Greece Lesson 3 Greek Religion, Art, and Architecture

Greece Lesson 3: Greek Religion, Philosophy, and Arts

Learn about Ancient Greek religious and philosophical beliefs

Pericles

As leader of Athens, Pericles gave a speech at a funeral of fallen soldiers. In his speech, he said of Athens, “Our constitution favors the many instead of the few. That is why it is called a democracy.” Pericles delivered his speech during the first year of a war with Sparta, another Greek city-state. Eventually it was Sparta that ended Athens golden age of accomplishment.

Open Ended

What does the quote "democracy favors the many instead of the few" mean?

Golden Age of Athens

 The Golden Age of Athens lasted from 479 to 431 BC. During this period, philosophy and the arts flourished in Athens, and democracy reached its highest point. The democratic government of Athens would serve as a model for future civilizations.

 During the Golden Age, Athens grew rich from trade and from silver mined by slaves and regions around the city. Athens also collected tribute, a regular payment made to a powerful state or nation by a weaker one. Both Athens’ allies and the states it had conquered paid tribute, fearing Athens’ great strength. The tribute paid to Athens added to its wealth.

Multiple Choice

How did Athens grow rich during the Golden Age?

• trade

• stealing from other city-states

• silver mined by slaves

• both trade and silver

Multiple Choice

What word means "making payments to a powerful city-state from a weaker city-state?"

• tribute

• democracy

• taxes

• tragedy

Pericles + Democracy

For about 30 years during Athens’ Golden Age, Pericles was the most powerful man in Athenian politics. Well-educated and intelligent, he always tried to act in the best interest of his city. When he made speeches to the Athenians, he could move and persuade them. Pericles was a member of an aristocratic family, but he supported democracy. Aristocrats are members of rich and powerful families.

Multiple Choice

What was the name of the Athenian leader who favored democracy?

• Socrates

• Pericles

• Aristocrat

• Philosopher

Multiple Choice

What word means "a member of a rich and powerful family?"

• democracy

• philosopher

• tribute

• aristocrat

City Officials

Around 460 BC, Pericles became the leader of a democratic group. He introduced reforms that strengthened democracy. One of Pericles' reforms required the city to pay a salary to its officials. This meant that poor citizens could afford to hold public office.

Multiple Choice

What reform did Pericles add that helped poor citizens?

• paying tribute to Athenian leaders

• collecting taxes

• the city paid officials a salary

• taking money from the poor

Greek Religion

Greeks worshipped a family of gods and goddesses called the Twelve Olympians. Each ruled different areas of human life and the natural world. The chart to the right describes some of the 12 Olympians and the areas over which they ruled. The Greeks took great care in honoring their gods. They expressed their gratitude to them and asked them for blessings. They also tried to avoid angering the gods.

Multiple Choice

Who was the king of all the Greek gods/goddesses and had a thunderbolt as his weapon?

• Ares

• Zeus

• Demeter

• Poseidon

Mortals vs. Immortals

Wherever the Greeks lived, they built temples to the gods. Since the gods had human forms, they also had many human characteristics. The gods were different from humans, however, in that they were perfect in their human forms, they had great power, and they were immortal.

Open Ended

Write down the 3 ways that gods were different from humans.

Greek Gods + Goddesses

Mythology tells us that the Greeks worshipped 12 Greek gods led by Zeus, the king of the Gods. Zeus ruled both the gods and men from atop Mount Olympus, Greece’s highest mountain. In addition to the 12 Greek gods, the Greeks worship many lesser ones. They also honored mythical Heroes like Achilles, who fought bravely during the Trojan War. The story of Achilles is told in The Iliad.

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Multiple Choice

Where did all the greek gods and goddesses live?

• Mount Athens

• Mount Zeus

• Mount Hades

• Mount Olympus

​Although the Greeks worship all their gods, each city-state honored just one of the 12 gods, in part by building a temple to that god. To honor Zeus, the city states came together every 4 years for an Olympian festival and games. The modern Olympic games are based on this tradition.

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Multiple Choice

How did each greek city-state honor their gods?

• built a temple for them

• created sculptures of them

• held Olympic Games

• read myths about them

Oracles

In ancient cultures, people often looked to their gods for signs, or advice. They wanted the gods to show them how to live or how to behave. The Greeks visited oracles, sacred sites where a god or goddess was consulted. At the shrines, Greeks would ask the gods for advice or for predictions about their future.

Multiple Choice

What are oracles?

• gods and goddesses

• sacred sites to consult on future

• temples to gods

• sacrificial sites

Oracles

Sometimes the advice came through dreams. Often the answers came in the form of a riddle, delivered by a priest or priestess believed to be able to hear the voices of the Gods. Oracles of various gods were located throughout Greece. Heads of state often sought advice on governing from the oracle of the god Apollo at Delphi, an ancient town in Central Greece. Because such advice was taken very seriously, the oracles had a great effect on Greek history.

Open Ended

Explain why a Greek would visit an oracle.

Greek Philosophy

Most Greeks believed that their gods were the source of all natural events. But about 150 years before the Golden Age of Athens, some people thought about other ways besides missed to understand the world. 

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Philosophy is a system of beliefs or values. Philosophers believed that people could use the powers of the mind and reason to understand natural events. One of the first philosophers, Thales, believed that water was the basic material of the world. He thought that everything was made from it. Democritus who lived in the 400s BC, thought that everything was made of tiny particles he called atoms. More than 2000 years later, scientists still use his ideas about atoms.

Multiple Choice

Who are people that use their minds and logic to understand the world?

• oracles

• atoms

• scientists

• philosophers

Sophists

Beginning in the 600 BC, writers and traveling teachers called Sophists gained popularity in Greece. Sophists were skilled speakers who cleverly debated topics in public. Although they were popular in Athens, some philosophers thought Sophists were more interested in winning debates than in seeking the truth.

Open Ended

What are Sophists?

Important philosophers

During the Golden Age and later, several important philosophers taught in Athens. The ideas of three men, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, had a lasting effect on Modern learning and thinking.

Using the marketplace as his classroom, Socrates eagerly discussed wisdom and goodness with the people of Athens. He asked questions that challenged people's beliefs. His questions often frightened and angered many Athenians.

Open Ended

Why do you think Socrates' ideas angered people?

Trial of Socrates

 In 399 BC, Socrates was brought to trial. The authorities accused him of dishonoring the gods and misleading young people. He was sentenced to death by forced suicide, a common sentence in Athens at the time. Socrates drank a cup of hemlock, a poison, and died.

Multiple Choice

How did Socrates die?

• he was stabbed

• he drank poison

• he hung himself

• old age

Plato + Aristotle

 Much of what is known about Socrates comes from the writings of Plato, one of his students. Socrates' death caused Plato to mistrust democracy. In The Republic, Plato wrote that society should be made up of three groups:  workers, soldiers, and philosopher-rulers. Plato founded a school in Athens called The Academy, where he taught a student named Aristotle. Aristotle believed that reason should guide the pursuit of knowledge. He later founded his own School, the Lyceum.

Multiple Choice

Who was the student of Socrates that wrote about his ideas?

• Aristotle

• Democritus

• Plato

• Socrates

Art and Architecture

 The Greeks used visual arts, such as architecture and sculpture, to glorify and honor their gods. The Greeks are also known as the first playwrights, because they wrote the first plays.

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 The Acropolis, the religious center of Athens, had been destroyed in 480 BC, during one of the city's many wars. Pericles decided to rebuild the Acropolis and create new buildings to glorify the city.

Multiple Choice

What was destroyed during a war in Greece?

• the Acropolis

• the Agora

• the temples

• the oracles

New Acropolis

The builders of the new Acropolis brought Greek architecture to its highest point. Their most magnificent work was the Parthenon, a temple built to the goddess Athena. The temple was made of fine marble. Rows of columns surrounded it on all four sides. Within the column was a room that held a 40 foot statue of Athena, made of ivory and gold.

Open Ended

What was the Parthenon?

Greek Art

 The great statue of Athena disappeared long ago. However, many of the sculpted scenes that decorate the inside and outside of the temple still exist. These scenes have three important characteristics. First, they are full of action. Second, the figures are carefully arranged to show balance and order. Third, the sculptures are lifelike and accurate. However, they are ideal, or perfect, views of humans and animals. The goal of Greek art was to present images of perfection in a balanced and orderly way.

Multiple Choice

What was the goal of Greek art?

• to be expensive

• to be full of action

• to show gods as powerful

• to present images in perfect or ideal ways

Greek plays

Athenians were the first people to write dramas, or stories written to be performed by actors. Among the city's greatest achievements were the plays written and produced in the 400s BC during the Golden Age. These plays soon became popular all over the Greek world.

Open Ended

What are dramas?

Greek tragedy

Some of the most famous Greek dramas were tragedies. A tragedy is a type of serious drama that usually ends in disaster for the main character. Between scenes in the play, a chorus chanted or sang poems. In most plays, the writer used the chorus to give background information, to comment on the events, or to praise the gods. Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles were important authors of tragedies. 

Multiple Choice

What is a serious or sad story called?

• comedy

• drama

• tragedy

Religious Festival

Performances of tragedies were part of contests held during religious festivals. The city chose wealthy citizens to fund these dramatic contests.

Comic writers also competed at the dramatic festivals. During the 400s BC in Athens, these writers wrote comedies that made fun of well-known citizens and politicians and also made jokes about the customs of the day. Because of the freedom in Athens, people accepted the humor and jokes. Aristophanes is probably the best-known Greek comic playwright.

Open Ended

Where were the plays (tragedies and comedies) held?