#classical age

[nickysfacts]

Remember that Greek and Roman art continues to be both figuratively and literally whitewashed.

🏺🎨🏛️

[lockettopia]

(**i drew this map and wrote this text for my upcoming book on greek hero myths. If you see any problems please let me know! Xoxo)

Certainly the ancient Greek myths were influenced and inspired by even older cultures like Egypt and Babylon (see Zeus parallels with Babylonian “Anu”) through “diffusion” (cultural spreading). But there were three powerful civilizations in ancient Greece which fostered a unique cultural and mythic heritage, spanning almost 3000 years.

MINOA: (3000 B.C.-1100 B.C.) In the Bronze age, on the southern island of Crete, rose a great civilization with a population of over 10,000 at the city of Knossos. The name derives from King Minos, of the Theseus and Minotaur myth. The Minoans were known for far-reaching Mediterranean sea trade, and wrote in a language called “Linear A,” which has never been deciphered.

MYCENAE: (1700 B.C.- 1100 B.C.) Another sea faring Bronze age civilization in which the Homeric characters hail from. With the Minoan civilization in decline around 1450 B.C., the Myceneans took over the islands and adopted much of the Minoan culture, developing a new writing system, “linear B,” which became the earliest Greek language. Whether due to invading foreigners or natural disasters, the decline of Mycenae was followed hundreds of years of decline; the “dark ages.” “Archaic” period (700-480 B.C.) Populations increased, and progressive concepts appeared, such as the creation and organization of the “Polis” or city-state.

ATHENS (480 B.C.- 323 B.C.) the word “Greece” was a later term created by the Romans. The ancient Athenian Greeks called their country “Hellas” and the people were “Hellenes.” the “Classical age” of Athens was a period of revolutionary development in philosophy; (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,) theatre drama (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides), refining concepts of democracy, among many other innovations in sculpture, architecture, and medicine.

[sheepscoyote]

oh i forgot to post this! my ancient greek class projects on women's fashion throughout some of its eras (bronze, archaic, & classical)

[archaeologicalnews]

Trove of Stunning Classical-Age Antiquities Discovered on Tinos Island

A significant number of tombstones from Greece’s Classical Age, decorated with elaborate designs in relief, were unearthed recently during an excavation conducted by the University of Athens at the Tomb of the Classical Age in Xobourgo, Tinos.

According to the Greek Ministry of Culture, the importance of these sculptures is immense, as they provide critical information for understanding the development of classical sculpture on the island.

As examples of high quality sculpture dating from approximately the fifth century BC, they are a link between the history of ancient sculpture and the later sculpture originating from the island.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Culture, the cemetery site is located on the southeastern slopes of Xobourgo Hill. It represents the main classical-era cemetery for the ancient settlement that was developing at that time on the western and southern slopes of the hill. Read more.

[armthearmour]

A bronze helmet in classic Corinthian style, likely made in a Greek colony in southern Italy, ca. 600 BC, housed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

[madamelesfressange]

                                        The Dignity of Roman Beauty

1-3 Dancing Maenads from a house in Pompeii; Naples Archaeological Museum 

4. Detail from a Pompeian fresco, winged female figure with cornucopia and a bough

5. Winged victory. Ancient Roman frescos from Pompeii in the 4th Pompeian style, Italy, 64 BC 

6.-7  Roman Fresco of a Flying Maenad and a Satyr Circa 45-79 CE Excavated from the 'House Naviglio' at Pompei; Roman frescoes recovered from Vesuvian Ash in Stabiae 1st century BCE-1st century CE

8-9 Calliope the muse of epic Poetry on a fresco from the hospitium del Sulpicii; Pompeii House of the priest Amandus, triclinium, centre mural of the left side wall (3rd Style, c. 40 AD)

10. Flora Picking Flowers by the Sea. Fresco found in the ruins of Pompeii, Italy

[labormyego]

Philip's son was bred as a king and a warrior. His business, his all-absorbing obsession through a short but crowded life, was war and conquest. It is idle to palliate this central truth, to pretend that he dreamed, in some mysterious fashion, of wading through rivers of blood and violence to achieve the Brotherhood of Man by raping an entire continent. He spent his life, with legendary success, in the pursuit of personal glory, Achillean kleos; and until very recent times this was regarded as a wholly laudable aim. The empire he built collapsed the moment he was gone; he came as a conqueror and the work he wrought was destruction. Yet his legend still lives; the proof of his immortality is the belief he inspired in others. That is why he remained greater than the measurable sum of his works; that is why, in the last resort, he will continue an insoluble enigma, to this and all future generations. His greatness defies a final judgement. He personifies an archetypal element, restless and perennial in human nature: the myth of the eternal quest for the world's end, memorably summed up by Tennyson in the last line of Ulysses: 'To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’

--- Peter Green