Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

Although the sculptures, paintings, and buildings discussed in
this chapter were made and built all over Greece and in its many
colonies abroad (MAP5-1), Athens, the capital of Greece today, has
justifiably become the symbol of ancient Greek culture. Athens is
where the great plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were
first performed. And there, in the city’s central square (agora), cov-
ered colonnades (stoas), and gymnasiums (palaestras), Socrates en-
gaged his fellow citizens in philosophical argument, and Plato formu-
lated his prescription for the ideal form of government in the
Republic.Complementing the rich intellectual life of ancient Athens
was a strong interest in physical exercise, which played a large role in
education, as well as in daily life. The Athenian aim of achieving a
balance of intellectual and physical discipline, an ideal of humanistic
education, is well expressed in the familiar phrase “a sound mind in a
sound body.”
The distinctiveness and originality of Greek contributions to
art, science, and politics should not, however, obscure the enormous
debt the Greeks owed to the cultures of Egypt and the Near East.
Scholars today increasingly recognize this debt, and the ancient
Greeks themselves readily acknowledged borrowing ideas, motifs,
conventions, and skills from those older civilizations. Nor should a
high estimation of Greek art and culture blind anyone to the realities
of Hellenic life and society. Even Athenian “democracy” was a politi-
cal reality for only one segment of the demos. Slavery was regarded
as natural, even beneficial, and was a universal institution among the
Greeks. Greek women were in no way the equals of Greek men.
Women normally remained secluded in their homes, emerging usu-
ally only for weddings, funerals, and religious festivals. They played
little part in public or political life. Despite the fame of the poet Sap-
pho, only a handful of female artists’ names are known, and none of
their works survive. Both the existence of slavery and the exclusion
of women from public life are reflected in Greek art. On many occa-

sions freeborn men and women appear with their slaves in monu-

mental sculpture. The symposium(a dinner party that only men and

prostitutes attended) is a popular subject on painted vases.

Although the Greeks invented and passed on to future genera-

tions the concept and practice of democracy, most Greek states, even

those constituted as democracies, were dominated by wellborn

white males, and the most admired virtues were not wisdom and

justice but statecraft and military valor. Greek men were educated in

the values of Homer’s heroes and in the athletic exercises of the

palaestra. War among the city-states was chronic. Fighting among

themselves, the Greeks eventually fell victim to the Macedonians and

Romans.

Geometric and Orientalizing Periods

Disintegration of the Bronze Age social order accompanied the de-

struction of the Mycenaean palaces. The disappearance of powerful

kings and their retinues led to the loss of the knowledge of how to

cut masonry, to construct citadels and tombs, to paint frescoes, and

to sculpt in stone. Even the arts of reading and writing were forgot-

ten. Depopulation, poverty, and an almost total loss of contact with

the outside world characterized the succeeding centuries, sometimes

called the Dark Age of Greece. Only in the eighth centuryBCEdid

economic conditions improve and the population begin to grow

again. This era was in its own way a heroic age, a time when the

poleis of Classical Greece took shape; when the Greeks broke out of

their isolation and once again began to trade with cities both in the

east and the west; when Homer’s epic poems, formerly memorized

and passed down from bard to bard, were recorded in written form;

and when the Olympic Games were established.

100 Chapter 5 ANCIENT GREECE

MAP5-1The Greek world.

Rome

Sperlonga

Naples Pompeii

Paestum

Riace

Gela Syracuse

Pella

Vergina

Sparta

Athens

Anavysos

Marathon

Delphi

Chaeronea

Thebes

Eleusis

Eretria

Argos

Tegea

Sikyon

Corinth

Elis

Olympia

Epidauros

Mycenae

Troy

Pergamon

Phokaia

Ephesos

Priene

DidymaMiletos

Knidos

Knossos

Prinias

Ionian

Sea

Ionian

Sea

Adriatic

Sea

Adriatic

Sea

Aegean

Sea

Aegean

Sea

Black SeaBlack Sea

Sea of

Marmara

Sea of

Marmara

Sea of CreteSea of Crete

Tyrrhenian

Sea

Tyrrhenian

Sea

Mediterranean SeaMediterranean Sea

Sicily

Corfu

Crete

Delos

Chios

Samos

Thasos

Cape

Artemision

Samothrace

Salamis

Aegina

Mt. Olympus

Mt. Pentelicus

Paros

Melos

Thera Rhodes

Siphnos

MACEDONIA

PELOPONNESOS

ATTICA

THRACE

ASIA

MINOR

IONIA

CARIA

ITALY

0 100 200 miles

0 100 200 kilometers