Greek culture 希腊文化.pptVIP

CULTURE 文 化 Spartan King Leonidas：Spartans！Ready your breakfast and eat hearty，for tonight ,we dine in Hell！ Why study the Greeks? Western intellectual history always begins with the ancient Greeks.? The Greeks educated the Romans, after the dark age, it was the record of Greeks,kept and studied by the Moslem and Christian thinkers, that evetually educated the whole Europe again. As English major students, it is quite necessary for us to lay a solid foundation of ancient western civilization so as to broaden our view and study the language and the world around from different perspective. Two major elements in European culture Greco-Roman element Judeo-Christian element Greek Culture 1. The historical backdrop The Second half of the 4th century B.C.the spread of the Greek culture under the rule of Alexander, King of Macedon. 2. Social and political structure Coined as a democracy, Athens was not as democratic as it seemed, “the exercise of power” was only in the hands of adult male citizens, which inherited from one generation to another. Women , children , foreigners alike had no rights. Yet the economy of Athens relied heavily upon myriads of slave labour. Olympic Games originated right here on Olympus Mount in 776B.C, which was later revived in 1896. For more info: www. wikipedia. org 3. Literature Homer’s(around 700B.C) epics: Iliad and Odyssey Iliad depicts the war between Greece, led by Achillies and Odysseus, while Troy, had Hector on its side. In the end, Troy was burned down the Greeks. Odyssey describes the return of Odysseus to Ithaca after the Trojan war. On his way home at sea, he encountered many adventures, and finally reunited with his faithful wife Penelope. Helen of Troy Homer was a blind poet with high prestige in ancient Greece, and was considered to be the greatest Greek epic poet. His writings were about the great men and the events far before his age. 4. Drama 1) Tragedy Aeschylus 埃斯库罗斯（525-456B.C) Prometheus Bound(被束缚的普罗米修斯），