British Museum

 Now that I am back in 2022, I had to go to the British Museum to see some of the sculptures of Ancient Greece that portray Humanism. One of the most distinguished features of humanism is the recognition of the beauty of the human body, usually portrayed in the males in the ideal forms. The Ideal male body portrayed in the sculptures were almost always the image of well-conditioned athletes. The physical resemblance of gods and humans suggests a blurry line separating the two, highlighting their fervent belief that the gods are reflections of humankind's innate beauty. The Gods, however, were portrayed in the same key features, usually a lot bigger, and illustrated very distinct masculine features like the Zeus sculpture in the Zeus temple. This is reflected in statues and sculptures of gods and humans made from the 5th century BC onwards. Walking around the museum, I came across a very long piece of sculpture that extended about a hundred and sixty meters long, The Parthenon frieze. The piece of sculpture is made of about a meter tall, and illustrates two groups of Athenians marching in opposite directions from the southwest corner of the Parthenon until they meet over the cella's door at the east end. Almost definitely, it is a representation of the Panathenaic procession, which was an important festival in Classical Athens. In ancient times, almost all sculptures and buildings were painted and decorated with metals, which means that the Parthenon frieze was most likely dazzled with metals and painted, giving it the characteristics of a three-dimensional painting. It is quite a possibility that there were many pieces similar to the Parthenon Frieze, that served the purpose of storytelling. The museum was crowded, and it was time for me to wrap the trip up as it was getting dark. 

I really enjoyed working on this project, it was a fun way of learning about the history of Ancient Greece. Thank you for the opportunity, Dr. Pearcy. 

Take care, 

Maadh Jawad

Senseney, John R. "The Architectural Origins of the Parthenon Frieze." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 80, no. 1 (2021): 12-29.

Sakoulas, Thomas. The parthenon frieze. Accessed September 26, 2022. https://ancient-greece.org/art/parthenon-frieze.html.

Symposium & Hetaira

After the Olympic Games had finished, I made some friends with some of the locals in the area and was invited to join them at their party. Curiosity got the best of me as I wanted to know how the citizen of Ancient Greece celebrated and enjoyed themselves. I was told that I will be taken to a symposium, a party held in a private home where Greek males gathered to drink, eat, and sing together. Many topics are discussed in the symposium, from their daily life issues to poetry, politics, and philosophy. The symposium was only open for males, luckily I fit the description being a male I was able to get in and enjoy a couple of drinks with the guys that I met at the Olympic Games. We played games, listened to and played music (lyre), shared stories, offered advise on day-to-day issues, discussed politics, and just enjoyed each other's company after eating and drinking. Readings of poetry were featured, especially those by the lyric poets Alkaios, Anakreon, Archilochos, and Theognis. Additionally, guests were invited to demonstrate their own creative and intellectual prowess through spontaneous recitals and banter, which was a common thing to do at the time. A hetaira was also invited to the symposium.  Hetaira is an educated female prostitute and is the only female allowed in a symposium. Hetairas, besides their most obvious capabilities as a prostitute, were very educated and cultured, they knew how to sing, dance, read poems and play the flute. The prostitutes of Ancient Greece were divided into three main categories. Porne, which is usually a slave who only offered their bodies for pleasure. The concubine, who lives in a certain household, is usually a free woman. Finally, a hetaira, the high-class prostitute offered her education in music, general culture and dance.

I left before the Hetaira arrived, since I had travel back to  the 21st century for my next site.

primary source

Attic red-figured bell-krater

Attributed to The Louvre Centauromachy P. by Beazley

Ca. 450 – 440 BC

Rome, Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco

secondary source

Giralt, Sebastià . "Symposiast & Hetaira." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified January 26, 2013. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/1035/symposiast--hetaira/.

The Temple of Zeus

 After watching the exciting Olympic Games, I had to stop by the temple of Zeus in the city of Olympia, a great architectural piece that took thirteen years to build and centuries of renovation. The temple, as the name might suggest, was built in dedication to the Greek supreme god Zeus. Its unusually tall columns made it one of the largest architectures of the ancient world. Being in the area, I simply had to check out one of the ancient world wonders, the temple of Zeus. The statue of mighty Zeus was just over twelve meters, approximately forty feet tall. The fine details of the work, height and the material used to build the statue rightfully earned it its spot among the seven ancient world wonders. As I walked in the temple, I noticed a bunch of merchants and vendors outside selling their goods to the onlookers and the people paying their respect to Zeus. Inside the temple there was a good amount of people surrounding the temple, surprisingly the temple was pretty quiet given the number of people in the temple. I couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the statue, it showed Zeus seated on a majestic cedar wood throne embellished with ebony, ivory, gold, and valuable stones. The throne was tall and gold-plated. A statue of Nike (Victory) was in his extended right hand, and Zeus was holding a rod with an eagle n his left hand. The statue, whose construction took eight years, was praised for the majesty and goodness of God that it embodied. I paid my respect to Zeus to not offend any of the locals and left the temple of Zeus. The Olympic Games had just finished and the winners of the events were coming into the temple to celebrate their victory and pray to Zeus.  

Primary source

At. “Temple of Zeus.” Temple of zeus. Accessed September 26, 2022. http://www.olympia-greece.org/templezeus.html.

Secondary source

Barringer, Judith M. “The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Heroes, and Athletes.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 74, no. 2 (2005): 211–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25067954.

Olympia Stadium

 

The second site I visited was none other than the Olympia stadium, the place that heavily influenced the Olympic Games of today. Similarly to the Olympic Games of today, the Olympia stadium held a set of Olympic events every four years in the honor of Zeus, the supreme god of the Greek religion. Luckily for me, I had come just in time for the Olympic Games. This event was the most important cultural event of Ancient Greece that gathered many spectators from all over Greece and even neighboring cities and countries. The event was so important that it was used as the basis for the calendar. I thought I had gotten there a little early before the official starting time of the games however, the stadium seemed to already be full and people were gathered in groups conversing, drinking, and having fun whilst waiting for the games to start. It was beautiful scenery to see many people from all over the country gather and hang out in the stadium. It was about forty thousand spectators from all over the region filling up the stadium. The site of the Olympia was very crowded with men that awaited the games, as result food vendors, traders and merchandise dealers took full advantage of the situation. As a tourist in the area, I couldn't help but spend a lot of money on the merchandise offered and tried out many of the foods sold in the area. I did spend a lot of money, but definitely don't regret spending any of it. Now that the games had started, I was surprised by the athletes' conditioning and the shape they were in, I came to find out that they were trained by professionals who knew the right exercises and the foods to eat for building muscles. Trainers as well as athletes had to be naked in the games. The first event was a race that ran over 192 meters, the race was divided into group stages and every winner from the groups raced in the final race for the ultimate victory that was rewarded by having their name attached to that stadium. The event was awesome, I had a great time and the vibe was unmatched.

Primary Source

Barringer, Judith M. “The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Heroes, and Athletes.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 74, no. 2 (2005): 211–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25067954.

Secondary Source

Cartwright, Mark. "Ancient Olympic Games." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified March 13, 2018. https://www.worldhistory.org/Olympic_Games/.

Delphi Theater

 

The first place I visited in Ancient Greece was the Delphi theater, a stunning piece of architecture. The theater was crowded with many people from all over the country, men gathered to watch an incredible comedy play performed by masked male actors. In contrast to the males' presence in the theater, there wasn't a female in sight, I came to find out later that female presence was contested at such gatherings. The 35-row theater was filled with five thousand spectators with four main actors performing the play which was quite surprising as there were more than 4 characters involved in the play. The actors had to change costumes and switch their masks accordingly to play the different characters in the play. The audience seemed to really enjoy the play, surprisingly with no speakers in sight, the voice of the actors was heard across the theater because of the way it was structured which made it possible for the sound to travel across the theater. It was really admirable to see the capabilities of ancient Greece's architecture. Aside from the play itself, I couldn't help but appreciate the beauty of the location of this theater. The spectacular location of theater is positioned just above the temple and the beautiful view of the valley beyond. The first part of the play was a very catchy and entertaining section of the play, it was called Parados, a group of performers about 24, entered the stade (stadium) and started singing and performing in very flashy costumes that helped introduce the plot and prepared us for the next events of the play. The next part of the play, Agon was a verbal contest between actors that contained a good amount of fast-changing scenes that helped advance the plot. The final part of the play was Exodus, another part that consisted of many performers that sang and concluded the plot. Overall it was a great experience, I had a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend it for my friends to check out.

Primary Source

Theater of Delphi Sakoulas, Thomas. Delphi Theater, n.d. https://ancient-greece.org/architecture/delphi-theater.html.

Secondary source

Cartwright, Mark. "Ancient Greek Comedy." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified March 25, 2013. https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_Comedy/.