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Greek Foundations

Homer
Thucydides
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Plato
Aristotle

The Classical Greek Foundations

Internet links on the Ancient Greeks

• Directory of internet sites on the Ancient Greeks organized by academic departments. Classics site contains links to "Women in Antiquity," "Greek Prose Style,"Classical Mythology," and more.
  
  
• A directory of Greek gods, goddesses, and their mythology maintained by Temple's Classics Department.
  
  
• A directory of Greek drama maintained by Temple's Classics Department.

Major Themes in IH 51 by Stephen Zelnick
Greece of the classical period (5th Century B.C.E.) was one of several powerful Mediterranean cultures of the ancient world. Egyptian culture was much older and continued to be politically powerful for a much longer period. The Persians, too, maintained a larger empire and for a longer time; and we have some records of remarkable accomplishments in science and mathematics attained by the Sumerians. Why, then, do we single out the Greeks for special attention?

The answer is simple and straight-forward. The Greeks, and especially the city-state of Athens, left behind an astounding record of themselves -- historians' accounts and administrative records, but more importantly plays, poems, and philosophical dialogues of great beauty and sophistication. It is told that a group of Athenian soldiers were captured by a bitter enemy and were to be put to death. However, when their captors discovered that these Athenians could recite passages from Aeschylus and Sophocles, their lives were spared so that their enemies could enjoy this beauty of language and thought. Even after the Greek city-states had lost their political and economic vitality, Greek scholars and teachers continued to make Hellenic culture essential to the Romans, the later ages of Egyptians, and to the emerging Christian world.

In Intellectual Heritage, we study either  the Homeric epics, which were so influential, indeed almost sacred to the ancient Greeks or plays by either Aeschylus (The Oresteian Trilogy) or by Sophocles (Oedipus, the King and Antigone). We also read several poems by Sappho, an account of a speech by Pericles (which appears in The Peloponnesian Wars, written by Thucydides), and dialogues by Plato (The Republic, or a selection of dialogues including Euthyphro, the Apology, and the Crito).

Western cultures are deeply indebted to these works of the Golden Age of Greece. The debates over various types of political constitutions (aristocracy, democracy, monarchy, etc.) were carried out energetically and recorded in the speech of Pericles and the works of Plato, among others. The ideas in these works have long had a powerful influence on Western thinkers -- Lincoln, for example, is reported to have consulted the speech of Pericles in writing his Gettysburg Address in 1863.

Furthermore, the dialogues of Plato -- in which his teacher Socrates is most often the main character -- provided a powerful model for Western philosophical and religious traditions (one writer has concluded that all of Western philosophy is merely footnotes to Plato). Such important social formations as the Catholic Church owe a debt to Platonic thinking, especially in The Republic.

Greek literature has also had a profound effect upon later developments in Western literature. Sappho wrote lyric poetry of subtle simplicity about desire and love. Although centuries later Church authorities all but obliterated her works from the historical record, we still have enough to retain some sense of the charm and deep humanity of this splendid artist.

Many of the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles (perhaps a quarter of the plays written by Sophocles) were preserved intact over the ages. Their philosophical richness and complexity is matched by the careful craftsmanship of their dramatic design. These Athenian playwrights established the criteria for dramatic construction that influences plays even today. For example, Antigone invites us to think about the relation of human and Divine laws and the meaning of civil disobedience. In the darkest moments of Nazi control in France, the playwright Jean Anouilh brought Antigone to the stage to rally the forces of opposition to inhuman tyranny. The tight construction of Oedipus, the King has taught generations of dramatists how to arouse an audiences involvement with the events on the stage and how, with a few deft strokes, to make a character believable and an object of our deepest concern.

The cultural roots of Western Civilization are deep in the events and productions of the ancient Greeks. Along with the Judeo-Christian heritage, the classical Greeks provide the foundation on which so much that is familiar to us is constructed.