Athenian Democracy & Slavery Was slavery essential to the development of Athenian democracy? The simple fact is that Athens in the fifth century BCE was, in fact, a slave-owning society. Therefore to debate over whether this fact was essential t Continue Reading...
Democracy in Ancient Greece Class XXXX, Section XXXX, Fall, 2012 The term democracy was invented by ancient Greece, and it came about through the system of involving all the people in ruling of their land. The ancient Athenian Greeks have been cred Continue Reading...
Slavery was an essential element of the society of Ancient Greece. Social life, in numerous ways -- family, commerce, politics, was heavily dependent on a class of people who fulfilled tasks their masters saw as degrading. Although, the concept of sl Continue Reading...
Why American Democracy Has Failed and Why the Anti Federalists were Right Introduction The Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, asserted that “all men are created equal.”[endnoteRef:2] It was an Enlightenment notion: Thomas Paine Continue Reading...
“Where Do We Go From Here?” Democracy was meant to be government by the rule of the people. Athens is most famous for being the ancient city-state to represent democratic government and in a way the city-state was best situated for democr Continue Reading...
This is Aristotle's launching pad for his discussion of politics. To him, ethics and politics are matters of rational judgment, stemming from the natural inclinations of individual humans. This notion is reflected in Aristotle's analysis of the con Continue Reading...
Ancient Greeks The common Greek house consists of two stories with all the rooms built around a courtyard, and two rooms consisting of the andron and gynaikonitis, the men's and women's quarter's respectively, with the gynaikonitis on the second flo Continue Reading...
Thus, the Spartans were now free, along with the disgruntled Persians, who had a significant ax to grind with Athens, to seize the opportunity and attack Athens (thereby ending the 50 years truce). After a few years of resistance, Athens fell compl Continue Reading...
Free were the Ancient Greeks to Live their Lives as they Chose? The period covered by the term 'Ancient Greece' is a long one, encompassing the Mycenaean period and the subsequent so-called 'Dark Age' (c.1600-900 B.C.), the Archaic Period (c.900-48 Continue Reading...
(Leaves, 680) Similarly Whitman informs us: Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems, You shall possess the good of the earth and sun…there are millions of suns left, You shall no longer take things at Continue Reading...
Plutarch Even today it is difficult enough for historians to write about something that occurred not even 50 or 100 years ago, because of all the many simultaneous events and viewpoints on the issues. They have to look at all the facts and determine Continue Reading...
Except for Miletus, which was sacked as an initiator of the revolt, the other cities were treated rather reasonably, going as far as recommendations for the settled Persians to respect local religious traditions (Herodotus VI 42-45). This does not Continue Reading...
In contrast, Persian women were able to own property, appear in public, and possessed considerable influence. d) What did people in this society value? Being a citizen was the most important part of life in Greece, and being a male citizen was req Continue Reading...
Civil Disobedience The Trial of Socrates The Athenians suffered a crushing defeat in 404 B.C.E. with the end of the Peloponnesian War. A Spartan occupation force controlled the city, and instituted the rule of the Thirty Tyrants to replace Athenian Continue Reading...
He believed, a bit more than Sophocles, that through behavior, humans can actually change fate. Fate does control, yes, but only punishes those who fly in the face of all that is just and divine. For instance, Plato would agree with Sophocles that F Continue Reading...
Furthermore, those people who did not speak Greek were referred to as barbar, the root of our word barbarian."[footnoteRef:5] [4: Ibid] [5: Ibid] Question 3 There are many aspects of Greek culture and artistic traditions that have left their mark Continue Reading...
Dark Age and the Archaic Age Having watched the lectures for the prior learning unit on video, I was prepared to enjoy the video lecture presentation for this learning unit. I previously found the presentation of lectures in the video format to be v Continue Reading...
Athens over several hundred years moved from rule by kings to full peasant democracy. Did aristocrats ever really lose power or did they find new ways to keep it? In Athens, the aristocrats did lose a certain amount of power with the advent of demo Continue Reading...
Some Ancient Greeks even went as far as to think that women started to have deeper voices consequent to the moment when they lost their virginity (King 28). Euripides also acts as one of the principal Ancient Greek scholars who damaged the role of Continue Reading...
World Civilization to 1500: Comparing Ancient Athens and Ancient SpartaIntroductionAncient Athens and Ancient Sparta were both Greek city statesbut they were two very different civilizations in spite of the fact that they existed in some proximity to Continue Reading...
morality still exist if God did not exist? Is something pious because it is loved by the gods -- or do the gods love all that is pious? This is the central question asked in Plato's dialogue the Euthyphro (Ross 2012). The dialogue revolves around a Continue Reading...
Ethical Relativism Allen Bloom wrote one of the most controversial books of the late-20th Century, in which he denounced the demise of the core curriculum at elite U.S. universities and it replacement by what he considered to be a vague sort of post Continue Reading...
Cultural relativism contends that no one culture possesses a more correct value system than any other. "There is no one standard set of morals," Sullivan (2006) argues, which one can use as a base to: "objectively judge all cultures, so comparing mo Continue Reading...
Secondly, the relations that were created at the level of the social groups and of the human establishments gave rise to a surplus of products and inevitably of wealth. This was a natural consequence of the fact that the specialization of labor det Continue Reading...
Both Spartan men and women exercised together in the nude, and both were "encouraged to improve their intellectual skills" ("Women in Ancient Greece"). Being a woman in Sparta certainly ensured a greater sense of gender equality -- but that does not Continue Reading...
Mediterranean agriculture therefore turned out as extraordinarily market-oriented. Slavery turned out to be a further key component of the Mediterranean world economy. Aristotle was among the Philosophers who came up with the justifications for req Continue Reading...
Progress During the Enlightenment The notion of progress is as evolving as the modern society we deem progressive. While some view progress in terms of science and technology, others view progress in terms of government, social equality, economic st Continue Reading...
Odysseus is an ideal of manly conduct and resourcefulness in ancient Greek society, as is shown in Homer's The Odyssey. For example, it is the idea of Odysseus to have his men tie him to the mast of their ship and to pour wax in their ears when they Continue Reading...
Plato's "Republic" -- Justice, Myth, Education Many of the rhetorical terms used by Socrates in Plato's "Republic" might be misleading to a casual observer from contemporary American society. It is important to go over the definitions of justice, m Continue Reading...
