The Helladic Period

The age of Greece was a wonderful time for immense accomplishments and discovery in science, literature, art, language, philosophy, and many other fields of knowledge. Even the alphabet that we use today is derived from the ancient Greek alphabet that they developed from the Phoenicians. Greek mythology is also still popular today in many stories and movies on the big screen, even though the modern sciences have replaced them as sources of truth. Some of Greece's largest and most prominent accomplishments include the development of philosophy, the building of the great city of Athens, and its Hellenistic Age, in which Greek culture was spread into the Eastern countries. Although Greece is no longer what it used to be, the influence of its civilization and culture will forever have an impact on our culture, society, and peoples.

In Chapter 3 it teaches about the development of Greek society and culture. this takes place in ca. 3000 - 338 B.C.E.. the first to arrive were hunters and gatherers grease was built on the traditions and ideas of early Western Civilization. they also created new political forms and new types of literature and art. The Greek society was a time where new things were coming up and new ideas were made. The new ideas were building, plays, and influencers. the history of Greeks is divided into three periods. The Helladic period, the Hellenistic period, and the Hellenic period. In this essay, I'm gonna be talking about the Acropolis of Athens, Sophocles, Antigone, and Aristotle on slavery. I picked these three documents because I feel like they had an impact on the greek development.

The first thing that helps develop Grease is the Acropolis of Athens. The Acropolis are temples that were built in the sixth century B.C.E.. The temples were built after the Persian War. they weren't just temple they were also a wall for defense. They weren't just for defense but they were also a way for a retreat so they could stay safe. They didn't just make temples they built a forty-foot-tall statue of Athena. Athena was the goddess of wisdom, war and the crafts, and favorite daughter of Zeus, Athena was, perhaps, the wisest, most courageous, and certainly the most resourceful of the Olympian gods. “For thousands of years, the monuments of the Athenian Acropolis have been regarded not only as examples of extraordinary skill and beauty, but also as potent symbols of religious devotion and civic and national identity.” ( Lobell, 1). In this quote, it goes to show that these temples and statue was a beautiful thing that they had created.

The Acropolis of Athens is still standing today. People from all over the world go to see the beauty of the temples and the statue of Athena. These temples have been around for thousands of years but they won't be standing for much longer. “... Air pollution continues to eat away at the marble.” (McKay, 80). In the book A History of Western Society is talking about the Acropolis of Athens and how it's not going to be around for much longer because of the air pollution is eating away at it. People are trying to stop it and trying to keep it intact because of it a huge monument.

Ancient Greece was a society with strict norms about how people were expected to behave. Cultural values on the subject of family, authority, respect for the dead and obedience to the gods permeated every aspect of their culture. The Ancient Greeks believed that service to the gods was the most important of the above values and that the gods would lend their favor to those who obeyed them. 'Antigone' by Sophocles is a play that reflects many of these values in its two most significant characters a young woman, Antigone, and her uncle, King Creon. Both Antigone and Creon embody and reject these values in different ways. Sophocles may have intended for Creon and Antigone to be extremely similar characters that are contrasted against each other in order to highlight the idea of the ideal Greek citizen as one who obeys the gods above all.““Antigone” is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, written around 442 BCE.

It deals with Antigone's burial of her brother Polynices (Polyneices), in defiance of the laws of Creon and the state, and the tragic repercussions of her act of civil disobedience.”(SOURVINOU-INWOOD, 6). This play was very popular because it was one of the first drama made. Sophocles writes plays for everyone to go and watch or read. Little did he know he made a whole new genre of plays. The play is mostly drama between two brothers. Still, till this day, people analyze this play. When they analyze this play they get to see what was going on at this time. Not just that but what drama was at the time. This play is still relative till this day so other people can learn from it and write new things.

Born in the year of 384 B.C. Aristotle was seen as conventional for his time, for he regarded slavery as a natural course of nature and believed that certain people were born to be slaves due to the fact that their soul lacked the rational part that should rule in a human being; However in certain circumstances it is evident that Aristotle did not believe that all men who were slaves were meant to be slaves. It was Aristotle's views on the human soul that gave grounds to his arguments for slavery.

It was his beliefs that the soul was divided into two parts, being the rational faculty and the capacity for obeying. Aristotle postulated that a freeman was innately born with the rational faculty while 'A slave is entirely without the faculty of deliberation.'(MILLETT, 3). And with his views, he felt as though it was necessary for there to be a natural ruling order where the body was ruled by the soul, and those with the natural-rational faculty within their soul should rule others without. This relationship, Aristotle found to be an essential element in his idea of master and slave being two parts forming one common entity. It was his belief that a man's body was the representation of his inner self and that it was nature's intentions to distinguish between those who were born to be freemen and those born to be a slave.

The difference between ancient Greek society and our life today is a lot less significant than you would have expected. For a start our multiple modern religions, some of which are very similar to the Ancient Greek religion. The social organizations have hardly changed at all, as we still use monarchies and democracies. Our religions have not changed much compared to the religion of ancient Greece. However man modern day religions only revolve around one God, not multiple gods like the Greeks had. Most religions today also believe there is one God who creates peace, instead of gods who will punish you if you don't do their bidding. One major difference is that women now have equal rights to men, being able to have the same jobs and education, and today even join the police, and the army. There are also very many other things that the Ancient Greeks used that we didn't, although I did not create pages about those things. Ancient Greece was a fascinating civilization, with many skills and techniques of doing things, without our modern machines to help them.

Cite this page