Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks and Greek Religion, Philosophy and Literature

ARETE -- Its most basic meaning is excellence. The Greeks thought, not necessarily of being “good”, but of being “good at”!

What is the most competitive thing you have ever done? Is it OK to quit if you are losing? WHY?

The acropolis became the center of religious life,

The Agora, the marketplace or meeting place, was the center of public life.

Male citizens often wandered about the Agora, carrying on business, talking politics and philosophy or just gossiping.

Farmers from the surrounding fields brought their goods to sell as well as goods made by craftsmen, food for sale as well as cloth, pottery and even books.

Temples and government buildings lined the agora, including army headquarters.

The prison was on one end with a message board displaying upcoming court cases and political issues.

Public buildings were spectacular, but the homes were very common, made of mud bricks.

A center courtyard was hidden from the street, forming the center of the house.

Rooms were off the courtyard: kitchen storeroom dining room bedrooms

Most rooms surrounded the courtyard, even having bathrooms.

Water came from a public fountain.

Food was simple: breakfast, bread, lunch, cheese or olives, dinner, fish and vegetables, with cheese, fruit and cakes made with honey.

Meat was eaten during religious festivals.

Greek women spun and wove cloth, wealthy women had slaves do the work for them.

100,000 slaves lived in Athens, over half the population.

Slaves were prisoners of war, children of slaves, or in debt.

Most were foreigners because Greeks felt uncomfortable owning Greeks.

They worked in the house, the fields, the mines and quarries,

House slaves were treated like family.

Mine slaves had the worst life possible.

Mostly, men were allowed in public; women were at home.

Women enjoyed almost none of the freedoms any male citizen carried: no vote, no say in politics, could not own property.

Priestess were some of the only public women, some were temple prostitutes.

Running a household was the woman’s job.

They made cloth and food, managed slaves and finances.

They were expected to be invisible.

479B.C.- 431B.C. was called the Golden Age of Greece.

Greece grew rich from trade, and silver mined by slaves, as well as tribute payments made by allies.

Amazing achievements were made in arts, philosophy and literature.

Democracy, a vote by the citizens, was at its highest point.

Pericles was a great example of the Greek Golden age.

He was known for his speeches.

Laws were enacted so even the poor could hold public office because they were paid.

Pericles made Athens a beautiful city, when the acropolis was destroyed he built buildings to glorify the patron of the city Athena, creating some of world’s most beautiful buildings and sculptures.

The Parthenon became the most famous, a temple to Athena, with a forty foot statue of Athena made of gold and ivory.

Statue of Athena destroyed later by Turks, but life-sized sculptures from the top of Parthenon were saved by British Lord(Elgin), Called Delian, or Elgin marbles.

Sculptures were made of life-size idealistic heroes, including Olympians, champions of the Greek Olympics, the most famous being diskobolos, the discus thrower.

Greeks worshiped the family of gods and goddesses and the twelve Olympians.

They built temples to gods who were in human form with human characteristics: perfect in form, awesome in power, immortal, living forever.

They worshiped demigods like Achilles and Hercules.

They believed gods were the source of all natural events.

They began to seek out explanations, the first philosophers.

These philosophers, or lovers of wisdom, believed the power of the mind and reason could explain everything.

Greeks were the first to write dramas, the first plays were written and produced in Athens in the 400’s B.C.

Some of the most famous were tragedies, a serious story that ends in disaster for the main character.

In the tragedies, humans were destroyed by making poor choices, but could still obtain glory by being excellent in what they did.

Between scenes a chorus would sing story and of morals, and occasionally with gods interceding,

Playwrights had contests. Comic writers also

competed for a prize making fun of well-known citizens and politicians and the customs, seen as humorous.

Their comedies were like SNL, but with even fewer boundaries!