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58 important words to help you understand the ancient Greeks
Prepared by Oksana Kulishova , Ekaterina Shumilina , Vladimir Fire , Alena Chepel , Elizaveta Shcherbakova , Tatyana Ilyina , Nina Almazova , Ksenia Danilochkina
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Agon ἀγώνIn the broad sense of the word, any competition or dispute was called an agon in Ancient Greece. Most often, sports competitions were held (athletic competitions, horse races or chariot races), as well as musical and poetic competitions in the city.
Chariot racing. Fragment of painting of a Panathenaic amphora. About 520 B.C. e.Metropolitan Museum of Art
In addition, the word "agon" was used in a narrower sense: in ancient Greek drama, especially in ancient Attic, this was the name of the part of the play, during which an argument between the characters took place on the stage. The agon could unfold either between and or between two actors and two hemichoirs, each of which supported the point of view of the antagonist or protagonist. Such an agon is, for example, the dispute between the poets Aeschylus and Euripides in the afterlife in Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs.
In classical Athens, agon was an important part of not only theatrical competition, but also the debate about the structure of the universe that took place in. The structure of many of Plato's philosophical dialogues, where the opposing views of the participants in the symposium (mainly Socrates and his opponents) collide, resembles the structure of a theatrical agon.
Ancient Greek culture is often called “agonistic”, since it is believed that the “spirit of competition” in Ancient Greece permeated all spheres of human activity: agonalism was present in politics, on the battlefield, in court, and shaped everyday life. This term was first introduced in the 19th century by the scientist Jacob Burckhardt, who believed that it was customary for the Greeks to hold competitions in everything that included the possibility of a struggle. Agony really permeated all areas of the life of the ancient Greek, but it is important to understand that not everyone: initially, agon was an important part of the life of the Greek aristocracy, and commoners could not participate in competitions. Therefore, Friedrich Nietzsche called agon the highest achievement of the aristocratic spirit.
Agora and agora ἀγορά
Agora in Athens. Lithography. Around 1880
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
The Athenians elected special officials - agoranomas (market keepers), who kept order in the square, collected trade duties from, levied fines for improper trade; the market police, which consisted of slaves, were subordinate to them. There were also positions of metronomes, whose duty it was to monitor the accuracy of weights and measures, and sitophilaks, who oversaw the grain trade.
Acropolis ἀκρόπολις
Athenian Acropolis at the beginning of the 20th century
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Translated from the ancient Greek akropolis - "upper city". This is a fortified part of the ancient Greek city, which, as a rule, was located on a hill and originally served as a refuge in wartime. On the acropolis there were city shrines, temples - the patrons of the city, and the city treasury was often kept.
The Athenian Acropolis has become a symbol of ancient Greek culture and history. Its founder, according to the mythological tradition, was the first king of Athens, Kekrops. The active development of the Acropolis as the center of the religious life of the city was carried out during the time of Peisistratus in the 6th century BC. e. In 480, it was destroyed by the Persians who captured Athens. In the middle of the 5th century BC. e., under the policy of Pericles, the Athenian Acropolis was rebuilt according to a single plan.
It was possible to climb the Acropolis by a wide marble staircase that led to the propylaea - the main entrance, built by the architect Mnesicles. At the top, there was a view of the Parthenon - the temple of Athena the Virgin (created by architects Iktin and Kallikrat). In the central part of the temple stood a 12-meter statue of Athena Parthenos, made by Phidias of gold and ivory; its appearance is known to us only from descriptions and later imitations. On the other hand, the sculptural decorations of the Parthenon have been preserved, a significant part of which was removed by the British ambassador to Constantinople, Lord Elgin, at the beginning of the 19th century, and now they are stored in the British Museum.
On the Acropolis there was also a temple of Nike Apteros - the Wingless Victory (devoid of wings, she had to always remain with the Athenians), the Erechtheion temple (with the famous portico of caryatids), which included several independent sanctuaries to various deities, as well as other structures.
The Acropolis of Athens, badly damaged during the numerous wars of the following centuries, was restored as a result of restoration work that began at the end of the 19th century and became especially active in the last decades of the 20th century.
Actor ὑποκριτής
A scene from Euripides' tragedy Medea. Fragment of painting of a red-figure crater. 5th century BC e. Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
In an ancient Greek play, lines were distributed among three or two actors. This rule was violated and the number of actors could reach up to five. It was believed that the first role is the most important, and only the actor who played the first role, the protagonist, could receive payment from the state and participate in the competition for the acting prize. The word "tritagonist", which refers to the third actor, was given the meaning of "third-rate" and was used almost like a curse word. Actors, like poets, were strictly divided into comic and.
Initially, only one actor was involved in the plays - and that was the playwright himself. According to legend, Aeschylus introduced a second actor, and Sophocles was the first to refuse to play in his tragedies - because his voice was too weak. Since all roles in ancient Greek were performed in, the skill of the actor primarily consisted in the art of controlling voice and speech. The actor also had to sing well in order to perform solo arias in tragedies. The separation of actors into a separate profession was completed by the 4th century BC. e.
In IV-III centuries BC. e. acting troupes appeared, which were called "artisans of Dionysus." Formally, they were considered religious organizations dedicated to the god of the theater. In addition to the actors, they included dressers, mask makers and dancers. The leaders of such troupes could reach a high position in society.
The Greek word actor (hypokrites) in the new European languages acquired the meaning of "hypocrite" (for example, the English hypocrite).
Apotropey ἀποτρόπαιοςApotropey (from the ancient Greek verb apotrepo - “to turn away”) is a talisman that should ward off the evil eye and damage. Such a talisman can be an image, an amulet, or it can be a ritual or a gesture. For example, a kind of apotropaic magic that protects a person from trouble is the familiar triple tapping on wood.
Gorgonion. Fragment of black-figure vase painting. End of the 6th century BC e.
Wikimedia Commons
Among the ancient Greeks, the most popular apotropaic sign was the image of the head of the Gorgon Medusa with bulging eyes, protruding tongue and fangs: it was believed that a terrible face would scare away evil spirits. Such an image was called "gorgonion" (Gorgoneion), and it was, for example, an indispensable attribute of the shield of Athena.
The name could serve as a talisman: children were given “bad”, from our point of view, abusive names, since it was believed that this would make them unattractive to evil spirits and turn away the evil eye. So, the Greek name Aeschros comes from the adjective aiskhros - "ugly", "ugly". Apotropaic names were characteristic not only of ancient culture: probably the Slavic name Nekras (from which the common surname Nekrasov comes) was also an apotropaic.
The abusive iambic poetry, the ritual swearing from which the ancient Attic comedy arose, also served an apotropaic function: to avert misfortune from those whom it calls the last words.
God θεóς
Eros and Psyche in front of the Olympian gods. Drawing by Andrea Schiavone. Around 1540-1545
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The main gods of the ancient Greeks are called Olympian - by the name of Mount Olympus in Northern Greece, which was considered their habitat. We learn about the origin of the Olympian gods, their functions, relationships and customs from the earliest works of ancient literature - poems and Hesiod.
The Olympic gods belonged to the third generation of gods. First, Gaia-Earth and Uranus-Sky appeared from Chaos, which gave birth to the titans. One of them, Cron, having overthrown his father, seized power, but, fearing that children could threaten his throne, he swallowed his newborn offspring. His wife Rhea managed to save only the last baby - Zeus. Having matured, he overthrew Kron and established himself on Olympus as the supreme deity, sharing power with his brothers: Poseidon became the lord of the sea, and Hades - the underworld. There were twelve main Olympian gods, but their list could differ in different parts of the Greek world. Most often, in addition to the already named gods, the Olympic pantheon included, in addition to the already named gods, the wife of Zeus Hera - the patroness of marriage and family, as well as his children: Apollo - the god of divination and the patron of the muses, Artemis - the goddess of hunting, Athena - the patroness of crafts, Ares - the god of war, Hephaestus - the patron blacksmith skills and the herald of the gods Hermes. They were also joined by the goddess of love Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility Demeter, Dionysus - the patron saint of winemaking and Hestia - the goddess of the hearth.
In addition to the main gods, the Greeks also revered nymphs, satyrs and other mythological creatures that inhabited the entire world around them - forests, rivers, mountains. The Greeks represented their gods as immortal, having the appearance of beautiful, physically perfect people, often living with the same feelings, passions and desires as mere mortals.
Bacchanalia βακχεíαBacchus, or Bacchus, is one of the names of Dionysus. The Greeks believed that he sends ritual madness to his followers, because of which they indulge in wild frenzied dances. The Greeks called this Dionysian ecstasy the word "bacchanalia" (bakkheia). There was also a Greek verb with the same root, bakkheuo, "to Bacchante," that is, to participate in the Dionysian mysteries.
Usually women who were called "Bacchantes" or "Maenads" (from the word mania - madness) were Bacchantes. They united in religious communities - fias and went to the mountains. There they took off their shoes, let their hair down and put on nonbrides - animal skins. The rites took place at night by the light of torches and were accompanied by cries.
Heroes of myth often have a close but conflicting relationship with the gods. For example, the name Hercules means “the glory of Hera”: Hera, the wife of Zeus and the queen of the gods, on the one hand, tormented Hercules all her life, because Zeus was jealous of Alcmene, but she also became an indirect cause of his fame. Hera sent madness to Hercules, because of which the hero killed his wife and children, and then, in order to atone for his guilt, he was forced to follow the orders of his cousin uncle Eurystheus - it was in the service of Eurystheus that Hercules performed his twelve labors.
Despite their dubious moral character, many Greek heroes, such as Hercules, Perseus and Achilles, were objects of worship: people brought gifts to them, prayed for health. It is difficult to say what appeared earlier - the myths about the exploits of the hero or his cult, there is no consensus among scientists on this matter, but the connection between heroic myths and cults is obvious. The cults of heroes differed from the cult of ancestors: people who revered this or that hero did not always trace their genealogy from him. Often the cult of the hero was tied to some ancient grave, the name of the buried in which was already forgotten: the tradition turned it into the grave of the hero, and they began to perform rituals on it and.
In some places, heroes quickly began to be revered at the state level: for example, the Athenians worshiped Theseus, who was considered the patron of the city; in Epidaurus there was a cult of Asclepius (originally a hero, the son of Apollo and a mortal woman, as a result of apotheosis - that is, deification - became the god of healing), since it was believed that he was born there; in Olympia, in the Peloponnese, Pelops was revered as the founder (Peloponnese literally means "island of Pelops"). The cult of Hercules was a state cult in several.
hybrid ὕβριςHybris, translated from ancient Greek, literally means "impudence", "out of the ordinary behavior." When a character of a myth shows hybrid in relation to, he will certainly undergo punishment: the concept of "hybris" reflects the idea of the Greeks that human arrogance and pride always lead to disaster.
Hercules frees Prometheus. Fragment of black-figure vase painting. 7th century BC e.
Hybris and the punishment for it are present, for example, in the myth of the titan Prometheus, who stole fire from Olympus and was chained to a rock for this, and of Sisyphus, who in the afterlife always rolls a heavy stone uphill for deceiving the gods (there are different versions of his hybrid, in the most common one he deceived and chained the god of death Thanatos, so that people stopped dying for a while).
The hybrid element is contained in almost every Greek myth and is an integral element of the behavior of heroes and: the tragic hero must go through several emotional stages: koros (koros - "excess", "satiation"), hybrid and ate (ate - "madness", "woe" ).
We can say that there is no hero without a hybrid: going beyond what is permitted is the main act of a heroic character. The duality of Greek myth and Greek tragedy lies precisely in the fact that the feat of the hero and his punished insolence are often one and the same.
The second meaning of the word "hybris" is fixed in legal practice. In the Athenian court, the hybris was defined as " an attack on the Athenians". The hybrid included any form of violence and violation of boundaries, as well as an unholy attitude towards deities.
gymnasium γυμνάσιον
Athletes in the gymnasium. Athens, 6th century BC e.
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
Initially, this was the name of places for physical exercises, where young men prepared for military service and sports, which were an indispensable attribute of most public ones. But pretty soon the gymnasiums turned into real educational centers, where physical education was combined with education and intellectual communication. Gradually, some of the gymnasiums (especially in Athens under the influence of Plato, Aristotle, Antisthenes and others) became, in fact, the prototypes of universities.
The word "gymnasium", apparently, comes from the ancient Greek gymnos - "naked", as they trained naked in the gymnasiums. In ancient Greek culture, the athletic male body was seen as aesthetically pleasing; physical activities were considered acceptable, gymnasiums were under their patronage (primarily Hercules and Hermes) and were often located next to the sanctuaries.
At first, gymnasiums were simple courtyards surrounded by porticos, but over time they grew into entire complexes of indoor premises (which contained changing rooms, baths, etc.), united by an inner courtyard. Gymnasiums were an important part of the way of life of the ancient Greeks and were the concern of the state; supervision of them was entrusted to a special official - the gymnasiarch.
Citizen πολίτηςA citizen was considered a member of the community, who had the full political, legal and other rights. We owe the ancient Greeks the development of the very concept of “citizen” (in the ancient Eastern monarchies there were only “subjects”, whose rights could be infringed upon by the ruler at any moment).
In Athens, where the concept of citizenship was especially well developed in political thought, a full citizen, according to the law adopted under Pericles in the middle of the 5th century BC. e., could only be a man (although the concept of citizenship with various restrictions extended to women), a resident of Attica, the son of Athenian citizens. His name, upon reaching the age of eighteen and after a thorough check of the origin, was entered in the list of citizens, which was maintained by. However, in fact, the full rights of the Athenian received after the end of the service.
An Athenian citizen had rights and duties closely related to each other, the most important of which were the following:
- the right to freedom and personal independence;
- the right to own a piece of land - associated with the obligation to cultivate it, since the community endowed each of its members with land so that he could feed himself and his family;
- the right to participate in the militia, while protecting the native with weapons in their hands was also the duty of a citizen;
Athenian citizens valued their privileges, so it was very difficult to obtain citizenship: it was given only in exceptional cases, for some special merit to the policy.
Homer Ὅμηρος
Homer (center) on Raphael's Parnassus fresco. Vatican, 1511
Wikimedia Commons
They joke that the Iliad was not written by Homer, but by "another blind ancient Greek." According to Herodotus, the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey lived "not earlier than 400 years before me", that is, in the VIII, or even in the IX century BC. e. The German philologist Friedrich August Wolf argued in 1795 that the Homeric poems were created later, already in the written era, from scattered folk tales. It turned out that Homer is a conditional legendary figure like the Slavic Boyan, and the real author of masterpieces is a completely “different ancient Greek”, an editor-compiler from Athens at the turn of the 6th-5th centuries BC. e. The customer could be Pisistratus, who made the singers envy of others at the Athenian holidays. The problem of the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey was called the Homeric question, and the followers of Wolf, who sought to identify heterogeneous elements in these poems, were called analysts.
The era of speculative theories about Homer ended in the 1930s, when the American philologist Milman Parry organized an expedition to compare the Iliad and the Odyssey with the epics of the Bosnian storytellers. It turned out that the art of illiterate Balkan singers is built on improvisation: the poem is created anew each time and never repeated word for word. Improvisation is made possible by formulas - repetitive combinations that can be changed a little on the go, adapting to a changing context. Parry and his student Albert Lord proved that the formulaic structures of the Homeric text are very similar to the Balkan material, which means that the Iliad and the Odyssey should be considered oral poems that were dictated at the dawn of the invention of the Greek alphabet by one or two improvising storytellers.
Greeklanguage ἑλληνικὴ γλῶσσα
Greek is considered to be much more difficult than Latin. This is true if only because it breaks up into several dialects (from five to a dozen - depending on the goals of the classification). From some (Mycenaean and Arcado-Cypriot) works of art have not been preserved - they are known from inscriptions. The dialect, on the contrary, was never spoken: it was an artificial language of storytellers, combining the features of several regional variants of Greek at once. Other dialects in their literary dimension were also tied to genres and. For example, the poet Pindar, whose native dialect was Aeolian, wrote his works in the Dorian dialect. The recipients of his praise songs were winners from different parts of Greece, but their dialect, like his own, did not influence the language of the works.
Dem δῆμος
Tablets with the full names of the citizens of Athens and the indication of the deme. 4th century BC e.
Wikimedia Commons
Deme in ancient Greece was called the territorial district, and sometimes the inhabitants who lived there. At the end of the VI century BC. e., after the reforms of the Athenian statesman Cleisthenes, dem became the most important economic, political and administrative unit in Attica. It is believed that the number of demes under Cleisthenes reached a hundred, and later increased significantly. The demos varied in population; the largest Attic demes were Acharnae and Eleusis.
The canon of Polykleitos dominated Greek art for about a hundred years. At the end of the 5th century BC. e., after the war with Sparta and the plague, a new attitude to the world was born - it ceased to seem so simple and clear. Then the figures created by Polykleitos began to seem too heavy, and the refined, individualistic works of the sculptors Praxiteles and Lysippus replaced the universal canon.
In the era of Hellenism (IV-I centuries BC), with the formation of the idea of art in the 5th century BC. e. as about ideal, classical antiquity, the word "canon" began to mean, in principle, any set of immutable norms and rules.
Catharsis κάθαρσιςThis term comes from the Greek verb kathairo (to purify) and is one of the most important, but at the same time controversial and difficult to understand, terms of Aristotelian aesthetics. It is traditionally believed that Aristotle sees the goal of the Greek precisely in catharsis, while he mentions this concept in the Poetics only once and does not give it any formal definition: according to Aristotle, tragedy "with the help of compassion and fear" carries out "catharsis ( purification) of such affects. Researchers and commentators have been struggling with this short phrase for hundreds of years: by affects, Aristotle means fear and compassion, but what does “purification” mean? Some believe that we are talking about the purification of the affects themselves, others - about the purification of the soul from them.
Those who believe that catharsis is the purification of affects explain that the viewer, who has experienced catharsis at the end of the tragedy, experiences relief (and pleasure), since the experienced fear and compassion are cleansed of the pain that they inevitably bring. The most important objection to this interpretation is that fear and compassion are inherently painful, so pain cannot be their "impurity".
Another - and perhaps the most influential - interpretation of catharsis belongs to the German classical philologist Jacob Bernays (1824-1881). He drew attention to the fact that the concept of "catharsis" is most often found in ancient medical literature and means cleansing in the physiological sense, that is, getting rid of pathogenic substances in the body. Thus, in Aristotle, catharsis is a medical metaphor, apparently of a psychotherapeutic nature, and it is not about purifying fear and compassion itself, but about purifying the soul from these experiences. In addition, Bernays found another mention of catharsis in Aristotle - in Politics. There we are talking about a medical cleansing effect: sacred chants heal people prone to extreme religious excitement. Here the principle is akin to homeopathic: people who are prone to strong affects (for example, to fear) are healed by experiencing these affects in small safe doses - for example, in where they can feel fear, being completely safe.
Ceramics κεραμικόςThe word "ceramics" comes from the ancient Greek keramos ("river clay"). This was the name of clay products made under the influence of high temperature with subsequent cooling: vessels (made by hand or on a potter's wheel), flat painted or embossed ceramic slabs that lined the walls of buildings, sculpture, stamps, seals and weights.
Pottery was used for storing and eating, as well as in rituals and; it was brought as a gift to temples and invested in burials. On many vessels, in addition to figurative images, there are inscriptions scratched or applied with liquid clay - this could be the name of the owner, a dedication to a deity, a trade mark, or the signature of a potter and vase painter.
In the VI century BC. e. The most widespread was the so-called black-figure technique: the reddish surface of the vessel was painted with black lacquer, and individual details were scratched or highlighted with white paint and purple. About 530 B.C. e. red-figure vessels spread: all the figures and ornaments on them were left in the color of clay, and the background around was covered with black lacquer, which was used to make the internal drawing.
Since ceramic vessels are very resistant to environmental influences due to strong firing, tens of thousands of their fragments have been preserved. Therefore, ancient Greek pottery is indispensable in determining the age of archaeological finds. In addition, in their work, vase painters reproduced common mythological and historical subjects, as well as genre and everyday scenes, which makes ceramics an important source on the history of everyday life and ideas of the ancient Greeks.
Comedy κωμῳδία
Comedy actor. Fragment of the crater painting. Around 350-325 BC. e. A krater is a vessel with a wide neck, two handles on the sides and a foot. Used to mix wine with water. Metropolitan Museum of Art
The word "comedy" consists of two parts: komos ("merry procession"), and ode ("song"). In Greece, this was the name given to the genre of dramatic productions, between which they took place in Athens at the annual in honor of Dionysus. Three to five comedians participated in the competition, each representing one play. The most famous comic poets of Athens were Aristophanes, Cratinus and Eupolis.
The plot of the ancient Athenian comedy is a mixture of fairy tale, obscene farce and political satire. The action usually takes place in Athens and (or) in some fantastic place where the main character goes to fulfill his grandiose idea: for example, an Athenian flies on a huge dung beetle (a parody of Pegasus) to the sky to free and bring back the goddess to the city peace (such a comedy was staged in the year when a truce was concluded in the Peloponnesian War); or the theater god Dionysus goes to the underworld and judges there the duel between the playwrights Aeschylus and Euripides - whose tragedies are parodied in the text.
The genre of ancient comedy is compared to the culture of the carnival, in which everything is turned upside down: women are involved in politics, seize the Acropolis” and refuse to have sex, demanding an end to the war; Dionysus dresses up in the lion skin of Hercules; the father instead of the son goes to study in Socrates; the gods send ambassadors to the people to agree on the resumption of the interrupted ones. Jokes about genitals and bowel movements are side by side with subtle allusions to the scientific ideas and intellectual disputes of their time. Comedy makes fun of everyday life, political, social and religious institutions, as well as literature, especially high style and symbolism. The characters of the comedy can be historical figures: politicians, generals, poets, philosophers, musicians, priests, in general, any prominent figures of Athenian society. The comic consists of twenty-four people and often depicts animals ("Birds", "Frogs"), personified natural phenomena ("Clouds", "Islands") or geographical objects ("Cities", "Demes").
In comedy, the so-called fourth wall is easily broken: the performers on stage can come into direct contact with the audience. For this, in the middle of the play there is a special moment - a parabasis - when the choir, on behalf of the poet, addresses the audience and the jury, explaining why this comedy is the best and it needs to be voted for.
Space κόσμοςThe word "cosmos" among the ancient Greeks meant "universe", "world order", "universe", as well as "decoration", "beauty": the cosmos was opposed to chaos and was closely associated with the idea of harmony, order and beauty.
The cosmos consists of the upper (sky), middle (earth) and lower (underworld) worlds. live on Olympus - a mountain that in real geography is located in Northern Greece, but in mythology it often turns out to be synonymous with the sky. On Olympus, according to the Greeks, there is the throne of Zeus, as well as the palaces of the gods, built and decorated by the god Hephaestus. There the gods spend their time enjoying feasts and eating nectar and ambrosia, the drink and food of the gods.
Oikumene - a part of the earth inhabited by man - at the borders of the inhabited world is washed on all sides by a single river Ocean. The center of the inhabited world is at Delphi, in the sanctuary of the Pythian Apollo; this place is marked with a sacred stone omphalos (“navel of the earth”) - to determine this point, Zeus sent two eagles from different parts of the earth, and they met exactly there. Another myth was associated with the Delphic omphalos: Rhea gave this stone to Kron, who was devouring his offspring, instead of the baby Zeus, and it was Zeus who placed it in Delphi, thus marking the center of the earth. Mythological ideas about Delphi as the center of the world were also reflected in the first geographical maps.
In the bowels of the earth there is a kingdom where the god Hades rules (after his name the kingdom was called Hades) and the shadows of the dead live, over which the sons of Zeus, distinguished by special wisdom and justice, Minos, Aeacus and Rhadamanthus, judge.
The entrance to the underworld, guarded by the terrible three-headed dog Cerberus, is located in the extreme west, beyond the Ocean River. Several rivers flow in Hades itself. The most important among them are Lethe, whose waters give the souls of the dead oblivion of their earthly life, Styx, whose waters the gods swear by, Acheron, through which Charon transports the souls of the dead, the “river of weeping” Kokit and the fiery Piriflegeton (or Phlegeton).
Mask πρόσωπον
Comedian Menander with comedy masks. Roman copy of an ancient Greek relief. 1st century BC e.
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
We know that in ancient Greece they played with masks (in Greek, prosopon - literally “face”), although the masks themselves of the 5th century BC e. not found in any of the excavations. It can be assumed from the images on the masks that the masks depicted human faces, distorted for the sake of comic effect; in the comedies of Aristophanes "Wasps", "Birds" and "Frogs" animal masks could be involved. Changing masks, the actor could appear on the stage in different roles in the same play. The actors were only men, but the masks allowed them to play female roles.
The masks were in the form of helmets with holes for the eyes and mouth, so that when the actor put on the mask, his entire head was hidden. Masks were made from light materials: starched linen, cork, leather; they were accompanied by wigs.
Meter μέτρονModern Russian versification is usually built on the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Greek verse looked different: long and short syllables alternated in it. For example, not the sequence "stressed - unstressed - unstressed", but "long - short - short" was called dactyl. The first meaning of the word daktylos is "finger" (cf. "dactyloscopy"), and the index finger consists of one long phalanx and two shorter ones. The most common size - hexameter ("six-dimensional") - consisted of six dactyls. The main size of the drama was iambic - a two-syllable foot with a short first syllable and a long second. At the same time, substitutions were possible in most sizes: for example, in hexameter, instead of two short syllables, a long one was often encountered.
Mimesis μίμησιςThe word "mimesis" (from the Greek verb mimeomai - "to imitate") is usually translated as "imitation", but such a translation is not entirely correct; in most cases, it would be more accurate to say not “imitation” or “imitation”, but “image” or “representation” - in particular, it is important that in most Greek texts the word “mimesis” does not have a negative connotation that the word “imitation” has ".
The concept of "mimesis" is usually associated with the aesthetic theories of Plato and Aristotle, but, apparently, it originally arose in the context of early Greek cosmological theories based on the parallelism of the microcosm and macrocosm: it was assumed that the processes in and processes in the human body are in mimetic similarity relationships. By the 5th century BC e. this concept is firmly rooted in the field of art and aesthetics - to such an extent that any educated Greek would most likely answer the question "What is a work of art?" - mimemata, that is, "images". Nevertheless, it retained - in particular in Plato and Aristotle - some metaphysical connotations.
In the dialogue The State, Plato argues that art should be banished from the ideal state, in part because it is based on mimesis. His first argument is that every object that exists in the sensible world is only an imperfect likeness of its ideal prototype in the world of ideas. Plato's reasoning is arranged as follows: the carpenter creates a bed by turning his gaze to the idea of a bed; but every bed he makes will always be only an imperfect likeness of his ideal prototype. Therefore, any image of this bed - for example, a picture or a sculpture - will be only an imperfect copy of an imperfect likeness. That is, art that imitates the sensible world further distances us from true knowledge (which can only be about ideas, but not about their similarities) and, therefore, is harmful. Plato's second argument is that art (for example, the ancient theater) through mimesis makes the audience identify with the characters and sympathize with them. , caused moreover not by a real event, but by mimesis, stimulates the irrational part of the soul and takes the soul out of the control of the mind. Such an experience is also harmful for the entire collective: Plato's ideal state is based on a rigid caste system, where the social role and occupation of each are strictly defined. The fact that in the theater the viewer identifies with different characters, often "socially alien", undermines this system, where everyone should know their place.
Aristotle responded to Plato in his essay "Poetics" (or "On the Art of Poetry"). Firstly, man, as a biological species, is by nature prone to mimesis, so art cannot be expelled from an ideal state - this would be violence against human nature. Mimesis is the most important way of knowing and mastering the surrounding world: for example, with the help of mimesis in its simplest form, a child learns a language. Painful sensations experienced by the viewer while watching lead to psychological relaxation and, therefore, have a psychotherapeutic effect. The emotions that art evokes also contribute to cognition: “poetry is more philosophical than history,” since the former refers to universals, while the latter considers only special cases. Thus, a tragic poet, in order to plausibly portray his characters and evoke in the viewer the emotions suitable for the occasion, must always reflect on how this or that character would behave in certain circumstances; thus tragedy is a reflection on human character and human nature in general. Therefore, one of the most important goals of mimetic art is intellectual: it is the study of human nature.
Mysteries μυστήριαMysteries are religious with rites of initiation or mystical union with. They were also called orgies (orgia). The most famous mysteries - Eleusinian - took place in the temple of Demeter and Persephone in Eleusis, not far from Athens.
The Eleusinian mysteries were associated with the myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, whom Hades took to the underworld and made his wife. The inconsolable Demeter achieved the return of her daughter - but temporary: Persephone spends part of the year on earth, and part - in the underworld. The story of how Demeter, in search of Persephone, reached Eleusis and herself established the mysteries there, is detailed in a hymn to Demeter. Since the myth tells of a journey leading to and returning from there, the mysteries associated with it were supposed to provide the initiates with a more favorable afterlife than that that awaited the uninitiated:
“Happy are those of the earthly people who have seen the sacrament. / The one who is not involved in them, after death will never be / Have a share like this in the many-gloomy kingdom of the underworld, ”the hymn says. What exactly is meant by "similar share" is not very clear.
The main thing that is known about the Eleusinian mysteries themselves is their secrecy: the initiates were strictly forbidden to disclose what exactly happened during the sacred actions. However, Aristotle tells something about the mysteries. According to him, the initiates, or mystai, "gained experience" during the mysteries. At the beginning of the ritual, the participants were somehow deprived of the ability to see. The word "myst" (literally "closed") can be understood as "with closed eyes" - perhaps the "experience" received was associated with a feeling of blindness and being in darkness. During the second stage of initiation, the participants were already called “epopts”, that is, “those who saw”.
The Eleusinian mysteries were incredibly popular among the Greeks and attracted numerous people to Athens who wanted to be ordained. In The Frog, the god Dionysus meets the initiates in the underworld, who spend their time in blissful fun on the Champs Elysees.
The ancient theory of music is well known from special treatises that have come down to us. Some of them also describe the notation system (which was owned only by a narrow circle of professionals). In addition, there are several monuments with musical notation. But, firstly, we are talking about short and often poorly preserved passages. Secondly, we lack a lot of details necessary for performance, concerning intonation, tempo, method of sound extraction, accompaniment. Thirdly, the musical language itself has changed, certain melodic moves do not evoke in us the same associations that the Greeks had. Therefore, existing musical fragments are hardly capable of resurrecting ancient Greek music as an aesthetic phenomenon.
not a citizen
Slaves picking olives. Black-figure amphora. Attica, circa 520 B.C. e.
The Trustees of the British Museum
The basis of the order is a column standing on three steps of the foundation. Its trunk ends with a capital supporting the entablature. The entablature consists of three parts: a stone beam - an architrave; above it is a frieze, decorated with sculpture or painting, and, finally, a cornice - an overhanging slab that protects the building from rain. The dimensions of these parts are strictly coordinated with each other. The unit of measure is the radius of the column - therefore, knowing it, you can restore the dimensions of the entire temple.
According to myths, the simple and courageous Doric order was calculated by the architect Ion during the construction of the temple of Apollo of Panionia. The Ionian type, lighter in proportion, appeared at the end of the 7th - 6th centuries BC. e. in Asia Minor. All elements of such a building are richly decorated, and the capital is decorated with spiral curls - volutes. The Corinthian order was first used in the temple of Apollo at Bassae (second half of the 5th century BC). A sad legend is connected with his invention about a nurse who brought a basket with her favorite things to the grave of her pupil. After some time, the basket sprouted with the leaves of a plant called acanthus. This view inspired the Athenian artist Callimachus to create an elegant capital with floral decoration.
Ostracism ὀστρακισμός
Ostraka for voting. Athens, circa 482 B.C. e.
Wikimedia Commons
The word "ostracism" comes from the Greek ostrakon - a shard, a shard used for writing. In classical Athens, this was the name given to a special vote of the people's assembly, with the help of which a decision was made to expel a person who posed a threat to the foundations of the state system.
Most researchers believe that the law on ostracism was adopted in Athens under Cleisthenes, a statesman who in 508-507 BC. e., after the overthrow, he carried out a number of reforms in the city. However, the first known act of ostracism occurred only in 487 BC. e. - then Hipparchus, the son of Harmas, a relative was expelled from Athens.
Every year, the people's assembly decided whether ostracism should be carried out. If it was recognized that there was such a need, each voting participant arrived at a specially fenced part of the agora, where ten entrances led - one for each Athenian phylum (after the reforms of Cleisthenes in the 6th century BC, the territorial districts were called so) , - and left there the shard he brought with him, on which was written the name of the person whom, in his opinion, should have been sent into exile. The one who received the most votes went into exile for ten years. At the same time, his property was not confiscated, he was not deprived, but temporarily excluded from political life (although sometimes an exile could be returned to his homeland ahead of schedule).
Initially, ostracism was intended to prevent the resurgence of tyrannical power, but soon turned into a means of struggle for power and eventually ceased to be used. The last time ostracism took place was in 415 BC. e. Then the rival politicians Nicias and Alcibiades managed to agree with each other and the demagogue Hyperbole was sent into exile.
Policy πόλιςThe Greek policy could be relatively small in territory and population, although exceptions are known, such as Athens or Sparta. The formation of the policy fell on the era of the archaic (VIII-VI centuries BC), V century BC. e. is considered the heyday of the Greek policies, and in the first half of the 4th century BC. e. the classical Greek polis survived the crisis - which, however, did not prevent it from continuing to remain one of the most important forms of organizing life.
Holiday ἑορτήAll holidays in ancient Greece were associated with worship. Most of the holidays were held on certain dates, which formed the basis of the ancient Greek calendar.
In addition to local holidays, there were pan-Hellenic holidays common to all Greeks - they originated in the archaic era (that is, in the 8th-6th centuries BC) and played a crucial role in shaping the idea of \u200b\u200bgeneral Greek unity, which in one form or another existed in throughout the history of independent Greece, despite the political independence of the policies. All these holidays were accompanied by various kinds. In the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia (in the Peloponnese) every four years were held. In the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi (in Phocis), the Pythian Games were also held once every four years, the central event of which was the so-called musical agons - competitions. In the region of the Isthmian Isthmus, near Corinth, the Isthmian Games were held in honor of Poseidon and Melikertes, and in the Nemean Valley in Argolis, the Nemean Games, at which Zeus was venerated; both of them - every two years.
Prose πεζὸς λόγοςInitially, prose did not exist: only one type of artistic speech was opposed to the spoken language - poetry. However, with the advent of writing in the 8th century BC. e. narratives began to appear about distant countries or events of the past. Social conditions favored the development of eloquence: speakers sought not only to convince, but also to please the listeners. Already the first surviving books of historians and rhetoricians (History by Herodotus and the speeches of Lysias of the 5th century BC) can be called artistic prose. Unfortunately, it is difficult to understand from Russian translations how aesthetically perfect were the philosophical dialogues of Plato or the historical works of Xenophon (4th century BC). The Greek prose of this period is striking in its non-coincidence with modern genres: there is no novel, no story, no essay; however, later, in the era of Hellenism, an ancient novel will appear. A common name for prose did not appear immediately: Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the 1st century BC. e. uses the expression "foot speeches" - the adjective "foot" could also mean "(most) ordinary."
Satyr drama δρα̃μα σατυρικόν
Dionysus and the satyr. Painting of a red-figure jug. Attica, circa 430-420 B.C. e.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dramatic genre, which consists of satyrs, mythological characters from the retinue of Dionysus. In the tragic competitions that took place on, each tragedian represented three, which ended with a short and cheerful satyr play.
Sphinx Σφίγξ
Two sphinxes. Ceramic pixida. Around 590-570 BC. e. A pixida is a round box or box with a lid. Metropolitan Museum of Art
We meet this mythological creature among many nations, but its image was especially widespread in the beliefs and art of the ancient Egyptians. In ancient Greek mythology, the sphinx (or “sphinx”, because the ancient Greek word “sphinx” is feminine) is the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, a monster with the face and chest of a woman, the paws and body of a lion and the wings of a bird. Among the Greeks, the sphinx is most often a bloodthirsty monster.
Among the legends associated with the Sphinx, in antiquity, the myth of was especially popular. The Sphinx lay in wait for travelers near Thebes in Boeotia, asked them an unsolvable riddle and, having received no answer, killed them - according to different versions, either devoured or threw them off a cliff. The riddle of the Sphinx was as follows: “Who walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening?” Oedipus managed to give the correct answer to this riddle: this is a man who crawls in infancy, walks on two legs in his prime, and leans on a stick in old age. After that, as the myth tells, the Sphinx threw himself off the cliff and crashed to death.
The riddle and the ability to solve it are important attributes and a frequent designation in ancient literature. This is exactly the image of Oedipus in ancient Greek mythology. Another example is the sayings of the Pythia, the servant of the famous Apollo in Delphi: the Delphic prophecies often contained riddles, allusions and ambiguities, which, according to many ancient writers, are characteristic of the speech of the prophets and sages.
Theatre θέατρον
Theater in Epidaurus. Built around 360 BC. e.
According to some researchers, the rule to return money was introduced by the politician Pericles in the 5th century BC. e., others associate it with the name Aguirria and date it to the beginning of the 4th century BC. e. In the middle of the 4th century, “spectacular money” constituted a special fund, to which the state attached great importance: in Athens for some time there was a law on the death penalty for a proposal to use the money of the spectacle fund for other needs (it is associated with the name of Eubulus, who had been in charge of this fund since 354). BC.).
Tyranny τυραννίςThe word "tyranny" is not of Greek origin, in the ancient tradition it was first found by the poet Archilochus in the 7th century BC. e. This was the name of the one-man rule, established illegally and, as a rule, by force.
For the first time, tyranny arose among the Greeks in the era of the formation of the Greek - this period was called the early, or older, tyranny (VII-V centuries BC). Some of the older tyrants became famous as outstanding and wise rulers - and Periander from Corinth and Peisistratus from Athens were even named among the "". But basically, the ancient tradition has preserved evidence of the ambition, cruelty and arbitrariness of tyrants. A particularly noteworthy example is Falaris, the tyrant of Acragas, who was said to roast people in a copper bull as punishment. The tyrants brutally dealt with the tribal nobility, destroying its most active leaders - their rivals in the struggle for power.
The danger of tyranny - the regime of personal power - was soon understood by the Greek communities, and they got rid of the tyrants. Nevertheless, tyranny had an important historical significance: it weakened the aristocracy and thus made it easier for the demos to fight for further political life and the triumph of the principles of the policy.
In the 5th century BC e., in the era of the heyday of democracy, the attitude towards tyranny in Greek society was unambiguously negative. However, in the IV century BC. e., in an era of new social upheavals, Greece experienced a revival of tyranny, which is called late, or younger.
Tyrannicide τυραννοκτόνοι
Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Fragment of painting of a red-figure jug. Attica, around 400 BC. e.
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
The Athenian Harmodius and Aristogeiton were called tyrant-killers, who, prompted by personal resentment, in 514 BC. e. led a conspiracy to overthrow the Peisistratids (sons of the tyrant Peisistratus) Hippias and Hipparchus. They managed to kill only the youngest of the brothers - Hipparchus. Harmodius died immediately at the hands of the bodyguards of the Peisistratids, and Aristogeiton was captured, tortured and executed.
In the 5th century BC e., in the heyday of the Athenian, when anti-tyrannical sentiments were especially strong there, Harmodius and Aristogeiton began to be considered the greatest heroes and surrounded their images with special honor. They were given statues made by the sculptor Antenor, and their descendants received various privileges from the state. In 480 BC. e., during the Greco-Persian wars, when Athens was captured by the army of the Persian king Xerxes, the statues of Antenor were taken to Persia. Some time later, new ones were installed in their place, the works of Critias and Nesiotus, which have come down to us in Roman copies. The statues of the tyrant-fighters are believed to have influenced the ideological design of the sculptural group "Worker and Collective Farm Girl", which belonged to the architect Boris Iofan; this sculpture was made by Vera Mukhina for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
Tragedy τραγῳδίαThe word "tragedy" consists of two parts: "goat" (tragos) and "song" (ode), why -. In Athens, this was the name of the genre of dramatic productions, between which competitions were held at other holidays. The festival, held in Dionysus, was attended by three tragic poets, each of whom had to present a tetralogy (three tragedies and one) - as a result, the audience watched nine tragedies in three days.
Most of the tragedies have not come down to us - only their names and sometimes small fragments are known. The full text of the seven tragedies of Aeschylus has been preserved (in total he wrote about 60 of them), seven tragedies of Sophocles (out of 120) and nineteen tragedies of Euripides (out of 90). In addition to these three tragedians, who entered the classical canon, about 30 other poets composed tragedies in Athens in the 5th century.
Usually, the tragedies in the tetralogy were interconnected in meaning. The stories of the heroes of the mythical past served as the basis for the plots, from which the most shocking episodes were selected related to war, incest, cannibalism, murder and betrayal, which often occurred within the same family: a wife kills her husband, and then her own son kills her (“Oresteia” Aeschylus), the son learns that he is married to his own mother ("Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles), the mother kills her children to avenge her husband's betrayal ("Medea" by Euripides). Poets experimented with myths: they added new characters, changed the storyline, brought in themes relevant to the Athenian society of their time.
All tragedies were necessarily written in verse. Some parts were sung as solo arias or lyrical choir parts to accompaniment, and could also be accompanied by dance. The maximum number on stage in a tragedy is three. Each of them played several roles during the production, as there were usually more actors.
Phalanx φάλαγξ
Phalanx. Modern illustration
Wikimedia Commons
A phalanx is a combat formation of the ancient Greek infantry, which was a dense formation of heavily armed infantrymen - hoplites in several lines (from 8 to 25).
Hoplites were the most important part of the ancient Greek militia. A complete set of military equipment (panoplia) of the hoplites included a shell, a helmet, greaves, a round shield, a spear and a sword. The hoplites fought in close ranks. The shield, which each warrior of the phalanx held in his hand, covered the left side of his body and the right side of the warrior standing next to him, so that the most important condition for success was the coordination of actions and the integrity of the phalanx. The most vulnerable in such a battle formation were the flanks, so the cavalry was placed on the wings of the phalanx.
The phalanx is believed to have appeared in Greece in the first half of the 7th century BC. e. In the VI-V centuries BC. e. The phalanx was the main battle formation of the ancient Greeks. In the middle of the IV century BC. e. The king of Macedonia, Philip II, created the famous Macedonian phalanx, adding some innovations to it: he increased the number of lines in the system and adopted long spears - saris. Thanks to the successes of the army of his son Alexander the Great, the Macedonian phalanx was considered an invincible striking force.
philosophical school σχολήAny Athenian who had reached the age of twenty and had served could take part in the work of the Athenian ekklesia, including proposing laws and seeking their repeal. In Athens during the heyday, attendance at the national assembly, as well as the performance of public office, was paid; the amount of the payment varied, but it is known that in the time of Aristotle it was equal to the minimum daily wage. They usually voted by a show of hands or (more rarely) with special stones, and in case of ostracism - with shards.
Initially, public meetings in Athens were held on, from the 5th century BC. e. - on the Pnyx hill, 400 meters southeast of the agora, and somewhere after 300 BC. e. they were transferred to Dionysus.
epic ἔποςSpeaking about the epic, we first of all recall the poems about and: "Iliad" and "Odyssey" or a poem about the campaign of the Argonauts of Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC). But along with the heroic epic there was a didactic one. The Greeks liked to clothe books of useful and informative content in the same sublimely poetic form. Hesiod wrote a poem about how to run a peasant economy (“Works and Days”, VII century BC), Arat devoted his work to astronomy (“Phenomena”, III century BC), Nicander wrote about poisons (II century BC), and Oppian - about hunting and fishing (II-III centuries AD). In these works, the Iliad and the Odyssey - the hexameter - were strictly observed, and there were signs of the Homeric poetic language, although some of their authors were separated from Homer by a millennium.
ephebe ἔφηβος
Ephebe with a hunting spear. Roman relief. About 180 AD. e.
Bridgeman Images/Fotodom
After 305 B.C. e. the institution of the ephebia was transformed: the service ceased to be obligatory, and its term was reduced to a year. Now the number of ephebes included mainly noble and wealthy young people.
