Goddess and Polis

Humanities 110 Lecture

L. Leibman

October 25, 2004

 

"The main reason I ended up studying Greek religion is that the complexity of ancient Greek culture seemed to me to be better expressed in that area than in any other."-J.P. Vernant

 

OUTLINE

I. Introduction: time, aesthetics, audience, space, and context

II. The Panathenaic Procession

City Wall and Dipylon Gate

The Potter's Quarter

The Agora

The Entryway to the Acropolis

The Acropolis and Aesthetics

III. Rethinking the Parthenon

 

KEY TERMS, MONUMENTS, AND PEOPLE

Acropolis: ("upper town") the Greek name for the citadel or stronghold of the town. 

Processional Architecture: the way in which buildings channel visitors through and between them in a set manner, and in doing so instill in the visitor a sense of the relationship between the individual and the community/polis.

Panathenaia: ("all the Athenians") the state festival honoring the Athens's patron deity, Athena Polias ("of the city")

Dipylon Gate: the main entrance into Athens at the northwest part of the city.

Kerameikos:  potter's quarter

Demokratia: kratos (sovereign power) and demos (the people)

Bouleuterion: Council House where the Boulé: (council) met

Tholos: circular building believed to have been the place where the Committee of Councilors and other officials would have eaten and drunk together

Propylaia: entrance gate-building to a temple enclosure or precinct

Parthenon: the room in Greek houses that was set aside for the use of a maiden before she was married; the temple to Athena as the Virgin Goddess.

 

FIGURE #1: MAP OF ATHENS                        FIGURE #2: TYPES OF SCULPTURES

(Boardman, The Parthenon and its Sculptures 224, 226)

 

 

 

FIGURE #3: THE IONIC AND DORIC ORDERS (Perseus)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GREEK AESTHETICS OF THE ETHEREAL (Lagerlof 158)

Multiplicity: paradoxically the lavish abundance of plants, stone etc. in the highest world is the "picture" chosen for the undifferentiated unity of the Forms

Many colors-clear, distinct, and intensely luminous.

Soft, smooth or transparent materials, whose shining surfaces are primary signifiers.

Clarity and lucidity: not fractured perspectives, nothing ambivalent or obscured.

 

FIGURE #4: SCULPTURES ON THE PARTHENON

(Osborne, Archaic and Classical Greek Art, 175)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kerr, Minott. "'The Sole Witness': The Periclean Parthenon." Hum 110 Lecture, Reed College. 23 Oct. 95.

Lagerlof, M. The Sculptures of the Parthenon: Aesthetics and Interpretation. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000.

Neils, Jenifer. Goddess and Polis: the Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992.

Rhodes, Robin. Architecture and Meaning on the Athenian Acropolis. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995.

Scully, V. The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods : Greek Sacred Architecture. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.

Traulos, Ioannes. Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens. New York: Praeger, 1971.

Wycherley, R. E. The Stones of Athens. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.

Zaidman, Louise and Pauline Pantel. Religion in the Ancient Greek City. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.