Rowan Jones-Pardy

October 29^th

Comp Civ.

1 A. The Images above are representations of Greek civilisation. To what extent do they depict “authentic community,” and the “essence” or “Golden Age” of civilisation?

For western civilisations today, the ideal that we strive for is one of democracy and power, freedom of the people and a strong economy. The Golden Age of Greece (500-300 BC) was possibly the best example of this. The pictures shown represent the three of the most important parts of Greek culture: battle, their self-expression and the gods and their view of the perfect human body.

The image of the shield represents the mythology and legend surrounding war, the glory that many strained themselves to obtain and the battles that were fought during this time. Greek mythology is centered heavily around battle and adventure

The image of the shield or armour shows the Greek as a powerful civilisation, something all civilisations strive to be. Throughout Greek mythology and legend we hear tell of battles and adventures fought by humans. They take great pride in conquest. Examples of this are Homers tales of Troy and Odysseus’ journey. Furthermore, in a lot of these stories we encounter the idea of the “superhuman”, an ideal that Nietzsche coined as something people in our modern civilisations should aim for. During the golden ages of Greece, their gods certainly weren’t dead but they still managed the reach an ideal we strive for today. Thirdly, the Persian wars were a time of great triumph for the Greeks, defeating the much larger Persian army. As Herodotus said, the Greeks won because they were fighting with nothing to lose and because they were free men. His thesis that the Greeks must survive and keep at bay the Persians because the Greeks were civilised and the Persians barbaric and that the Greeks did win shows how this period was the golden age of civilization because it proves that they were a powerful yet free civilisation.

Art is a large part of every civilisation and during the golden age of the Greeks their artistic concepts grew exponentially. A few of Greeks greatest gifts to humanity came out of this. Including pottery and other art forms such as theatre. Pottery became more delicate and sophisticated along with the art of them as well. The perspective changed and became more life like. Such development could only happen in a prospering civilisation with the space for self-expression 

The ideal form of the human body was something that the Greeks were very interested in. You can see this is in the art and particularly statues of this time. The development of contrapossa and gestural poses in statues made by the likes of Polykleitus are all of men and woman in their perfect physical condition, fit and functioning perfectly. The development of contrapossa shows an advanced understanding of the human body, how it balances and moves. It is important to have this knowledge because it allows for the beginning of physical improvement and arguably part of the reason why Greeks were so successful in wars. On top of that, they used math to understand this.  A civilization where math is used to explain, especially in 500 B.C., truly most be extraordinary.  Socrates and his ideal of the spirit counter posed the ideal body.  He says that one most focus on the quality of soul more than that of the body, showing a balanced civilisation. They both bring humans forward, working on peace of mind and truth with physical perfection, as well as seeking explanations from science as well as the gods.

Ancient Greek was a place of many discoveries and advances in all fields of life, setting the stage for our civilisations today. It is truly a credit to the civilisation that the ancient Greeks developed, that their democracy allowed for so much development and progression of thought as well as all other aspects of life. Were we to live there today we would be shocked at how developed it really was and perhaps our idea of how far we’ve come would be altered.