The Golden Age

Ancient Greece Alex Smith

March 30, 2011

Every great empire has contributed to society in some way. Egypt created the 365-day calendar, China invented the precursor to the modern compass, and the oldest known wheel came from Mesopotamia. None of these civilizations, however, can match the massive contributions Ancient Greece made to modern society. The Greeks redefined art, philosophy and politics, making Ancient Greece the Golden Age of civilization.

Ancient Greece was the first civilization to give art a high degree of importance. Previously, people were too busy struggling to survive, and didn’t have time or energy to devote to luxuries such as writing, art, or architecture. In the relatively stable environment of the city-states, however, these disciplines thrived. Homer, the epic poet, wrote the first literary works in the Western world. Not only were Iliad and Odyssey, enormous achievements for civilization, but they also provide modern historians with an important insight into daily life in ancient times. Another aspect of art in which the Greeks excelled was architecture. For example the Minoan palace of Knossos was remarkably advanced for its time, with a waste management system and aqueducts bringing fresh water from ten kilometres away. Furthermore, the Greek concept of using columns as part of both the structure and decoration is still popular today. Many modern buildings, such as government institutions, universities and libraries employ Greek columns. The Greeks also made significant contributions to sculpture. Prior to Ancient Greece, sculptures were vague and impressionistic, without much attention to detail. Greek culture, which placed a high value on athleticism, prompted sculptors to create strikingly realistic renditions of the human form.

In addition to redefining art, Ancient Greece produced several of the most prominent philosophers of all time. For example, Socrates, who is considered one of the founders of Western philosophy, was an Athenian teacher. He believed there should be strict differentiation between rich and poor, and that the more educated people should make all the decisions. He also thought of himself as a prophet, and was eventually tried and executed for heresy. Plato, Socrates’ student, also believed in the superiority of those he considered enlightened, as demonstrated by his analogy of the cave in his book The Republic. Plato suggests that if a group of humans were to be held in a cave, their idea of reality would be limited to what they can see inside the cave. If someone were to leave the cave, however, they would come back with knowledge of the outside world, and would try to leave the rest of the group out of the cave. Plato proposes that the group, afraid of change, would condemn the rebellious one, and execute him. This analogy reflects the persecution of Plato’s teacher, Socrates.

By far the most important innovation of Ancient Greece was democracy. While the first incarnations of democracy in place in Athens and Sparta were crude, they laid the foundations for the system of government used by most nations today. In Athens, thousands of people were directly involved in the democratic process. Even though only men over the age of thirty were considered citizens, every citizen had a chance to be part of the government, because seats in the assembly were selected through a lottery system. Although kings ruled Sparta, it also had a strong democratic influence. There were always two kings at a time, ensuring that no one person became an all-powerful tyrant. All legislation proposed by the kings had to be approved by the elected assembly, which had the power to veto any bill. Like Athens, only adult men could vote in Sparta.

The Ancient Greeks redefined the world they lived in. They created works of art still marveled at today, fostered some of the greatest thinkers of all time, and invented the most popular system of government in the world. If ancient Greece had not thrived thousands of years ago, civilization today would be very different.