Women were perhaps the largest class of the Ancient Greek population to be excluded from the exercise of many of the freedoms we would recognize as important today: political participation, ownership of property and wealth, pursuit of education and careers. Women in the classical period were restricted in their free choice of marriage partners; any dowry was effectively the property of the husband, denying the woman financial independence (Sealey
Slaves were able to rise to some extent in Greek society in later periods (evidence is lacking for the Mycenaean and Archaic eras), but they were entirely dependent on their owners for the opportunity to, for example, manage commercial concerns such as banks, inherit money or own land, or even to marry (Westermann, 3). Slavery was essential to the Athenian economy and to the lifestyles of her politically active class: 'It is important always to keep in mind the enormous extent to which the Athenian economy depended on slave labour whenever we are tempted to become "starry-eyed" about her democracy', observes one modern scholar (Stockton, 17-18)
To be a slave was to be the possession of another human being -- no clearer limit on freedom could be imagined. Slaves were able to rise to some extent in Greek society in later periods (evidence is lacking for the Mycenaean and Archaic eras), but they were entirely dependent on their owners for the opportunity to, for example, manage commercial concerns such as banks, inherit money or own land, or even to marry (Westermann, 3)
When Zeus was born, Rhea decided to fool Cronos by dressing up a stone as a baby and giving it to her husband to devour. To save the life of Zeus she took him to a cave, which his presence alone filled with light -- and for which she gave him the name "Brightness" -- or, Zeus, in Greek (Haaren 10)
To keep some distance between the world of the gods and the world of men, Zeus established his kingdom on the highest peak of the mountains in Greece -- and this was called Olympus. Here the gods lived and watched the affairs of men and often intervened in their lives (Loewen 10)
He had to do battle with the Giants. He also had to defend himself against the attack of Typhon, who actually managed to "sever the sinews of the hands and feet" of Zeus (Parada)
Everything was unfixed from its age-long rest, and moving at whirlwind speed in a direction opposite to their own." (Hawthorne, Chapter 17)
"In the past the prevailing idea has been well expressed in the saying that "captains of industry are born not made"; and the theory has been that if one could get the right man, methods could be safely left with him. In the future it will be appreciated that our leaders must be trained right as well as born right, and that no great man can (with the old system of personal management) hope to compete wit a number of ordinary men who have been properly organized so as efficiently to cooperate"(Taylor, 1911)
¶ … Ancient Greeks matter to the citizen of the West in the twenty-First century? Do the Ancient Greeks still matter? The civilization of ancient Greece is present in our language, in the way we conceptualize beauty, and in the way we tell myths and legends as stories of heroes and wanderers. When we speak seriously or in jest of someone having an Oedipus complex, we are referencing the Greeks, even though it may "shed little light" on what fate and parental authority meant to the Greeks (Cahill 96)
The ancient Greeks are also known for delving into astronomy, biology, physics, geometry and medicine (Ancient Greece). An article in the peer-reviewed journal Interfaces explains that the ancient Greeks "…contributed greatly to the ideas and practices of economic and social decision making" (Zanakis, et al
Transcendental values had been swept aside by Enlightenment thinkers, who were simply attempting to define the new world, which they were building on the rubble of the old. The Peace of Westphalia, however, was no good foundation to build upon: truth before unity had given way to unity before truth -- in which case any notion of the sublime would fall victim (as it does in Burke's treatise -- already showing modern man to be made in the image of Hamlet: a doubter, a skeptic, a questioner, a fatalist, a man apart): "When I say I intend to inquire into the efficient cause of Sublimity and Beauty, I would not be understood to say, that I can come to the ultimate cause" (Burke 4
Therefore, it is no surprise to find him saying such things as, "Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others" (Hume 7)
Michael Jones insists, the Marquis de Sade understood Augustine perfectly well when he said that a man has as many masters as he does vices. Yet, while Augustine argued to turn men toward God, Sade argued to turn men into animals who could be controlled as such (Jones 5-6)
5). However, Longinus insists that there is an art to the sublime -- and, just as in art one call fall into the two traps of sentimentality and pornography (O'Connor 143), in the art of the sublime one can fall into either "tumidity" or "puerility": "While tumidity desires to transcend the limits of the sublime, the defect which is termed puerility is the direct antithesis of elevation, for it is utterly low and mean and in real truth the most ignoble vice of style…a pedant's thoughts, which begin in learned trifling and end in frigidity" (Longinus 3
This paper will analyze the history of the theory of the sublime from Longinus to modern times, showing how with the loss of medieval religion and the end of the age of faith, the sublime became the rule of faith -- and defining it became part of the modern world's attempt to assert a new doctrine in place of the old. As Richard Weaver stated in Ideas Have Consequences, what modern man lacks is "piety toward nature, toward man, [and] toward the past" (Peppe)
Exiling political leaders and their supporters gives other leaders a chance of executing their programs without challenge (Kyrtatas pp). For example, the Peisistratid tyrants were expelled from Athens (Hansen pp)
The marketplace is generally regarded as a rather undesirable area, thus young males from aristocratic families are not allowed to spend much time there until they reach adulthood, and even then, it is considered bad character to frequent the Agora (Athenian pp). Greeks can be quite inventive when it comes to coping with internal governmental and/or political problems (Kyrtatas pp)
Also important to daily life, is the fact that majority rules, which helps to keep the community united while at the same time addressing the issues at hand (Kyrtatas pp). Consent, participation, rights, liberties, self-determination, and autonomy are all among the characteristics of Athenian democracy (Saxonhouse pp)
"This calamity was originally thought to be some great natural disaster like an earthquake, but it is unlikely that one such event could have caused such an impact." (Everson) Other theories claim that overcrowding caused the Mycenaeans to experience problems as a result of scarcer resources or that Greeks from the North, namely the Dorians, came south and destroyed the Mycenaean culture
"The sword is a weapon specifically designed to be man-killing, with the additional effect of showing off the prowess, bravery and ferocity of the user." (Rawlings 23) The presence of the sword in the Mycenaean society thus influences one to consider the fact that it was also used as a channel to express the community's military culture