Period begin
Zoroastrianism
Ahura Mazda, Monotheistic religion of the Persian Empire
Battle of Marathon
First Battle in the Persian war that Athens wins.
Battle of Thermoplae
Second Battle in the Persian war that Sparta/Athens win
Battle of Salamis
Third Battle in the Persian war that Athens wins
Classical Period
Herodotus Delian League Pericles Ictinus Sculptures Polyclitus Drama Peloponesian War Classical Philosophy Sophists Socrates Plato
Herodotus
“Father of history” Wrote Histories in 440 BC about the influences of the Egyptians on Greek religion
Delian League
Pericles’ League that was unified against invaders, originally on a treasury in Delos, but moved to Athens.
Pericles
Aristocrat, general, and leading proponent of Athenian Democracy. Initiated payment for holding public office and public audit. Foreign policy of defensive alliance against invaders.
Ictinus
contributions by Callicrates, Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, 447-438 BC § Sculptural program completed 432 BC § Greek Orders: □ Doric □ Ionic □ Corinthian
Greek Orders:
Doric
Ionic
Corinthian
Golden Section
Formulated by Euclid, 8:5, represents aesthetic ideal
Metopes
There were 92 Metopes on the Frieze.
Lapith Overcoming a Centaur, south metope 27, Parthenon, Athens, 447-438 BC
Centaur=uncivilized, barbaric Persians
Inner frieze
Young Men on Horseback, segment of the north frieze, Parthenon, c. 440 BCE + Seated gods and goddesses, segment of the east frieze, Parthenon, c. 440 BCE
Pediments and detail of A Recumbent God and Three Goddesses, east pediment of the Parthenon, c. 435 BCE
Wet Drapery -(Dionysus or Heracles)
Inside: Model of Athena Parthenos, by Phidias
original c. 440 BCE.
Peloponnesian War
431–404 BCE
Sparta vs. Athens
Thirty Tyrants
§ Post-War Destruction by the Thirty Tyrants in 404 BC
□ Second threshold of democracy 403 BC
□ Only remained in power for 8 months
□ Very violent; more than 1500 died
® Fighting in the streets
® Intention was to shut down the rebellion
Pericles’s “Funeral Speech,”
Thucydides’s Peloponnesian Wars, c. 410 BCE
delivers speech in honor of those who have fallen in the first year of the war
Gives 6 reasons why Athens is the greatest Polis in the world
} Athens is the school of Hellos
◊ Model that all other city states should follow
◊ “Who wouldn’t want to be us?”
} Democracy:
◊ Responsible, just, moral citizen
} Explains how Athens felt about itself before its fall
Socratic Method
Socrates goes around challenging people to think, to critically analyze oneself
® “The unexamined life is not worth living”
® Four years after democracy was instituted, Socrates was put to death for corrupting the youth of Athens
Catharsis
a cleansing or purification that provokes change in the spectator’s emotional life.
Greek drama took as its subject matter from contemporary matters rather than the historical or mythic past.
False
Means “love of wisdom” and comes to define Greeks’ interest in humanity.
Pre Socraticism
What has caused Achilles’s rage?
Agamemnon stole his war prize
Famous Athenian statesmen who led Athens into a Golden Age
Pericles
