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Post by sistergoldenhair on Mar 1, 2004 11:41:52 GMT -5
In the late classical period (400-300 BC) there was increased emphasis on the expression of emotion in art. Sculptural works attributed to Praxiteles are characterized by elegance of proportion and graceful beauty. Powerful emotional effects are typical of the sculpture in the style of Scopas, and a new feeling for individualization and three-dimensional movement appeared in the art of Lysippos. Other sculptors of the period between 500 and 300 BC were Myron, Kresilas, Timotheus, and Bryaxis; painters included Polygnotus, Apollodorus, Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and Apelles. Aside from literary references, little is known about the actual work of these men. The style of the sculptors is adduced from fragments and Roman copies. Even less is known about the painters. From the vase paintings some reconstruction of the Greek school of mural painting is possible.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greekart_TheLateClassicalPeriod.asp)
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Post by sistergoldenhair on Mar 1, 2004 11:43:44 GMT -5
With the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek art entered its last great phase, the Hellenistic period (see Hellenistic civilization . The importance of Athens gradually declined, and cultural centers rose at Pergamum, Rhodes, and Alexandria. Masterpieces of this period include the Nike ( Victory ) of Samothrace and Aphrodite of Melos (both: Louvre) and the Pergamum Frieze (Berlin Mus.). Especially charming among the minor arts are terra-cotta figurines from Tanagra. Marked tendencies toward heightening spatial illusionism are revealed in sculpture and, judging from Roman copies, prevailed also in painting (e.g., Odyssey Landscapes, Vatican).
From the 2d cent. BC onward copies of former masterpieces of sculpture, which only approximate their prototypes, appear frequently along with vigorous group compositions closely related to the Pergamene school (e.g., Laocoön and His Sons, Vatican). Greek and Roman artists produced these copies of former masterpieces for private patrons or the Roman state, and most of our knowledge of classical Greek art is derived from them. Although the inventive originality of Greek culture declined at this time, its influence remained of paramount importance during the Roman and Byzantine periods, and has continued to be an inspiring force throughout the history of Western culture.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greekart_TheHellenisticPeriod.asp)
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Post by sistergoldenhair on Mar 1, 2004 11:44:21 GMT -5
J. D. and A. B. Beazley, Greek Sculpture and Painting (1965); G. M. A. Richter, Handbook of Greek Art (5th ed. 1967); J. Charbonneaux, Archaic Greek Art (1971); J. Boardman, Greek Art (rev. ed. 1973); M. Robertson, History of Greek Art (2 vol., 1976); J. J. Pullitt, Art in the Hellenistic Age (1986).
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greekart_Bibliography.asp)
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Post by sistergoldenhair on Mar 1, 2004 11:56:51 GMT -5
Introduction
Member of the Indo-European family of languages. It is the language of one of the major civilizations of the world and of one of the greatest literatures of all time. Many modern scientific and technical words in English and other Western languages are derived from Greek, and it has been estimated that 12% of the English vocabulary is of Greek origin.
Ancient Greek
By the 16th cent. BC, Greek-speaking people were established in Greece, probably having come as invaders from the north. In antiquity there were a number of dialects of the Greek language, the most important of which were Aeolic, Arcadian, Attic, Cyprian, Doric, and Ionic. Ancient Greek was prevalent in the Balkan peninsula, the Greek islands, W Asia Minor, S Italy, and Sicily. Because of the political and cultural importance of Athens in the classical period of Greek history, the Athenian dialect, Attic, became dominant. From Attic there developed an idiom called the koinē, which means “common” or “common to all the people” and which became a standard form of Ancient Greek.
After Alexander the Great the koinē developed into an international language that remained current in the central and E Mediterranean regions and in parts of Asia Minor and Africa for many centuries. Most of the New Testament was written in the koinē, which helped to gain a wide audience for Christianity. Byzantine Greek, based on the koinē, was the language of the Byzantine or East Roman Empire, which lasted from AD 395 until it was crushed by the Turks in 1453.
The earliest surviving texts in Ancient Greek are of the 15th cent. BC and are written in a script known as Linear B, which was deciphered in 1953 by Michael Ventris . Later documents, including inscriptions and literary works, are written in the Greek alphabet, which was derived from the script of the Phoenicians c.9th cent. BC A variety of the Greek alphabet is still used today for the Greek language.
Modern Greek
Modern Greek stems directly from the Attic koinē and dates from the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. The official language of Greece and one of the official languages of Cyprus, Modern Greek is spoken today by about 12 million people, chiefly in Greece and the Greek islands (10 million speakers), Turkey (600,000), Cyprus (550,000), and the United States (390,000). The Greek language has not changed much in its long history. The differences are largely in pronunciation and vocabulary, but they also include divergences in grammar. Modern Greek, for example, has absorbed a number of loan words from Turkish and Italian, although its vocabulary is essentially that of Ancient Greek.
The spoken form of Modern Greek, however, differed markedly from the written form until recently. The latter, referred to as katharevousa, was used by the government, the schools, and the mass media until the mid-1970s and is much more like Ancient Greek than the spoken form, which is called dēmotikē. Dēmotikē, the language of popular speech, has more foreign loan words and a simpler grammar than katharevousa. Although a literature in dēmotikē developed during the 20th cent., it was not until 1976 that it was accepted as the official written Greek language.
Distinctive Characteristics
Both the nouns and verbs of Ancient Greek were highly inflected. Verbs had active, middle, and passive voices; indicative, subjunctive, optative, and imperative moods; singular, dual, and plural numbers; and many tenses. Nouns had three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and five cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and vocative). Unlike Latin, Greek had a word for the definite article. Three accent marks are used in Greek, the acute (´), the grave (`), and the circumflex (ˆ). In Ancient Greek they denoted a pitch accent related to the length of vowels, but in Modern Greek they serve as a stress accent. A symbol known as a rough breathing over an initial vowel represented the h sound in Ancient Greek, while the symbol for a smooth breathing over an initial vowel made clear the absence of aspiration. Though still retained today, the breathing marks no longer indicate pronunciation. In punctuation, the semicolon ( ; ) stands for the question mark, and a raised dot denotes the semicolon and colon.
Bibliography
P. S. Costas, An Outline of the History of the Greek Language (1936); E. H. Sturtevant, The Pronunciation of Greek and Latin (2d ed. 1940); O. Eleftheriades, Modern Greek: A Contemporary Grammar (1985).
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/G/Greeklan.asp) (http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greeklan_AncientGreek.asp) (http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greeklan_ModernGreek.asp) (http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greeklan_DistinctiveCharacteristics.asp) (http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greeklan_Bibliography.asp)
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Post by sistergoldenhair on Mar 1, 2004 12:03:51 GMT -5
Early Writings
The earliest extant European literary works are the Iliad and the Odyssey, both written in ancient Greek probably before 700 BC, and attributed to Homer . Among other early epic poems, most of which have perished, those of Hesiod, the first didactic poet, remain. The poems dealing with mythological subjects and known as the Homeric Hymns are dated 800-300 BC Only fragments survive of the works of many early Greek poets, including the elegiasts Tyrtaeus, Theognis, Solon, Semonides of Amorgos, Archilochus, and Hipponax. The most personal Greek poems are the lyrics of Alcaeus, Sappho and Anacreon. The Dorian lyric for choral performance, developed with Alcman , Ibycus, and Stesichorus achieved perfection in Pindar, Simonides of Ceos, and Bacchylides.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greeklit-a_EarlyWritings.asp)
The Classical Period
Greek drama evolved from the song and dance in the ceremonies honoring Dionysus at Athens. In the 5th cent. BC tragedy was developed by three of the greatest dramatists in the history of the theater, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Equally exalted was the foremost exponent of Attic Old Comedy, Aristophanes. Other writers who developed this genre included Cratinus and Eupolis, of whom little is known. The rowdy humor of these early works gave way to the more sedate Middle Comedy and finally to New Comedy, which set the form for this type of drama. The best-known writer of Greek New Comedy is Menander.
The writing of history came of age in Greece with the rich and diffuse work of Herodotus, the precise and exhaustive accounts of Thucydides, and the rushing narrative of Xenophon. Philosophical writing of unprecedented breadth was produced during this brief period of Athenian literature; the works of Plato and Aristotle have had an incalculable effect in the shaping of Western thought.
Greek oratory, of immense importance in the ancient world, was perfected at this time. Among the most celebrated orators were Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus, Lycurgus, Aeschines, and, considered the greatest of all, Demosthenes . “Classical” Greek literature is said to have ended with the deaths of Aristotle and Demosthenes (c.322 BC). The greatest writers of the classical era have certain characteristics in common: economy of words, direct expression, subtlety of thought, and attention to form.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greeklit-a_TheClassicalPeriod.asp)
Later Greek Literature
The next period of Greek literature reached its zenith in Hellenistic Alexandria, where a number of major philosophers, dramatists, poets, historians, critics, and librarians wrote and taught. New genres such as bucolic poetry emerged during the Hellenistic period, a time also characterized by scholarly editions of classics from earlier periods. The poems of Callimachus, the bucolics of Theocritus, and the epic of Apollonius Rhodius are recognized as major works of world literature.
The production of literary works at the time of the establishment of Roman control of the Mediterranean was enormous, a vast heterogeneous mixture ranging from the sublime to the pedantic and turgid. A great portion of the works produced have been lost. With the Roman political subjugation of Greece, Greek thought and culture, introduced largely by slave-tutors to the Roman aristocracy, came to exert enormous influence in the Roman world. Among the greatest writers of this period were the historians Polybius, Josephus, and Dio Cassius; the biographer Plutarch; the philosophers Philo and Dio Chrysostom; and the novelist Lucian. One great Roman work produced under Greek influence was the philosophical meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
With the spread of Christianity, Greek writing took a new turn, and much of the writing of the Greek Fathers of the Church is eloquent. Religion dominated the literature of the Byzantine Empire, and a vast treasury of writing was produced that is not generally well known to the West The most notable exception is the work of some historians (e.g., Procopius, Anna Comnena, George Acropolita, and Emperor John VI) and some anthologists (e.g., Photius).
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greeklit-a_LaterGreekLiterature.asp)
Bibliography
The Loeb Classical Library offers text and translations of most of the extant ancient Greek literature. See T. F. Higham and C. M. Bowra, The Oxford Book of Greek Verse (1938); C. M. Bowra, Ancient Greek Literature (1960); C. M. Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry from Alcman to Simonides (rev. ed. 1961); H. J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Literature from Homer to the Age of Lucian (4th ed. 1961); H. D. F. Kitto, Poiesis: Structure and Thought (1966); Cambridge History of Classical Literature; Vol. I (1985); and C. R. Beye, Ancient Greek Literature and Society (1987).
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greeklit-a_Bibliography.asp)
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Post by sistergoldenhair on Mar 1, 2004 12:08:05 GMT -5
Ancient Greek Music
The music of ancient Greece was inseparable from poetry and dancing. It was entirely monodic, there being no harmony as the term is commonly understood. The earliest music is virtually unknown, but in the Homeric era a national musical culture existed that was looked upon by later generations as a “golden age.” The chief instrument was the phorminx, a lyre used to accompany poet-singers who composed melodies from nomoi, short traditional phrases that were repeated. The earliest known musician was Terpander of Lesbos (7th cent. BC). The lyric art of Archilochus, Sappho, and Anacreon was also musical in nature.
In the 6th cent. BC, choral music was used in the drama, for which Pindar developed the classical ode. The main instruments at this time were the aulos, a type of oboe associated with the cult of Dionysus, and the kithara, a type of lyre associated with Apollo and restricted to religious and hymnic use. This classical style of composition decayed in the last quarter of the 5th cent. BC
After the fall of Athens in 404 BC, an anti-intellectual reaction took place against the classical art, and by about 320 BC it was almost forgotten. The new style, which resulted in the rise of professional musicians, was marked by subjective expression, free forms, more elaborate melody and rhythms, and chromaticism. The chief musical figures were Phrynis of Mitylene (c.450 BC), his pupil Timotheus of Miletus, and the dramatist Euripides. Finally, ancient Greek music lost its vitality and dwindled to insignificance under the Roman domination.
There were two systems of musical notation , a vocal and an instrumental, both of which are, though still problematic. They are decipherable largely because of the Introduction to Music written by Alypius (c.AD 360). In spite of the prominent position of music in the cultural life of ancient Greece, only 15 musical fragments are extant, all which date from the postclassical period. Early in its history, Greek music benefited from the discovery, usually attributed to Pythagoras of Samos, of the numerical relations of tones to divisions of a stretched string. The temperament , or Pythagorean tuning, derived from this series of ratios has been important throughout subsequent music history.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greekmus_AncientGreekMusic.asp)
Modern Greek Music
Dormant for nearly two thousand years, Greek music underwent a musical rebirth in the 19th cent. with the works of the opera composers Nikolaos Mantzaros (1795-1872), Spyridion Xyndas (1812-96), and Spyros Samaras (1861-1917). Elements of nationalism are prevalent in the folklike songs of George Lembalet (1875-1945) and Manos Hadjidakis (1925-94). Introduced in Greece by Nikos Skalkottas (1904-49), serial music has been composed by Yorgos Sicilianos and by Iannis Xenakis, who also writes electronic music . During the late 20th cent. Greece's most popular composer was probably Mikis Theodorakis (1925-), whose opposition to military rule during the 1960s and 70s cost him several years of imprisonment and precipitated the banning of his operas, symphonic works, film scores (most notably for Zorba the Greek), and hundreds of songs.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greekmus_ModernGreekMusic.asp)
Bibliography
C. Sachs, The Rise of Music in the Ancient World (1943); E. A. Lippman, Musical Thought in Ancient Greece (1964).
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Greekmus_Bibliography.asp)
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Post by sistergoldenhair on Mar 1, 2004 12:14:29 GMT -5
Introduction
(spär´te) City of ancient Greece, capital of Laconia, on the Eurotas (Evrótas) River in the Peloponnesus.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/S/Sparta.asp)
History
Early History Located in a fertile, mountain-walled valley, the city-state of Sparta was created by invading Dorian Greeks, who later conquered the countryside of Laconia and Messenia (c.735-715 BC). For a long time the Spartans had no city walls, trusting to the strength of their army for defense against invaders and against their own Laconian and Messenian subjects. In the 7th cent. BC Sparta enjoyed a period of wealth and culture, the time of the poets Tyrtaeus and Alcman. After 600 BC, however, Sparta cultivated only the military arts, and the city became an armed camp, established (according to the official legend) by Lycurgus, in reaction to a Messenian revolt (see Messenia).
The Persian and Peloponnesian Wars By the 6th cent. BC, Sparta was the strongest Greek city. In the Persian Wars, Sparta fought beside Athens, first at Thermopylae (480), under Leonidas; later that year at Salamis; and in 479 at Plataea (won by Pausanias). Before 500 BC, Sparta had formed a confederacy of allies (the Peloponnesian League), which it dominated. Through the league and by direct methods Sparta was master of most of the Peloponnesus.
After the Persian Wars rivalry with Athens sharpened, and Athens grew stronger. An earthquake at Sparta (464 BC), followed by a stubborn Messenian revolt, greatly weakened Sparta. In the end a contest with Athens came indirectly, provoked by Corinthian fears of Athenian imperialism. This was the great Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), which wrecked the Athenian empire.
Soon after their victory over Athens the dominant Spartans, led by Agesilaus II, were involved in a war with Persia; then the Spartan envoy Antalcidas concluded (386 BC) a treaty with Artaxerxes II by which Sparta surrendered the Greek cities of Asia Minor in return for withdrawal of Persian support from the Athenians, who were again at war with Sparta, and from the Athenians' allies, the Thebans. Thebes fought on and by the victory at Leuctra (371 BC) gained ascendancy in Greece. Sparta fell an easy prey to Macedonia and declined. In the 3d cent. BC there were determined but futile attempts by kings Agis IV (see under Agis) and Cleomenes III and by Nabis (d. 192 BC) to restore glory to Sparta by vigorous reforms. Under the Romans, Sparta prospered. It was devastated by the Goths in AD 395. The ruins of old Sparta, including sanctuaries and a theater, remain near the modern city of Sparta.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Sparta_History.asp)
Spartan Society
Sparta's government was headed by two hereditary kings furnished by two families; they were titular leaders in battle and in religion. Some of these kings were able (e.g., Cleomenes I, Leonidas, and Agis II), but all were held in check. There was a council of elders and a general assembly of citizens; but the real rulers were the board of five ephors, elected annually. The business of the state was conducted with secrecy (unlike the open forum methods of Athens), and every effort was made to keep the institutions unchanged.
The ruling class, the Spartiates, gave themselves wholly to war. At birth a boy was inspected by the elders, and if he appeared too weakly for future military service, he was taken into the mountains and abandoned. If he was fit, he was taken from his mother at the age of seven to begin rigorous military training. He became a soldier at 20, a citizen at 30, and continued as a soldier until 60. Thus his entire life was spent under rigorous discipline. Spartiate women, under less severe discipline, were part of the soldierly society and were not secluded. The Spartiates were the only citizens and the only sharers in the allotment of lands and of the helots (serfs who were bound to the land). The helots farmed the land and paid part of the produce to their masters, the Spartiates. They could not be sold, but they had no legal or civil rights and were constantly watched by a sort of Spartiate secret police for fear of insurrection. In somewhat less stringent subjection were the perioeci, freemen who were permitted to carry on commerce and handicrafts, by which some of them prospered. Nevertheless, the perioeci were entirely subordinate to the Spartiates.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Sparta_SpartanSociety.asp)
Bibliography
A. H. M. Jones, Sparta (1967); J. Lazenby, The Spartan Army (1985); P. Cartledge, Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta (1987).
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Post by sistergoldenhair on Mar 1, 2004 12:16:34 GMT -5
(kŏr´Ĭnth) or Kórinthos, city (1991 pop. 27,412), capital of Corinth prefecture, S Greece, in the NE Peloponnesus, on the Gulf of Corinth. It is a port and major transportation center trading in olives, tobacco, raisins, and wine. Founded in 1858 after the destruction of Old Corinth by an earthquake, it was rebuilt after another earthquake in 1928. It formerly was known as New Corinth. Old Corinth, just southwest of modern Corinth, is now a village. Strategically situated on the Isthmus of Corinth and protected by the fortifications on the Acrocorinthus, Corinth was one of the largest, wealthiest, most powerful, and oldest cities of ancient Greece. Dating from Homeric times, it was conquered by the Dorians. In the 7th and 6th cent. BC, under the tyrants Cypselus, his son Periander, and their successors, it became a flourishing maritime power. Syracuse, Kérkira, Potidaea, and Apollonia were among its colonies. The natural rival of Athens, Corinth was traditionally allied with Sparta. Athenian assistance to the rebellious Corinthian colonies was a direct cause of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). During the Corinthian War (395-387 BC), however, Corinth joined with Athens against the tyrannical rule of Sparta. After the battle of Chaeronea (338 BC) Corinth was garrisoned by Macedonian troops. It became (224 BC) a leading member of the Achaean League and in 146 BC was destroyed by the victorious Romans. Julius Caesar restored it (46 BC) and also reestablished the Isthmian games. Corinth was again laid waste by the invading Goths (AD 395) and by an earthquake in 521. Early in the 13th cent., Corinth was conquered by Geoffroi I de Villehardouin following the Fourth Crusade. It was taken by the Ottoman Turks in 1458, and in 1687 was seized by Venice, which lost it to the Turks in 1715. In 1822 it was captured by Greek insurgents. Ancient ruins at Old Corinth include the marketplace, fountains, the temple of Apollo, and a Roman amphitheater. Paul preached here and wrote two epistles to the infant Corinthian church.
(http://encyclopedia.com/html/C/CorinthG1r.asp)
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Post by sistergoldenhair on Mar 1, 2004 12:18:02 GMT -5
Chief city of Boeotia, in ancient Greece. It was originally a Mycenaean city. Thebes is rich in associations with Greek legend and religion (see Oedipus; the Seven against Thebes; Epigoni). Sometime before 1000 BC, Thebes was settled by Boeotians and rapidly replaced Orchomenus as the region's leading city. At the end of the 6th cent. BC it began its struggle with Athens to maintain its position in Boeotia and in Greece. In the Persian Wars, Thebes, motivated by hostility to Athens, sided (480-479 BC) with the Persians. When the Persians were defeated, Thebes was punished, and only the intervention of Sparta, which saw in the city a balance to the power of Athens, saved it from destruction. Thebes supported Sparta against Athens in the Peloponnesian War but, fearing Spartan territorial ambitions, withdrew this support and joined (394 BC) the confederation against Sparta. Sparta was able to place (382 BC) a garrison in Thebes, but the city was freed by one of its great generals, Pelopidas, three years later. This freedom was insured (371 BC) by the Spartan defeat at Leuctra by the Theban Epaminondas. Thebes joined Athens against Philip II of Macedon and shared in the defeat at Chaeronea (338 BC). A revolt at Thebes caused Alexander the Great to attack and destroy (336 BC) the city. Cassander rebuilt Thebes c.315 BC, but it never regained its former greatness. The modern Thívai occupies the site of the Theban acropolis, part of which still survives. There are also remains of the prehistoric city and the temple of Ismenian Apollo.
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