Ancient Greek History Essays
1. What are the Names and Dates of the 4 Historical Periods of Hellenic Civilization? What are the major events/people that pertain to each?
Hellenistic civilization showed the success of Greek influence in the ancient world. This period also portrayed an era of history is the period which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great and was referred to this by the historian J. G. Droysen. This period highlights four major events which are the Delian League, Wars of the Delian League & Peace of Callias, the Peloponnesian War and the Spartan & Theban Hegemony and the triumph of Macedonia.
In 478 BC to 460 BC, with the Delian League, association of Greek states numbering between 150 and 173 under leadership of Athens became significant and the purpose was sustained war against the Persian Empire. This gave Athens leverage domination in both authority and leadership. During this period, internal conflicts arose due to Athens using the league’s navy for its own purpose. Important figures during that time are Pericles, Aristagoras, Darius the great, Xerxes, Mycale, Cimon and Megabyzus.
In 477 BCC started the new phase termed as The Wars of the Delian League which ended in 449 BC and consisted of a series of wars between the League members under the leadership of Athens, and the Persian Empire. These wars represent a continuation of the earlier wars between Greek States and the Persian Empire. The conflicts preceding the Wars of Delian League were the Ionian Revolt and the first and second invasions of Greece by Persia. The main purpose was the military expansion of the league, quelling of internal rebellion and campaigns against Persia in Thrace, Asia Minor, Egypt & Cyprus. Thirty years peace after the Battle in Salamis, Cyprus termed the peace of Callias. The important figures during that time were Aristides, Siculus, Cimon, Lysitheus, Xantippus, Pontus and Artaxerxes II.
During the period of 431 to 404 BC, the Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. In this period, the development of Athens as a major power in the Mediterranean was in its zenith. The capture of all of Greece except Sparta and its allies by Athens which was transformed into the Athenian Empire was seeing a failure. This period had reshaped the level of international relations. Breakdown of fragile peace between the Athenian empire and Peloponnesian states, including Sparta also created The “Archidamian War”. The Peace of Nicias was destroyed following the death of Cleone and Brasidas. The battle of Mantinea and victory of Sparta was imminent while Sicilian were Expended and Athens was defeat by the triumph of Lysander and surrender of Athens. The important figures were Pericles, Cleon, Lysander, Brasidas and Callicratidas,
The last major event of the four events is Spartan & Theban Hegemony and the triumph of Macedonia. In this period the rule of Thirty Tyrants in Athens was setup by Sparta. This was also the beginning of the Corinthian War between 395 BC and 387 BC. The Sparta last many years in the empire but lost to Thebes at the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. Phillips II of Macedon conquers entire Greece, opened doors to the ‘New World’ to the Greek and paved the way for his son Alexander the Great in his attempt to conquer the world. But Death of Alexander and his father split the empire into the Hellenistic kingdoms. The empire was never the same again.
Reference:
Matthews, Roy, Dewitt Platt. "Classical Greek Civilization: The Hellenic Age. "The Western Humanities.” Michigan. 2004. 63-91. Web. <http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/dl/free/ 0073136190/513721/Matthews6e_ch03.pdf>
2. What is the main topic of Homer’s great epic poem The Iliad? Describe the main character and the personal journey he undertakes throughout the narrative. How do these qualities make him a uniquely Greek epic hero?
The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, which is the name given to the decade long siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek States and talks about the final few weeks of the Trojan War. Achilles is the main character in this narrative and talks about his journey during the final leg of the war. After being insulted by Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaean forces, Achilles refuses to take further part in the war and asks his mother, the sea-nymph Thetis to ask Zeus, his father and the king of Gods to support Trojans in the war. The Achaeans begin facing reversals in fortune and soon the troops become particularly discouraged when the Trojans are able to destroy all but one of their ships.
Concerned for his comrades but still not hurting from Agamemnon’s insult, Achilles allows his friend Patroclus to take his place in battle and wear his armour to restore the flagging spirits of the soldiers of the coalition. Mistaking Patroclus for Achilles, the Achaeans are able to push the Trojans back to the city walls. However, Hector succeeds in killing Patroclus. Seething with rage and grief for his friend, Achilles reconciles with Agamemnon and rejoins the battle. After some more fighting, a duel ensues between Hector and Achilles where Achilles slays Hector and for the next nine days drags Hector’s body around Patroclus’s funeral bier. Finally the Gods help Hector’s father to go to the Achaean camp and claim his body from Achilles. A temporary truce is declared and Hector is given a hero’s funeral.
Achilles is the possessor of super human strength and a great relationship with most of the Gods. However his pride causes him to abandon his men initially. Then the death of Patroclus is the turning point and Achilles shows the compassion and bravery along with various traits of a good military leader to ensure that his army is able to defeat the Trojan army. All these qualities make him a unique Greek hero.
Reference:
Homer, Stanley Lombardo (Translated By). “Iliad”. Indianapolis. Hackett Publishing Company. 1997. Print
3. Who was Plato? What is the importance of the Allegory of the Cave? How do these ideas inform his view of government or the ideal state?
Plato, student of Socrates, was a Greek Philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the Academy in Athens. Allegory of the Cave was an analogy used by Plato in his work, The Republic. It was originally written as a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, Plato’s brother. The allegory is important because it brings to light Plato’s belief that just as the people chained in the cave took shadows they saw to be reality while the actual truth was far removed from what they saw, in the same manner, only the most enlightened individuals can grasp the truth lying hidden beneath the apparent surface of any situation. And just like the prisoners in the cave, every person first resists this enlightenment. According to Plato, only those who can achieve enlightenment deserve to rule over others and lead others. Also Plato wants to convey that education is not a process of putting information into minds of students, rather is it about making people aware of what they already know.
Plato intended the new society to be formed in three waves to wash away the corruption in society: - the first wave was to be of Guardians consisting of philosopher kings. The second wave consisted of the Guardians consisting of both men and women which was a pretty radical idea as at that point of time women were not politically involved. The third wave consisted of Guardians living communally with without private property of their own.
Plato’s views like the one where he states that no member of a government while in service be allowed to own or accumulate assets among other things tends to show that he wanted the politicians to be enlightened with knowledge. Also he was of the view that good governance requires a pre requisite of competent citizens along with sufficient degree of knowledge and understanding. A government elected by popular vote but lacking sufficient knowledge and means to achieving the same is of no use.
Reference:
Plato, Desmond Lee (Translated By). “The Republic”. Indianapolis. Penguin Books USA. 2007. Print.
4. Who was Aristotle? What does he feel is the best form of human action? Why?
Aristotle, a disciple of Plato and the teacher of Alexander was a Greek philosopher and mathematician. He is also considered as a great writer and thinker of Ancient Greece. Aristotle, along with his pupil Plato and his own teacher, Socrates, is considered as one of the most iconic stalwarts in Western philosophy as he created a comprehensive system for the Western Philosophy for the first time in history.
The best form of human action was the one which achieved something good. He did not attempt to define good but merely termed it as the aim for an action to occur. There may be actions which are inherently good while other actions are performed to achieve something which is good. Goodness in itself may vary according to the individual. It may mean happiness, pleasure, wealth, power, wisdom or honour to different people.
According to Aristotle, very human action has one or more of seven causes namely: - desire, habit, chance, reason, compulsion, nature and passion. And going by Nicomachean Ethics, one of Aristotle’s books, goodness of an action is mainly about virtuous actions which either make the individual happy or they make other around him/her happy. A virtuous individual, merely by possessing that virtue cannot do good unless he/she acts virtuously. The virtue may be moral or intellectual in nature and a person possessing a virtue is responsible for his action or inaction. The moral virtues included modesty, generosity, honesty, courage, humility and the likes. The intellectual virtues included reasoning, wisdom and knowledge. As opposed to the virtues there were moral and intellectual vices which were supposed to be on the opposite end of the ‘goodness’ spectrum. According to Aristotle, both pain and pleasure could be good or bad and were treated as either virtue or vice depending on the situation.
Reference:
Aristotle, W.D. Ross (Translated By). “The Basic Works of Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics”. New York, Random House. 1941. Print.
5. What are some of the differences between Greek (Classical) art and Hellenistic art? What are some of the factors which bring these changes about? Cite an example from each period to illustrate your point.
While Greek classical art and Hellenistic art both tend to display and advanced knowledge of human anatomy, the Greek Classical Art portrays figures at rest and even those in motion were frozen to show motion in static medium. The proportions were more ideal for example the foot was 1/10 of the height. There was defined musculature and a more relaxed counter pose. This style tends to show an increased naturalism along with greater idealism in its portrayal.
On the other hand, Hellenistic art form tended to experiment with movement of the human body and how it looks in motion for example the bulging of muscles when retracted. It was also highly dramatic and portrayed a great assortment of emotions like anger, humour, sadness etc.
The tendency to portray theatrics and the move away from showing gods in still poses and perfect shapes and postures to showing them in more dramatic gestures along with using light and shade effects to portray the emotions is what most probably led to the change in the two art forms. While the classical art from tended to follow rules, the Hellenistic form tended to be more about freedom from those rules. While classical art contained many naturalistic and religious themes, Hellenistic form was far more realistic in its portrayal.
This can be proven by using one example each from the two cultures. The Diskobolus of Myron while supposedly in action is well proportioned throughout but shows an inefficient and almost unnatural pose for throwing the discus. Also there is very little emotion shown and that couple with the lack of detail to the flexing of muscles show that the sculptor Myron is more focussed on perfection rather than actually portraying the minute details. On the other hand, Nike of Samothrace, whose effect is enhanced by the missing arms and legs, is considered to depict the victorious human spirit in an iconic manner. It also represents the momentary amalgamation of humanity and divinity.
Reference:
Boardman. John. “World of Art: Greek Art”. Fourth Edition. Praeger. New York. 5-270. Print.
