Philosophers
Socrates
Socrates was a famous philosopher who taught Plato, and was portrayed in his early work. A lot of information from Socrates came from Plato’s dialogues. Socrates always wandered around the town and in the agora to give people classes.
Plato
Plato was a famous philosopher who was the student of Socrates, and the teacher of Aristotle. He was born to a family of rich aristocrats. Later in time, Plato developed his own philosophy based on two ideas; Human beings could be improved, and that intellect was supreme. Although, his ideas were modified and developed over several centuries culminating in the philosophy of Plotinus and his students. Plato was born to nobility. Although most people know him to be Plato his real name was "Aristocles". Plato being simply a nickname. Most likely he got the nickname from wrestling. Plato in greek means broad so it either relates to his appearance or his wrestling stance and or tactics. One of the many accomplishments in his life, and arguably the greatest was the fact that he opened something called the Academy. It was the first officially organized school in western civilization. It was opened until 529 B.C. Plato was a student of Socrates who was another brilliant philosopher of Athens. During his time he wrote several manuscripts of his ideas on philosophy. He didn’t like how people treated Socrates. He was angered and conflicted by this. He wrote in several of his manuscripts how he would like to create a society where things such as this could not occur. The Heliocentric theory of the universe was even written down in one of his manuscripts which means that he could have been one of the people that theorised that the earth revolved around the sun. In these astonishing manuscripts you also find things that are way above his time. This quote expresses what he wrote about almost perfectly, “One finds debates concerning the role of heredity and environment in human intelligence and personality long before the publication of The Bell Curve or the formation of Human Genome Project or the discovery that schizophrenia has a genetic basis. One finds arguments for the subjectivity--and the objectivity--of human knowledge which foreshadow modern debates between Hume and Kant, or between the postmodernists and their opponents. Even the myth of the lost city or continent of Atlantis originates as an illustrative story told by Plato in his Timaeus and Critias.” Through time he expressed other people's thoughts, his old teachers thoughts, and then finally his own with a wonderful grace. Arguably his most important piece of writing was the book called ”The Republic”. It expressed his strong political beliefs on how a person and their leader should behave, justice, and how a just man and city-state should act. It is still read and thought about today by millions of people. He was a teacher and a philosopher who did many great things, and now has his name in all the history books.
Arsitole
Aristotle was the student of Plato. Later he rejected his teacher’s beliefs and decided to concentrate on the material world around him. He created the research categories of “logic”, “biology”, and “physics”, and founded the scholarly community called The Lyceum, which became one of the greatest centers for advanced study in the ancient world. The Lyceum was located east to the city wall It had several buildings. An exercise room, a dressing room, running tracks, walkways, seating areas, colonnaded stoas, and Cult sanctuaries that were dedicated to Apollo, Hermes, and Muses.
Athenian Theater
Theater was a main part of Greek culture. Especially in Athens. Even in the theater the social hierarchy at the time still stood. In the front row the high priests would sit. The seats behind the priests would be for V.I.Ps as you could say. They basically were seats for the high class such as warriors, politicians, aristocrats, kings and other honored people and behind all of them was the common Athenians. Although in ancient Athens woman, children, and slaves were allowed to come to the theater so the theater was also a main gathering place. The Athenians were one of the first peoples to enforce theatre, and drama, let alone Greek drama! They used this art form as a way to worship and/or sacrifice to the god Dionysus. The Athenian theatre in which Greek drama’s would be taken were considered as places of worship, and Athenians believed their gods attended their performances.These dramas and theatrical performances evolved from musical hymns and acts to worship dionysus. First the “performances” were heavily choreographed dance - rhymes, with not much emotion except “worship.” Then, the art evolved into many emotional and heart ripping stories that would grab the attention of audiences, and make them scream, gasp, cry and even laugh!
Many theaters were in the shape of a half circle. Many stadiums and theaters today are still in the shape and design the ancient Greeks used. That is proof that the theater and design was effective. The reason we still use the design today is because you can hear the actors from even far away because of the shape of the theater. The theaters also were equipped with a stage in the very front of the theater which was a marble or wooden platform where the main actors would perform. Behind that was a skene. The skene would be in back of the stage. It would act as dressing room such as it is in modern day theater. Also one of the Athenian philosophers invented backdrops. What they would do is paint the skene to correspond with the play that was going on. Not only did they invent a Skene they invented a mekhane. A mekhane is similar to a crane. It’s main purpose was to be able to hang an actor up in the air so that they could convey the story of a god or a flying mythical creature. It would be usually placed near the stage .
The orkhestra was in front of the stage. The orkhestra was what ancient Greeks used to call the orchestra. And if you think about it, it's not much different from what modern day people use it for. In the modern day world the people in the orchestra play music usually on instruments. In other words they play music. It was very similar in ancient Greece. You see in ancient Greece the people who would sing the songs and narrate the story were called the chorus. They would stand were the modern day orchestra would. They would speak to the actors, and narrate their actions. They would also sing and dance in the orchestra. There was usually one actor. Later in time they created scripts, and shows with two and then three actors. They would enter from the skene, and they would wear masks to show who they were. Although all the actors were men, there were women roles, but only men could be actors at that time.
The people at the time would view several performances throughout the day. At the end of the day they would choose who had the best play and would award a prize to the play’s writer.
Now for the most important part of this prestigious event of theater. Why it came to be. The answer is simple, Dyonisis. Dionysus is the god of wine and festivals and many other things, but the Greeks created theater in his honor. There were nine important people in Athens who were called archons.Their job mainly dealt with parties and festivals. But one of the archons was in charge of the yearly Dionysia festival, for the god Dionysus. During the festival of dionysus it was a time of wine drinking, fun, and parties. In the Orchestra there would be an altar to him that the people would sing and dance around, and they would hold festivals for him. Every play they did was a sacrifice to him. The Athenians would have a special festival for him. It was a four day festival in his honor. Slaves, woman and even prisoners who were let out of jail to attend the event were all invited to join the festivities. This was an amazing source of Athenian culture and creativity. It opened the doors for famous playwrights such as Aeschylus and Sophocles to show their creativity on ancient Greece ,and opened the Greeks up to leaving a mark on the history of theater forever.
Socrates
