contributions of ancient greece essay

10 Contributions of the Ancient Greeks

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The early civilization that flourished in ancient Greece had huge implications for the development of mankind. In every sector of life, from law to politics to sport, the terminology and innovations of this period are still relevant today. In fact, it's fair to say Western civilization as we know it was made possible by the advancements made by our Greek ancestors.

The Acropolis

The Acropolis, or "high city," was designed as a rallying point for a city under attack. It also housed the main temples. The Acropolis in Athens was home to the iconic Parthenon temple and its remains exist to this day. The Athenian Acropolis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Olympic Games

The greatest festival of athletics in the world dates back to an ancient Greek festival at Olympia, in honor of the god Zeus. Athletes gathered from all over the Greek world to compete for honors. Events in the original Olympic games included throwing the discus and the javelin, which are still practiced today.

Citizenship

The concept of citizenship was developed by the ancient Athenians. Citizens were the group from which the government were selected. They completed a compulsory period of military service and took part in jury service. To become a citizen, a man had to have been born to Athenian parents. Women took no part in public life during this time.

Aesop's Fables

The storyteller Aesop is said to have been a slave who entertained his master so well that he was granted freedom. Aesop's fables have been handed down the ages and are still told today. Perhaps the most famous of Aesop's fables is the story of the tortoise and the hare, in which the slower tortoise outwits the quicker hare.

The Trojan Horse

Legend has it that in order to penetrate the walled city of Troy, Greek warriors built a giant wooden horse, inside which, they concealed 30 of their men. This was a fake gift to the Trojans, who brought it into the city. At nightfall, the men who had been hidden inside the horse opened the gates and let in the Greek army.

Socrates was the original philosopher. He considered the nature of beauty, knowledge and what is right. His method was to ask questions, to try to expose the flaws in his fellow Athenians' preconceived notions. Socrates went on to teach Plato, the next great Athenian philosopher.

Plato examined the nature of philosophy and established it as a tool for examining the ethics of the day. He conceived of certain abstract ideas (for example, beauty, justice, or equality) which existed beyond our physical world. He taught that in order to be good, people must study and understand the nature of goodness itself.

Aristotle studied at Plato's Academy and tutored the future emperor Alexander the Great. He established the first ever botanical garden and the world's first zoo. Aristotle carried out philosophical inquiries into the nature of man, establishing that the greatest good in life is happiness, the goal towards which we should all aspire.

Theater was a huge part of ancient Greek culture, with theaters in every town and competitions to find the best playwrights and actors. The word theater comes from the Greek "Theatron," which described the seating section of the outdoor arenas where people watched plays. Comedies, tragedies and satirical plays were all invented by the Greeks.

Trial by Jury

Ancient Athenians invented trial by jury. Jurors had to be citizens of at least 30 years of age. A jury could consist of up to 500 people to ensure that it was impossible to bribe the majority. Having heard both sides of the case, the jury would decide on the accused person's guilt.

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• The British Museum: Ancient Greece
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Plato
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The Lasting Legacy of Ancient Greek Leaders and Philosophers

Greek leaders and thinkers were influential in their own time, but some of their ideas and work stand the test of time and still have an impact on modern life.

3, 6, 8, 12

Social Studies, Ancient Civilizations

Hippocrates

A drawing of Greek Physician Hippocrates

Photograph by PHAS

When you read the word “ancient,” you likely think of something old and outdated. But you may be surprised to hear that many of the ideas and institutions that came from ancient Greece still exist today. We have the ancient Greeks to thank for things like present-day democracy , libraries, the modern alphabet, and even zoology .

Here are some notable Greek figures—from philosophers to mathematicians and scientists —and how they have shaped the world we know today.

Socrates was one of the most prominent  ancient Greek philosophers . Socrates spent the majority of his life asking questions, always in search of the truth. He is responsible for developing what is known as the Socratic method , a technique still used by professors in law schools today. Instead of lecturing the students, professors will ask them a series of thought-provoking questions. These questions help the students think critically, and they are meant to elicit underlying presumptions and ideas that could be influencing the way a student views a case. Socrates engaged his students in this same fashion. He did not leave any written record of his life or ideas, so most of what we know about Socrates was written by one of his students, Plato .

Thanks to Plato , we know a lot about Socrates . Nevertheless, Plato made his own important contributions. Born around 427 B.C.E., Plato influenced Western philosophy by developing several of its many branches: epistemology, metaphysics, ethics , and aesthetics . Plato was also a prominent writer. One of his most famous writings is the Republic. In the Republic , Plato examines justice , its role in our world, and its relationship to happiness, themes familiar to the founding fathers of the United States. Plato is also famous for being the teacher of another important philosopher , Aristotle .

Aristotle is still considered one of the greatest thinkers in the areas of politics, psychology , and ethics . Like Plato , Aristotle was a prolific writer. He wrote an estimated 200 works during his lifetime; 31 of them are still admired and studied today. Aristotle thought a lot about the meaning of life and about living a moral life. Immensely curious, he also studied animals and sought to classify them into different groups, laying the foundation for zoology today. Through his writing about the soul and its properties, Aristotle laid the foundation for modern psychology . He was also called on to tutor King Philip II of Macedon’s son, Alexander, who would later come to be known as Alexander “the Great.”

While the great philosophers are well known, there were many other great Greek political and military leaders who had an impact on the world.

Alexander the Great

Born to notable military leader King Philip II, Alexander III of Macedon proved early on that he was destined for greatness. At a young age, Alexander learned to fight and ride, famously taming the wild horse Bucephalus at age 12. Only a few years later, at age 18, Alexander got his first chance to fight in a war and helped defeat the Sacred Band of Thebes during the Battle of Chaeronea. Soon he took over the throne his father once held and continued to prove himself a strong and able military mind. Alexander eventually created an empire stretching from Macedon across the entire Middle East to the frontiers of India. By 323 B.C.E., Alexander ruled over an enormous amount of land a feat that caused historians to give him the nickname Alexander “the Great.”

At the other end of ancient Greece was another strong leader working to grow the city of Athens. His name was Pericles. Pericles was born over 100 years before Alexander the Great , but he had a similar background. He came from a prominent family in Athens and had a war hero for a father. Pericles did much to help the culture of Athens flourish . Consistently surrounded by the arts, one of the first things he did was to sponsor the playwright Aeschylus. He also helped fund the building of the Parthenon , a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena that still stands today. Soon Pericles made his way into politics and was eventually elected as one of Athens’ leading generals. Like Alexander, Pericles was military minded and led many successful military campaigns. As a statesman, he contributed in many ways to what is considered the golden age of the city of Athens.

These philosophers and the Greek military and political leaders left their mark on both ancient Greece and the present-day Western world, but there were also famous mathematicians and scientists whose work and ideas are still popular today.

If you’ve ever tried to find the area of a right triangle, you’ve likely had to use something called the Pythagorean theorem, which is named after the mathematician Pythagoras. This theorem is one of the biggest contributions that Pythagoras made to mathematics. Pythagoras used numbers and mathematics to seek meaning in life. He even created a religious order in which the members focused on philosophy and math in order to find personal salvation.

Modern medicine has been heavily influenced by the work of Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician. The methods attributed to Hippocrates are compiled in 60 medical books known as the Hippocratic corpus. It is from these books that we have learned what was done in Hippocratic medicine. This practice of medicine included adopting a healthy diet and engaging in physical exercise—ideas still espoused to the public today. The corpus also included information about the importance of recording case histories and treatments, another practice essential to modern medicine. Hippocrates is best known for the wisdom contained in the Hippocratic oath, modern versions of which still govern the ethical principles by which new doctors promise to observe when practicing medicine.

Though these prominent Greeks lived centuries before us, they have left a brilliant legacy . By building on their hard work and great ideas, we’ve been able to establish the thriving world we live in today.

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ancient Greek civilization summary

Learn about the history and culture of ancient greece.

ancient Greek civilization , The period between the end of the Mycenaean civilization (1200 bce ) and the death of Alexander the Great (323 bce ) that significantly influenced later Western culture in politics, philosophy, and art.

Little is known about the earliest period of ancient Greek civilization, and many extant writings pertain only to life in Athens. Ancient Greece at its height comprised settlements in Asia Minor, southern Italy, Sicily, and the Greek islands. It was divided into city-states— Athens and Sparta were among the most powerful—that functioned independently of one another. There were frequent wars between Athens, Sparta, and their allies, including the Peloponnesian War (431–404 bce ) and later the Corinthian War (395–386 bce ).

Some city-states, including Athens, were governed by an early system of democracy that served as a precursor for later systems of government in the Western world. An interest in athletic competition was prevalent in ancient Greek culture, and the first Olympic Games were held in 776 bce .

Ancient Greek culture continued on in the writings of its philosophers, notably Plato and Aristotle ; its historians, notably Thucydides ; and in the literature of Homer , the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey .

The ancient Greeks also contributed to developments in art and architecture through the numerous sculptures and temples they constructed—the buildings of the Athenian acropolis, for example—to memorialize their deities.

Ancient Greek Inventions

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The ancient Greeks are often credited with building the foundations upon which all western cultures are built, and this impressive accolade stems from their innovative contributions to a wide range of human activities, from sports to medicine , architecture to democracy.

Like any other culture before or since, the Greeks learnt from the past, adapted good ideas they came across when they met other cultures, and developed their own brand new ideas. Here are just some of the ways ancient Greeks inventions have uniquely contributed to world culture, many of which are still going strong today:

• Human Sculpture
• Jury System
• Mechanical Devices
• Mathematical Reasoning

Olympic Games

Columns & Stadiums

Just about any city in the western world today has examples of Greek architecture on its streets, especially in its biggest and most important public buildings. Perhaps the most common features invented by the Greeks still around today are the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns which hold up roofs and adorn facades in theatres, courthouses, and government buildings across the globe. The Greeks used these architectural orders primarily for their temples, many of which are still standing today despite earthquake , fire, and cannon shots - the Parthenon , completed in 432 BCE, is the biggest and most famous example. The collonaded stoa to protect walkers from the elements, the gymnasium with baths and training fields, the semi-circular theatre with rising rows of seats, and the banked rectangular stadium for sports, are just some of the features of Greek architecture that any modern city would seem strange indeed without.

HUman Sculpture in Art

Greek innovations in art are perhaps seen most clearly in figure sculpture. Previous and contemporary ancient cultures had represented the human figure in a simple standing and rather static pose so that the people represented often looked as lifeless as the stone from which they were carved. Greek sculptors, though, inched towards a more dynamic result. In the Archaic period the stance becomes a little more relaxed, the elbows a little more bent and both tension and movement are thus suggested. By the Classical period statues have broken away from all convention and become sensuous, writhing figures that seem about to jump off the plinth. Greek sculpture and art, in general, began a preoccupation with proportion, poise, and the idealised perfection of the human body that was continued by the Romans and would go on to influence Renaissance art and many sculptors thereafter.

Democracy & Jury System in Law

One of the big ideas of the Greeks was that ordinary citizens should have an equal say in not just who governed them but also how they governed. Even more importantly, that input was to be direct and in person. Consequently, in some Greek city-states, 5th-4th-century BCE Athens being the most famous example, citizens (defined then as free males over 18) could actively participate in government by attending the public assembly to speak, listen, and vote on issues of the day. The Athenian assembly had a physical capacity of 6,000 people, and one can imagine that on many days only the most enthusiastic of the demos (people) would have turned up but when the big issues were on the table the place was packed. A simple majority vote won the day and was calculated by a show of hands.

On top of this already startling idea of direct democracy, all citizens could, and indeed were expected to, participate in government by serving as magistrates, jurors, and any official post they were capable of holding. Further, anyone seen to abuse their public position, which was usually only for a temporary term anyway, could be kicked out of the city in the secret vote known as ostracism .

Part and parcel of the democratic apparatus was the jury system - the idea that those accused of crimes were judged by their peers. Nowadays a jury system usually consists of twelve people but in ancient Athens, it was the entire assembly and each member was picked at random using a machine known as the kleroterion . This device randomly dispensed tokens and if you got a black one then you had to do jury service that day. The system made sure that nobody knew who would be the jurors that day and so could not bribe anyone to influence their decision. In a carefully considered system that thought of everything, jurors were even compensated their expenses.

Engineering & Mechanical devices

The Romans might have grabbed all the accolades for best ancient engineers but the Greeks did have their own mechanical devices which allowed them to move massive chunks of marble using the block and tackle, winch, and crane for their huge temples and city walls. They created tunnels in mountains such as the one-kilometre tunnel in Samos , built in the 6th century BCE. Aqueducts was another area the Greeks were not lacking in imagination and design, and so they shifted water to where it was most needed; watermills, too, were used to harness nature's power.

Perhaps the area of greatest innovation, though, was in the small-scale production of mechanical devices. The legendary figure of Daedalus , architect of King Minos' labyrinth , was credited with creating life-like automata and all manner of mechanical wonders. Daedalus may never have existed, but the legends around him indicate a Greek love of all-things magically mechanical. Handy Greek devices included the portable sundial of Parmenion made from rings (c. 400-330 BCE), the water alarm clock credited to Plato (c. 428- c. 424 BCE) which used water dropping through various clay vessels which eventually caused air pressure to sound off a whistle-hole, Timosthenes' 3rd-century BCE anemoscope to measure the wind direction, and the 3rd-century BCE hydraulic organ of Ktesibios. Then there was the odometer which measured land distances using a wheel and cogs, the suspended battering ram to provide more punch when breaking down enemy gates, and the flamethrower with a bellows at one end and a cauldron of flammable liquid at the other which the Boeotians used to such good effect in the Peloponnesian War .

Mathematical Reasoning & Geometry

Other cultures had shown a keen interest in mathematics but perhaps the Greeks' unique contribution to the field was the effort to apply the subject to practical and everyday problems. Indeed, for the Greeks, the subject of maths was inseparable from philosophy, geometry, astronomy, and science in general. The great achievement in the field was the emphasis on deductive reasoning, that is forming a logically certain conclusion based on the reasoning of a chain of statements. Thales of Miletus , for example, crunched his numbers to accurately predict the solar eclipse of May 28, 585 BCE, and he is credited with calculating the height of the pyramids based on the length of their shadow. Undoubtedly, the most famous Greek mathematician is Pythagoras (c. 571- c. 497 BCE) with his geometric theorem which still carries his name - that in a right triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the squares of the short sides added together.

The early Greeks considered illness a divine punishment, but from the 5th century BCE a more scientific approach was taken, and both diagnosis and cure became a lot more useful to the patient. Symptoms and cures were carefully observed, tested, and recorded. Diet, lifestyle, and constitution were all recognised as contributing factors to disease. Treatises were written, most famously by the 5th-4th-century BCE founder of western medicine Hippocrates . A better understanding of the human body was achieved. Observation of badly wounded soldiers showed, for example, the differences between arteries and veins, although dissection of humans would only come in Hellenistic times. Medicines were perfected using herbs; celery was known to have anti-inflammatory properties, egg-white was good for sealing wounds, while opium could provide pain relief or work as an anaesthetic. While it is true that surgery was avoided and there were still many wacky explanations floating about, not to mention a still strong connection to religion , Greek doctors had begun the long road of medical enquiry which is still being pursued to this day.

Sporting competitions had already been seen in the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations of the Bronze Age Aegean , but it was in Archaic Greece that a sporting event would be born which became so popular and so important that it was even used as a reference for the calendar. The first Olympic Games were held in mid-July in 776 BCE at Olympia in honour of the Greek god Zeus . Every four years, thereafter, athletes and spectators gathered from across the Greek world to perform great sporting deeds and win favour with the gods. The last ancient Olympics would be in 393 CE, after an incredible run of 293 consecutive Olympiads.

There was a widely respected truce in all conflicts to allow participants and spectators to travel in safety to Olympia. At first, there was only one event, the stadion - a foot race of one circuit of the stadium (about 192 m) in which some 45,000 all-male spectators gathered to cheer on their favourite. The event got bigger and bigger over the years with longer footraces added to the repertoire and new events held such as the discus, boxing, pentathlon, wrestling, chariot racing, and even competitions for trumpeters and heralds.

Specially trained judges supervised the events and dished out fines to anyone breaking the rules. The winners received a crown of olive leaves, instant glory, perhaps some cash put up by their hometown, and even immortality, especially for the winners of the stadion whose name was given to that particular games. The Olympic Games were revived in 1896 CE and, of course, are still going strong, even if they have another thousand years to go to match the longevity of their ancient version.

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The great Greek thinkers attacked all of the questions that have ever puzzled humanity. Figures such as Socrates , Plato, and Aristotle in the 5th and 4th century BCE endlessly questioned and debated where we come from, how we have developed, where we are going to, and should we even be bothering to think about it all in the first place. The Greeks had a branch of philosophy to suit all tastes from the grin-and-bear-it Stoics to the live for the minute, live simply and live happily Epicureans. In the 6th century BCE, Anaximander provides the first surviving textual reference of western philosophy and he considered that “the boundless” was responsible for the elements - so we have still not made very much progress since that statement.

Collectively, all of these thinkers illustrate one common factor: the Greek's desire to answer all questions no matter their difficulty. Neither were Greek philosophers limited to theoretical answers as many were also physicists, biologists, astronomers, and mathematicians. Perhaps the Greek approach and contribution to philosophy, in general, is best summarised by Parmenides and his belief that as the senses cannot be trusted, we must apply our minds to cut through the haze of superstition and myth and use whatever tools at our disposal to find the answers we are looking for. We may not have found many more solutions since the Greek thinkers provided theirs but their unbounded spirit of enquiry is perhaps their greatest and most lasting contribution to western thought.

Science & Astronomy

As in the field of philosophy, Greek scientists were keen to find solutions which explained the world around them. All manner of theories were proposed, tested and debated, even rejected by many. That the earth was a globe, that the world revolved around the sun and not vice versa, that the Milky Way was composed of stars, that humanity had evolved from other animals were just some of the ideas the Greek thinkers floated around for contemplation. Archimedes (287-212 BCE) in his bath discovered displacement and cried “Eureka!”, Aristotle (384-322 BCE) developed logic and classified the natural world, and Eratosthenes (276-195 BCE) calculated the circumference of the globe from the shadows cast by objects at two different latitudes. Once again, though, it was not the individual discoveries that were important, it was the general belief that all things can be explained by deductive reasoning and the careful examination of available evidence.

It was the ancient Athenians who invented theatre performance in the 6th century BCE. Perhaps originating from either the recital of epic poems set to music or rituals involving music, dance and masks to honour the god of wine Dionysos , Greek tragedies were first performed at religious festivals, and from these came the spin-off genre of Greek comedy plays. Performed by professional actors in purpose-built open-air theatres, Greek plays were popular and free. Not only a fleeting pastime performance, many of the classic plays were studied as a staple part of the education curriculum.

In the tragedies, people were engrossed in the twists presented on familiar tales from Greek mythology and the no-win situations for the heroic but doomed characters. The cast might have been very limited but the chorus group added some musical oomph to the proceedings. When comedy came along, there was fun in seeing familiar politicians, philosophers, and foreigners lampooned, and playwrights became ever more ambitious in their presentations, with all-singing, all-dancing chorus lines, outlandish costumes, and special effects such as actors dangling from hidden wires above the beautifully crafted sets. As in many other fields, the entertainment industry of today owes a great debt to the ancient Greeks.

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Bibliography

• Bagnall, R.S. The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012
• Boyes-Stones, G. The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies. Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Hornblower, S. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Kinzl, H. A Companion to the Classical Greek World. Wiley-Blackwell, 2006.
• Kotsanas, K. The Inventions of the Ancient Greeks. Kostas Kotsanas, 2017.
• Oleson, J.P. The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World. Oxford University Press, 2009.

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Greek Achievements

Ancient Greeks made many influential contributions to western civilization such as in the areas of philosophy, art and architecture, and math and science.

The ancient Greeks have made many influential contributions to western civilization. These contributions, which are also the achievements of ancient Greece, include certain things in the areas of philosophy, art and architecture, and math and science. The ancient Greeks were a remarkable civilization in that they have made all these contributions and achievements while simultaneously fighting two wars, the Peloponnesian wars and the Persian wars. One inner-lying region of Greece, Sparta, and one adjacent region to Greece, Macedonia, were also of no help. Whether it be fighting for territory or threatening to Greece over these regions were nevertheless a problem. Luckily for western civilization, Greece persevered through these hardships and managed to achieve one thing after another, ultimately contributing a vast amount to western civilization.

In the area of philosophy, Greece had made many influential contributions to western civilization. Greek philosophers were great thinkers who were determined to seek truth to a certain subject or question no matter where it led them. Three famous philosophers includes Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. Socrates, who lived from around 470 to 399 B.C. believed that life was not worth living unless it was examined and the truth about life was sought out. He also believed that there had to be certain standards for justice and punishment. In order to solve problems in life, Socrates invented a method for solving these problems called the Socratic method. In the world today this method is commonly know as the Scientific method and is used widely in the area of science.

Pluto, a student of Socrates, believed that society is like one big family and that if one person in a society needed help in some sort of way, the whole society should be there to help. Pluto also had many democratic ideas which he expressed through the book, The Republic. Lastly, Aristotle, who lived in Greece from around 384 to 322 B.C., was a philosopher who believed strongly that human reason was very important. He says that a life guided by human reason is superior to any other and that someone's ability to reason distinguishes them from anyone else. Many other ideas came from philosophers and two of these includes the thought that divine power ruled the universe and that human desire is dangerous and should be controlled. These ideas along with the ideas of human reasoning, standards for justice, and a democracy are still used in western civilization, therefore showing Greece's influence and contribution.

Another area of Greek achievement is theater. Plays began to become important in ancient Greece and two types of plays which were written and performed were comedies and tragedies. A comedy in ancient Greece was usually a play that marked or made fun of a certain topic, person, or group of people. One famous comedy writer was Aristophanes. He wrote the plays The Birds and Lysistrata. An tragedy in ancient Greece usually dealt with a moral or social issue, human suffering, and almost always ended in disaster. Three famous Greek tragedy writers are Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. Aeschylus wrote the play The Oresteia, Euripides wrote the play Medea, and Sophocles wrote the plays Oedipus the King and Antigone. One of the most famous out of all of these plays was Antigone. It was written in about 441 B.C. and was about a girl named Antigone who defies the king's orders and buries her brother, who was killed while leading a rebellion. In this play, many Greek values were expressed which is also the purpose of most western civilization plays today (to express certain values). Also, the ideas of comedies and tragedies are used in western civilization except expanded and twisted around a little. A lot of famous play writers today are also inspired by the works of play writers from ancient Greece.

The most important areas of Greek achievement were math and science. They achieved all kinds of things in the areas of psychology, astronomy, geometry, biology, physics, and medicine. In astronomy they formulated the ideas that the sun was 300 times larger than the earth, the universe was composed of atoms, and they calculated the true size of the earth. Someone greatly involved in astronomy was Aristotle. In geometry, ancient Greeks found the value of pi, and a man named Euclid, who wrote the book Elements around 300 B.C., theorized that if two straight lines cut one another, the vertical, or opposite, angles shall be equal. In physics, the lever and pulley was invented along with a force pump which eventually evolved into a steam engine. Important people in this area were Archimedes and Pythagoras who were two of the many influential Greek citizens. Ancient Greece has definitely made many influential contributions to western civilization.

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Ancient Greek Contributions to Western Civilization

This essay will examine the numerous contributions of ancient Greece to global civilization, including advancements in philosophy, science, art, and government, and their enduring impact on modern societies. PapersOwl showcases more free essays that are examples of Ancient Greece.

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Greece has made invaluable contributions to worldwide civilization.  Greece has vastly influenced, Western Civilization, culture, and even our way of thought.    It has been written that Greece is the birthplace of western civilization.

One of Greece’s invaluable influences of Western Civilization is the arts.  The ancient Greeks were well-known for their temples, art work, and sculptures.  In fact, Greece introduced sculpturing into architecture, as evidenced in their columns, be it what is still used today, Dorian, Ionic and Corinthian design (ancientgreece.

com.) In addition, the human form was evident in much of Greece’s ancient art, as it still is in modern art to this day. “Ancient Greek art emphasized the importance and accomplishments of human beings” (ancientgreece.com.)

It was not until the Greeks came along that medicine was approached in a much different way.  The strides made in ancient Greece set the tone for our modern ideas of medical thought.(GreekBoston.com.) One very important contribution still practiced to this day is from the Greek Physician Hypocrites and his Hypocritic Oath.  This oath (written in 275 AD) outlines the standards still in place for medical ethics, including a doctor’s promise to “first do no harm”, keep confidentiality and promises society to provide care, even at no cost in cases of need or poverty.  (Edelstein, 1943).

Ancient Greece has several inventions and discoveries attributed to them throughout their industrial society.   One such discovery is the water mill, an invention created in the 3rd Century BC by an engineer named Philo of Byzantium.  It was originally referred to and named the Perachora Wheel.  This invention created the milling of grains, which allowed for the availability of more foods, such as rices, cereals, flour and other milled edible grains.  (Adhikari)  The modern-day lighthouse was also established by the ancient Greeks. The lighthouse served as a physical beacon for incoming ships and because of its height, allowed fires to be viewed from above, keeping citizens safe (Owlcation.com).  The odometer, this omnipresent instrument, was also originated in Greece, and is one of the most widely used instruments in this present day (Adhikari).   Another gadget most commonly used these days is an alarm clock.  The alarm clock also had its origin in ancient Greece as well.  (Adhikari)  Although this original invention is nothing compared to the technology-based clock of today, it still served its same purpose of keeping us on schedule and timely.  These Greek contributions continue to benefit worldwide.

Ancient Greece has significantly influenced our culture to this day.  Unlike other cultures that chose to keep the monarchy, the Greeks developed the first country to adopt democracy.  They developed the assembly and Senate structure and allowed for representation through the Greek Assembly. Like many countries in the past, though, only Greek men had the right to vote and be elected.  As with our country, the capital city was the center of democracy (owlcation, 2018).

Another cultural issue in which the Greeks excelled and introduced to the world was athletics.  “At the core of Greek athletics was an individual’s physical endeavor to over take an opponent.” (Hemingway).  The ancient Greeks founded the first Olympic Games, which initially were primarily a part of a religious festival in honor of their god Zeus, the father of Greek gods and goddesses.  The Olympics were first held in Olympia, Greece (Penn Museum). True to its democratic core, Greece founded the Olympics to gather other nations together in fair athletic competition.  To this day, the Olympics continue, to promote civility and peace between nations -who otherwise might be in conflict- and to provide an arena to present the world’s greatest athletes in competition.

The Olympics was a religious festival in honor of their god Zeus., The ancient Greeks were known for their collection of myths and as such, worshiped many gods and goddesses, including Zeus, Hades, Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares and Hermes. “They explained everything from religious rituals to the weather, and they gave meaning to the world people saw around them” (History.com).     Each god had a different place of worship and Ancient Greeks worshiped their gods in different sanctuaries within the city, depending on the festival or sacrifice required.

One of the reasons ancient Greeks worshiped their gods was to ensure they have victory in battles. Athena, who was the daughter of Zeus, was most commonly associated with the role of guarding cities and facilitating war victories. These gods,  goddesses and collection of myths set the Greeks apart from other nations and religion.   Despite these past pagan roots, modern day Greece embraces Christianity as a nation and continues to this day.

There are two founding fathers in Greek philosophy.  One of them was Aristotle (c. 384 B.C. to 322 B.C.).  He was an ancient Greek philosopher and a scientist who is considered one of the greatest thinkers, incorporating ethics and psychology in his works. In addition to Aristotle Thales of Miletus is considered a father or philosophy (Ashbrook.) It is difficult to even think of a time in which we did not think using both men’s theories and hypothesis in our academic thinking.   Thales is believed to be the great thinker who devised this method of thought and academic teaching (philosophers.co.uk.)  He is known to be the father of Western philosophy and his theories and teachings are part of our daily thought processes.   Aristotle was very involved in medical and scientific study and devised way to incorporate philosophy so that it also included observations of the natural and scientific world.   Aristotle’s methods included the need to observe then deduce to the correct answer.  Instead of beginning with a logical belief, Aristotle challenged us to begin with an illogical conclusion, then to work backwards to the correct theory, using observation and reasoning based on observed events.   Although this is common in medical research now it was unheard of until Aristotle developed this method  (Ashbrook).

In conclusion, it is obvious that ancient Greece played and continues to play an important role-with invaluable contributions- to our worldwide civilization. The ancient Greeks have vastly influenced our current western civilization and it is appropriate that Greece is referred to as the birthplace of western civilization.

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Collection Finding Our Place in the Cosmos: From Galileo to Sagan and Beyond

Ancient greek astronomy and cosmology.

As the stars move across the sky each night people of the world have looked up and wondered about their place in the universe. Throughout history civilizations have developed unique systems for ordering and understanding the heavens. Babylonian and Egyptian astronomers developed systems that became the basis for Greek astronomy, while societies in the Americas, China and India developed their own.

Ancient Greek astronomers' work is richly documented in the collections of the Library of Congress largely because of the way the Greek tradition of inquiry was continued by the work of Islamic astronomers and then into early modern European astronomy. This section offers a tour of some of the astronomical ideas and models from ancient Greece as illustrated in items from the Library of Congress collections.

The Sphere of the World

By the 5th century B.C., it was widely accepted that the Earth is a sphere. This is a critical point, as there is a widespread misconception that ancient peoples thought the Earth was flat. This was simply not the case.

In the 5th century B.C., Empedocles and Anaxagoras offered arguments for the spherical nature of the Earth. During a lunar eclipse, when the Earth is between the sun and the moon, they identified the shadow of the Earth on the moon. As the shadow moves across the moon it is clearly round. This would suggest that the Earth is a sphere.

Experiencing the Sphere of the Earth

Given that opportunities for observations of a lunar eclipse do not come along that often, there was also evidence of the roundness of the earth in the experiences of sailors.

When a ship appears on the horizon it's the top of the ship that is visible first. A wide range of astronomy texts over time use this as a way to illustrate the roundness of the Earth. As the image suggests this is exactly what one would expect on a spherical Earth. If the Earth were flat, it would be expected that you would be able to see the entire ship as soon as it became visible.

Measuring the Size of the Earth

Lunar eclipses also allowed for another key understanding about our home here on Earth. In 3rd Century B.C., Aristarchus of Samos reasoned he could figure out the size of the Earth based on information available during a lunar eclipse. The diagram at the right illustrates a translation of his work. The large circle is the sun, the medium circle is the Earth and the smallest circle is the moon. When the Earth is in-between the sun and the moon it causes a lunar eclipse and measuring the size of the Earth's shadow on the moon provided part of the information he needed to calculate its size.

Eratosthenes estimated Earth's circumference around 240 B.C. He used a different approach, measuring the shadows cast in Alexandria and Syene to calculate their angle relative to the Sun. There is some dispute on the accuracy of his calculations as we don't know exactly how long the units of measure were. The measurement however was relatively close to the actual size of the Earth. The Greeks were applying mathematics to theorize about the nature of their world. They held a range of beliefs about nature and the world but they were, in many cases, working to ground those beliefs in an empirical exploration of what they could reason from evidence.

Aristotle's Elements and Cosmology

In the tradition of Plato and Empedocles before him, Aristotle argued that there were four fundamental elements, fire, air, water and earth. It is difficult for us to fully understand what this meant as today we think about matter in very different terms. In Aristotle's system there was no such thing as void space. All space was filled with some combination of these elements.

Aristotle asserted that you could further reduce these elements into two pairs of qualities, hot and cold and wet and dry. The combination of each of these qualities resulted in the elements. These qualities can be replaced by their opposites, which in this system become how change happens on Earth. For example, when heated, water seemingly turns steam which looks like air.

The Elements in Aristotle's Cosmic Model

In Aristotle's Cosmology, each of these four elements (earth, water, fire and air) had a weight. Earth was the heaviest, water less so, and air and fire the lightest. According to Aristotle the lighter substances moved away from the center of the universe and the heaver elements settled into the center. While these elements attempted to sort themselves out, to achieve this order, most of experience involved mixed entities.

While we have seen earth, fire, air and water, everything else in the world in this system was understood as a mixture of these elements. In this perspective, transition and change in our world resulted from the mixing of the elements. For Aristotle the terrestrial is a place of birth and death, based in these elements. The heavens are a separate realm governed by their own rules.

The Wandering and Fixed Stars in the Celestial Region

In contrast to the terrestrial, the celestial region of the heavens had a fundamentally different nature. Looking at the night sky the ancient Greeks found two primary kinds of celestial objects; the fixed stars and the wandering stars. Think of the night's sky. Most of the visible objects appear to move at exactly the same speed and present themselves in exactly the same arrangement night after night. These are the fixed stars. They appear to move all together. Aside from these were a set of nine objects that behaved differently, the moon, the sun and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter each moved according to a different system. For the Greeks these were the wandering stars.

In this system the entire universe was part of a great sphere. This sphere was split into two sections, an outer celestial realm and an inner terrestrial one. The dividing line between the two was the orbit of the moon. While the earth was a place of transition and flux, the heavens were unchanging. Aristotle posited that there was a fifth substance, the quintessence, that was what the heavens were made of, and that the heavens were a place of perfect spherical motion.

The Unchanging Celestial Region

In Aristotle's words, "In the whole range of time past, so far as our inherited records reach, no change appears to have taken place either in the whole scheme of the outermost heaven or in any of its proper parts." It's important to keep in mind that in Aristotle's time there simply were not extensive collections of observational evidence. Things that looked like they were moving in the heavens, like comets, were not problematic in this model because they could be explained as occurring in the terrestrial realm.

This model of the heavens came with an underlying explanation. The celestial spheres were governed by a set of movers responsible for the motion of the wandering stars. Each of these wandering stars was thought to have an "unmoved mover" the entity that makes it move through the heavens. For many of the Greeks this mover could be understood as the god corresponding to any given entity in the heavens.

Ptolemy's Circles on Circles

Claudius Ptolemy (90-168) created a wealth of astronomical knowledge from his home in Alexandria, Egypt. Benefiting from hundreds of years of observation from the time of Hipparchus and Eudoxus, as well as a set of astronomical data collected by the Babylonians, Ptolemy developed a system for predicting the motion of the stars that was published in his primary astronomical work, Almagest . Ptolemy's success at synthesizing and refining ideas and improvements in astronomy helped make his Almagest so popular that earlier works fell out of circulation. Translated into Arabic and Latin the Almagest became the primary astronomy text for the next thousand years.

Ptolomaic Data

The Almagest is filled with tables. In this sense the book is a tool one can use to predict the locations of the stars Compared to earlier astronomy the book is much more focused on serving as a useful tool than as presenting a system for describing the nature of the heavens. Trying to accurately predict the place of the stars over time resulted in creating a much more complicated model.

The Ptolemaic Model

By the time of Ptolemy Greek astronomers had proposed adding circles on the circular orbits of the wandering stars (the planets, the moon and the sun) to explain their motion. These circles on circles are called epicycles. In the Greek tradition, the heavens were a place of perfect circular motion, so the way to account for perfection was with the addition of circles. This resulted in disorienting illustrations.

To escape the complicated nature of this extensive number of circles, Ptolomy added a series of new concepts. To accurately describe planetary motion, he needed to use eccentric circles. With the eccentric circle the center of the planets orbit would not be Earth but would instead be some other point. Ptolemy then needed to put the epicycles on another set of circles called deferents. So the planets moved on circles that moved on circular orbits. Ptolomy also needed to introduce equants, a tool that enabled the planets to move at different speeds as they moved around these circles. The resulting model was complex, but it had extensive predictive power.

Ptolemy and Aristotle's Cosmic Legacy

Ptolemy came to represent a mathematical tradition, one focused on developing mathematical models with predictive power. Aristotle came to be known for putting forward the physical model of the heavens. Ptolemy was also interested in deploying his model of the heavens to describe its physical reality. However, his most important work was the mathematical models and data he used for predicting the motion of heavenly bodies. For a long time his name was synonymous with the model of the heavens.

Visiting Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion?

You must join the virtual exhibition queue when you arrive. If capacity has been reached for the day, the queue will close early.

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Architecture in ancient greece.

Marble column from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis

Marble akroterion of the grave monument of Timotheos and Nikon

Lion felling a bull, from a marble pediment

Terracotta architectural tile

Colette Hemingway Independent Scholar

October 2003

Ancient Greek architects strove for the precision and excellence of workmanship that are the hallmarks of Greek art in general. The formulas they invented as early as the sixth century B.C. have influenced the architecture of the past two millennia. The two principal orders in Archaic and Classical Greek architecture are the Doric and the Ionic. In the first, the Doric order, the columns are fluted and have no base. The capitals are composed of two parts consisting of a flat slab, the abacus, and a cushionlike slab known as the echinus. On the capital rests the entablature, which is made up of three parts: the architrave, the frieze, and the cornice. The architrave is typically undecorated except for a narrow band to which are attached pegs, known as guttae. On the frieze are alternating series of triglyphs (three bars) and metopes, stone slabs frequently decorated with relief sculpture. The pediment, the triangular space enclosed by the gables at either end of the building, was often adorned with sculpture, early on in relief and later in the round. Among the best-preserved examples of Archaic Doric architecture are the temple of Apollo at Corinth, built in the second quarter of the sixth century B.C., and the temple of Aphaia at Aegina, built around 500–480 B.C. To the latter belong at least three different groups of pedimental sculpture exemplary of stylistic development between the end of the sixth and beginning of the fifth century B.C. in Attica.

In the Ionic order of architecture, bases support the columns, which have more vertical flutes than those of the Doric order. Ionic capitals have two volutes that rest atop a band of palm-leaf ornaments. The abacus is narrow, and the entablature, unlike that of the Doric order, usually consists of three simple horizontal bands. The most important feature of the Ionic order is the frieze, which is usually carved with relief sculpture arranged in a continuous pattern around the building.

In general, the Doric order occurs more frequently on the Greek mainland and at sites on the Italian peninsula, where there were many Greek colonies. The Ionic order was more popular among Greeks in Asia Minor and in the Greek islands. A third order of Greek architecture, known as the Corinthian, first developed in the late Classical period, but was more common in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Corinthian capitals have a bell-shaped echinus decorated with acanthus leaves, spirals, and palmettes. There is also a pair of small volutes at each corner; thus, the capital provides the same view from all sides.

The architectural order governed not only the column, but also the relationships among all the components of architecture. As a result, every piece of a Greek building is integral to its overall structure; a fragment of molding often can be used to reconstruct an entire building. Although the ancient Greeks erected buildings of many types, the Greek temple best exemplifies the aims and methods of Greek architecture. The temple typically incorporated an oblong plan, and one or more rows of columns surrounding all four sides. The vertical structure of the temple conformed to an order, a fixed arrangement of forms unified by principles of symmetry and harmony. There was usually a pronaos (front porch) and an opisthodomos (back porch). The upper elements of the temple were usually made of mud brick and timber, and the platform of the building was of cut masonry. Columns were carved of local stone, usually limestone or tufa; in much earlier temples, columns would have been made of wood. Marble was used in many temples, such as the Parthenon in Athens, which is decorated with Pentelic marble and marble from the Cycladic island of Paros. The interior of the Greek temple characteristically consisted of a cella, the inner shrine in which stood the cult statue, and sometimes one or two antechambers, in which were stored the treasury with votive offerings.

The quarrying and transport of marble and limestone were costly and labor-intensive, and often constituted the primary cost of erecting a temple. For example, the wealth Athens accumulated after the Persian Wars enabled Perikles to embark on his extensive building program, which included the Parthenon (447–432 B.C.) and other monuments on the Athenian Akropolis. Typically, a Greek civic or religious body engaged the architect, who participated in every aspect of construction. He usually chose the stone, oversaw its extraction, and supervised the craftsmen who roughly shaped each piece in the quarry. At the building site, expert carvers gave the blocks their final form, and workmen hoisted each one into place. The tight fit of the stones was enough to hold them in place without the use of mortar; metal clamps embedded in the stone reinforced the structure against earthquakes. A variety of skilled labor collaborated in the raising of a temple. Workmen were hired to construct the wooden scaffolding needed for hoisting stone blocks and sculpture, and to make the ceramic tiles for the roofs. Metalworkers were employed to make the metal fittings used for reinforcing the stone blocks and to fashion the necessary bronze accoutrements for sculpted scenes on the frieze, metopes, and pediments. Sculptors from the Greek mainland and abroad carved freestanding and relief sculpture for the eaves of the temple building. Painters were engaged to decorate sculptural and architectural elements with painted details.

Hemingway, Colette. “Architecture in Ancient Greece.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grarc/hd_grarc.htm (October 2003)

Further Reading

Avery, Catherine B., ed. The New Century Handbook of Greek Art and Architecture . New York: Appleton–Century–Crofts, 1972.

Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary . 3d ed., rev. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Lawrence, A. W. Greek Architecture . 4th ed., rev. by R. A. Tomlinson. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.

Pedley, John Griffiths, Greek Art and Archaeology . 2d ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998.

Pomeroy, Sarah B., et al. Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History . New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Robertson, Martin. A History of Greek Art . 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Additional Essays by Colette Hemingway

• Hemingway, Colette. “ Art of the Hellenistic Age and the Hellenistic Tradition .” (April 2007)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Greek Hydriai (Water Jars) and Their Artistic Decoration .” (July 2007)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Hellenistic Jewelry .” (April 2007)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Intellectual Pursuits of the Hellenistic Age .” (April 2007)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Mycenaean Civilization .” (October 2003)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Retrospective Styles in Greek and Roman Sculpture .” (July 2007)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Africans in Ancient Greek Art .” (January 2008)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Ancient Greek Colonization and Trade and their Influence on Greek Art .” (July 2007)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Greek Gods and Religious Practices .” (October 2003)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ The Art of Classical Greece (ca. 480–323 B.C.) .” (January 2008)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ The Labors of Herakles .” (January 2008)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Athletics in Ancient Greece .” (October 2002)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ The Rise of Macedon and the Conquests of Alexander the Great .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ The Technique of Bronze Statuary in Ancient Greece .” (October 2003)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Women in Classical Greece .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Cyprus—Island of Copper .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Music in Ancient Greece .” (October 2001)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) and Art .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Etruscan Art .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Prehistoric Cypriot Art and Culture .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Sardis .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Medicine in Classical Antiquity .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Southern Italian Vase Painting .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Theater in Ancient Greece .” (October 2004)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ The Kithara in Ancient Greece .” (October 2002)
• Hemingway, Colette. “ Minoan Crete .” (October 2002)

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