1.
Frieze
–
In architecture the frieze /ˈfriːz/ is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on a wall it lies upon the architrave and is capped by the moldings of the cornice. A frieze can be found on many Greek and Roman buildings, the Parthenon Frieze being the most famous and this style is typical for the Persians. In interiors, the frieze of a room is the section of wall above the picture rail, by extension, a frieze is a long stretch of painted, sculpted or even calligraphic decoration in such a position, normally above eye-level. Frieze decorations may depict scenes in a sequence of discrete panels, the material of which the frieze is made of may be plasterwork, carved wood or other decorative medium. In an example of a frieze on the façade of a building. A pulvinated frieze is convex in section, such friezes were features of 17th-century Northern Mannerism, especially in subsidiary friezes, and much employed in interior architecture and in furniture. The concept of a frieze has been generalized in the construction of frieze patterns. Media related to Friezes at Wikimedia Commons Frieze
Frieze
–
The Circus (Bath), UK. Architectural detail of the frieze showing the alternating
triglyphs and
metope. (
John Wood, the Elder, architect)
Frieze
–
Frieze of animals, mythological episodes at the base of
Hoysaleswara temple,
India
2.
Parthenon
–
The Parthenon is a former temple, on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power and it was completed in 438 BC although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the zenith of the Doric order and its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art. The Parthenon is regarded as an symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy and western civilization. The Greek Ministry of Culture is currently carrying out a programme of restoration and reconstruction to ensure the stability of the partially ruined structure. The Parthenon itself replaced a temple of Athena, which historians call the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon. The temple is aligned to the Hyades. While a sacred building dedicated to the patron goddess, the Parthenon was actually used primarily as a treasury. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, in the final decade of the sixth century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. After the Ottoman conquest, it was turned into a mosque in the early 1460s, on 26 September 1687, an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by Venetian bombardment. The resulting explosion damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures. From 1800 to 1803, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin removed some of the sculptures with the alleged permission of the Ottoman Empire. These sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles or the Parthenon Marbles, were sold in 1816 to the British Museum in London, since 1983, the Greek government has been committed to the return of the sculptures to Greece. The Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon states that this room was the western cella of the Parthenon, jamauri D. Christopher Pelling asserts that Athena Parthenos may have constituted a discrete cult of Athena, intimately connected with, but not identical to, that of Athena Polias. According to this theory, the name of the Parthenon means the temple of the virgin goddess and it has also been suggested that the name of the temple alludes to the maidens, whose supreme sacrifice guaranteed the safety of the city. Parthénos has also applied to the Virgin Mary, Parthénos Maria. The first instance in which Parthenon definitely refers to the building is found in the writings of the 4th century BC orator Demosthenes. In 5th-century building accounts, the structure is simply called ho naos, because the Parthenon was dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, it has sometimes been referred to as the Temple of Minerva, the Roman name for Athena, particularly during the 19th century
Parthenon
–
The Parthenon
Parthenon
–
Detail of the West metopes, illustrating the current condition of the temple in detail after 2,500 years of war, pollution, erratic conservation, pillage and vandalism
Parthenon
–
Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends, 1868 painting by
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Parthenon
–
Part of the east pediment still found on the Parthenon
3.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
–
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA was a Dutch painter of special British denizenship. Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870, Lourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in the village of Dronrijp in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. The surname Tadema is an old Frisian patronymic, meaning son of Tade, while the names Lourens and he was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema, the village notary, and the third child of Hinke Dirks Brouwer. His father had three sons from a previous marriage and his parents first child died young, and the second was Atje, Lourens sister, for whom he had great affection. The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the city of Leeuwarden. His father died when Lourens was four, leaving his mother with five children, Lourens, his sister and his mother had artistic leanings, and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the childrens education. He received his first art training with a drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers. It was intended that the boy would become a lawyer, diagnosed as consumptive and given only a short time to live, he was allowed to spend his remaining days at his leisure, drawing and painting. Left to his own devices he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist, in 1852 he entered the Royal Academy of Antwerp in Belgium where he studied early Dutch and Flemish art, under Gustaf Wappers. During Alma-Tademas four years as a student at the Academy. Although de Taeye was not a painter, Alma-Tadema respected him and became his studio assistant. De Taeye introduced him to books that influenced his desire to portray Merovingian subjects early in his career and he was encouraged to depict historical accuracy in his paintings, a trait for which the artist became known. Under his guidance Alma-Tadema painted his first major work, The Education of the children of Clovis and this painting created a sensation among critics and artists when it was exhibited that year at the Artistic Congress in Antwerp. It is said to have laid the foundation of his fame, Alma-Tadema related that although Leys thought the completed painting better than he had expected, he was critical of the treatment of marble, which he compared to cheese. Alma-Tadema took this very seriously, and it led him to improve his technique and to become the worlds foremost painter of marble. Merovingian themes were the favourite subject up to the mid-1860s. It is perhaps in this series that we find the artist moved by the deepest feeling, however Merovingian subjects did not have a wide international appeal, so he switched to themes of life in ancient Egypt that were more popular. On these scenes of Frankish and Egyptian life Alma-Tadema spent great energy, in 1862 Alma-Tadema left Leyss studio and started his own career, establishing himself as a significant classical-subject European artist
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
–
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
–
Lourens Alma Tadema's birth house and statue in
Dronrijp,
Netherlands
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
–
The Education of the Children of Clovis (1861), oil on canvas, 127 x 176.8 cm,
private collection. Queen
Clotilde, wife of King
Clovis, is shown training her three young children the art of hurling the ax to avenge the death of her father.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
–
Egyptian
Chess Players (1865), oil on wood, 39.8 x 55.8 cm. Private collection.
4.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
Greek language
–
Idealized portrayal of
Homer
Greek language
–
regions where Greek is the official language
Greek language
–
Greek language road sign, A27 Motorway, Greece
5.
Hellenic civilization
–
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
Hellenic civilization
–
The
Parthenon, a temple dedicated to
Athena, located on the
Acropolis in
Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture and sophistication of the ancient Greeks.
Hellenic civilization
–
Dipylon Vase of the late Geometric period, or the beginning of the Archaic period,
c. 750 BC.
Hellenic civilization
–
Political geography of ancient Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods
6.
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
–
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about 13 m tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. A sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels over a framework, it represented the god Zeus sitting on an elaborate cedar wood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold. The statue of Zeus was commissioned by the Eleans, custodians of the Olympic Games, seeking to outdo their Athenian rivals, the Eleans employed the renowned sculptor Phidias, who had previously made the massive statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon. The great seated statue as fashioned by Phidias occupied half the width of the aisle of the temple built to house it and it seems that if Zeus were to stand up, the geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC, he would unroof the temple. The Zeus was a sculpture, made with ivory and gold panels on a wooden substructure. No copy in marble or bronze has survived, though there are recognizable but only approximate versions on coins of nearby Elis and on Roman coins, in the 2nd century AD, the geographer and traveler Pausanias gave a detailed description. The statue was crowned with a wreath of olive sprays. In its right hand was a small statue of crowned Nike. Its left hand held a scepter inlaid with many metals, supporting an eagle, the throne featured painted figures and wrought images and was decorated in gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory. Zeus golden sandals rested upon a footstool decorated with an Amazonomachy in relief, the passage underneath the throne was restricted by painted screens. Pausanias also recounts that the statue was kept constantly coated with oil to counter the harmful effect on the ivory caused by the marshiness of the Altis grove. The floor in front of the image was paved with tiles and surrounded by a raised rim of marble. This reservoir acted as a pool which doubled the apparent height of the statue. He spoke, the son of Cronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows, and the immortally anointed hair of the great god swept from his divine head, and all Olympos was shaken. According to Pausanias, when the image was quite finished Pheidias prayed the god to show by a sign whether the work was to his liking. Immediately, runs the legend, a fell on that part of the floor where down to the present day the bronze jar stood to cover the place. In 391 AD the Roman emperor Theodosius I banned participation in pagan cults, the sanctuary at Olympia fell into disuse. The circumstances of the eventual destruction are unknown
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
–
A fanciful reconstruction of
Phidias '
statue of
Zeus, in an
engraving made by
Philippe Galle in 1572, from a drawing by
Maarten van Heemskerck
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
–
Coin from
Elis district in southern Greece illustrating the Olympian Zeus statue (
Nordisk familjebok)
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
–
Roman Seated Zeus, marble and bronze (restored), following the type established by Phidias (
Hermitage Museum,
Saint Petersburg).
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
–
Photo (2005) of the workshop of Phidias at Olympia
7.
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
–
Although the list, in its current form, did not stabilise until the Renaissance, the first such lists of seven wonders date from the 1st-2nd century BC. The original list inspired innumerable versions through the ages, often listing seven entries, of the original Seven Wonders, only one—the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the ancient wonders—remains relatively intact. The Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis, the location and ultimate fate of the Hanging Gardens are unknown, and there is speculation that they may not have existed at all. The Greek conquest of much of the western world in the 4th century BC gave Hellenistic travellers access to the civilizations of the Egyptians, Persians. Impressed and captivated by the landmarks and marvels of the various lands, instead of wonders, the ancient Greeks spoke of theamata, which means sights, in other words things to be seen. Later, the word for wonder was used, hence, the list was meant to be the Ancient Worlds counterpart of a travel guidebook. The first reference to a list of seven such monuments was given by Diodorus Siculus, — Greek Anthology IX.58 Another 2nd century BC observer, who claimed to be the mathematician Philo of Byzantium, wrote a short account entitled The Seven Sights of the World. However, the surviving manuscript only covered six of the supposedly seven places. Earlier and later lists by the historian Herodotus and the architect Callimachus of Cyrene, housed at the Museum of Alexandria, survived only as references. The Colossus of Rhodes was the last of the seven to be completed, after 280 BC, hence, all seven existed at the same time for a period of less than 60 years. The list covered only the sculptural and architectural monuments of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions, hence, extant sites beyond this realm were not considered as part of contemporary accounts. The primary accounts, coming from Hellenistic writers, also influenced the places included in the wonders list. Five of the seven entries are a celebration of Greek accomplishments in the arts, the seven wonders on Antipaters list won praises for their notable features, ranging from superlatives of the highest or largest of their types, to the artistry with which they were executed. Their architectural and artistic features were imitated throughout the Hellenistic world, the Greek influence in Roman culture, and the revival of Greco-Roman artistic styles during the Renaissance caught the imagination of European artists and travellers. Paintings and sculptures alluding to Antipaters list were made, while adventurers flocked to the sites to personally witness the wonders. Legends circulated to further complement the superlatives of the wonders, of Antipaters wonders, the only one that has survived to the present day is the Great Pyramid of Giza. Its brilliant white stone facing had survived intact until around 1300 AD, the existence of the Hanging Gardens has not been proven, although theories abound. Records and archaeology confirm the existence of the other five wonders, the Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus were destroyed by fire, while the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Colossus, and tomb of Mausolus were destroyed by earthquakes
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
–
The
Great Pyramid of Giza, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
–
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (from left to right, top to bottom):
Great Pyramid of Giza,
Hanging Gardens of Babylon,
Temple of Artemis,
Statue of Zeus at Olympia,
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus,
Colossus of Rhodes, and the
Lighthouse of Alexandria as depicted by 16th-century Dutch artist
Maarten van Heemskerck.
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
–
In this painting by
Maerten van Heemskerck, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are depicted as a background for the abduction of Helen by Paris. The Walters Art Museum.
8.
Athena
–
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is the goddess of wisdom, craft, and war in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Minerva is the Roman goddess identified with Athena, Athena is known for her calm temperament, as she moves slowly to anger. She is noted to have fought for just reasons. Athena is portrayed as a companion of heroes and is the patron goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the patroness of Athens. The Athenians founded the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her city, Athens. Veneration of Athena was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes, in her role as a protector of the city, many people throughout the Greek world worshipped Athena as Athena Polias. While the city of Athens and the goddess Athena essentially bear the same name, Athena is associated with Athens, a plural name, because it was the place where she presided over her sisterhood, the Athenai, in earliest times. Mycenae was the city where the Goddess was called Mykene, at Thebes she was called Thebe, and the city again a plural, Thebae. Similarly, at Athens she was called Athena, and the city Athenae, Athena had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city. According to mythical lore, she competed with Poseidon and she won by creating the olive tree, the Athenians would accept her gift and name the city after her. In history, the citizens of Athens built a statue of Athena as a temple to the goddess, which had piercing eyes, a helmet on her head, attired with an aegis or cuirass, and an extremely long spear. It also had a shield with the head of the Gorgon on it. A large snake accompanied her and she held Nike, the goddess of victory, therefore, Mylonas believes that Athena was a Mycenaean creation. On the other hand, Nilsson claims that she was the goddess of the palace who protected the king, a-ta-no-dju-wa-ja is also found in Linear A Minoan, the final part being regarded as the Linear A Minoan equivalent of the Linear B Mycenaean di-u-ja or di-wi-ja. Divine Athena also was a weaver and the deity of crafts, whether her name is attested in Eteocretan or not will have to wait for decipherment of Linear A. Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may mean she who knows divine things better than others. Thus for Plato her name was to be derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα, Plato also noted that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess whose Egyptian name was Neith, and which was identified with Athena. Neith was the war goddess and huntress deity of the Egyptians since the ancient Pre-Dynastic period, in addition, ancient Greek myths reported that Athena had visited many mythological places such as Libyas Triton River in North Africa and the Phlegraean plain
Athena
–
Mattei Athena at
Louvre. Roman copy from the 1st century BC/AD after a Greek original of the 4th century BC, attributed to Cephisodotos or Euphranor.
Athena
–
Athenian
tetradrachm representing the goddess Athena.
Athena
–
A new
peplos was woven for Athena and ceremonially brought to dress her
cult image (
British Museum).
Athena
–
Marble Greek copy signed “Antiokhos”, a 1st-century BC variant of
Phidias ’ 5th-century
Athena Promachos that stood on the
Acropolis.
9.
Acropolis, Athens
–
The word acropolis comes from the Greek words ἄκρον and πόλις. Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is known as The Acropolis without qualification. The Acropolis is located on a rock that rises 150 m above sea level in the city of Athens. It was also known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Cecrops, while the earliest artifacts date to the Middle Neolithic era, there have been documented habitations in Attica from the Early Neolithic. There is little doubt that a Mycenaean megaron stood upon the hill during the late Bronze Age, nothing of this megaron survives except, probably, a single limestone column-base and pieces of several sandstone steps. Soon after the palace was constructed, a Cyclopean massive circuit wall was built,760 meters long, up to 10 meters high and this wall would serve as the main defense for the acropolis until the 5th century. The wall consisted of two built with large stone blocks and cemented with an earth mortar called emplekton. There were two lesser approaches up the hill on its side, consisting of steep, narrow flights of steps cut in the rock. Homer is assumed to refer to this fortification when he mentions the strong-built House of Erechtheus, at some point before the 13th century BC, an earthquake caused a fissure near the northeastern edge of the Acropolis. This fissure extended some 35 meters to a bed of marl in which a well was dug. An elaborate set of stairs was built and the served as an invaluable. There is no evidence for the existence of a Mycenean palace on top of the Athenian Acropolis. However, if there was such a palace, it seems to have been supplanted by later building activity, not a lot is known about the architectural appearance of the Acropolis until the Archaic era. In the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, the site was taken over by Kylon during the failed Kylonian revolt, nevertheless, it seems that a nine-gate wall, the Enneapylon, had been built around the biggest water spring, the Clepsydra, at the northwestern foot. A temple to Athena Polias, the deity of the city, was erected around 570–550 BC. Whether this temple replaced an older one, or just a sacred precinct or altar, is not known, probably, the Hekatompedon was built where the Parthenon now stands. Between 529–520 BC yet another temple was built by the Peisistratids and this temple of Athena Polias was built upon the Doerpfeld foundations, between the Erechtheion and the still-standing Parthenon. Arkhaios Neōs was destroyed by the Persian invasion in 480 BC, however, the temple may have been burnt down in 406/405 BC as Xenophon mentions that the old temple of Athena was set on fire
Acropolis, Athens
–
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Acropolis, Athens
–
View of the Acropolis from the Agora, 2010
Acropolis, Athens
–
View of the Acropolis from the
Areopagus, 2010
Acropolis, Athens
–
The
Parthenon
10.
Athena Parthenos
–
Athena Parthenos is a lost massive chryselephantine sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena, made by Phidias and his assistants and housed in the Parthenon in Athens. Its epithet was a character of the goddess herself. A number of replicas and works inspired by it, both ancient and modern, have been made and it was the most renowned cult image of Athens, considered one of the greatest achievements of the most acclaimed sculptor of ancient Greece. Phidias began his work around 447 BC, lachares removed the gold sheets in 296 BC to pay his troops, and the bronze replacements for them were probably gilded thereafter, it was damaged by a fire about 165 BC but repaired. It continued to stand in the Parthenon in the 5th century AD, an account mentions it in Constantinople in the 10th century. The ancient historian Pausanias gave a description of the statue. The statue is created with ivory, on the middle of her helmet is likeness of the Sphinx. and on either side of the helmet are griffins in relief. The statue of Athena is upright, with a tunic reaching to the feet and she holds a statue of Victory that is approx. Four cubits high, and in the hand a spear, at her feet lies a shield. On the pedestal is the birth of Pandora in relief, athenas head is inclined slightly forward. She stands with her hand resting on an upright shield. Her left knee is bent, her weight slightly shifted to her right leg. Her peplos is cinched at the waist by a pair of serpents, locks of hair trail onto the goddesss breastplate. The Nike on her right hand is winged, whether there was a support under it in Phidias original has been much discussed. The statue was 11.5 metres tall and stood on a pedestal measuring 4 by 8 metres, a number of ancient reproductions of all or part of the statue have survived. The Varvakeion Athena, a 3rd-century CE Roman copy in marble is housed in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and this is generally considered the most faithful version. The Lenormant Athena, an unfinished 2nd to 3rd century copy, is also in the National Museum, another copy is housed in the Louvre. Another copy is in the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome, a 3rd-century BC copy is housed in the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. A 3rd-century BC Roman marble reduced-scale copy of the statues shield, a modern copy by Alan LeQuire stands in the reproduction of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee
Athena Parthenos
–
Tetradrachm of Athens, 126-125 BC, real head of sculpture Athena Parthenos by Phidias
Athena Parthenos
–
A votive sculpture found near the
Varvakeion school reflects the type of the restored Athena Parthenos: Roman period, 2nd century CE (
National Archaeological Museum of Athens).
Athena Parthenos
–
Plaster cast of the British Museum's 3rd-century CE Roman marble Strangford Shield (
Pushkin Museum)
Athena Parthenos
–
Sculptor
Alan LeQuire painting the detail of the Athena Parthenos replica during the gilding phase.
11.
Athena Promachos
–
The Athena Promachos was a colossal bronze statue of Athena sculpted by Pheidias, which stood between the Propylaea and the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. Athena was the deity of Athens and the goddess of wisdom. Pheidias also sculpted two other figures of Athena on the Acropolis, the gold and ivory cult image of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon. The designation Athena Promachos is not attested before a dedicatory inscription of the fourth century CE. The Athena Promachos was one of the earliest recorded works by Pheidias and it was erected during the Classical period of Ancient Greek culture, approximately 456 BCE. It was made with the Persian spoils of the Battle of Marathon, won some years earlier, parts of the marble base remain, according to the preserved inscription, it measured about 10 m high. It showed Athena standing with a spear alongside, her shield resting upright against her leg, the statue was so large it is said that the tip of the spear and her helmet crest were visible at sea, off Cape Sounion. Surviving accounts for the process for the sculpture cover nine years. The sculpture may have commemorated Kimons defeat of the Persians at the Eurymedon in 467 or the peace of Kallias in approximately 450 or 449 and they show that she wore a belted garment and stretched forward her right hand on which a winged figure may be seen. A spear leans against one shoulder and her shield, which we know was made separately by different artists, rests on the ground, sometimes her crested helmet is rendered as Attic in type, sometimes Corinthian. The Athena Promachos was destroyed in 1203 by a mob who thought she was beckoning the crusaders who had besieged the city. John Boardman and David Finn, The Parthenon and its Sculpture J. J. Pollitt, the Art of Ancient Greece, Sources and Documents Jenifer Neils, ed. The Parthenon, From Antiquity to the Present The Temple of Athena Nike at the Acropolis, Bibliography of the temple, the Bronze Athena at Byzantium, Journal of Hellenic Studies 67 pp 31–33. Roy George, Athena Promachos, interpreting documentation of a Roman coin, the pre-Phidian type of Athena Promachos, armed, striding forward, spear at the ready, votive bronze, ca 480 BCE
Athena Promachos
–
Idealised view of the Acropolis and Athena Promachos, by the painter
Leo von Klenze in 1846. The artist imagined the great statue of Athena Promachos as visible from far away, carrying a great spear in her right hand.
Athena Promachos
–
Extant structures
12.
Propylaea
–
A propylaea, propylea or propylaia is any monumental gateway in Greek architecture. Much the best known Greek example is the propylaea that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens, the Greek Revival Brandenburg Gate of Berlin and the Propylaea in Munich both evoke the central portion of the Athens propylaea. According to Plutarch, the Propylaea was designed by the architect Mnesicles, construction began in 437 BC and was terminated in 432, when the building was still unfinished. The Propylaea was constructed of white Pentelic marble and gray Eleusinian marble or limestone, structural iron was also used, though William Bell Dinsmoor analyzed the structure and concluded that the iron weakened the building. The structure consists of a building with two adjoining wings on the west side, one to the north and one to the south. The core is the building, which presents a standard six-columned Doric façade both on the West to those entering the Acropolis and on the east to those departing. The columns echo the proportions of the columns of the Parthenon, there is no surviving evidence for sculpture in the pediments. The central building contains the gate wall, about two-thirds of the way through it, the central passageway was the culmination of the Sacred Way, which led to the Acropolis from Eleusis. Entrance into the Acropolis was controlled by the Propylaea, though it was not built as a fortified structure, it was important that people not ritually clean be denied access to the sanctuary. In addition, runaway slaves and other miscreants could not be permitted into the sanctuary where they could claim the protection of the gods, the state treasury was also kept on the Acropolis, making its security important. The gate wall and the portion of the building sit at a level five steps above the western portion. The ceiling in the part of the central building was famous in antiquity. It consisted of marble blocks carved in the shape of ceiling coffers, the outer wings to the right and left of the central building stood on the same platform as the western portion of the central building but were much smaller, not only in plan but in scale. Like the central building, the wings use Doric colonnades and Doric entablatures, the central building also has an Ionic colonnade on either side of the central passageway between the western Doric colonnade and the gate wall. This is therefore the first building known to us with Doric and Ionic colonnades visible at the same time and it is also the first monumental building in the classical period to be more complex than a simple rectangle or cylinder. The western wing on the north was famous in antiquity as the location of paintings of important Greek battles, Pausanias reports their presence, but few scholars believe the room was planned to hold them. Recent scholarship, following the lead of John Travlos, has taken the northern wing to have been a room for ritual dining, the evidence for that is the off-center doorway and the position near the entrance to the Acropolis. The wing on the south, though smaller, was clearly designed to make the whole structure appear to be symmetrical
Propylaea
–
A 19th-century drawing of what the Propylaea might have looked like when intact
Propylaea
–
Stairs leading up to the Propylaea
Propylaea
–
Facade
Propylaea
–
Monument to Agrippa, Propylaea
13.
Plutarch
–
Plutarch was a Greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist, Plutarchs surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the town of Chaeronea, about 80 km east of Delphi. The name of Plutarchs father has not been preserved, but based on the common Greek custom of repeating a name in alternate generations, the name of Plutarchs grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are mentioned in his essays and dialogues. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarchs wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation. The exact number of his sons is not certain, although two of them, Autobulus and the second Plutarch, are often mentioned. Plutarchs treatise De animae procreatione in Timaeo is dedicated to them, another person, Soklarus, is spoken of in terms which seem to imply that he was Plutarchs son, but this is nowhere definitely stated. Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius from 66 to 67, at some point, Plutarch took Roman citizenship. He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, at his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays, Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once. He busied himself with all the matters of the town. The Suda, a medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Emperor Trajan made Plutarch procurator of Illyria, however, most historians consider this unlikely, since Illyria was not a procuratorial province, and Plutarch probably did not speak Illyrian. Plutarch spent the last thirty years of his serving as a priest in Delphi. He thus connected part of his work with the sanctuary of Apollo, the processes of oracle-giving
Plutarch
–
Ruins of the Temple of
Apollo at
Delphi, where Plutarch served as one of the priests responsible for interpreting the predictions of the
oracle.
Plutarch
–
Parallel Lives,
Amyot translation, 1565
Plutarch
–
Plutarch's bust at
Chaeronea, his home town.
Plutarch
–
A page from the 1470 Ulrich Han printing of Plutarch's
Parallel Lives.
14.
Pericles
–
Pericles was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age—specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful, Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, a contemporary historian, acclaimed him as the first citizen of Athens. Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire, and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles promoted the arts and literature, it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world and he started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis. This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist. Pericles was born c.495 BC, in Athens, Greece and he was the son of the politician Xanthippus, who, though ostracized in 485–484 BC, returned to Athens to command the Athenian contingent in the Greek victory at Mycale just five years later. Agariste was the great-granddaughter of the tyrant of Sicyon, Cleisthenes, according to Herodotus and Plutarch, Agariste dreamed, a few nights before Pericles birth, that she had borne a lion. Interestingly, legends say that Philip II of Macedon had a dream before the birth of his son. Pericles belonged to the tribe of Acamantis and his early years were quiet, the introverted young Pericles avoided public appearances, instead preferring to devote his time to his studies. His familys nobility and wealth allowed him to pursue his inclination toward education. He learned music from the masters of the time and he is considered to have been the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy and he enjoyed the company of the philosophers Protagoras, Zeno of Elea, and Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras, in particular, became a friend and influenced him greatly. Pericles manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have been in part products of Anaxagoras emphasis on emotional calm in the face of trouble and his proverbial calmness and self-control are also often regarded as products of Anaxagoras influence. In the spring of 472 BC, Pericles presented The Persians of Aeschylus at the Greater Dionysia as a liturgy, Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among the Athenians for forty years. If this was so, Pericles must have taken up a position of leadership by the early 460s BC- in his early or mid-thirties, throughout these years he endeavored to protect his privacy and to present himself as a model for his fellow citizens. For example, he would often avoid banquets, trying to be frugal, in 463 BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon, the leader of the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens vital interests in Macedon. Although Cimon was acquitted, this proved that Pericles major political opponent was vulnerable. The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles, Ephialtes, the Ecclesia adopted Ephialtes proposal without opposition
Pericles
–
Bust of Pericles bearing the inscription "Pericles, son of Xanthippus, Athenian". Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from c. 430 BC
Pericles
–
Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to Pericles, Aspasia, Alcibiades and friends, by Sir
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1868,
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
Pericles
–
Bust of Pericles after Kresilas,
Altes Museum,
Berlin
Pericles
–
Aspasia of Miletus (c. 469 BC – c. 406 BC), Pericles' companion.
15.
Aspasia
–
Aspasia was an influential immigrant to Classical-era Athens who was the lover and partner of the statesman Pericles. The couple had a son, Pericles the Younger, but the details of the couples marital status are unknown. According to Plutarch, her house became a centre in Athens, attracting the most prominent writers and thinkers. It has also suggested that the teachings of Aspasia influenced Socrates. Aspasia is mentioned in the writings of Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon, though she spent most of her adult life in Greece, few details of her life are fully known. Some scholars suggest that Aspasia was a keeper and a prostitute. Aspasias role in history provides insight to the understanding of the women of ancient Greece. Very little is known about women from her time period, one scholar stated that, To ask questions about Aspasias life is to ask questions about half of humanity. Aspasia was born in the Ionian Greek city of Miletus, some ancient sources claim that she was a Carian prisoner-of-war turned slave, these statements are generally regarded as false. It is not known under what circumstances she first traveled to Athens and his theory connects her to Alcibiades II of Scambonidae, who was ostracized from Athens in 460 BC and may have spent his exile in Miletus. Bicknell conjectures that, following his exile, the elder Alcibiades went to Miletus, Alcibiades apparently returned to Athens with his new wife and her younger sister, Aspasia. Bicknell argues that the first child of this marriage was named Axiochus and he also maintains that Pericles met Aspasia through his close connections with Alcibiadess household. Hetaerae were professional high-class entertainers, as well as courtesans, besides displaying physical beauty, they differed from most Athenian women in being educated, having independence, and paying taxes. They were the nearest thing perhaps to liberated women, and Aspasia, according to Plutarch, Aspasia was compared to the famous Thargelia, another renowned Ionian hetaera of ancient times. She became the mistress of the statesman Pericles in the early 440s, after he divorced his first wife, Aspasia began to live with him, although her marital status remains disputed. Their son, Pericles the Younger, must have been born by 440 BC, Aspasia would have to have been quite young, if she were able to bear a child to Lysicles c.428 BC. In social circles, Aspasia was noted for her ability as a conversationalist, Plutarch writes that despite her immoral life, friends of Socrates brought their wives to hear her converse. Though they were influential, Pericles, Aspasia and their friends were not immune from attack and her relationship with Pericles and her subsequent political influence aroused many reactions
Aspasia
–
Marble
herm in the
Vatican Museums inscribed with Aspasia's name at the base. Discovered in 1777, this marble herm is a Roman copy of a 5th-century BC original and may represent Aspasia's
funerary stele.
Aspasia
–
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904): Socrates seeking Alcibiades in the house of Aspasia, 1861.
Aspasia
–
Bust of Pericles,
Altes Museum,
Berlin.
Aspasia
–
Painting by Hector Leroux (1682–1740), which portrays Pericles and Aspasia admiring the gigantic statue of Athena in
Phidias ' studio
16.
Anaxagoras
–
Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae in Asia Minor, Anaxagoras was the first to bring philosophy to Athens, most manifestly those things of which there are the most in it. He introduced the concept of Nous as a force, which moved and separated out the original mixture. He also gave a number of novel scientific accounts of natural phenomena and he produced a correct explanation for eclipses and described the sun as a fiery mass larger than the Peloponnese, as well as attempting to explain rainbows and meteors. Anaxagoras is believed to have enjoyed some wealth and political influence in his town of Clazomenae. However, he supposedly surrendered this out of a fear that they would hinder his search for knowledge. The Roman author Valerius Maximus preserves a different tradition, Anaxagoras, coming home from a voyage, found his property in ruin. A sentence, denoted by Maximus, as being possessed of sought-after wisdom, although a Greek, he may have been a soldier of the Persian army when Clazomenae was suppressed during the Ionian Revolt. In early manhood he went to Athens, which was becoming the centre of Greek culture. There he is said to have remained for thirty years, Pericles learned to love and admire him, and the poet Euripides derived from him an enthusiasm for science and humanity. Anaxagoras brought philosophy and the spirit of inquiry from Ionia to Athens. His observations of the bodies and the fall of meteorites led him to form new theories of the universal order. He explained that, though both sun and the stars were fiery stones, we do not feel the heat of the stars because of their enormous distance from earth and he was the first to explain that the moon shines by reflecting the suns light. He thought that the earth is flat and floats supported by air under it. These speculations made him vulnerable in Athens to a charge of impiety, according to Laertius, Pericles spoke in defense of Anaxagoras at his trial, c.450 BC. Even so, Anaxagoras was forced to retire from Athens to Lampsacus in Troad and he died there in around the year 428 BC. Citizens of Lampsacus erected an altar to Mind and Truth in his memory, Anaxagoras wrote a book of philosophy, but only fragments of the first part of this have survived, through preservation in work of Simplicius of Cilicia in the 6th century AD. All things existed in this mass, but in a confused, there was an infinite number of homogeneous parts as well as heterogeneous ones
Anaxagoras
–
Anaxagoras; part of a fresco in the portico of the
National University of Athens.
Anaxagoras
–
Anaxagoras, depicted as a medieval scholar in the
Nuremberg Chronicle
17.
Classical Greece
–
Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years in Greek culture. This Classical period saw the annexation of much of modern-day Greece by the Persian Empire, Classical Greece had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and on the foundations of western civilization. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, scientific thought, theatre, literature, in the context of the art, architecture, and culture of Ancient Greece, the Classical period, sometimes called the Hellenic period, corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The Classical period in this sense follows the Archaic period and is in turn succeeded by the Hellenistic period and this century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because Athens has left us more narratives, plays, and other written works than the other ancient Greek states. From the perspective of Athenian culture in Classical Greece, the period referred to as the 5th century BC extends slightly into the 4th century BC. In this context, one might consider that the first significant event of this occurs in 508 BC, with the fall of the last Athenian tyrant. However, a view of the whole Greek world might place its beginning at the Ionian Revolt of 500 BC. The Persians were defeated in 490 BC, the Delian League then formed, under Athenian hegemony and as Athens instrument. Athens excesses caused several revolts among the cities, all of which were put down by force. After both forces were spent, a brief peace came about, then the war resumed to Spartas advantage, Athens was definitively defeated in 404 BC, and internal Athenian agitations mark the end of the 5th century BC in Greece. Since its beginning, Sparta had been ruled by a diarchy and this meant that Sparta had two kings ruling concurrently throughout its entire history. The two kingships were both hereditary, vested in the Agiad dynasty and the Eurypontid dynasty, according to legend, the respective hereditary lines of these two dynasties sprang from Eurysthenes and Procles, twin descendants of Hercules. They were said to have conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War, in 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias, son of Peisistratos. Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras, but his rival Cleisthenes, with the support of the middle class and aided by democrats, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes, through his reforms, the people endowed their city with isonomic institutions — i. e. with equal rights for all —and established ostracism. The isonomic and isegoric democracy was first organized into about 130 demes, the 10,000 citizens exercised their power as members of the assembly, headed by a council of 500 citizens chosen at random. The territory of the city was divided into thirty trittyes as follows, ten trittyes in the coastal region ten trittyes in the ἄστυ. A tribe consisted of three trittyes, selected at random, one each of the three groups
Classical Greece
–
The
Parthenon, in Athens, a temple to
Athena
Classical Greece
–
Statue of
King Leonidas of Sparta
Classical Greece
–
Cities at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War
18.
Acropolis of Athens
–
The word acropolis comes from the Greek words ἄκρον and πόλις. Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is known as The Acropolis without qualification. The Acropolis is located on a rock that rises 150 m above sea level in the city of Athens. It was also known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Cecrops, while the earliest artifacts date to the Middle Neolithic era, there have been documented habitations in Attica from the Early Neolithic. There is little doubt that a Mycenaean megaron stood upon the hill during the late Bronze Age, nothing of this megaron survives except, probably, a single limestone column-base and pieces of several sandstone steps. Soon after the palace was constructed, a Cyclopean massive circuit wall was built,760 meters long, up to 10 meters high and this wall would serve as the main defense for the acropolis until the 5th century. The wall consisted of two built with large stone blocks and cemented with an earth mortar called emplekton. There were two lesser approaches up the hill on its side, consisting of steep, narrow flights of steps cut in the rock. Homer is assumed to refer to this fortification when he mentions the strong-built House of Erechtheus, at some point before the 13th century BC, an earthquake caused a fissure near the northeastern edge of the Acropolis. This fissure extended some 35 meters to a bed of marl in which a well was dug. An elaborate set of stairs was built and the served as an invaluable. There is no evidence for the existence of a Mycenean palace on top of the Athenian Acropolis. However, if there was such a palace, it seems to have been supplanted by later building activity, not a lot is known about the architectural appearance of the Acropolis until the Archaic era. In the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, the site was taken over by Kylon during the failed Kylonian revolt, nevertheless, it seems that a nine-gate wall, the Enneapylon, had been built around the biggest water spring, the Clepsydra, at the northwestern foot. A temple to Athena Polias, the deity of the city, was erected around 570–550 BC. Whether this temple replaced an older one, or just a sacred precinct or altar, is not known, probably, the Hekatompedon was built where the Parthenon now stands. Between 529–520 BC yet another temple was built by the Peisistratids and this temple of Athena Polias was built upon the Doerpfeld foundations, between the Erechtheion and the still-standing Parthenon. Arkhaios Neōs was destroyed by the Persian invasion in 480 BC, however, the temple may have been burnt down in 406/405 BC as Xenophon mentions that the old temple of Athena was set on fire
Acropolis of Athens
–
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Acropolis of Athens
Acropolis of Athens
–
View of the Acropolis from the Agora, 2010
Acropolis of Athens
–
View of the Acropolis from the
Areopagus, 2010
19.
Ioannis Varvakis
–
Ioannis was born on the Greek island of Psara, son to Andreas Leontis and Maria Moros. His mother later cloistered herself in a monastery on the island of Khios and he spent his entire fortune to equip the ship and to arm it with cannons and showed extraordinary courage during the Battle of Chesma in July 1770. His xebec was transformed into a ship, packed with combustibles, set on fire. But the war did not give independence to Greece, as the Ottoman sultan signed peace by the Treaty of Kuçuk Kainarji in 1774, on the other hand, this war created a mass exodus of Greeks to Russia. Without any money in his pocket, Ioannis Varvakis decided to seek an audience with Catherine II of Russia and he also received an official patent signed by Catherine the Great, proving that Ivan Andreevich Varvatsi was named first lieutenant of the Russian Navy on October 21,1772. From Saint Petersburg, he left for Astrakhan to develop a fishery, in the northern Caspian Sea his fishery enterprise made him a millionaire. The boats of Varvakis caught sturgeon, white salmon and other valuable fish, knowing the passion of Greeks for caviar, he tried to arrange exporting caviar to Europe. He invented a solution to preserve the freshness of the eggs while being transported by ship. He produced timber boxes, which did not cause alterations in the eggs, were absolutely waterproof. Until then the caviar had been preserved in caves, Varvakis shipped caviar from Astrakhan to Greece by camel or by boat through the Volga river. In 1788, the business of Varvakis employed more than 3,000 workers, in 1810-17, Ioannis Varvakis financed the delayed construction of the channel linking the Volga to its arm Kutum. The channel, which was built as Astrakhansky was renamed by the decree of December 31,1817 as Varvatsievski. After Russian revolution, it was renamed to The May 1st Channel, in 1813, Ivan Varvatsi spent 600,000 rubles for construction of Greek Jerusalem Monastery in Taganrog. When Alexander I died in Taganrog in 1825, the service for the Russian Tsar was chanted in this monastery. Varvatsis mansion in Taganrog suffered extensive damage during Siege of Taganrog in Crimean War, the walls were filled with cannonballs and rifle bullets, and were left in that condition. The building was nicknamed house with bullets, Ioannis Varvakis actively assisted the Greeks during the Greek Revolution, especially his home island of Psara. After the destruction of the island by the Turkish Fleet, he returned to Greece himself in 1824 to aid the refugees, and died on Zakynthos on January 10,1825. Varvakis desired to promote education for the new Greek state, and in his will he left 1 million rubles for the building of a high school, Varvakis also financed the building of Athens closed market, the Varvakeios Agora
Ioannis Varvakis
–
An oil portrait of Varvakis, attributed to
Vladimir Borovikovsky.
Ioannis Varvakis
–
Astrakhan,"The May 1st Channel"
Ioannis Varvakis
–
The Greek Monastery in
Taganrog, where the burial service for
Alexander I of Russia was chanted in 1825.
Ioannis Varvakis
–
The Mansion of Ivan Varvatsi in
Taganrog.
20.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
–
The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world, the first national archaeological museum in Greece was established by prime minister of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. The initial name for the museum was The Central Museum and it was renamed to its current name in 1881 by Prime Minister of Greece Charilaos Trikoupis. In 1887 the important archaeologist Valerios Stais became the museums curator, during World War II the museum was closed and the antiquities were sealed in special protective boxes and buried, in order to avoid their destruction and looting. In 1945 exhibits were displayed under the direction of Christos Karouzos. The south wing of the houses the Epigraphic Museum with the richest collection of inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions museum expanded between 1953 and 1960 with the designs of Patroklos Karantinos. The museum has an imposing neo-classical design which was popular in Europe at the time and is in accordance with the classical style artifacts that it houses. The initial plan was conceived by the architect Ludwig Lange and it was modified by Panagis Kalkos who was the main architect, Armodios Vlachos. At the front of the museum there is a large neo-classic design garden which is decorated with sculptures, the building has undergone many expansions. These expansions were necessary to accommodate the growing collection of artifacts. The most recent refurbishment of the museum more than 1.5 years to complete. The Minoan frescoes rooms opened to the public in 2005, on May 2008 the Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis inaugurated the much anticipated collection of Egyptian antiquities and the collection of Eleni and Antonis Stathatos. Today, there is a discussion regarding the need to further expand the museum to adjacent areas. A new plan has made for a subterranean expansion at the front of the museum. The museums collections are organised in sections, The prehistoric collection displays objects from the Neolithic era, Early and Mid-Bronze age, objects classified as Cycladic and Mycenaean art. There are ceramic finds from various important Neolithic sites such as Dimini and Sesclo from middle Helladic ceramics from Boeotia, Attica, some objects from Heinrich Schliemann excavations in Troy are also on display. Cycladic collection features the famous marble figurines from the Aegean islands of Delos and Keros including the Lutist, of great interest are the two golden cups from Vafeio showing a scene of the capture of a bull
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
–
National Archaeological Museum of Athens
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
–
The
Antikythera Ephebe
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
–
Detail of the building.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
–
The
Mask of Agamemnon, one of the best known pieces shown in the museum.
21.
Statue
–
A statue is a sculpture representing one or more people or animals, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger. A small statue, usually enough to be picked up, is called a statuette or figurine. Statues have been produced in many cultures from prehistory to the present, the worlds tallest statue, Spring Temple Buddha, is 128 metres, and is located in Lushan County, Henan, China. Many statues are built on commission to commemorate a historical event, many statues are intended as public art, exhibited outdoors or in public buildings. Some statues gain fame in their own right, separate from the person or concept they represent, Ancient statues often survive showing the bare surface of the material of which they are made. For example, many people associate Greek classical art with white marble sculpture, most of the colour was weathered off over time, small remnants were removed during cleaning, in some cases small traces remained which could be identified. Richter goes so far as to say of classical Greek sculpture, All stone sculpture, whether limestone or marble, was painted, medieval statues were also usually painted, with some still retaining their original pigments. The colouring of statues ceased during the Renaissance, as excavated classical sculptures, the Löwenmensch figurine from the Swabian Alps in Germany is the oldest known statue in the world, and dates to 30, 000-40,000 years ago. The Venus of Hohle Fels, from the area, is somewhat later. Throughout history, statues have been associated with images in many religious traditions, from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece. Egyptian statues showing kings as sphinxes have existed since the Old Kingdom, the oldest statue of a striding pharaoh dates from the reign of Senwosret I and is the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. The Middle Kingdom of Egypt witnessed the growth of block statues which then became the most popular form until the Ptolemaic period, the oldest statue of a deity in Rome was the bronze statue of Ceres in 485 BC. The oldest statue in Rome is now the statue of Diana on the Aventine, the wonders of the world include several statues from antiquity, with the Colossus of Rhodes and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. While Byzantine art flourished in various forms, sculpture and statue making witnessed a general decline, an example was the statue of Justinian which stood in the square across from the Hagia Sophia until the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. While making statues was not subject to a ban, it was hardly encouraged in this period. Starting with the work of Maillol around 1900, the human figures embodied in statues began to move away from the schools of realism that had held them bound for thousands of years. The Futurist and Cubist schools took this even further until statues, often still nominally representing humans, had lost all. By the 1920s and 1930s statues began to appear that were abstract in design
Statue
–
The Thinker, by
Rodin c. 1902, Bronze,
Copenhagen
Statue
–
Easter Island moai statues
Statue
–
Great Sphinx of Giza, c. 2558–2532 BC, the largest
monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high.
Giza,
Egypt.
Statue
–
The
Charioteer of Delphi, 474 BC,
Delphi Archaeological Museum, Greece
22.
Zeus
–
Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
Zeus
–
The Jupiter de Smyrne, discovered in
Smyrna in 1680
Zeus
–
The Chariot of Zeus, from an 1879 Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church.
Zeus
–
Zeus, at the Getty Villa, A.D. 1 - 100 by unknown.
Zeus
–
"
Cave of Zeus ",
Mount Ida (Crete).
23.
Engraving
–
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it. Wood engraving is a form of printing and is not covered in this article. Engraving was an important method of producing images on paper in artistic printmaking, in mapmaking. Other terms often used for printed engravings are copper engraving, copper-plate engraving or line engraving, hand engraving is a term sometimes used for engraving objects other than printing plates, to inscribe or decorate jewellery, firearms, trophies, knives and other fine metal goods. Traditional engravings in printmaking are also engraved, using just the same techniques to make the lines in the plate. Each graver is different and has its own use, engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin, or graver, to cut the design into the surface, most traditionally a copper plate. Modern professional engravers can engrave with a resolution of up to 40 lines per mm in high grade work creating game scenes, dies used in mass production of molded parts are sometimes hand engraved to add special touches or certain information such as part numbers. In addition to engraving, there are engraving machines that require less human finesse and are not directly controlled by hand. They are usually used for lettering, using a pantographic system, there are versions for the insides of rings and also the outsides of larger pieces. Such machines are used for inscriptions on rings, lockets. Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types, the burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. The angle tint tool has a curved tip that is commonly used in printmaking. Florentine liners are flat-bottomed tools with multiple lines incised into them, ring gravers are made with particular shapes that are used by jewelry engravers in order to cut inscriptions inside rings. Flat gravers are used for work on letters, as well as wriggle cuts on most musical instrument engraving work, remove background. Knife gravers are for line engraving and very deep cuts, round gravers, and flat gravers with a radius, are commonly used on silver to create bright cuts, as well as other hard-to-cut metals such as nickel and steel. Square or V-point gravers are typically square or elongated diamond-shaped and used for cutting straight lines, V-point can be anywhere from 60 to 130 degrees, depending on purpose and effect. These gravers have very small cutting points, other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulets and burnishers are used for texturing effects. Burnishing tools can also be used for stone setting techniques
Engraving
–
St. Jerome in His Study (1514), an engraving by Northern Renaissance master
Albrecht Dürer
Engraving
–
Artist and engraver
Chaim Goldberg at work
Engraving
–
An assortment of hand engraving tools
Engraving
–
At an engravers workshop: Miniature engraving on a
Louis George watch movement: Smallest engraving of the royal
Prussian eagle on a watch movement. It takes about 100 passes to create the figure.
24.
Philippe Galle
–
Philip Galle was a Dutch publisher, best known for publishing old master prints, which he also produced as designer and engraver. He is especially known for his engravings of paintings. Galle was born in Haarlem in the Netherlands, where he was a pupil of the humanist, according to the RKD, he married Catharina van Rollant on 9 June 1569. They had five children who became active as artists, Theodoor, Cornelis, Philips II, Justa. In Haarlem he engraved several works of the Haarlem painter Maarten van Heemskerck and his first house in Antwerp was most probably a house called Het Gulden Hert, opposite the house of the mapmaker Ortels. He managed Cocks press and succeeded Cock in 1570 and was received as a citizen of Antwerp the following year, the work contains an approbatio, or permission from the ecclesiastical authorities to publish. Galle had a relationship with religion and political power during his entire life. Some of his numerous prints made in Antwerp were after Anthonie van Blocklandt, Hans Bol, Marcus Gheeraerts, Gerard Groening, Galle had many pupils who became popular engravers. Galles son Cornelis followed him as an engraver, early works by Cornelis shows a striking similarity to the work of his father. Philip Galles press and publishing house was a success and his pupils included his children, de Hooghe, Hendrick Goltzius, Jan-Baptist Barbé, Pieter Nagel, the sons of his colleague Hans Collaert Adriaen and Jan, and Karel van Mallery. His sons and sons-in-law carried on the business at Antwerp through the seventeenth century, as a resident of Antwerp, Galle witnessed numerous events of the Eighty Years War, notably the siege and looting of the town in 1576 by the Spaniards, called The Spanish Fury. Galle wrote a Cort Verhael, a chronicle of these events. A later print was dedicated to Jean de Bourgogne, lord of Froidmont or Fromont and he died in Antwerp in March 1612. Pictures from the Theatri Orbis Terrarum Enchiridion 1585 Engravings attributed to Galle Philips Galle, engraver and print publisher in Haarlem and Antwerp, den Haag in den Geuzentijd, by Jakob Smit, Uitgegeven met steun van de Vereeniging Die Haghe MCMXXII,1922, p 330-334
Philippe Galle
–
Portrait by his pupil
Hendrick Goltzius, 1577
Philippe Galle
–
Garden of Holland, allegorical engraving by Philip Galle of a woman dressed in the manner of
Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer.
Philippe Galle
–
Titlepage
Philippe Galle
–
Germania
25.
Maarten van Heemskerck
–
Maerten van Heemskerck or Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in Haarlem. He was a pupil of Jan van Scorel, and adopted his teachers Italian-influenced style and he spent the years 1532–6 in Italy. He produced many designs for engravers, and is known for his depictions of the Wonders of the World. Heemskerck was born in the village of Heemskerk, North Holland and he was the son of a farmer called Jacob Willemsz. According to his biography by Karel van Mander, he began his training with the painter Cornelius Willemsz in Haarlem. Heemskerck then went to lodge at the home of the curate of the Sint-Bavokerk. They knew each other because Foppesz owned land in Heemskerk, the artist painted him in a now famous family portrait, considered the first of its kind in a long line of Dutch family paintings. His other works for Foppesz included two life size figures symbolising the Sun and the Moon on a bedstead, and a picture of Adam and his next home was in the house of a goldsmith, Justus Cornelisz, on the edge of Haarlem. Before setting off for Italy on a Grand Tour in 1532 and he travelled around the whole of northern and central Italy, stopping at Rome, where he had letters of introduction from van Scorel to the influential Dutch cardinal William of Enckenvoirt. Giorgio Vasari, who saw the battle-pieces which Heemskerk then produced, said they were well composed, while in Rome where he made numerous drawings of classical sculpture and architecture, many of which survive in two sketchbooks now in the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin. He was to use them as source material throughout the rest of his career, among these are the Capitoline Brutus, van Heemskerck being the first known artist to make a sketch of this now famous bust. On his return to the Netherlands in 1536, he settled back at Haarlem, where he became president of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke, married twice, the alteration in his style, brought about by his experience of Italy was not universally admired. According to van Mander, in the opinion of some of the best judges he had not improved it, except in one particular and he painted large altarpieces for his friend, the art maecenas and later martyr of the Protestant Reformation, Cornelis Muys. Muys had returned from a period in France to the Netherlands in 1538 and this lucrative and high-profile work in Delft earned Heemskerck a commission for an altarpiece in the Nieuwe Kerk for their Guild of St. Luke. In 1553 he became curate of the Sint-Bavokerk, where he served for 22 years, in 1572 he left Haarlem for Amsterdam, to avoid the siege of Haarlem which the Spaniards laid to the place. He was one of the first Netherlandish artists to make drawings specifically for reproduction by commercial printmakers and he employed a technique incorporating cross-hatching and stippling, intended to aid the engraver. Heemskerck produced designs for a set of engravings, showing eight and they were engraved by Philip Galle and published in 1572. Many works by van Heemskerck survive, an altar-piece executed for the St
Maarten van Heemskerck
–
Self-portrait detail from his painting of the
Colosseum
Maarten van Heemskerck
–
Family of Pieter Jan Foppesz. - painted before Heemskerck left for Italy in 1532.
Maarten van Heemskerck
–
Colossus of Rhodes, imagined in a 16th-century engraving by
Martin Heemskerck
Maarten van Heemskerck
–
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, said to be the oldest-known imagary reconstruction from historical descriptions.
26.
Plato
–
Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Platos entire work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundations of Western philosophy. Alfred North Whitehead once noted, the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. In addition to being a figure for Western science, philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche, amongst other scholars, called Christianity, Platonism for the people, Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy, which originate with him. He was not the first thinker or writer to whom the word “philosopher” should be applied, few other authors in the history of Western philosophy approximate him in depth and range, perhaps only Aristotle, Aquinas and Kant would be generally agreed to be of the same rank. Due to a lack of surviving accounts, little is known about Platos early life, the philosopher came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies, the exact time and place of Platos birth are unknown, but it is certain that he belonged to an aristocratic and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or Aegina between 429 and 423 BCE. According to a tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus. Platos mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker, besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children, these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus. The brothers Adeimantus and Glaucon are mentioned in the Republic as sons of Ariston, and presumably brothers of Plato, but in a scenario in the Memorabilia, Xenophon confused the issue by presenting a Glaucon much younger than Plato. Then, at twenty-eight, Hermodorus says, went to Euclides in Megara, as Debra Nails argues, The text itself gives no reason to infer that Plato left immediately for Megara and implies the very opposite. Thus, Nails dates Platos birth to 424/423, another legend related that, when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips while he was sleeping, an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse about philosophy. Ariston appears to have died in Platos childhood, although the dating of his death is difficult. Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mothers brother, who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty. Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato and these and other references suggest a considerable amount of family pride and enable us to reconstruct Platos family tree
Plato
–
Plato: copy of portrait bust by
Silanion
Plato
–
Plato from
The School of Athens by
Raphael, 1509
Plato
–
Plato and
Socrates in a medieval depiction
Plato
–
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of
The School of Athens, a fresco by
Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a copy of his
Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his
Timaeus and gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in
The Forms
27.
Classical antiquity
–
It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwestern Asia. Conventionally, it is taken to begin with the earliest-recorded Epic Greek poetry of Homer, and continues through the emergence of Christianity and it ends with the dissolution of classical culture at the close of Late Antiquity, blending into the Early Middle Ages. Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many disparate cultures, Classical antiquity may refer also to an idealised vision among later people of what was, in Edgar Allan Poes words, the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome. The culture of the ancient Greeks, together with influences from the ancient Near East, was the basis of art, philosophy, society. The earliest period of classical antiquity takes place before the background of gradual re-appearance of historical sources following the Bronze Age collapse, the 8th and 7th centuries BC are still largely proto-historical, with the earliest Greek alphabetic inscriptions appearing in the first half of the 8th century. Homer is usually assumed to have lived in the 8th or 7th century BC, in the same period falls the traditional date for the establishment of the Ancient Olympic Games, in 776 BC. The Phoenicians originally expanded from Canaan ports, by the 8th century dominating trade in the Mediterranean, carthage was founded in 814 BC, and the Carthaginians by 700 BC had firmly established strongholds in Sicily, Italy and Sardinia, which created conflicts of interest with Etruria. The Etruscans had established control in the region by the late 7th century BC, forming the aristocratic. According to legend, Rome was founded on April 21,753 BC by twin descendants of the Trojan prince Aeneas, Romulus and Remus. As the city was bereft of women, legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins and the Sabines. Archaeological evidence indeed shows first traces of settlement at the Roman Forum in the mid-8th century BC, the seventh and final king of Rome was Tarquinius Superbus. As the son of Tarquinius Priscus and the son-in-law of Servius Tullius, Superbus was of Etruscan birth and it was during his reign that the Etruscans reached their apex of power. Superbus removed and destroyed all the Sabine shrines and altars from the Tarpeian Rock, the people came to object to his rule when he failed to recognize the rape of Lucretia, a patrician Roman, at the hands of his own son. Lucretias kinsman, Lucius Junius Brutus, summoned the Senate and had Superbus, after Superbus expulsion, the Senate voted to never again allow the rule of a king and reformed Rome into a republican government in 509 BC. In fact the Latin word Rex meaning King became a dirty and hated throughout the Republic. In 510, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow the tyrant Hippias, cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy conducted by Isagoras. Greece entered the 4th century under Spartan hegemony, but by 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes and Corinth, the two of which were formerly Spartan allies, challenged Spartan dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC
Classical antiquity
–
The
Parthenon is one of the most iconic symbols of the classical era, exemplifying ancient Greek culture
28.
Chryselephantine
–
Chryselephantine sculpture is sculpture made with gold and ivory. Chryselephantine cult statues enjoyed high status in Ancient Greece, in some cases, glass paste, glass, and precious and semi-precious stones were used for detail such as eyes, jewellery, and weaponry. The origins of the technique are not known and it is, however, not clear whether the Greek chryselephantine tradition is connected with them. Chryselephantine sculpture became widespread during the Archaic period, later, Acrolithitic statues, with marble heads and extremities, and a wooden trunk either gilded or covered in drapery, were a comparable technique used for cult images. The technique was used for cult statues within temples, typically. Construction was modular so that some of the gold could be removed and melted for coin or bullion in times of financial hardship. For example, the figure of Nike held in the hand of Pheidias Athena Parthenos was made from solid gold with this very purpose in mind. Chryselephantine statues were not only visually striking, they displayed the wealth. The creation of such a statue involved skills in sculpture, carpentry, jewellery, once completed, the statues required constant maintenance. It is known that at Olympia, skilled personnel were employed to ensure the upkeep of the statue, in the second century BC, the prominent sculptor, Damophon of Messene was commissioned to make repairs on it. Due to the value of some of the materials used and the perishable nature of others, most chryselephantine statues were destroyed during antiquity. For example, of the statue of Athena Parthenos, only the hole that held its central wooden support survives today in the floor of her temple. The appearance of the statue is known from a number of miniature marble copies discovered in Athens. Pausanias also described Pheidias statue of Zeus at Olympia, here, some of the clay moulds for parts of Zeus garments made of glass or glass-paste have been discovered in the building known as the Workshop of Pheidias. They are the only finds directly associated with the sculptors most famous works. Few examples of sculpture have been found. The most prominent surviving examples are fragments of several burnt statues from the Archaic period, unfortunately, it is not known whom they depict, although they are assumed to represent deities. The term chryselephantine is also used for a style of sculpture fairly common in European 19th century art, especially Art Nouveau
Chryselephantine
–
Gold and fire-blackened ivory fragments of a burnt Archaic chryselephantine statue -
Delphi Archaeological Museum
Chryselephantine
–
Fragments of a second burnt chryselephantine statue in
Delphi Archaeological Museum, sometimes suggested to depict
Apollo
Chryselephantine
–
Reproduction of the
Athena Parthenos statue in the reproduction
Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
29.
Hippias Major
–
Hippias Major is one of the dialogues of Plato. It belongs to the dialogues, written while the author was still young. Its precise date is uncertain, although a date of c.390 BCE has been suggested, its authenticity has been doubted. In the Hippias Major, Socrates and Hippias set out to find a definition for beauty, the actual Greek term that is used in the dialogue is καλόν, which as an adjective often means fine or noble as well as beautiful. For this reason, translators such as Paul Woodruff typically translate the term as the Fine instead of Beauty. As in Charmides, Lysis and Euthyphro, Hippias Major has a purpose, that is. The concept of something good in and of itself makes its first appearance in this work, the dialogue can be read as much as a serious philosophical work as a light satirical comedy with two actors. The astuteness of Socrates in taking refuge under the authority of a third protagonist in order to direct biting criticism at Hippias. Hippias of Elis, Hippias was a well known Sophist, originally from Elis, known throughout Ancient Greece, he was reputed to have mastered mathematics, astronomy and rhetoric, he boasted that he could speak on any subject at Olympia without preparation. He is presented by Plato, perhaps somewhat caricatured, as vain, narrow, Hippias, whose business had kept him away from Athens for a long time, arrives in the city to give a lecture at Pheidostratuss school in the next few days. He meets Socrates, and the latter asks him why such a precious and it is, explains the great Sophist, because his native Elis was so in need of his services, and entrusted him with several important diplomatic missions to different cities, notably in Sparta. He made use of his travels throughout the Greek world to educate a large number of youth, one such example was the small town of Inycus, in Sicily, where the modest inhabitants sacrificed a good part of their savings to see their children educated. Socrates ironically assures him that this is all admirable, and if Hippias has spent such a large part of his time in Sparta, he asks, this must be where he earned the most. But Hippias demurs, he did not touch an obolus there and it was not because the Spartans did not wish the best possible education for their children, and not because they did not comprehend the true value of Hippias. The only reason was that it is not the usage of the Lacedaemonians to change their laws or to educate their children differently from what is customary. However, Socrates emphasized, the law is made for use and happiness of the citizens. By being too attached to the law and refusing the services of Hippias, Socrates then asks him then how he nevertheless had so much success in this severe city of Laconia. Socrates is happy that Hippias came to reminisce on beautiful things, because this is a subject that interests Socrates greatly and with good reason
Hippias Major
–
Plato from
The School of Athens by
Raphael, 1509
30.
Marble
–
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Geologists use the marble to refer to metamorphosed limestone, however. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material and this stem is also the basis for the English word marmoreal, meaning marble-like. In Hungarian it is called márvány, Marble is a rock resulting from metamorphism of sedimentary carbonate rocks, most commonly limestone or dolomite rock. Metamorphism causes variable recrystallization of the carbonate mineral grains. The resulting marble rock is composed of an interlocking mosaic of carbonate crystals. Primary sedimentary textures and structures of the carbonate rock have typically been modified or destroyed. Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of a very pure limestone or dolomite protolith, green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally magnesium-rich limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallized by the intense pressure, examples of historically notable marble varieties and locations, White marble has been prized for its use in sculptures since classical times. This preference has to do with its softness, which made it easier to carve, relative isotropy and homogeneity, construction marble is a stone which is composed of calcite, dolomite or serpentine which is capable of taking a polish. More generally in construction, specifically the dimension stone trade, the marble is used for any crystalline calcitic rock useful as building stone. For example, Tennessee marble is really a dense granular fossiliferous gray to pink to maroon Ordovician limestone that geologists call the Holston Formation. Ashgabat, the city of Turkmenistan, was recorded in the 2013 Guinness Book of Records as having the worlds highest concentration of white marble buildings. According to the United States Geological Survey, U. S. domestic marble production in 2006 was 46,400 tons valued at about $18.1 million, compared to 72,300 tons valued at $18.9 million in 2005. Crushed marble production in 2006 was 11.8 million tons valued at $116 million, of which 6.5 million tons was finely ground calcium carbonate and the rest was construction aggregate. For comparison,2005 crushed marble production was 7.76 million tons valued at $58.7 million, of which 4.8 million tons was finely ground calcium carbonate, U. S. dimension marble demand is about 1.3 million tons. The DSAN World Demand for Marble Index has shown a growth of 12% annually for the 2000–2006 period, the largest dimension marble application is tile. In 1998, marble production was dominated by 4 countries that accounted for almost half of production of marble
Marble
–
Marble in Carrrara marble quarry, Italy
Marble
Marble
–
The
Taj Mahal is entirely clad in marble.
Marble
–
Carlo Franzoni's sculptural marble
chariot clock depicting
Clio, the Greek
muse of history.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pheidias". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
Media related to Phidias at Wikimedia Commons
