Chapter Three Lecture Notes
(Divided by lecture)

Lecture 1
Chapter Three
Greek Culture and its Hellenistic Diffusion
Introduction
•	Through all the violence and insecurity during the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, Greeks went through a time of creativity
–	Their best efforts went not only into war and politics, but:
•	Art
•	Literature
•	Philosophy
•	Alexander the Great helped spread Greek culture throughout the known world.
–	Did through a process of diffusion. The conquered people retained their own identities while at the same time adopting Greek ideas.
Art and Literature in Classical Greece
•	Artistic and Literary inspiration stem from two basic sources:
–	Homeric poems
–	Mythology
•	These two traditions provided a valuable source of ideas, which illustrated what it meant to be Greek
•	These ideas were best relayed in early classical Greece through dramas
Art and Literature in Classical Greece
•	Dramas
–	In early times were plays which accompanied religious festivals
–	Performed in open-air amphitheaters
–	Actors paid by the state
–	Well attended  as many as 30,000 might attend one performance
•	The first plays were tragedies which were often based upon mythology and focused upon conflict
–	Tragedy  a hero is faced with a conflict (right/wrong or right/right) and the hero is undone through an unknown personal flaw or by hubris (pride of overconfidence)
Art and Literature in Classical Greece
•	Sophocles (c.495-406 B.C.)
–	Oedipus Rex
•	Euripides (c.484-406 B.C.)
–	Changed the classic form of tragedy
–	Began more person and unheroic themes
•	Aristophanes (c.450-c.388 B.C.)
–	Wrote comedies
•	Early comedy were political satires
•	Around the third century B.C. comedy turn away from politics and to love stories and domestic situations
Art and Literature in Classical Greece
•	History
–	Greeks said to have created history
•	Preserved king lists and recorded the doings of royalty
•	Made history a branch of literature
–	Herodotus, first historian, wrote history on Persian War
•	Reason for history is:
“To preserve the memory of the past by putting on record the astonishing achievements both of our own and of the Asiatic peoples; secondly and more particularly, to show how the two races came into conflict.”
–	Thucydides was another famous Greek historian
•	Believed that human nature was constant and that history therefore repeats itself.
•	If one knows the past, they should avoid similar mistakes in the future.
–	Ecclesiastes 1:9, “there is no new thing under the sun”
Art and Literature in Classical Greece
•	Art
–	They not only made jewelry, armor, and decorated pottery, but they were best known for their:
•	Sculptures
•	Architecture
–	The Greeks built temples for the god of their polis
•	They were basic post-and-lintel
•	Inner sanctuary housed the statue of the deity
•	Surrounded by columns, which supported a sloped roof with triangular pediments on the ends
–	Columns were wider in the middle and tapered gradually towards the top to give illusion known as parallax  made them appear straight
»	Doric  basic column, no base and dull capital
»	Ionic  skinny column, had base and spiral capital
»	Corinthian  similar to Ionic but had leaf motifs on the capitals
–	The triangular end-pieces were decorated with sculptured reliefs of gods, goddesses, and heroes
Art and Literature in Classical Greece
•	Sculpture
–	Was concerned with the lifelike portrayal of the human figure
–	Early statues
–	Formal
–	Abstract
–	Represented: gods, goddesses, heroes, and atheletes
•	Males (koros)  nude and Females (kore) clothed
–	During the sixth century B.C., sculptors began to work toward more aesthetic, lifelike images.
•	Faces and figures became ideal vision of human beauty
•	Phidias and Praxiteles were most famous
•	Most of Greek art was destroyed by early Christians.
–	We know what it looks like from Roman copies.
•	Painting has been lost entirely
–	Greeks loved color and used them on their statues
Greek Thought
•	Earliest philosophical thought concerned the nature of the physical universe
–	Thought to have a Mesopotamian/Egyptian influence
•	Thales of Miletus introduced geometry and astronomy after visiting Egypt
–	Thought to also have encountered the idea that the universe is based upon water from Egypt
•	Empedocles and matter
–	Earth
–	Air
–	Fire
–	Water
•	Leucippus and Democritus  atoms
–	Invisible particles that combined and separated to produce the various forms of matter
Greek Thought
•	Pythagoras
–	Pythagorean Theorem  a2 + b2 = c2
–	Earth revolved around the Sun
•	Sophists  teachers who charged high fees but offered a plan for success in private and public life.
–	Held that truth was objectively unknowable
•	Justice was an interest of the strong
•	The gods were created as means of social control
Greek Thought
•	Socrates (c.470-399 B.C.)
•	Wrote nothing
•	Used logic and irony to make his points
•	Asked open-ended questions and made people feel foolish
–	Executed, drank poison, on charges of corrupting the youth with his teachings
•	Plato (428-347 B.C.)
–	Wrote series of dialogues of which Socrates was the main character in which he discussed ethics, education, government, and religion
•	Republic
–	387 B.C., founded the Academy
•	Mathematics
•	Physical science
•	Philosophy
Greek Thought
•	Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
–	Student of Plato at the Academy
–	Tutor for Alexander the Great
–	336 B.C., established his own school  Lyceum
–	Logic  the process by which statements are formed and related to one another
•	Aristotle codified logic and formed the syllogism
–	The simplest form of an argument
•	If A is B and B is C, then A is C
–	Aristotle’s form dominated logic until the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries
Greek Thought
•	Aristotle continued
–	He observed natural phenomena in what he called the “four causes”
–	Aspects of a problem that had to be considered in it solution
•	Material Cause  matter out of which a thing is made
•	Formal Cause  form or shape of object
•	Final Cause  purpose object is intended to fulfill
•	Efficient Cause  force which brings object into being
Macedonian Conquests
•	Aristotle’s pupil, Alexander, would change the political structure of Greece and spread Greek culture throughout the Middle East
•	Thebans under Epaminondas (Big “E”) command defeated the Spartans by changing their warfare.
–	Hoplites carried shields on the left and shifted toward the right in combat
–	Big “E” changed this by strengthening the left and held back on the right with cavalry on the far right
–	Hause, p. 48, Illustration 3.3
Macedonian Conquests
•	Macedonia  from the north
•	Didn’t have a polis
•	Rural population
•	Rich pastures
•	Raised horses
–	Landholding aristocracy that fought on horseback
–	Seen as primitive
•	Macedonians conquered the Thebans and Athenians in 338 B.C. and began ruling the Greek world
Macedonian Conquests
•	Alexander the Great
–	Army
•	Cavalry armed with sword and spear
•	Infantry 
–	Macedonian phalanx
»	Different from hoplite in that they were poor longer spears
–	Slingers
–	Bowmen
–	Javelin throwers
•	Hoplites added as alliances grew
–	Army fought as one single unit, rather than individual champions
Macedonian Conquests
•	Alexander the Great, continued
–	Conquered from Greece to Egypt and from Egypt to India in ten years
–	Outstanding general of a multiethnic army
–	Drank heavily
–	Died in 323 B.C. at age 32
–	Left no successors
•	His generals divided the land into three main states
–	Macedon, Asia Minor, mainland Greece  Antigonus
–	Egypt  Ptolemy
–	Syria and Mesopotamia to India  Seleucus

Lecture 2
Hellenistic Kingdoms
•	After Alexander the Great died, his kingdom was divided into three main states
–	Antigonids  Greece
–	Ptolemies  Egypt
–	Seleucids  Mesopotamia to India
•	All three of these states were considered Hellenistic and helped the spread of Hellenism throughout the known world.
Hellenistic Kingdoms
•	Seventy Greek cities established
–	Tried to duplicate life like it was done at the polis
•	Individual and the family were all that mattered
–	Adapted Greek law and political institutions, but still could not rid themselves of their own culture
•	Syrians, Persians, and Babylonians
•	Koine, a universal Greek dialect, was spoken but never displaced the native languages
–	Trade
–	Government
•	Open door policy for commerce
–	Trade could be done throughout the entire Hellenistic world.
Hellenistic Kingdoms
•	Alexandria, Egypt
–	Founded by Alexander the Great
–	Population c. 500,000 
•	Greeks, Macedonians, Egyptians, and Jews
–	Lighthouse (c.400 ft)
–	Museum/Library
•	The intellectual center of Hellenistic world
•	Research center
–	Also the cultural center for the Hellenistic world
Hellenistic Science, Philosophy, and Religion
•	Aristarchus
–	Sun was center of universe around which the Earth and planets revolved.
•	Eratosthenes
–	Calculated the circumference of the Earth within 50 miles of modern numbers
–	Devised a calendar with leap years
•	Archimedes
–	Catapults and compound pulleys
•	Military and civil uses
–	Levers
–	Solids can be weighed by measuring the amount of water they displace
Hellenistic Science, Philosophy, and Religion
•	Hippocratic Oath
–	Human body and the Four Humors
–	Blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm
•	Good health was determined by keeping a balance of the humors
•	Too much blood could be reduced by bleeding
–	Egyptian surgery and anatomy
•	Art  reflection of individualism
–	Move from idealism to realism
–	Dramatic, expressive, detailed
Hellenistic Science, Philosophy, and Religion
•	Philosophy
–	Political theory  prescriptions for good life
–	Cynics
•	The best life was lived closest to nature
•	Wisdom lay in abandoning worldly goods and ambition
–	Stoics (founded by Zeno who was a Cynic)
•	Harmony with nature was essential
•	Harmony did not always mean things would turn out good for the individual.
–	Sickness, death, and misfortune could not be escaped only endured
•	Good life found not in what happens but how one reacts
•	Offered an ethic code and means of understanding and accepting hostility.
•	Most popular among the educated and upper classes
•	Would influence the development of Christianity
Hellenistic Science, Philosophy, and Religion
•	Philosophy
–	Epicureanism
•	The universe was composed of atoms
•	Growth and dissolution were inevitable therefore the greatest good was personal pleasure.
•	Pleasure meaning a peace of mind and the absence of pain
•	Philosophy effected the upper class educated and religion effected the others
•	Religion
–	Emphasis on tyche, or fate
–	Mystery religions
•	Guarantee of personal immortality, often through the intervention of a god or goddess who came to Earth in human form and suffered for the sins of humankind.
Hellenistic Jews
•	Jews were among those who resisted Hellenistic influences
•	They lived in nearly every city as small tradesmen
•	Would often gather into their own communities to preserve their religious and cultural identity
–	Ghetto
•	Greek love of speculation and aesthetic emphasis on beauties of nature and the perfection of the human body were inconsistent with the Law
•	Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV introduced the worship of Zeus at the temple in Jerusalem.
•	Led to a revolt by the Maccabees and resulted in an independent Jewish state.
•	Civil War over Maccabees forced conversion of conquered lands
–	Sadducees  supporters of the Maccabees government
–	Pharisees  wanted to return to the Law and traditional Jewish values
Temple of Zeus at Olympia
Realism       vs.      Idealism
Goose Boy
Drunken Old Woman
Laocoon