Ancient Greece

The Greek World

• Creative people• Time thinking about purpose of life

• Organizing and doing

• Democracy• History, philosophy, drama and theater ideas born.

• First olympics.• Map of Ancient Greece

Greek Timeline• B.C. and A.D.

– 1500 years ago, a monk worked out a Christian system for dating events, starting with the year he believed Christ was born. He called the years after this event anno Domini (in the year of the Lord) and the years before Christ’s birth are before Christ.

– To data an event before Christ we count backwards from 1.

• Ancient Greek Timeline

Great Greeks!Math & Science

Literature Government & Philosopy

Aristarchus Homer Alexander the Great

Euclid Hesiod Socrates

Archimedes Sappho Phillip II

Eratosthenes Aescchylus Plato

Hipparchus Sophocles Zeno

Pythagoras Euripides Epicurus

Galen Menander Pyrrho of Elis

Democritus Aristotle Diogenes

Thales Pindar Solon

Revolutionary Ideas

• Freedom (every district separated by mountains or the sea = distinct groups)

• No one leader, believe in worth of the individual

• Each person do their very best (excellence) at any task he/she undertook

• Balance Mind and Body• “Nothing in excess” and “Know thyself”

Greek Pottery

• Large deposits of clays available• Red-figured (background painted black and figures

left in natural red of clay) • Black-figured (painted in black over red clay)art• Functional and beautiful• The Greek word for ceramics comes from keramos. This

name came from Keramikos, a part of Athens near or around the Dipylon Gate. Potters lived and produced their wares in this area.

Greek Architecture

• Columns– Doric (Plain)– Ionic (Scrolls)– Corinthian (very ornate)

• Seen in several of the buildings– Parthenon– Temples– Theaters

• Closer Look

First OlympicsMotto: “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Latin:

“Faster, Higher, Braver”) in 1895 by Father Didon, a French Educator

• Goal: to contribute to a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport, which is practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the olympic spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

• Creed: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well.

First Olympics

Olympic Rings Symbol

• Five rings symbolize the five continents represented in the games (Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas)

• Colors of the rings: Blue, Yellow, Black, Green and Red (every country’s flag in these continents has at least one of these colors in it)

Ancient Instrument

• Greek lyre• Made from large tortoise shell

• Similar to Harp of today

• Apollo, the God of Music, played for other Gods on Mount Olympus

Greek Roots

• Many of our words today are borrowed from the Ancient Greeks

• The root of many words like telescope (tele=far off) or thermometer (thermo=heat)

Greek Alphabet

• The word alphabet comes from alpha and beta, the first two characters in the Greek alphabet.

Greek Literature• Iliad and the Odyssey, by blind poet Homer

• Written and recited as songs• Iliad means “poem about Troy”, tells a tale of a great hero or many great heros

• Odyssey, brother to Iliad

Greek Theater

• Our theater comes from Ancient Greece;– Comedy: Play ended happily

• Aristophones

– Tragedy: Play ended sadly.•Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides

Aesop’s Fables

• Aesop was a Greek slave who wrote fables

• Fables are short stories that teach a moral truth.

• Simple plots, animal characters symbolizing human traits and explicitly stated morals