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Visual arts of greek and hellenistic
Chapter 5 art of ancient greece and the aegean world
Greek contributions to art
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Archaeology gives the modern world a window into the past. One of Greece’s major dig sites is the palace of Knossos. The palace of Knossos stood on the island of Crete near the modern town of Heraklion at the co-ordinates 35° 17’ 52.66”N, 25° 9’ 47.36”E. It was the home of King Minos and his queen. The Palace is the setting for a myth where the queen gave birth to a being that was half man, half bull, the Minotaurs, which was kept in the labyrinth of the palace; He was eventually slayed by the Athenian Thesus.
The Palace of Knossos was destroyed in the later classical era and remained rubble until an archaeologist named Arthur Evans uncovered it in 1900. Since discovering the site Evans has substantially restored the palace back to its former glory. In an ancient tablet found in the palace it describes an earthquake destroying the palace. Where it had to be rebuilt there were heated arguments between the architects because one side wanted it to be more stable and last longer while the other side wanted it to be more decorative and nicer to live in. Both sides agreed that the Minotaur was the most likely cause of the earthquake so it is thought that they employed Thesus to kill the beast. Although he remodelled the palace, it is said to be much like the original and a good insight.
The Palace of Knossos was one of the first palaces to be uncovered. Being a palace meant that everything was good quality like the pottery and architecture. The palace was built between 1700 and 1400BC with rebuilding after the destruction and it is on top of Kephala Hill. Because of it being on a hill a degree of liquid management was needed. In this case there were three; one for supply, one for drainage and run-off, and one for waste water. Aquedu...
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..., the harvest and the underworld plus many others. Some argued that these are all the same goddess. Although Crete is not part of the physical it is still in many ways a part of the spiritual mainland.
To the Minoan society the palace of Knossos was very important as it was the largest palace and the focus point of the island as it housed the royal family and decision making power. It was also the biggest town on Crete close to a port. It had mythical and religious sentiment because of its role in myths and the worship of deities. The excavation of the site has also given good insight into the day to day and the values and beliefs of the Ancient Minoans. If it had not been for Arthur Evans this insight would not have been possible and the modern world would not know about the myth of the Minotaur, the frescos, the trading and the first evidence a flushing toilet.
Knossos was centered on a palace, which was a very complex building. According to Greek mythology the palace was designed by architect Daedalus’, were anyone placed in it could never find its exit. King Minos then held the architect prisoner so that no one would ever get ahold of the palaces building plan. The palace occupies and area greater than 20,000 sq. meters and has its own sewage system. The center of the palace was its throne room, which was adorned with frescoes depicting the mythical creatures called “gr...
Many art works such as statues are placed throughout the world in different settings. The most common setting for statues is found in funerary settings. The importance of statues in funerary settings is that they are use to project the power the person had before his death. The seated statue of Khafre enthroned from Gizeh, Egypt, illustrates the idealized pharaoh. Another sculpture is Kouros, from Anavysos, Greece that depicts the heroism of Kroisos dying in battle. The Kouros and Khafre are similar in the way that they both radiate power and serve the purpose of honoring the dead men, yet Khafre has a greater significance because it illustrates the pharaoh in a flawless form and the audience can tell that he was a great ruler by the perfect cut sculpture.
The Statue of a kouros and the Portrait statue of a boy both depict similar subjects, however are greatly different in how they accomplish this task. Through detail, or lack there of, the Greeks and Romans are able to display a certain value they have in its members. These two statues were made about 500 years apart and approach the sculpting process quit differently. The Greek statue seems to use geometric exaggerated lines to form the body while the Romans use a more realistic approach and sculpt the body with a more rounded finish. Statue of a kouros, from about 590 B.C and Portrait of a boy, from about the first century, do not share any great technical aspects and are basically nothing alike.
Pausanias and James George Frazer. Description of Greece. vol. (3 vols. available) History and Geography. London: Macmillan, 1898. E-copy.
The Minotaur locked in the labyrinth is a filthy creature intent on killing anyone in the labyrinth. Any Athenians sent into the labyrinth had virtually little to no chance of ever coming out alive. The Athenians would either be killed by the Minotaur or decompose inside of the labyrinth because the labyrinth is a structure of interconnected passages through which it is difficult to find your way. Theseus is willing to exchange spots with one of the Athenian soldiers to kill the Minotaur (Garcia Sec.4). As myth follows, Theseus did kill the Minotaur, but what if Theseus cowered out and made a deal with the Minotaur. It is very possible for the Minotaur to fake his own death and attempt to live a normal life outside of the labyrinth. There could be the slightest possibility that a half bull and half man to walk the face of the earth and adapt with his social ineptness to mingle with human society (Sherrill).
With the Minoans civilization there is still great debate on how this civilization collapsed to was it due to the cause of the rise of the Mycenaeans or by the Thera Eruption or even to an extent neither caused the Minoans civilization to collapse as it remains a mystery to this day. As to many historians and archaeologists, they try to make a statement it was one of these events that lead to their collapse while others doubt these events were not the cause of their collapse as it was other things.
4) Ellis, Edward S., and Charles F. Horne. ?History of Athens Greece.? The Story of the Greatest Nations and the World?s Greatest Events, Vol. 1. 12 Dec. 2003
Generally speaking, archeology is the study of human history via the excavation and analysis of sites and artifacts. But, pertaining to Atlantis, this differs by each site. In regards to the Bahamas and the Bimini road, although many enthusiasts claim that the J-shaped pattern of the rectangular blocks could only be man-made, it has been proven via examples of other archaeological and geological sites, such as the Florida Keys, that this is simply not the case. Although in recent years, experts have proposed that the site could have been shifted by humans—suggesting that humans may have possibly impacted the development of the ancient harbor itself. In regards to Crete, the samples taken from the seabeds excavation convey evidence of a massive tsunami that could have drowned islands close by. The Minoan civilization that lived here had scattered artifacts that further substantiated said claim of a killer wave. There is some skepticism pertaining to the fact that unlike Plato’s Atlantis, Crete never fully disappeared. Knossos,
Possibly one of the greatest testaments to the Greeks passion for their gods is the Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens, Greece. “. . . temple after temple, each more gorgeous and more perfect than the one before, rose all over the Greek main land, to reach a final climax in the Athenian Parthenon . . .” (Hamlin 124). Here Hamlin explains the greatness of what was achieved in Athens at the Acropolis and how nothing beyond that point could compare.
"NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF ATHENS - OFFICIAL SITE." NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF ATHENS - OFFICIAL SITE. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .
...ity in Classical Athens. New York, NY: Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) in Collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, 2008. Print.
"Unhandled Exception." Ancient Greece - History, Mythology, Art, War, Culture, Society, and Architecture. 2008. Web. 27 Feb. 2011. .
The Palace of Knossos, a Minoan mud brick and timber structure on a shallow stone foundation, featuring a central courtyard, was constructed on an acropolis. It was a place for rulers to reside, shrines for religious ceremonies to be worshipped, the industrial production of objects, and administrative duties. Ample hallways, stairways, chambers, and light wells supplemented the ambitiously built structure. There were plenty of columns to mark he four awe inspiring entrance passages.
“The first advanced culture in Greece, and indeed in all of Europe, was created by a people referred to today as the Minoans. Their civilization flourished from about 2200 to 1450 B.C. on Crete, the large island located about one hundred miles southeast of the Gree...
The Colosseum contained over four stories. The first three contained over 80 entrance arches and contained a complex drainage system. These entrance arches made evacuation extremely fast in case of an em...