Introduction to the Ancient World: Greece

Lecture 1

The "Greeks"

I. Diversity 

A. origins; Hellenes, Pelasgians, Io of Argos from Egypt
B. geography
C. historical; three occasions of unity  

II. How we know what we know 

A. literary sources
B. archaeology: UT's Excavations (Institute of Classical Archaeology), at Metaponto (southern Italy), Chersonesos (Crimea, Ukraine), and IKAP (Iklaina Archaeological Project) - Pylos (Greece); Institute of Nautical Archaeology at A&M
C. inscriptions (epigraphy); lapidary
D. neglect of the common (wo)man

 III. Modern Approaches 

A. Idealizing 

1. Classicistic: Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768): A History of Art among the Ancients (1764) noble simplicity, quiet grandeur; "good taste arose under the Greek sky"; cf. Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way 
2. Romantic: Lord Byron (1788-1824) and the Greek War for Independence (1821-32) 
3. Political: the Greek invention of democracy. Try also: tyranny, oligarchy, aristocracy, timocracy, and ochlocracy 

B. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): The Birth of Tragedy, Apollonian vs. Dionysiac 

C. The Greeks and their Afroasiatic roots: Martin Bernal, Black Athena (1987) 
D. The classical tradition in America 

1. direct imitation of Greece ("Greek Revival"); (post)modern classicism, e.g. Disney Headquarters
2. Greece as a basis for comparison 

Lecture 1 Images