Notes 2-22

• The Classical Age
• Athens is on a little peninsula in the province of Attica. Modern Athens is a huge city. Over a quarter of the population of Greece lives in Athens. The population is around 5 million people, and of course in the Ancient times it was considerably smaller.
  
• The ancient city of Athens was centered around the Acropolis.
• The sacred grove of Dionysus opens up to the theater of Dionysus. Notes that religion and theater are together. From the very beginning they are absolutely connected.
• Tragedy and comedy are the themes of the plays.
• Temple of Athena Nike- Nike is the Greek word that means victory. This temple was built after the Persian war. Athena is the protector of Athens, and they built a temple for Athena, the victorious.
• There is an ancient carving of Athena Nike, or Athena victorious, is fixing her shoe. That is where Nike got its name.
• The Parthenon is a Doric(the columns end in sort of squares at the top) temple. (there are a variety of temples). It began being built in 480. it was built with funds that Athenians got as a result of the Persian war.
• The Athenian General Pericles. He was so famous and influential that often we refer to the age of classical Greece as the age of Pericles. He thought that Athens would be the protector of Greece, and all the other cities would contribute to Athens to protect Greece. Pericles also thought that Greece should build a navy. Lastly, Pericles really opens up the arts. Remember, the Acropolis was destroyed, so Pericles built up something new instead of the acropolis, and that is where we get the Parthenon.
• The Parthenon has a picture all around the top of the inside, about a parade. The temple was dedicated to Athena Parthenos. (the virgin Athena) On the day of the festival the people would parade around and the women would go into the temple and wrap a fine linen around the huge statue of Athena.
• The classical age gives us philosophy, the arts, music painting, sculpture all reach critical high points in this period. Also, the first experience of democracy occurs.