2. Time periods
• Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek
history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th
centuries BC to the end of antiquity (ca. 600 AD).
• Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early
Middle Ages and the Byzantine era.
• Included in Ancient Greece is the period of Classical Greece,
which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Classical
Greece began with the repelling of a Persian invasion by
Athenian leadership. Because of conquests by Alexander the
Great, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the
western end of the Mediterranean Sea.
• There were only a few historians in the time of Ancient Greece.
Three major ancient historians, were able to record their time of
Ancient Greek history, that include Herodotus, known as the
'Father of History' who travelled to many ancient historic sites at
the time, Thucydides and Xenophon.
• Most other forms of History knowledge and accountability of the
ancient Greeks we know is because of temples, sculpture,
pottery, artefacts and other archaeological findings.
3. geography
• Greece is known as a Southern European country.
• Located at the southeast end of Europe.
• It is almost completely surrounded by the Mediterranean
sea.
• Its one of the most mountainous countries of Europe.
• 80% consists of mountains or hills.
• Cities in ancient Greece were usually located between
mountains or on coastal plains.
• Its made up of about 3000 islands.
4. economy
Money in Ancient Greece
• Before 600 B.C. there was no monetary system in Greece, so
they would barter. This was a system of trading goods or
services for goods.
• By 500 B.C., each city-state began minting their own coin. A
merchant usually only took coins from their own city. Visitors
had to find a moneychanger to exchange their coins.
• Athens used a currency known as the drachma, often an
Athenian coin could be used in other Greek cities and not
have to be exchanged for the local currency.
5. • The Athenian monetary system was set up in the following way:
6 obols = 1 drachma
100 drachma = 1 mina
600 minae = 1 talent (or the equivalent of 57 pounds of silver)
• A worker in Athens could earn about two drachmas a day. Sculptors and
doctors were able to make up to six drachmas daily. An unskilled worker would
make around half of a drachma for one day‟s work.
• The typical costs of goods in ancient Greece:
loaf of bread 1 obol
gallon of olive oil 5 drachmas
Shoes 8 to 12 drachmas
slaves 200 to 300 drachmas
houses 400 to 1000 drachmas
6. Society
upper class
• Upper class members had to be
citizens and could not have a job.
• They got slaves to do all their work.
• Only about 300 families.
• To be considered upper-class a
person needed 20 talents.
• The aristocrats of Athens felt that
no man in a hurry is quite civilized.
7. The Middle Class
• The middle class was made up of non
citizens.
• The free men (non-slaves) of foreign
birth, who was ineligible for
citizenship, had spent their life in
Athens.
• They were mostly
merchants, contractors, manufacturers
, managers, tradesmen, craftsmen, an
d artists etc.
• The non-citizens were forbidden to
own land, or marry into a family of a
citizen.
8. The Lower Class
• The lower class was partly made up of
freed men, who had been slaves.
• Most of the time these people were not
citizens of Athens, so the best they
could ever be is middle class.
• The Greeks in general felt that all men
were not created equal.
• The middle and lower classes
outnumbered the upper class by an
enormous amount.
9. The
Slaves
• The slaves were unransomed prisoners of war, victims of
slave raids, infants rescued from exposure, and criminals.
• Only a very small number of slaves were Greek.
• The cost of a slave ranged between 50 to 1,000 dollars.
• Fairly poor citizens often had a slave or two, while the rich
homes could have as many as fifty.
• Some slaves were treated well by their owners and others
were treated very badly by people of higher classes.
• In no case could a citizen legally go as far as to kill his
slave. As one philosopher noted, "God has sent all men into
the world free, and nature has made no man a slave, but
slavery goes on."
10. Relationships with others
• Prominent issues in Greek foreign policy
include the enduring Cyprus dispute, the
Aegean dispute with Turkey over the
Aegean Sea and the Macedonia naming
dispute with the Republic of Macedonia.
• Also the British government in 1816
purchased the Parthenon Marbles,
forming a part of the collection known as
the Elgin Marbles and placed on display in
the British Museum
• The debate continues as to whether the
Marbles should remain in the British
Museum or be returned to Athens
11. Culture
customs and traditions- carnival
• Carnival in greece is called
“apokries”
• It is a two week feast from
the Sunday of meat fare to
the start of lent called
“clean Monday”
• The most famous carnival
parade takes place in the
city of patra where
everybody dances and
drinks all day and night.
12. RELIGION
• The religious practices of the Greeks extended beyond
mainland Greece, to the islands and coasts of Ionia in Asia
Minor, to Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Italy), and to
scattered Greek colonies in the Western Mediterranean,
such as Massalia (Marseille).
• Greek religion was tempered by Etruscan cult and belief
to form much of the later Ancient Roman religion.
• Many Greek people recognized the major gods and
goddesses: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Artemis,
Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Athena, Hermes,
Demeter, Hestia and Hera
• Philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of
Platonism used language that seems to posit a
transcendent single deity. Different cities often worshipped
the same deities, sometimes with epithets that
distinguished them and specified their local nature.
13. spirituality
• Worship in Greece typically consisted of sacrificing domestic
animals at the altar with hymn and prayer. Parts of the animal
were then burned for the gods; the worshippers would eat the
rest.
• Throughout the poems, the use of the ritual is apparent at
banquets where meat is served, in times of danger or before
some important endeavor to gain the favor of the gods.
• In Homer‟s The Odyssey (circa 725 B.C.) Eumaeus sacrifices a
pig with prayer for his unrecognizable master Odysseus.
• In Homer‟s The Iliad (circa 750 B.C.), which may describe
Greek civilization centuries earlier, every banquet of the
princes begins with a sacrifice and prayer.
14. GENDER ROLES
Men
• Men ran government and
spent most time away from
home, when not involved in
politics, they spent time in the
fields
• For fun in addition to drinking
they enjoyed wrestling, horse
back riding and Olympic
games.
• When at dinner parties women
were not allowed to join.
15. Women
• Greek women had very limited
freedom outside the home.
• They could attend weddings
funerals and some festivals.
• They could visit female
neighbors for brief periods of
time.
• In their homes they were in
charge.
• Their job was to run the house
and bear children.
16. Greek Art
•The arts of ancient Greece have had an enormous influence on the culture of
many countries all over the world, particularly in the areas of sculpture and
architecture.
•In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek
models. In the East, Alexander the Great's conquests initiated many centuries of
exchange between Greek, Central Asian and Indian cultures, resulting in Greco-
Buddhist art, with ramifications as far as Japan.
•The art of Ancient Greece is usually divided stylistically into four periods:
The Geometric
Archaic
Classical
Hellenistic.
•The Geometric age is usually, although in reality little is known about art in
Greece during the preceding 200 years (known as the Greek Dark Ages), the
period of the 7th century BC saw the slow development of the Archaic style as
exemplified by the black-figure style of vase painting. The onset of the Persian
Wars (480 BC to 448 BC) is usually taken as the dividing line between the
Archaic and the Classical periods, and the reign of Alexander the Great (336 BC
to 323 BC) is taken as separating the Classical from the Hellenistic periods.
17. dwellings
• Greek houses usually consisted of two or more
rooms and an open air courtyard.
• Wealthier families with larger homes might also
have a kitchen a bathroom and various sitting
rooms.
• Houses were built out of stone, clay bricks or
wood.
• The Greek people were incredibly talented
builders and created wondrous public structures
such as bath houses, temples, market places
and open air theaters.
• Places of worship were placed on high ground
and were conceived as a „sculptural entity‟
within the landscape, they were built to be
admired from afar and at all angles.
18. Greek Classical Orders
A classical order is one of the ancient styles of classical architecture, each
distinguished by its proportions and characteristic profiles and details, and most
readily recognizable by the type of column used.
There are three different distinct ancient orders, these being Doric, Ionic and
Corinthian.
19. Doric
• The Doric order originated on the mainland and western Greece. Of the three columns found in Greece,
Doric columns are the simplest. They have a capital (the top, or crown) made of a circle topped by a
square. The shaft is plain and has 20 sides. There is no base in the Doric order. The area above the
column, called the frieze, had simple patterns. Above the columns are the metopes and triglyphs. The
metope is a plain, smooth stone section between triglyphs. Sometimes the metopes had statues of heroes
or gods on them. The triglyphs are a pattern of 3 vertical lines between the metopes. There are many
examples of ancient Doric buildings, the most famous being the Parthenon in Athens.
Ionic
• The Ionic order came from eastern Greece. Ionic shafts were taller than Doric ones. This makes the
columns look slender. They also had flutes, which are lines carved into them from top to bottom. The shafts
also had a special characteristic: entasis, which is a little bulge in the columns make the columns look
straight, even at a distance. The frieze is plain. The bases were large and looked like a set of stacked
rings. Ionic capitals consist of a scrolls above the shaft. The Ionic style is a little more decorative than the
Doric.
Corinthian
• The Corinthian order is the most ornate of the Greek orders, characterized by a slender fluted column
having an ornate capital decorated with two rows of acanthus leaves and four scrolls. It is commonly
regarded as the most elegant of the three orders. The shaft of the Corinthian order has 24 flutes. The
20. Examples of the greek orders
Doric- Parthenon - temple of Athena Parthenos ("Virgin"), Greek
goddess of wisdom, on the Acropolis in Athens. The Parthenon
was built in the 5th century BC, and despite the enormous
damage it has sustained over the centuries, it still communicates
the ideals of order and harmony for which Greek architecture is
known.
Ionic- The Temple of Athena Nike - part of the Acropolis in the city
of Athens. The Greeks built the Temple of Apollo at Didyma,
Turkey (about 300 BC). The design of the temple was known as
dipteral, a term that refers to the two sets of columns surrounding
the interior section. These columns surrounded a small chamber
that housed the statue of Apollo. With Ionic columns reaching
19.5 m (64 ft) high, these ruins suggest the former grandeur of
the ancient temple.
Corinthian- most ornate of the classic orders of architecture. It
was also the latest, not arriving at full development until the
middle of the 4th cent. B.C. The oldest known example, however,
is found in the temple of Apollo at Bassae (c.420 B.C.). The
Greeks made little use of the order; the chief example is the
circular structure at Athens known as the choragic monument of
Lysicrates ( 335 B.C.). The temple of Zeus at Athens (started in
the 2d cent. B.C. and completed by Emperor Hadrian in the 2d
cent. A.D.) was perhaps the most notable of the Corinthian
21. transport
• One of the most important methods
of transportation was travelling by
ship.
• Since Greece is mostly made of
islands, the best way to travel was
by boat. On land, mules were used
as horses were not very common.
• Mules were used for light
transportation and oxen for heavier
transportation
22. communication
• Around the 5th century the Greek
people used pigeons to deliver
messages and letters, they didn‟t
invent this method of
communication though.
• They would also send
messengers to deliver letters.
• In war Greeks needed a way to
communicate fast enough so
they develop a variety of the
telegraph methods.
• Most telegraph systems involved
flashing a torch light or reflecting
light off mirrors across long
distance.
23. inventions
• They invented several items to be used in the art
of warfare such as the cannon and catapult.
• The catapult was invented around 400bc and was
used to hurl large heavy objects across long
distances.
• The first cannons used compressed air to launch
objects rather than gun powder.
• The Ancient Greek people also invented the art of
cartography or making maps.
• A philosopher named Anaximander was the first
person to create, draw and print maps.
• Anaximander is accepted as the creator of the
first map of the world. The invention of the printed
map hugely helped improve navigation as well as
trade.
24. Clothing
• Greek men mostly wore a sort of knee-
length wool or linen tunic that was
often worn only over one shoulder.
• Greek women wore one large piece of
wool or linen , wrapped around them
and pinned in various ways to make it
stay. The ways of pinning it changed
over time.
• Young men often wore a chlamys
(short cloak) for riding.
• Greek men occasionally wore a
broad-brimmed hats and Greek
women wore a flat-brimmed hat with a
high peaked crown.
• Women and men wore sandals,
slippers, soft shoes, or boots, although
at home they usually went barefoot.
25. hair
• Women wore their hair long and in curls, sometimes
plaited, sometimes with tresses draped over the
shoulders.
• During mourning, women cut their hair short.
• Men grew their hair long. A boy cut his hair short
(chin or jaw-length) when he reached adolescence
and kept a short haircut until he became older.
• The beard was a mark of distinction and virility.
26. food
• The Greek diet was made up of foods that were easily grown in
the rocky terrain of Greece‟s landscape.
• Breakfast consisted of bread dipped in wine.
• Lunch was again bread dipped in wine with some olives, figs,
cheese or dried fish.
• Supper consisted of vegetables, fruit, fish, and possibly honey
cakes. Ancient Greeks did not know of sugar, so natural honey
was used as a sweetener.
• Fish was the main source of protein for the Greeks. other meat
was very expensive.
• Wine was the main drink in ancient Greece. They watered the
wine down because drinking it straight was considered barbaric.
Drinking milk was considered barbaric too. Water was the other
choice of drink.
• The Greeks only used their hands…no utensils.
• Men and women ate meals separately.
27. jewellery
• Different types of jewellery were produced in the Hellenistic
period of Ancient Greece such as necklaces, earrings,
pendants, pins, bracelets, armbands, thigh bands, finger
rings, wreaths, diadems, and other elaborate hair
ornaments.
• Bracelets were often worn in pairs or in matched sets.
• Pieces were usually inlaid with pearls and dazzling gems
or semiprecious stones-emeralds, garnets, carnelians,
banded agates, sardonyx, chalcedony, and rock crystal.
• Artists would incorporate colourful enamel inlays that
dramatically contrasted with their intricate gold settings.
28. • Elaborate subsidiary ornamentation drew plant and animal motifs or the
relation between adornment and the goddess, Aphrodite, and her son,
Eros.
• Popular designs for earrings included; Airborne winged figures, such as
Eros, Nike, and the eagle of Zeus carrying Ganymede up to Mount
Olympus.
• In Hellenistic times, jewelry was often passed down through generation.
Occasionally, it was dedicated at sanctuaries as offerings to the gods.
• In ancient Greece, beads shaped as natural forms like shells, flowers
and beetles were manufactured on a large scale. Beads were made by
joining two flat pieces of gold and filling them with sand
• Greek jewellery was often simpler than in other cultures, with simple
designs and workmanship. However, as time progressed, the designs
grew in complexity and different materials were soon used.
• Jewellery in Greece was hardly worn and was mostly used for public
appearances or on special occasions. It was frequently given as a gift
and was predominantly worn by women to show their wealth, social
status, and beauty. The jewellery was often supposed to give the
wearer protection from the “Evil Eye” or endowed the owner with
supernatural powers, while others had a religious symbolism.
29. What techniques did they
use?
• They worked two styles of pieces: cast pieces and pieces hammered out of sheet
metal.
• It was made by casting the metal onto two stone or clay moulds. The two halves
were then joined together, and wax, followed by molten metal, was placed in the
centre. This technique had been practiced since the late Bronze Age.
• Sheets of metal would be hammered to thickness and then soldered together. The
inside of the two sheets would be filled with wax or another liquid to preserve the
metal work. Different techniques, such as using a stamp or engraving, were then
used to create motifs on the jewellery. Jewels may then be added to hollows or
glass poured into special cavities on the surface
• techniques remained basically the same as the earlier Egyptian and Assyrian
styles though embossed or stamped plates of gold and silver became a
predominant basic element. Granulation in gold continued and was developed in
Etruria to a remarkable degree of delicate refinement.
• In the Classical Greek period , 5th and 4th centuries BC (480 BC – 338 BC) ,
granulation went out of fashion. Enamelling was re-introduced and filigree became
predominant. Classic Greek jewellery was delicate and very refined.
31. motifs
Greek jewelry of the Classical
period continues Archaic types
and decoration but the
orientalizing figures and creatures
are generally replaced with floral
and geometric motifs
32. What was their attitude towards
jewellery?
•Usually the upper class wealthier people wore
jewellery.
•in Greece the wearing of (too much) jewellery was
considered effeminate and foolish.
