The Acropolis
present day Athens
The Golden Age of Athens lasted from 479 BC to 431 BC.
Pericles was a distinguished Athenian Statesman, Orator and General, he led Athens into the Golden Age.
The Greeks at this time excelled in the visual arts of SCULPTURE & ARCHITECTURE.
The PARTHENON was built of marble ontop of the ACROPOLIS it was the main religious monument in Athens and the supreme example of their architecture.
The mathamaticians EUCLID & PYTHAGORAS contributed much to mathamatics and beauty of architecture.
Discovery and use of the GOLDEN MEAN / RATIO.
1.618O339887...... was translated into building proportions of the Parthenon.
GREEK ARCHITECTURE
TEMPLE COLUMNS
DORIC : IONIC : CORINTHIAN
This Greek rectangular with columns style of architecture is still copied around the world today.
Teatro JUÁREZ in Guanajuato
ART GALLERY in SYDNEY
GREEK ARCHITECTURE DOES NOT USE ARCHES LIKE THE ROMANS
The Parthenon was a temple to the goddess ATHENA
inside was a 12 meter gold and ivory statue
Greek sculpture attempted to represent sublime perfection of form on Earth. It comes from an idea that the philospher Greek philosopher PLATO believed in called the dimension of PLATONIC FORMS - where perfect shapes existed.
Platonic ideals of Beauty came from this philosophy
The Discobolus by Myron
Along with SOCRATES and then his student ARISTOTLE, PLATO was one of the big 3 Ancient Greek PHILOSOPHERS.
Plato formed Plato's Academy wrote books that were dialogues to reveal his philosophy .
Socrates had no school or fixed teching location, he wondered about Athens vigourously questioning people about what was real and truthful. He was eventually sentenced to death for dishonouring the gods and misleading the youth of Athens.
Aristotle was a student of Plato, he formed the Lyceum, he wrote many books on all academic subjects and formulated the early methods of studying science inventing categories of things and empirically examining phenomena. He later became the tutor of ALEXANDER THE GREAT. He wrote the POETICS the first study book on the THEATRE and the nature of Tragedy in human drama.
He invented the 3 act structure of drama - SET UP - CONFLICT - RESOLUTION
A Tragedy would evoke pity and fear in the audience in response to the the heros suffering - this was called a CATHARSIS and allowed Athenian theatre goers to feel empathy for humanity's frail existence in the world.
GREEK DRAMA
Ancient Greek Theatre Architecture design
Greek amphitheaters were outdoors often carved into the sides of hills. They had excellent acoustics. The role of the Theatre in Greece at this time was very important in bringing people together to witness Tragedy and Comedy.
PLAYWRIGHTS were more famous than the THESBIANS - actors
Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes were the main playwrights and we still perform their plays today. They competed for prizes at religious festivals.
Theatre Masks worn by the actors
SAMPLE CLASS READING OF 'AJAX' BY SOPHOCLES
Written in the 5th century BCE, this tragic play chronicles the deathof the Greek warrior Ajax after the events in Homer’s Iliad, but before the Trojan War ended.
At the outset of the play, the protagonist is enraged because the fallen Achilles’ armor has been awarded to Odysseus rather than him. Bitter, he decides to get revenge on the Greek leaders he believes shamed him. To add insult to injury, he is tricked by the goddess Athena and thinks he is now even more of a laughingstock. Despondent, he takes matters into his own hands in a tragic resolution.
Modern Greek Drama Performance at the Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece
THE GREEK ALPHABET
PERFORMANCE
THE OLYMPIC GAMES
8th Century BC - 4th Century AD
from wiki:
The ancient Olympic Games were originally a festival, or celebration of and for Zeus; later, events such as a footrace, a javelin contest, and wrestling matches were added. The Olympic Games (Ancient Greek: Ὀλύμπια, Olympia,[1][2][3][4][5][6] "the Olympics"; also Ὀλυμπιάς, Olympias,[7][4][5][6] "the Olympiad") were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC.[8] They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, until the emperor Theodosius Isuppressed them in AD 393 as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the State religion of Rome. The games were held every four years, or olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies.
The Ancient Olympic Games was held every Olympiad or 4 years - only men competed women were not allowed to attend.
The modern Olympics was revived in 1896 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin
in Athens Greece
The first woman athlete to light the OLYMPIC CAULDRON was ENRIQUETA BASILIO at the Mexico Olympics in 1968
THE GREEK GODDESS NIKE WAS THE GODDESS OF
'VICTORY'
She awarded those victorious in battle or games with glory and fame symbolised with a laurel leaf.
The NIKE Swoosh Logo was designed by a young graphic designer student at Portland University (Caroline Davidson) in 1971
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