Greek And The Modern Culture Of The Ancient Greek Culture

on our history and mythology helped shed light to it’s culture, religion, and government of ancient Greece. The Mediterranean has served as a vessel for the early civilizations., Greek mythology has influenced the life style and religion of the Greeks, especially because Greek mythology served as the primary basis of Greek belief, it became the nearest thing the Greeks had to a holy bible.1 These mythologies served as the center of Greek life and these mythologies served as their basis for their life and in turn the mythologies shaped the foundation of the Greek life style, culture, religion that we know today.

The Greeks occupied such a minute space of land compared to the rest of the world, and their existence is a mere flicker in time, yet their influence on civilization today is significant and obvious. So how did they do it? The Ancient Greeks were not perfect by any means; they practiced slavery, sacrificing, forced men to become warriors, confined women to the home, and were sometimes plagued by disease. Despite their pitfalls, the Greeks were still able to rise to become a major influential power due to their feeling of purpose, which was to be the best. It was not religion nor war that propelled them forward, but this feeling of wanting to be the best in everything. Essentially, the Greeks wanted to achieve arete, or excellence of any kind. As a result, the Greeks were excellent philosophers, warriors, artists, architects, actors, and so much more. There are many aspects of Greek life that influence civilization today, and it is all due to the Greek’s belief in achieving arete.

The Hellenic Age and the Hellenistic Age are the two main periods in Greek history. The Hellenic Age is significantly different from the Hellenistic Age. The Hellenic period saw the rising and falling of the polis while Hellenistic period was plagued by warfare among the remaining dynasties. Despite the differences between the Hellenic and Hellenistic periods, the one thing that remained consistent in both periods was the Greeks' ability to not only advance science and philosophy but to strive for excellence in everything that they undertook including their ability to deemphasize the role of the gods in their lives.

The ancient Greeks highly valued the strength and power in a spoken word. Political, economic, cultural, and social life of the Ancient Greeks can be seen in their plays. They thus relied on words to communicating. Their desire to communicate and pass crucial information led to the creation of numerous plays across the region. The ancient Greek plays were both entertaining and educative thus reflecting on the kind of life that this person lived (Hogan 11). Their settings can suggest a lot about the circumstances and conditions under which this play was performed. The dramatic presentations were crucial to Athenians, a fact that can be seen from the numerous and well- spread theatres across the city. The paper will focus on how the ancient

“Greek civilization is alive; it moves in every breath of mind that we breathe; so much of it remains that none of us in one lifetime could absorb it all.” Ancient Greeks are known to be one of the greatest and most advanced people and have left behind a legacy that helped define the Western civilization. Cultural diffusion helped spread Greek culture all over the world, and its effects can still be felt today in almost every aspect. Greek culture has greatly affected different parts of my daily life including architecture, food, government, inventions, music, religion, and education.

“Polis is a term that is used to describe a tight knit small community of Ancient Greek citizens who agreed on certain rules and customs. Usually a polis was centered on a small town and the countryside the surrounded it” (Deering). The polis defined a public and communal space, the Agora, for the purpose of leading public affairs. The affairs of men and affairs were included as these had essentials parts to the entire community’s affairs. The Ancient Greek poleis are among the first recorded democratic governments in the world. The term polis has been translated into city-state as there was typically only one city and because an individual polis was independent from other poleis in terms of political, judicial, legal, religious and social

For a vast number of Greeks and Romans, either taking part in or observing sports was a fundamental part of life. In 776 B.C. the ancient Olympics began and are now viewed as the formal beginning of Greco-Roman sports, the Olympics were the most famous and long-lasting of all ancient games. The athletic contest initially included running, jumping, and throwing. During the first several Olympiads there was not a formal stadium available for the athletes instead, the judges drew a line in the dirt to mark the start and another line to mark the finish. Unlike the Olympics now, the only people that could participate in the ancient Olympics were free white males. Women and slaves could not even watch the games, but by the first century B.C. women were permitted to watch the games and even participate in a few women’s only events. Wrestling and boxing were some other popular sports that became evident in Ancient Rome, wrestling was so important in Greece that by the fifth century, almost every town had a wrestling facility and became the most important component of physical education. Greeks and Romans only practiced who types of wrestling upright and ground. Boxing was the most dangerous of the two sports and the goal was to pound one’s opponent into submission. Lastly, back

In 776 B.C., a new era began for athletes. The first Olympic Games were held in Olympia, Greece. The Olympic Games we have come to watch today are only part of what the first Olympic Games used to be. In the ancient games people also competed in poetry, mathematics, architecture and sculpture. At the first Olympic Games there were only foot races as sports events, but as the Olympics grew more popular events like wrestling, boxing, chariot racing, horse racing, javelin tossing, Discus throwing, and the Pankration were added.

Kings of the Hellenistic era built temples, staffed with priest, for old gods. This way they spread Greek religious beliefs throughout the Near East. This broadened peoples span of knowledge of religions, science and philosophy and shaped the world. When people got tired of it and found rituals unsatisfying, they turned to mystery religions.

The olympics first started in ancient greece and is the oldest sporting event that is still

The majority of my life has revolved around the dominant presence of athletics. As opposed to actually being an athlete, other aspects, such as watching athletic events with my family, are also included. Ancient Greeks are responsible for the world-wide event titled the Olympics. According to the official Olympic website, the Olympics “can be traced back to 776 BC” in Greece where the only allowed competitors were males. Women were not able to watch these games take place due to the nudity involved. These

Explain with definitions and examples the concept of culture and elaborate on the barriers to becoming culturally competent communicators.

The Greek Olympics were an ancient tradition that originated in the year 776 BCE. The sporting events occurred every four years in the great city of Olympia. The purpose of the Olympics was to entertain and to impress the gods with their physical ability and prowess. For five days, citizens throughout the empire would coalesce in Olympia to witness the multitude of athletic contests. Entire stadiums and colossal temples were constructed for specific events. Wars and conflicts were postponed so that nothing could interfere with the religious event. At first, the Olympic games consisted only of simple sprinting events. Over time, more complex events like wrestling, chariot racing, long jump and the pentathlon were added to the games. The

Throughout the play Medea written Euripides, an assortment of unique characters are presented to the audience. At first glance, the characters in the play seem to serve as the normal society in Ancient Greece. This is true to a certain degree but Euripides intended it to be more than their standard social roles. Euripides utilizes characters such as the all women choir, King Creon, Medea and others to convey his perception of what is his modern but now Ancient Greek traditional values are to him and even pushes the boundaries by breaking some of the social standards set during his time. With a deeper understanding of the characters, the audience will be able to

When you think of the Olympics, sports like gymnastics, soccer, swimming, hockey and many more events probably come to mind. However, very few of the sports that are competed in now existed when the Olympics first began. They have evolved considerably over the last 3,000 years. First of all, there were very few events compared to how many there are now. Also, the Olympics went from only being known in Greece to being “the world’s preeminent sporting competition.” (History)