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Lecture # 5: Ancient Greek Civilization:

Presented by Abul Kalam Azad

Senior Lecturer, GEDNorthern University Bangladesh

E-mail: kalamadd@gmail.com

Introduction No doubt, the present world

civilization is quite awe to the Greek civilization especially in the arena of Politics, Philosophy, Astronomy, Arts, History, Geography and even of sports. In fact, the Greek civilization is the cradle of modern civilization. Let’s discuss in detail.

Orientation of Ancient Greek Civilization

The Greek are one of the people of different countries who are proud of their past achievement. The name Greek is given by the Roman. The country in the present time is known as Greece and the people of the country are called the Greek and their language is called Greek. Greece is the land of many noble and learned persons. Homer (850 BC), Socrates (470-399 BC), Plato (428-347 BC), Aristotle (384-322 BC), Alexander (356-323 BC) the great were some of them. Some particular orientations of ancient Greek civilization as a separate entity may be pointed out below:

No national identity as Greeks but people did identify with their cities;

No Mesopotamian cities, temples, palaces, no Egyptian bureaucracy in Europe;

Warrior culture: Chiefs ruled small territories, fought each other, hunted, engaged in athletic

competitions.

Time Line

  

Around 1700 BC

Developed alphabet Linear A (See Next slide)

Around 1450 BC

Switched to alphabet called Linear B (See Next slide)

776 BC     The first Olympic games.

750 B.C. New Greek alphabet circa = Ancient Greek but with unusual Homeric forms

about 750 BC  

Early Greek culture. Homer writes the epics 'The Iliad' and the 'Odyssey’

508  BC  Democracy begins in Athens   

472 - 410 BC

Greeks theatre thrives in Athens. Many of the most famous Greek plays are written during this time.     

Linear A and Linear B

431 - 404

BC      War between Athens and Sparta (An ancient Greek city famous for military)

404 BC   Sparta defeats Athens.

338 BC    Philip, king of Macedonia, takes control of Greece

336 - 323 BC  

Alexander the Great, son of Philip, conquers most of the known world as far east as India.

146 BC    Rome conquers Greece - Greece becomes part of the Roman empire.  

Where is Greece?

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Greece is a peninsula about the size of Louisiana in

the Mediterranean Sea. very close to Egypt, the Persian empire

(includes Turkey) and Rome. 1,500 miles from England. famous for its beautiful shore and sea! cities were at war with each other. fighters came from the town of Sparta. located among mountains and hills,

surrounded by Mediterranean Sea and limited rich soil

developed independently because of the mountains, thus they were diverse

The famous Greek temple was called the Parthenon

Greek architecture

is best characterizedby the use of columns.

The Climate The climate is Mediterranean. The Mediterranean Sea affects the Greek

climate i.e., the hot and dry summers are cooled by the ‘Meltemia’ (a seasonal gentle wind from the Mediterranean).

The average temperature is 33° whereas in Britain it is 15°.

The average rainfall is 6 mm whereas in Britain it is 76 mm.

The moderate winter is rainy on costal regions and snowy in the mountains.

The average temperature is 15° whereas in Britain it is 4° -10°.

The average rainfall is 65mm whereas in Britain it is over 100 mm.

Terracing saves water and soil in mountainous environments

Technology results from necessity

Greek developed an awesome navy for trading and fighting.

MINOAN (who lived in the bronze-age culture of Crete about 3000-1100 BC) COMMERCE

Commerce was very important Acted as trade intermediary between

civilized and barbarian worlds Exported wool, olive oil and timber in

exchange for other raw materials and luxury items

Built large and technologically advanced merchant and military navy

Greek Inventions The Greeks invented

dice. The Greeks invented

the crane (a tall metal structure with a long horizontal part which is used for lifting and moving heavy objects).

The Greeks were the original Olympiads. Their scientists studied the best way to perform sports

More Greek Architecture

This is a catapult, a Greek invention.

It could throw 300 pound stones at walls and buildings

Greek Military

This is a hoplite, a Greek soldier (middle-class freemen) who had to pay for their own weapon.

Greek religion: polytheistic

Religious worship took place in caves and on mountain tops.

Great Mother Goddess holding snakes symbol of divinity

Government of Athens: the first democracy Democracy: type of government where

people vote. Athens was a direct democracy where people vote on everything. In the Assembly, every male citizen was not only free to attend as often as he pleased but also had the right to debate, offer amendments, and vote on proposals. Every man had a say in whether to declare war or stay in peace. Basically any thing that required a government decision, all male citizens were allowed to participate in. Notably, the U.S. today is a representative democracy, where we vote for people to make decisions for us.

All of Greece wasn’t a democracy. Most of Greece was a monarchy a type of government ruled by a king or queen.

Sparta: was an isolated city-state that was culturally and politically different from Athens. Sparta was an oligarchy, government

ruled by a few. Spartan society was encouraged to be linked with war.

Boys were sent to military school at a young age.

Boys who are born deformed are left to die on mountainsides

Athens

Athenians were rough but were encouraged to engage in activities like art, philosophy, music.

Alexander the Great Alexander was not from

Athens, but Macedonia. Alexander was a brilliant

military strategist. His favorite book was

Homer’s Iliad Alexander conquered the

Persian empire and controlled the largest empire the world has ever seen.

Plato's philosophical views had many societal implications, especially on the idea of an ideal state or government. Now, I’ll discuss the salient features of Plato’s Ideal State as follows:

Justice and Division of ClassThe theory of the state in the Republic culminates

in the conception of justice. Plato gives us his own theory of justice according to which, individually, justice is a 'human virtue' that makes a person self-consistent and good; socially, justice is a social consciousness that makes a society internally harmonious and good. According to Plato, justice is a sort of specialization. In other words, Plato prescribed division of labor in order to ensure justice.

Characteristics of Plato’s Ideal State

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For example, Plato tried to harmonize between human organism and social organism.

Productive Which represents the abdomen (Workers) — the labourers, carpenters, masons, merchants, farmers, ranchers, etc. These correspond to the "appetite" part of the soul.

Protective Which represents Warriors or Guardians — those who are adventurous, strong and brave. These correspond to the "spirit" part of the soul.

Governing Which represents the head (Rulers or Philosopher Kings) — those who are intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, well suited to make decisions for the community. These correspond to the "reason" part of the soul and are very few.

This relationship between human organism and social organism may be understood with the following figure:

Fig: Analogy between human organism and social organism

Function of Different Parts of Ideal StateFunction of Different Parts of Ideal State

Different Parts of Human SoulDifferent Parts of Human Soul

Governing Protective Productive

Wisdom Courage Appetite

Plato’s Education System

Plato in his ideal state drew a greater attention to the education system categorizing into two stages that may be shown with the following figure:

Stages of Plato’s Education System

Preliminary Stage: Up to 18 Years for literature, music & primary mathematics and Rest 2 years (19-20 years) for Gymnastics and military training

Higher Stage: 20- 30 years for Higher Math, Geometry, Astronomy and Music 30- 35 years for Higher Philosophy 35 – 50 years for being experienced through performing lower level state duties and thus those who will be able to prove himself as the wisest will take the duty of state & he will be called philosopher king.

Plato, while understanding the knowledge-level of philosopher king, coined the phrase ‘allegory of the cave’. The allegory depicts ordinary people as living locked in a cave, which represents the world of sense-experience; in the cave people see only unreal objects, shadows, or images. But they begin an ascent out of the cave into reality; this process which allows one to apprehend unchanging objects and thus acquire knowledge. In the allegory, this upward process culminates in the direct vision of the sun, which represents the source of knowledge.

Plato’s Classification of Government

Law-abiding Government

Law-less Government

Monarchy Tyranny

Aristocracy (Supported by Plato)

Oligarchy/ Timocracy

Moderate Democracy

Extreme Democracy

Aristotle’s Classification of Government

Aristotle formulated his classification by asking two questions: who rules? who benefits from the rule?

Aristotle’s Ideal Type Tyranny was the worst form of

government possible – as it reduced citizens to slaves.

Monarchy and Aristocracy were impractical systems – as they were based on a willingness to put the interests of the community before the rulers own.

Polity – rule by the many for the interests of all, was accepted by A as being the most practicable form of systems

The ideal type of political system was one which had elements of both democracy and aristocracy – mixed constitution which left government in the hands of the middle classes.