Athenian Cultural Legacy

Ancient Athens (800 B.C. - 300 B.C.) is not a democracy. A democracy is a government controlled by the population, whereas the Athenian government was being controlled by only male citizens. According to Doc D, the ancient Athens were in fact an oligarchy, a government ruled by male citizens. The majority of the population does not vote in the Athenian politics.

Courtesans and Fishcakes written by James Davidson explore the ancient Greek culture of the Athenians and elaborate on not only the desire for sex, but the appetites of life. Author James Davidson is a professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick. In his biography, it says that he is a regular contributor to the London Review of Book and the author of the award winning The Greeks and Greek Love. Courtesans and Fishcakes is divided into four parts: Feasts, Desire, The Citizen, and The City. Within each part of the book, there are multiple sub-sections that go into depth about the particular section of each ‘chapter’. In Part I: Feasts, Davidson goes into some background of the ancient Greek

When evaluating the government of ancient Athens, some might say that it was a democracy, however, it can be better described as an oligarchy: a form of government in which a small group of people has the power and control (Doc. D by Mogens Herman Hansen). A democracy takes all the citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account, unlike an oligarchy that only takes the male citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account. Thus, Athens is more similar to an oligarchy than a democracy. The people of Athens also decide as a whole what the best government for their city-state was, as opposed to a democracy where the people elect representatives to make decisions for them and their city-state. Athens could be seen as not a true democracy because of the lack of basic democratic rules and methods such as what they define democracy as, who is able to vote, and how they vote.

The author’s tone is excited yet maintains a calmness, like someone in modern times might talk about something expensive that they bought. At points the author speaks with reverence of the palaces. The use of words like “feasted” and “echoing” helps in demonstrating the enormity of what they do for things that may seem like every day encounters, such as having a visitor over. This idea helps to demonstrate that the Greeks valued luxury and leisure so they could reap the rewards from the work that they had done.

Pericles’ Funeral Oration by Thucydides, and Sophocles’ play, Antigone, both illustrate cultural values that are crucial in understanding the dynamic of Ancient Athens. In these two pieces of literature, the cultural values are explained and understood through death. Pericles delivered the Funeral Oration as part of a public funeral for some of the Athenian fatalities in the first year of the Peloponnesian War. In Antigone, Sophocles is able to encompass values and conflicts through the death of Antigone’s brother. Pericles connects the death of soldiers to the importance of community, trust, personal freedoms, and social order that was essential in the success of Ancient Athenian Culture. Sophocles addresses the values of family, religion, and loyalty in his play, Antigone. The values highlighted in each of these works are very similar as they institute the importance of the patrioi nomoi (Athenian constitution) to the success of the Athenian state.

“The Restoration of the Athenian Empire” Our walls are crumbling and our fleet is minute. We here in Athens are unable to collect tribute from other city-states and are often in threat of being attacked. Our fleet is defenseless and weak. The Democratic fraction, propose that we spend our time and hard earned money on the rebuilding of our walls and fleet. That way Athens can dangerously collect tributes from other Greek city-states. The Democrats also would like to commence in hazardous military voyages with our insubstantial navy. Hoping the result brings forth great rewards.

The culture of a society, as determined by its political, social and religious structure, is a major factor in the development of its technology. Even societies that exist in the same time and environment can progress in different directions, depending on the interests and goals of the public. The ancient city-states or poleis (polis-sing.) of Athens and Sparta provide an excellent example of how cultural differences influence the development of technologies.

Democracy is a system of government where the people equally run a country. For example, America practices a form of government where the people have the right to elect those who are in power when they become eighteen years of age. In addition, a citizen of this country can practice a religion of their choice along with several other freedoms. In my opinion, Athens was not a democratic society by today’s standards.

The Golden Age of Greece and the Pax Romana were both a very peaceful and sensual time during the Ancient Greece and Rome. However, living during each of the times isn’t a hard decision because Rome has the best geography, where there’s enough land for a large amount of population, fertile soil for farming and the economy has great trade to provide for everyone. For Greece, these two categories were lacking, although there were alike in some topics. The two categories are explained more in detail

The central argument for this article is about women’s role in society when it comes to dining and socializing. Specifically, the article provides a survey, the aim is to emphasize the value of paying closer attention to the female side of wining and dining in discussions of occasions of commensality in the ancient Greek world. Burton mainly addresses this by emphasizing the importance of opening up the consideration of women’s commensality beyond the male defined symposium. The evidence suggests women had a variety of commensal activities, however, in Athens the range of activities for respectable, upper-class women were limited, but more varied than generally acknowledged, outside of Athens, the range widens even further.

All of these traditions in ancient Athenian and Egyptian cultures were challenged during the Ptolemaic Dynasty when Athenian and Egyptian cultures met for the first time. This final dynasty of independent Egypt started when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and made Alexandria the capital. Ptolemy and his descendants ruled throughout this era from 330 BCE to 30 BCE (Bowman 1986, 21-54). This combining of various aspects of both cultures changed the roles of women in government, politics, inheritance, land ownership and religion.

Sparta and Athens are two very different city-states, with Sparta valuing pure military strength, on the other hand Athens boasted their intellectual and artistic skill. However, each of their skills was surprisingly based on the geography around the city-state. With Sparta being located in southern Peloponnese they were exceptionally isolated, comparative to the Athenian land which was located off the coast of the Aegean Sea. Since the Athenians had access to the sea they were able to trade with nearby city states and specialize in areas relating in aquatic studies. Such luxury of trade dismissed the idea of self-reliance in the Athenian land, instead they could grab all they needed from nearby cities. However, the Spartans were very secluded

The Greek word “demos”, meaning people, is a prefix that coins different words to name a few: demagogue (a rabble-rouser who rouses the prejudices of mobs), democracy (government of the people, by the people), democrat (one who believes in democracy) , demonym (native people of a particular place, e.g. German for Germany), demophile (one who is mad about people), demomania (a desire to be with people or in crowded places), demography (deals with statistics of population e.g. births, deaths, and marriages) and pandemonium (a state when people are noisy and hard to control). (Word root: Demo, n.d.)

Ancient Greece has played a vital role influencing today’s modern society, and as we learn more about women in this time period, connections continue to be drawn on today’s societal norms. Politics, art, philosophy, drama, and architecture are all influenced heavily by Ancient Greek civilizations. Greece at the time was not a united nation, but rather a collection of sovereign communities referred to as “City-States”; each City-State had different customs, beliefs but shared the same religion, language, and ritual practices. Due to the terrain, location, and whether it was difficult for communication and further development of communities. Therefore we see a vast spectrum

The last Olympic swimmer just touched the wall and the race has ended. Cameras are replaying every single movement from the race and a winner has been clearly decided. Just as these Olympic swimmers will gain a medal for placing, ancient Athens had numerous accomplishments of its own. Athens “prosperity … was due in large part to its stable and effective government” (SOURCE 1). When analyzing the history of ancient Athens, is easy to see how the accomplishments of a democracy, Greek philosophy, and Greek literature all shape Athens.