Golden age of Greek Civ

Adeeb Noorani         

Comp Civ

Oct. 29

The Greeks lived in what we depict the “Golden Age” of civilization with their many contributions and discoveries to society. There are certain main factors as to why they were believed to have made such a great impact, they raised the bar in many fields and achieved such high level achievements. Theses forces were so big that they were enough to make people think that at that time it was when society was at its ideal stage.

The first picture is of a body of armor that a soldier would wear out to battle. This is a key representation of Greece, an example is Sparta, a city that demonstrated great military power. Not only did Greece have mighty armies but they developed certain strategies and equipments to be better than the rest. The Greek hoplites were foot soldiers, the military format they made was the phalanx formation, which is a group of soldiers grouped together to make an impenetrable brick. The production of bronze weapons and armor with their intense military training gave them a cunning edge over their enemies which in turn let them protect themselves like they did with the Persian and were given the chance to advance in different fields.

The second picture is that of an “Olympics” vase, the first Olympic game in 776 B.C. was in honour of the god Zeus. These events were one of the developments that marked the ending of the dark ages of Greece, a period that was much different than the accomplished time of the golden age. With its help Greece was able to declare a sacred truce between the disunited city-states forming an authentic community which was never really there before. The sense of rivalry and competitiveness with these games actually brought people closer establishing a greater relationship between the once fragmented city-states.

The third is a statue of Polyclitus, an ancient Greek sculptor. The realness in which he is portrayed, with such lifelike characteristics is what stood out from the Kouros style of the Archaic period. Greek art is mainly five forms architecture, sculpture, painting, pottery and jewelry making. Modern art today has been affected by Greek art such as influencing our representation of the human figure with their male figures. Greek theatre in Athens grew rapidly after Xerxes led the Persians to invade Athens and succeeded in burning it down. After that the town was rebuilt and theatre became an even bigger part of their culture, this is known as the golden age of Greek drama. The prosperity arts brought is not just material but intellectual also, they practiced these in the purest forms and many wish they could go back and hone their skills as the Greeks did.

All of these contributions along with many more illustrate the endeavor the Greeks put in to create what is now known as the “Golden Age” of civilization. In society today, many of the aspects have been built off of what they did, so many believe that back then, at the beginning of these great discovery’s was when a pure community was taking place.