...Greek Culture In ancient Greece, the polytheistic religion practiced in the form of cult practices. Different cities worshipped different gods for example: Athens had Athena; Sparta had Artemis; Corinth worshipped Aphrodite; Delphi and Delos had Apollo; Olympia had Zeus. Zeus de-throned his father Cronus and Zeus banished Cronus with the Titans that fought with Cronus. Titans were also known as the elder gods. They ruled the earth before the Olympians overthrew them. The 12 Olympians were: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, Artemis, and Hephaestus. The other gods were: Asclepius, Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus, Eros, Hebe, Eris, Helius, Thanatos, Pan, Nemesis, The Graces, The Muses, The Erinyes, and The Fates. The Greek religion spans a period from Minoan and Mycenean periods to the days of Hellenistic Greece and its ultimate conquest by the Roman Empire. The religious ideas developed and evolved over the course of history. By the time of the earliest major monument of Greek literature, the lliad attributed to Homer, a consensus had developed with respect to the major Olympian gods. The lliad seems to have been unaware of Dionysus, a god whose worship spread after it was written and who later became important enough to be named one of the 12 chief Olympian gods. The Olympian gods, also known as Heroes, were demigods. They were deified humans who were part of local legendary history; they also had local hero-cults, and often served...
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...The Greeks art has both political and religious context told by individuals who adopted or supported religious history and art with their spiritual, ethical, and intellectual experiences. I do think Greek art often represents events relevant to the Greek religion and politics. The religion and politics of art was threw sacred writings, pomes of Homer, religious festival, sculptures, shrines and temples, art works and paintings. Greek religion and political art had influence and spread far as west Spain, east to Indus river, and throughout the Mediterranean world. The romans identified their gods and or goddesses with those of the Greeks and surveying through the Christianity period as saints. The Greek religion was the belief in specific human...
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...The Ancient Greek World: Religion Throughout the world, many are faced with the question of religion: who and what we believe in. This question has caused wars, political arguments, debates, and the list goes on. Religion opens up the minds to profound possibilities and questions throughout our world of history and across cultural boundaries. Religion can enlighten our knowledge of other worlds and disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and literature. Taking a look back into our ancient world you can see the cultural impacts that began and influenced different views on how our world began. With formal rituals which included animal sacrifices and libations, myths to explain the origins of mankind and...
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...In the course of history, beliefs and religion have played a major role in ancient civilizations. Beliefs and rituals have considerably influenced people in many ways and are also shown today with religion becoming a major factor in our daily lives especially in how we might act and think. Significantly, ceremonies and rituals were demonstrated mainly in ancient societies that it can be considered as extreme practices. These customs are all unique and different to each civilization that it depicts a large portion of how people lived, which were mainly based off of their beliefs. To emphasize, the ancient civilizations of the Egyptians, Greeks, and the Aztecs, all have notable rituals in their society that it has a significant portrayal of how we might recognize and resonate their culture with....
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... Page 1 Mr.Brown Honors World History 14 April 2013 Roman and Greeks Correlations There are many differences between the Greeks and Romans. There are so many similarities between the two because Romans adopted the Greek religion and everything they did in life. One difference between them is the religion even though the Romans adopted it there are differences. Another difference is architecture like the Greeks the Romans also did gods for their architecture, but there are many differences. The last difference would have to be art while the Greeks did body the Romans did nature and power. Even though they were the same almost there are many different correlations. First one thing that was the same with the Greeks and Romans but had different attributes was architecture. One difference between their architecture was the materials. The early classical period of Greece used bronze. bowserguy62 When they started to advance they used white marble and painted it. The Romans also used white marble to make their architecture however they didn’t paint it. Another example is their styles and inspiration. Greeks often did depictions of their gods in heroic nudes and mainly the male figure was idealized. Even though the Romans did do gods they often did nobles or emperors that were naturalistic. Greeks did sculpture in architecture and also did free- standing sculpture just like the Romans did. When it they did free-standing...
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...regions. The Hellenistic civilization and culture encompasses a blend between the Ancient Greek culture, religion and art and the South-West Asia art, culture and religion. The Head of Bodhisattva contained in the Cantor Museum encompasses the head of a Buddhist being that easily attained Buddhahood, but forgoes his Nirvana with the aim of aiding those in the world to walk in the Buddhist path. This Head was created in the Gandhara Ancient kingdom located in South West Asia. This Head was created using the Gandhara or Greco-Buddhist art that was highly influenced by Hellenistic Art. The Head of Alexander the Great encompasses an art created during the Hellenistic Civilization that spread after the Conquests of Alexander the Great. The fact that both The Head of Alexander the Great and The Head of Bodhisattva were created under Hellenistic and Greco-Buddhist art, cultural, religious and artistic connections can be identified between them. Cultural Connections Both Heads were created during the Hellenistic civilization whose major characteristic was the Hellenistic culture. This culture was however influenced by the indigenous cultures of the conquests culminating into the Greco Buddhist culture. During the creation of both heads the main language utilized in Alexandria where The Head of Alexander the Great was discovered and Gandhara where The Head of Bodhisattva was discovered was Greek. Essentially in the Greco-Buddhist culture under which The Head of Bodhisattva was produced...
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...Country Analysis - Greece Bordering the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea in southern Europe,Greece is a country of mostly mountains with ranges extending into the sea as peninsulas or chains of islands. From wet winters, to hot and dry summers, greece is a popular tourist destination. With nearly 4.5 million people in the Athens area, Greece is populated with nearly 10 million people in which a parliamentary democracy exists. 300 people are elected whom form the parliament which conducts the legislative duties of the government.The political party collects approximately 151 seats in the parliamental duties of the administration. The president automatically becomes prime minster and then gets appointed to become cabinet ministers. The actual ‘president’ is elected by the parliament for a five year term. The current ‘chief of state’ is President Karolos Papoulias and the head of government is Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. As you are aware, Greece’s economy isn’t doing too well lately. Greece has a capitalist economy which means it has an economic system based on private ownership of capital. 40 percent of the countries GDP is accounted from a public sector. Tourism provides fifteen percent, in which we will discuss later. Between 2003 and 2007 the economy grew nearly four percent per year. This is partially due to the 2004 Olympic games which also resulted in an increased availability of...
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...The cultural fundamentals of Greek philosophy helped shape the Roman Republic and the empire they ruled. Under both the Greeks and the Romans, the Mediterranean basin became much more tightly integrated than before as both societies organized commercial exchange and sponsored interaction throughout the region ( Bently, Ziegler & Street 2008). The Mediterranean basin, North Africa, parts of Asia and much of Europe was dominated by the Romans at the height of their rule. Five hundred years before B.C.E., until five hundred years after C.E., the Roman Empire was one of the most flourishing empires of its time and era. The Greeks and the Roman government differed greatly. One difference was that the Romans shared their citizenship and became alliances with conquered countries, which allowed them to trade with Rome, have roman spouses and even become citizens of Rome. They also allowed them to run their internal government without the Roman government taking over. These types of well-liked changes allowed Rome to become the most powerful influences of their time. The Roman government, the wars they fought and the religion they believed in, all had influences on their territories and the world as it is today. Shaping of Wars Wars have always been a part of shaping countries. Wars that the Greeks and the Romans ran throughout their empires and conquering territories, helped shape the world as they knew it. Around the fifth century B.C.E, the Greek Peninsula began wars with Persia...
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...The Hellenistic Age or Hellenistic World was an age where Greek and conquered cultures integrated together. It made a huge impact on society by the spreading and diffusion of cultures, the East meeting the West. The important lesson in this era was the lesson in change and continuity. It was also a period of uncertainty which the Greeks slowly learned to adapt to. However, Alexander the Great's conquests had remarkable effect on the civilizations during this time as well. Alexander, along with his leading generals swept across Egypt, in the Middle-east, and Persia's into India becoming key players in the spread of Hellenistic culture. There various type of changes that occurred during Hellenistic age. It brought about new political and philosophical concepts. Epicureanism held that people could achieve happiness only by withdrawing from public life and, through the exercise of reason, freeing themselves from all sources of anxiety, including a belief in gods. Epicureanism also opened philosophical activity to all despite gender or social condition. Stoicism did so as well through its idea of a world society bound by a shared search for harmony with the Logos. Everyone could achieve this harmony by their passions through reason. Stoicism also encouraged participation in public life to foster harmony throughout world society. Skepticism denied that there is one true path to happiness. In its most sophisticated form, it insisted on the limits of reason, encouraging adherents...
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...Americans owe many aspects our culture to the Greeks. The biggest contribution that they have made to our country, in my opinion, is our government. Athens was the birthplace of Democracy, and without them we would not have the model that we based our country’s government on. The values of freedom, and the right to have our say in how things are done in our society come directly from them. We also owe a huge part of our knowledge of the ancient world to them, as they were the first to have an actual written history (different from the hieroglyphs that the Egyptians used). A lot of history would have been lost in the past if not for them. Much of our modern day literature can also be attributed to the stories told by them; it’s where a lot of our archetypes come from, such as the epic. Also, let’s not forget about theater, which also comes from them. In fact, many of our theaters here in the U.S. are modeled after their amphitheaters. Lastly, we owe quite a...
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...civilization. For all the cultures habitation and finding food is depend on the environments that they placed on and all the cultures are in relation with each other. A Senegalese social scientist Cheikh Anta Diop has a theory about the roots of the civilization. He supports that Ethiopians and the Egyptians played a key role in the processing of civilization by their developments in science, art and religion. These developments were required for the adaptation of the people. The Greeks interiorized the elements of civilization which they inspired from Egyptians, continued to develop them and spread them to the Eurasians. The Greek philosophers and scholars thoughts were shaped by the Egyptians. Their style of architecture was similar with the Egyptians’. They also effected from Egyptians’ literature like fables. One of the French writers, La Fontaine, inspired from a Greek writer, Aesop. Diop also claim that Greeks impressed their gods from Egypt. He proved that with the foreign sources which were mostly written by Egyptians. Apart the theory of Diop, there is a big relation between religion and civilization. People had found supernatural solutions or explanations for natural problems like climate change, volcanic eruptions or darkness and lightness and they also have a supernatural solution for fertility – mother goddess which was a symbol of fertility – which was very important for the people who have...
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...When the Greeks interacted with other cultures, they spread their culture to all parts of the world and history. They had the audacity to branch out to other areas of life that other civilizations had tried to dwell in before. Because of their discoveries, this therefore influenced the rest of the world, but did not change it. One of their major influences was politics and religion. With politics, the Greeks discovered through trial and error that Democracy worked for them, and that tyranny and anarchy did not. They also tested oligarchy and monarchies, which appeared to work, and are found throughout history and in the modern day world. Religion was another aspect that influenced the western world. The Greeks were polytheistic by nature,...
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...Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon, known as Alexander the Great (21 July 356 BCE – 10 or 11 June 323 BCE), was the son of King Philip II of Macedon. He became king upon his father’s death in 336 BCE at the age of 20 and went on to conquer most of the known world of his day. He is known as 'the great' both for his military genius and his diplomatic skills in handling the various populaces of the regions he conquered. He is further recognized for spreading Greek culture, language, and thought from Greece throughout Asia Minor, Egypt, and Mesopotamia to India and thus initiating the era of the "Hellenistic World". His legacies of cities named “Alexandria,” Greek-style art and the use of government workers are just a few examples of his leadership. Alexander’s takeover of power upon the murder of his father included moving swiftly to secure his army and killing anyone that denied his claim to rule. Once Alexander destroyed the Greek city Thebes, it forced the Greeks to recognize him as his father’s successor. When Alexander had Greece under his power, it was his intent to move on to Persia just as his father had wanted to. Persia was not as powerful as it once had been, but still had a strong army that put invaders at a disadvantage. In 334 B.C.E., Alexander won his first victory at the Granicus River in northwestern Anatolia. Alexander’s battle strategies could not be matched with his quick countermeasures and his ability to plan and anticipate enemy moves made...
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...It became a time of social lavish displays of wealth and success. Hellenisitc kingship was a dominant political system in the Greek East for almost three centuries. It was a time where Royal families lived in impressive palaces with extravagant banquet halls, elaborately decorative rooms and lavish exotic gardens. Festivals and court entertainments were held where patrons could gather and mingle and boastfully display their wealth and social status. This lead way to an increase in demand and appreciation of artistry, sculptures, jewelry, and new heights and ingenuity in architectural development. Private luxury items like jewelry, for example, became artistic in nature as well, as new elaborate forms and rare and unique stones we incorporated into their dress and fashion displays. These precious stones were available now through newly established trade routes. Because...
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...In the victory of the Persian war, the Greek citizens proved that unity is better than scattered power. Unlike the Persians, who were a loosely held together empire, the Greeks are a number of small, but tightly knitted together city-states. “... the Greeks regarded themselves as a single people, united by language, religion and custom…” The Greeks were bonded together through common tales such as the Trojan war, all spoke the same language, and were all fighting for a single cause. This made the Greeks tightly bonded and willing to fight and give up their lives for each other. The Greeks were strongly bonded together, whereas the Persians were not. Although the Persians were the most powerful Empire in the entire world during 4th century BCE...
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