Ryan Waymire Lori Michelon History of Western Art I 28 March 2012 Two Great civilizations: Egyptian and Etruscan The incredibly intricate, sophisticated and complex art work created by the Etruscans and Egyptians remains culturally, linguistically, ethnically and historically significant to this very day. Even though these civilizations existed thousands of years ago they're art still remains incredibly valued in today’s society. Etruscan and ancient Egyptian art are so alike yet so different. Both the Etruscan and the Egyptian culture are very religious, and both believed in polytheism. The Etruscan believed that every physical phenomenon was a clear act of divine power and this power could be dissuaded or persuaded to favor human acts.
Egyptian architecture includes some of the most famous structures in the world. Buildings were generally made for religious purposes. Some of the more famous buildings include the Pyramids of Giza and the temples at Thebes. The ancient Egyptians were very skilled builders, and made there structures with precision and planning. Their temples and pyramids were intended to last forever as tributes to their gods.
For as long as humans exist, they carry the faith in gods or other supernatural forces in their hearts. It supports them in difficult situations, inspires creativity and good deeds, helps explain and understand the unknown, and gives hope for the better future. Literature is not an exception: gods are present in the earliest literary works that followed the invention of writing. “The Epic of Gilgamesh” and Homer’s “Iliad” are two good examples of god’s influence on human’s lives in literature. Both of these works illustrate the close relationship between gods and people, god’s constant interference in human’s daily affairs, and even the resemblance of their characters.
The Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic meaning they believed in multiple deities assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals. They believed in four main gods, the highest of the 4 god was the sky-god An, the over-arching bowl of heaven. Next came Enlil who could either produce raging storms or act to help man. Nin-khursag was the earth goddess, and the 4th god was Enki, the water god and patron of wisdom. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc, surrounded by a huge space, and above that heaven.
These sites provide significant knowledge for historians and archaeologists to learn about Ramesses’ II reign and the impact which has continued for over 3000 years. Ramesses II built more monuments than any other pharaoh. Ramesses II building program was a devotion to the gods. He raised obelisks, statues and temples to honour them, to please them and gain their favor on his rule. The structures were also as a form of making him seem immortal to all those who knew and those who are against him.
Akhenaten was a king who left an ever lasting impression in history; his revolutionary ideas in religion and art broke conventions of many years of Egyptian tradition. His devotion to the single god Aten is considered by many critics as the first evidence of monotheism in the ancient world. Akhenaten was a revolutionary and made many changes. One of the most visible changes was in Amarna in the manner in which the human form is depicted, particularly in the proportions and the extreme physical features of the king himself. In sculptures, paintings and reliefs, Akhenaten is shown as having a slender neck, a long face with a sharp chin, narrow, almond-shaped eyes, full lips, high cheek bones, projecting lower jaw, long arms and fingers, swollen stomach, feminine buttocks, wide hips, heavy thighs, enlarged breasts and spindly calves.
The Sumerian king, Urnammu of Ur, reintroduced the Sumerian language and decided to build a famous Ziggurat dedicated to Nanna, believed to be the moon god. (Stokstad and Cothren 2011, p. 36) De Los Santos 2 The time of the Old Kingdom in Egypt was 2575 to 2150. It was a period of wealth and stability, especially among the ruling families. This is reflected in the elaborateness of tomb buildings and complexes that rulers had built for themselves (Stokstad and Cothren 2011, p. 55). world’s most famous pyramids are the three great pyramid tombs at Giza in Egypt.
The Sumerians were the dominant people of Mesopotamia who built the world’s first cities and helped shape Mesopotamian history as we know it. They built temples and palaces to worship their gods, constructed irrigation systems to distribute water, and maintained order by dividing into city-states. When looking at the cultural and political developments of classical India and Sumer, it is apparent that both had polytheistic religions and decentralized rule, however, they were different in their literature. One similarity as mentioned previously is decentralization in India and Sumer. In both societies, local governments were practiced rather than a unified, whole state.
The Parthenon a temple built for the Greek Goddess Athena the Maiden, best known as The Goddess of Wisdom; it is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the culmination of the development of the Doric order. The Parthenon is a Doric style temple consisting of a rectangular floor, with several low steps and eight Doric style columns on each side (front and back). It is also characteristically thicker and more rectangular than the Pantheon with its oblong rooms and proportions. The cultural monument is made entirely from marble, with a limestone base. The Pantheon is the best preserved of all Roman buildings, and perhaps the best-preserved building of its age in the world.
The religion of Ancient Egypt was a polytheistic religion, meaning they believed in many gods. Their religion hosted about 700 different gods and goddesses. In addition, it was not uncommon for deities to be combined to form a new deity. One of the more famous aspects of the Egyptian religious beliefs was their ideas of the afterlife. They believed the physical body had to be preserved to allow a place for their spirit to dwell in the afterlife.