The Age of Pericles was called, the time when Athens reached its maximum political and intellectual apogee, and began the era of the development of the arts and sciences .
Background of the Age of Pericles
The Persian Wars had favored the progress of the popular classes, the heroic naval victories of Salamina and Micala were the work of Athenian sailors, recruited from the lower income class or «thetes» .
The strengthening of the "thetes" greatly favored the popular party, whose leaders fought to increasingly democratize the government of Athens. They highlighted Themistocles, Ephialtes and Pericles . The latter for 30 years -from 460 to 429 BC- guided Athenian policy towards the greatness of Greece, a period called "The Age of Pericles"
Never seen in the history of a country during the same century, an amazing collection of brilliant scholars, artists, philosophers, painters and sculptors, who established the greatness of Athens and Greece in general.
The splendor of Athens was due to the great statesman Pericles , of aristocratic origin, but of democratic ideas. He was a good man, committed to the affairs of his homeland. His eloquence gave him power over the Athenian people, his harangues and speeches, although they did not have the beauty of those of Demosthenes (the greatest of Greek orators), stood out for the energy and spontaneity of ideas, earning him the nickname of the "Olympic".
In his time great philosophers, artists and sages stood out. The beautification of the city was unmatched. For its time Athens lived a true democracy in which all citizens had the same rights. There are plenty of reasons to call this splendid period of Athens, the century of Pericles, in homage to the man who ruled it for 30 years, in the 5th century BC.
The Arts
In the century of Pericles the arts received a great boost and developed quite extensively, because the splendor of Athens demanded it .
The Greeks carried out great works in architecture, sculpture, painting and music, which are up to the present, models of beauty, harmony and perfection. It is rightly considered the quintessential classical art of all time.
The Architecture
In this field the Athenians built beautiful monuments in order to beautify the city, after its destruction by the Persians, during the Persian Wars.
The straight line was the predominant element of Greek architecture, they ignored the arch and the vault. In the Age of Pericles temples, palaces and theaters were built. They used the columns as a primary element of the temple.
The Styles
The architectural styles of the Greeks were related to the type of column. The main styles in the Age of Pericles were:
- The Doric style , which is the oldest, characterized by a thick column, supported directly on the floor, with a simple, quadrangular and circular capital. Typical example of this style is the Parthenon, dedicated to the goddess Athena.
The Parthenon was a temple built on the Acropolis of Athens, which consisted of a rectangular-based building surrounded by Doric-style columns. Its construction was due to the architects Ictinos and Calciocrates, with the collaboration of the sculptor Phidias, who was in charge of all the reliefs that adorned it and executed the colossal statue of the goddess Athena, contained in the temple.
- The Ionic style , characterized by its column with base. Its capital had beautiful ornaments that resembled the scrolls of the ram. Typical example of this style is the Erechtheum.
The Erechtheum was a temple built on the Acropolis of Athens dedicated to the goddess Athena Polias, guardian of the city. Together with her they shared the cult of the god of the sea, Poseidon and the hero Erechtheus, who gave the temple fame. It is famous for the porch of the caryatids (statues with figures of women).
- The Corinthian style , which was characterized by having columns with a base and a beautiful capital that looked like a basket surrounded by acanthus leaves.
An example of this style is the temple of Zeus in Olympia, dedicated to the greatest Greek deity. It was the most sumptuous and of highest hierarchy, it contained in its interior the majestic statue of the god sculpted by Phidias.
The Sculpture
His sculpture was very important in Greece. Artists worked to adorn the walls of temples. They carved statues representing their gods and winning athletes in the Olympic games.
The most outstanding sculptors in the Age of Pericles were:Myron, Phidias, Scopas and Praxiteles.
- Voyeur , this sculptor immortalized himself with his work "El Discóbolo" which represents an athlete whose muscles tremble in the act of throwing the discus.
- Phidias , is the most famous Greek sculptor, author of the immortal works of the goddess Athena in the Acropolis and of Zeus in the temple of Olympia.
- Scopas , was this one of the artists of Hellas who intervened in the decoration of the famous Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, tomb of King Mausoleum, satrap of Caria (Asia Minor).
- Praxiteles , was the one who, with masterful beauty, sculpted the statues of Artemis and Hermes.
The Painting
In the Age of Pericles, three types of painting were developed:the polychrome of statues and bas-reliefs, the execution of mural paintings and the ornamentation of various vases and amphorae. The Greek artists of this time were the masters of perspective and chiaroscuro.
Ceramics
Ceramics and painting were linked. Virtually the great Greek painters of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. they were prepared by decorating the vessels.
The forms are multiple and have a utilitarian character, mainly the amphorae, tall pitchers with two handles, used for the export of wines and oils; among others, we have the artistic glasses, plates and jugs duly decorated.
Among the colors used, red and black stand out mainly. In Athens, at first the figures were applied with black varnish on red clay. At the end of the 4th century BC, the color red was applied on a black varnished background.
The pitchers were beautifully decorated with anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and phytomorphic motifs, in a stylized manner. Scenes of knights, war chariots and mythological beings abound.
The characteristic of this Greek art is the geometric drawings used in its decorations, such as straight and undulating lines, right and acute angles, circles, semicircles and quarter circles, stars, rhombuses and zigzags.
The Music
There was a musical art whose development was related to the flourishing of theater. The choirs of the tragedy and the dance were accompanied by refined and harmonious music.
The Letters
The literary splendor in the Age of Pericles was due to the perfection of substance and form, as well as the harmonic correspondence between the two, which are found in various representative works of the cultivated disciplines.
The Theater
Tragedy and comedy stood out in this field.
a. The Tragedy
It is a dramatic work of serious and distressing actions, in which the protagonists staged unfortunate events. It was represented by three great poets:Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
- Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
He was the creator of the tragedy. He was born in Eleusis and died in Syracuse. He wrote 90 works, in which he was able to evoke ancient myths and sing to the divinities and Greek heroes. all the works of Aeschylos have their roots in mythology. The characters in it are heroes or gods. Among the famous works that have reached the modern world we have:
Prometheus Chained;. The Persians; The seven against Thebes; Agamemnon, among others.
In his work The Persians, Aeschylus glorified the heroes of the battles of Marathon and Salamis, in which he himself took part. - Sophocles (495-405 BC)
He was born of a noble family in Colona and died in Athens. He was beautiful in body and soul. He has been the most perfect of the Greek poets for having brought tragedy to its splendor. His main works were:Antigone, Oedipus Rex, inspired by the legend of Oedipus. He was also the author of the works Electra, Philoctetes and Ajax. - Euripides (486-406 BC)
He was born in Salamis. In his youth he was engaged in athletics. He was the first writer who humanized tragedy, involving people in his works, fundamentally women. His main creations were:Orestes; Medea; Andromache; The Suppliants and the Trojans.
Medea, is one of the great works of this author. It is a mythological fable, in which the form and force with which he describes jealousy stand out.
b. The Comedy
It is a dramatic work with which laughter is excited, through mockery and mischief, either by the description of customs or attitudes or by the succession of events that give rise to unexpected or absurd situations.
Among the representatives of this genre we have the distinguished playwright Aristophanes (445 – 380 BC) who made fun of everyone, both gods and men, the most famous politicians, as well as humble citizens. He wrote aggressive and even insulting political comedies, such as Las Nubes and Las Avispas; comedies of literary criticism, such as Las Ranas; comedies of a philosophical nature such as The Assembly of Women, etc.
The Oratory
The art of speaking was always in Athens, and in all the peoples of a democratic regime, the key to the highest passions. The speeches that were offered in the popular assemblies decided the peace or the war of the Greek people.
He excelled with Pericles, Demosthenes, Themistocles, Aristides, Lyseas, among others.
a. Pericles (499 – 429 BC)
Pericles' eloquence was so brilliant that he was nicknamed the Olympian. It was said of him that his language is storm and lightning . He showed off his oratory in the "Funeral Oration", pronounced in honor of those who fell in the Peloponnesian War.
b. Demosthenes (384 – 322 BC)
He became a speaker thanks to his extraordinary tenacity. According to him, he had been a stutterer in his adolescence, a defect that he corrected through constant exercises. He left admirable political speeches in the Philippines and the Olympians, against the Philippine King II of Macedon.
The Philosophy
In the Age of Pericles, its greatest exponents were the figures of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
a. Socrates (469 – 399 BC)
Socrates is considered one of the most learned Greek sages. He was a teacher of the Athenian youth. He dedicated himself to the profound study of human problems related to virtue and happiness.
Socrates said:"Virtue is reached through knowledge" . Hence his maxims: "Know yourself" (Nosee te ipsum) and "I only know that I know nothing" . He believed in the immortality of the soul and in a supreme divinity that governs everything. Accused by his fellow citizens of "introducing new gods and corrupting the youth," Socrates was sentenced to drink hemlock. He never wrote a single book. His philosophy has come to us thanks to the Dialogues of Plato, one of his most outstanding disciples.
b. Plato (427 – 347 BC)
Plato was an extraordinary disciple of Socrates and a brilliant thinker of aristocratic origin, he was born in Athens. Upon the death of his teacher, he leaves Greece and travels through Cyrenaica and Egypt, where he learns about Jewish tradition and Eastern culture.
In Magna Graecia, he tried to impose his political and philosophical theories. Back in his homeland, he inaugurated a school of philosophy called the Academy, where Platonism was taught, a doctrine considered the highest expression of idealism.
Philosophy, limited in Socrates to ethics and the art of living, acquires in Plato the character of a universal science and encompasses all the problems of existence and human thought.
His masterpieces were ** The Republic, The Symposium, The Laws, Phaedra, Apology and the Dialogues **.
In The Republic he maintains that the government should be in the hands of educated and intelligent people.
c. Aristotle (384 – 322 BC)
He was a disciple of Plato. He was born in Stagira (Macedonia). He became the most amazing philosopher of mankind. His works cover all branches of knowledge of his time, he wrote about Astronomy, Zoology, Botany, poetry, etc. He was also the founder of Psychology and Logic.
Having founded logic as a science, he opposed Plato's principle of "science through ideas" with that of "science through causes." He was also the founder of the Lyceum, similar to Plato's Academy.
Among the most important works of his stand out:Politics, Metaphysics, Poetics, Moral to Nicomachus, Rhetoric, Ethics, etc.
The Story
In the field of history in the Age of Pericles, the following stood out:Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon.
a. Herodotus (480 – 425 BC)
Herodotus was originally from Halicarnassus, a city in ancient Caria, in Asia Minor, and was the first Greek historian. An indefatigable traveler, he traveled the world of that time and with his spirit of deep curiosity, he learned about the customs and facts of the peoples he visited. In his histories, he chronicled the struggles between the Greeks and Persians, from their distant origins to the Second Persian War.
He was called by Cicero the Father of History. His main work was The Medical Wars, where he displays a picturesque and attractive narrative.
b. Thucydides (460 – 400 BC)
The great work of this historian was the History of the Peloponnesian War. His historical approach was more scientific because of his critical sense and his constant desire to unravel the root causes of the events he described. It is also realistic because he explains the events without the intervention of supernatural factors.
c. Xenophon (425 – 352 BC)
He recounted the Retreat of the Ten Thousand in a work called Anabasis. In it he narrates the return of the ten Greek fighters who fought for Cyrus the Younger, against Artaxerxes II and in which they were defeated. This heroic withdrawal was at the command of Xenophon. Among other works, the following stand out:Las Helénicas, Memorabilia, etc.
Science
The Greeks achieved remarkable development in the Age of Pericles in the following fields:medicine, mathematics, physics, geography and astronomy.
Medicine
In this science reached outstanding importance:Hippocrates and Claudius Galen.
a. Hippocrates (460 – 357 BC)
Hippocrates is considered the "Father of Medicine". He was a contemporary of Socrates and Plato.
He initiated the study of the patient as the means of establishing the diagnosis. He was the founder of rigorous medical ethics, based on love for man, which was, according to him, "the source of true love in the art of healing." He was the first to understand the influence of climatic and geographical conditions on the health of the population, recommended hygiene to heal wounds and separated medicine from magic, sorcery and superstition.
His oath or code continues to enjoy celebrity:the Hippocratic Oath used by doctors.
b. Claudius Galen (131 – 201 AD)
In times of Roman domination, the famous doctor Claudius Galen stood out, who was a professor of medicine, whose name serves as a synonym, to call those who today practice this profession. The main merit of him is to have created the medical philosophy.
Mathematics
In this science the Greeks reached a great development in the Age of Pericles, they excelled in this discipline:Archemides, Euclid, Pythagoras and Thales of Miletus.
a. Archimedes (287 – 212 BC)
He was born in Syracuse. He is the discoverer of the principles of mechanics. He said:Give me a foothold and I will move the world . He is owed the invention of the endless screw, the toothed wheel, the mobile pulley and the famous principle of Physics that bears his name.
b. Euclid (330 – 275 BC)
He is the creator of geometry. In his work Elements of him, he laid the foundations for today's plane geometry.
c. Pythagoras
Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician. He was born on Samos. He is credited with the invention of the multiplication table, the theorem, and the triangle that bear his name.
d. Thales of Miletus (625 – 545 BC)
He was a Greek philosopher and mathematician, born in Miletus. He recognized as one of the seven sages of ancient times. He is considered one of the forerunners in physics, geometry, and astronomy. He predicted an eclipse and is credited with the theorem named after him.
Physics
In the field of physics, the most important progress in the Age of Pericles occurred in the measurement system of time, length and surface, as well as its monetary system.
– They counted time by solar years and lunar months (12 months of 29 and a half days) . Every eight years a supplement had to be added. Time was counted using sundials, water clocks and sand clocks. The years were counted by Olympics.
– The main length measurements were:the finger (2 cm), the foot (27 to 33 cm) and the elbow (48 cm). For long distances they used the "stadio" (162 to 198 m).
– Among the main coins used in the Age of Pericles we have:the drachma, a small silver coin that was easily adjusted in commercial activity. A sheep cost 1 drachma and an ox, 5 drachma, the mina was worth 100 drachma; the talent was worth 60 mines; the obolus, was the submultiple of the drachma, equivalent to one sixth of it.
Geography
Erastotenes, Strabo and Ptolemy stood out in this field in the Age of Pericles.
a. Erastothenes (280 – 192 BC)
He was born in Cyrene. He managed to measure with a small margin of error (400 km out of a total of 4000 km) the longitude of the terrestrial meridian and was the creator of the Julian Calendar .
b. Strabo (60 BC -21 or 25 AD)
He wrote a monumental work on Geography that has survived to our times.
c. Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century BC)
Greek astronomer, mathematician and geographer, established in Alexandria, he worked during the time of Roman domination. He left us his work Almagesto, which he governed during the Middle Ages, and his Treatise on Geography. He made the first map of the world known until then. He is the creator of the geocentric theory, the earth is the center of the universe, a statement that was later rectified by Copernicus.
Astronomy
The Greeks knew the cause of eclipses , some thinkers supported the hypothesis of the sphericity of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun; others laid the foundations of geocentrism:the Earth as the center.
During the Hellenic period, as a result of the conquest of Alexander of the East, this discipline reached its peak, standing out:Aristarchus, Hisparchus and Eratosthenes.
a. Aristarchus of Samos (3rd century BC)
Astronomer from Samos, accused of sacrilege for stating that the Earth rotated on its axis and around the sun .
b. Hipparchus (276 – 194 BC)
Creator of mathematical astronomy. He named more than 800 stars and fixed their position.