We couldn’t have gotten this far without some help. Civilization, culture, and knowledge stack up like building blocks, everything coming from something before. Many modern-day elements, common objects, and rituals are derived from the concepts of ancient civilizations. The cultured pasts of Egypt, Italy, India, China, Japan, and many other countries all shape our future. One especially influential empire was that of Greece.
Some of the comparitive areas of Egyptian and Greek cultures include sculptures, pottery making, and various architectural designs. One of the main cultural relics for both Egyptian and Greek civilzation was no other than sculptures. Example of Greek sculpture is Athena Giustiniani Musei Capitolini, it is completely done in white marble depicting one of the gods of ancient Greek Mythology. She is wearling a robe and a metal helm while holding up a torch like item in her right hand. The feeling one while looking upon Athena is very cold and a little frighting.
Greece and Rome were both Mediterranean countries and are separated by countryside that was rather hilly. Greece was made up of some islands and was located in south Europe, while Rome is on the western side of Italy near the Tiber River. This led to different climates for their people, Greece suffered warm and humid climates while Rome didn’t deal with humidity (13Se). Greek religion was a bit different than Roman while both practiced polytheism form of religion. The Greek worshiped the gods of mount Olympus, including Zeus, Aphrodite, Ares, Athena, Apolla, and Poseidon.
Originally, temples were just small structures made from wood and mud brick. As the years progressed, the temples developed into buildings, sometimes reaching over 20 meters high. They were then built with stone and marble and decorated with mosaics and carvings. In Athens, temples were built in the Ionic and Doric style of architecture. Although, the Doric style was mainly used in mainland Greece and the Ionic style was used in the Islands and colonies to the east.
Many historians believe that pottery was first brought to Greece from the Anatolian region (located in modern-day Turkey) during the great settlement of the Aegean during the Neolithic period (6000-2900 B.C.). Greek pottery was not simply utilitarian, or designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive, but it also reflected the social and cultural values of the Greek history. Ancient Greek pottery was intended for everyday use as well as to be used for decoration. The ancient pottery provides people with important information about the Greek culture: such as the Greek Alphabet which consisted of only 20 letters, which are: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Si, & Omega. The Greek used pottery to also pass messages.
The architecture of ancient Greece is represented by buildings in the sanctuaries and cities of mainland Greece, the Aegean islands, southern Italy and Sicily, and the Ionian coast of Turkey. Monumental Greek architecture began in the archaic period, flourished through the classical and Hellenistic periods, and saw the first of many revivals during the Roman Empire. The roots of Greek architecture lie in the tradition of local Bronze Age house and palaces. The following paper will cover the basic forms of Greek architecture. One of the many types of Greek building structures was Sacred Architecture.
The Greeks believed that intellect is superior to forces of nature, while the Romans wanted their architecture to dominate the sites. A third similarity was their ability to be innovative during their time periods. Along with their innovations when it came to their temples, the Greeks also had the ability to create very life-like and dynamic sculptures, something that the Romans constantly struggled with during their time. Because of this, a lot of their sculptures were just replicas of Greek sculptures with small adaptations and changes occurring. One of the most innovative steps that the Romans took with their
Define the differences between Greek & Roman temples 11/11/11 Of the rich and momentous plethora of artworks created in the Greco-Roman era, only a handful survives. Very little painting survives other than murals, vases and literary descriptions of painted panels. The most well-preserved section of the arts is sculptures and architecture, and the only type of building surviving in any number is the temple; the legacy of which is phenomenal. Roman architecture was built on the foundations that the Greeks had laid, as were the Renaissance, Neoclassicism and all other modern revivals of the style. C. M. Bowra says of Greek influence on contemporary society: “the modern world is far too deeply indebted to Greece to accept in unthinking ingratitude what it has inherited”.
They are most famous for their architecture, based on the new ideas and materials that they established. The Romans learned concepts from prior ages and altered them with the aim of building up their Empire and creating a stronger basis for living. Through mastering skills of architecture and engineering, the Romans were able to change the face of Europe forever. They learned not only to master ways of creating solid structures but also ways of giving them character and style. Roman architecture did not simply appear out of thin air; it has its roots in Grecian and Etruscan architecture.
Ancient Greek art is broken into six major periods of magnificent creation; The Geometric Age (900-725 BCE), The Orientalizing Period (725-650 BCE), The Archaic Period (650-480 BCE), The Classical Period (480-400 BCE), The Late Classical Period (400-325 BCE), and The Hellenistic Period (325-350 BCE). The Greek’s were the first Western Humans to document their artwork and their artists’ using literature but Greek art is particularly difficult to study. The Greek work’s themselves are in fragments and many sculptures are Roman copies of the original Greek work; therefore, there is no way to tell whether the Roman’s imitated the art exactly as they saw or how they interpreted the art, “A copy was not necessarily intended as a strict imitation, but allowed for adapting the work according to the taste of skill of the copy-ist or the patron’s wishes” (Davies, 76)1. The Greek’s practiced a Polytheistic religion, yet they created their God’s in human form rather than half-animal, half-human like the Ancient Egyptians had done. “The Greek God’s and Goddesses, though immortal, behaved in very human ways” (Davies, 82)2.