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Ancient culture

Introduction

European civilization has its roots in the period of antiquity. The ancient culture of the Mediterranean is considered greatest creation humanity. Limited by space (mainly the coast and islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas) and time (from the 2nd millennium BC to the first centuries of Christianity), ancient culture expanded the boundaries of historical existence, declaring for itself the universal significance of architecture and sculpture, epic poetry and drama. , natural science and philosophical knowledge. In historical terms, antiquity refers to the period of history covering the Greco-Roman slave society.

The concept of “antiquity” appeared during the Renaissance, when Italian foggers introduced the term “antique” (from the Latin antiquus - ancient) to define the Greco-Roman culture, the oldest known at that time. The cultural heritage of ancient states had a huge influence on all the peoples of Europe, their literature, art, philosophy, religious thinking, political and legal views.

Creto-Mycenaean culture

Ancient civilization in Greece it is called Crete-Mycenaean. Its centers were the island of Crete and the city of Mycenae in mainland Greece.

The time of the emergence of the Cretan culture (or Minoan - named after the legendary king of Crete Minos) is the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. Having experienced periods of rise and decline, it existed until about 1200 BC. All life in Crete was centered around the so-called palaces. At the beginning of the 20th century. as a result of archaeological excavations led by the English; Scientist A. Evans in Knossos (the central part of the island) opened the very first of the Cretan palaces. Following Greek tradition, Evans called it the palace of Minos. It was this palace that was the famous labyrinth described in Greek myths about Minotasr - a monster with a human body and the head of a bull.

The palaces of Crete really looked like labyrinths; they consisted of many rooms of different decoration and purpose, the internal layout was disorderly. But despite this, the palaces are still perceived as a single architectural ensemble. This was largely facilitated by the large rectangular courtyard occupying the central part of the palace, with which all other rooms were connected. The palaces were constantly rebuilt and became more and more magnificent.

The remarkable wall paintings that decorated the interior, corridors and porticos deserve special attention. The frescoes depicted animals, flowers, scenes from the life of the inhabitants of the palace, in particular “games with bulls” - a religious ritual associated with one of the main Minoan cults - the cult of the bull god, in whose image the destructive forces of nature were embodied. The symbol of the eternal renewal of nature, motherhood, and femininity was the Great Goddess (Lady) - the central figure of the Minoan pantheon of gods.

Religion played a huge role in the life of Crete, there was special shape royal power - a theocracy in which secular and spiritual power belongs to one person. Royal Palace performed universal functions, being at the same time a religious, administrative, and economic center.

Among the monuments of crafts and arts of the Cretan civilization that have come down to us, it should be noted, in addition to beautiful frescoes, wonderful bronze figurines, weapons and magnificent polychrome (multi-color) ceramics.

The heyday of Minoan culture occurred in the 16th - first half of the 15th centuries. BC. However, in the middle of the 15th century. BC. Almost all the settlements and palaces of the island were destroyed as a result of a powerful volcanic eruption on the island of Thera (modern San Torino) near Crete, as well as the invasion of warlike Achaean Greeks from mainland Greece.

Subsequently, Cretan culture was no longer able to achieve its former splendor. The center of civilization moves to mainland Greece, where at this time the Mycenaean (or Achaean) culture, formed around 1700 BC, flourishes.

Initially, this culture was strongly influenced by the Minoan civilization. The names of some deities were borrowed, as well as plumbing and sewerage, clothing styles, fresco painting, etc. However, closely connected with the ancient cultures of mainland Greece, the Mycenaean civilization was quite unique. The earliest monument of this culture is the shaft tombs in Mycenae (northeast of the Peloponnese peninsula), discovered in 1876 by the famous archaeologist G. Schliemann. Along with the bones of the dead, jewelry, vessels, weapons, and gold death masks were found in the tombs.

The Mycenaean civilization flourished in the 15th-13th centuries. BC. As in Crete, the main centers of culture were palaces. The most significant of them were found in Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Athens, Iolka. Unlike the Cretan ones, almost all Achaean palaces are fortified. Their powerful walls are built from huge blocks of stone without any binding material. The Greeks, who saw these walls in more late time, called them cyclopean, attributing their construction to one-eyed giants - the Cyclops. The palaces, as in Crete, were decorated with frescoes, but the warlike, less refined Mycenaean culture was characterized by a predominance of scenes of war and hunting.

In its heyday Achaean civilization Shaft burials are being replaced by a new type of royal tomb - tholos (or domed tomb). The largest of them is the tomb of Atreus in Mycenae.

The Achaeans, having captured in the 15th century BC. Crete, adopted writing from the Minoans (the so-called linear syllabary A) and adapted it to convey their language (the so-called linear syllabic B). In 1953, the English M. Ventris managed to decipher clay tablets with syllabic letter B, containing records in Greek; letter A, which was used not by the Greeks, but by the Minoans, is still not decipherable.

At the end of the 13th century. BC. a huge mass of Northern Balkan barbarian tribes, not affected by the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization, rushed south. The leading role in this migration of peoples was played by the Greek tribe of the Dorians. They had a great advantage over the Achaeans - iron weapons were more effective than bronze. It was with the arrival of the Dorians in the XII-XI centuries. BC. The Iron Age begins in Greece, and it is in. this time the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization ceases to exist

Homeric culture

The next period of Greek history is usually called Homeric, named after the great Homer. His beautiful poems “The Iliad and the Odyssey,” created at the end of the 8th century BC, are the most important source of information about this time. They tell about what happened at the end of the 13th century BC. Trojan War and the return of one of the main characters - Odysseus - home after the war. However, when describing events relating to the Cretan-Mycenaean era, Homer, as a rule, transfers them to a later historical environment. The Ipiad and the Odyssey as a whole depict a society with a much more primitive culture than that which appears before us in the monuments of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization. Homer's heroes - kings and members of the nobility - live in wooden houses surrounded by palisades, so unlike the palaces of the Cretan-Mycenaean kings.

Relatively few monuments from the Homeric period have reached us. The main building materials were wood - baked bricks; monumental sculpture was also made of wood.

The most striking monuments of art of this period that have come down to us are ceramics, painted geometric ornament. These are large vases that served as tombstones and vessels for household purposes, as well as terracotta figurines and sculptural decorations of vessels.

The Homeric period was unwritten; the first Greek inscriptions known after a long break belong to another era - the archaic (second half of the 8th century BC). But in; They no longer use the linear syllabic letter B, but a completely new one - an alphabetic letter borrowed by the Phoenician Greeks.

In general, the Homeric period was a time of decline, but it was then that the preconditions for the rapid rise of Greek society in the archaic and classical era were created.

Culture of the archaic period

The archaic period covers the VIII-VI centuries. BC. At this time, the Great Colonization took place and the Greeks developed the coasts of the Mediterranean, Black and Marmara Seas. As a result, the Greek world emerged from the state of isolation in which it found itself after the collapse of the Cretan-Mycenaean culture. The Greeks learned a lot from other peoples: from the Lydians - coinage, from the Phoenicians - alphabetic writing, which they improved by introducing not only consonants, but also vowels. The origin and development of science, in particular astronomy and geometry, was influenced by the sciences of Ancient Egypt and Babylon. Greek art was heavily influenced by Egyptian and Middle Eastern architecture and sculpture. These and other elements of foreign cultures were creatively processed and organically entered into Greek culture.

During the archaic period, with the final decomposition of the clan community, the formation of the ancient polis took place - a city-state, the civil community of which also owned the agricultural territory surrounding the city. The largest policies were Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Argos, and Thebes.

Politically, Greece was divided into many independent city-states, but it was in the archaic era that the active interaction of the Greeks with other peoples awakened in them the consciousness of unity, and the concepts of “Hellenes” and “Hellas” appeared, covering the Greek world as a whole. Pan-Greek sanctuaries, the emergence of which was facilitated by the creation of a single pantheon of gods as a result of the merging of local cults, became important centers of economic, political, and cultural ties between city-states.

By the archaic period, the religious and mythological ideas of the ancient Greeks were mainly formed. It was believed that Chaos originally existed, from which the Earth (goddess Gaia) and the underworld (Tartarus) emerged. Gaia gave birth to a son-husband, Uranus (Sky). The second generation of gods were the children of Gaia and Uranus - the Titans. Uranus, fearing that the children would take away his power, imprisoned the Titans in a deep abyss underground. However, the titans managed to free themselves and overthrow their father, one of them Kronos (Time), devouring his own children, reigned over the world. He was in turn removed after a fierce struggle younger son Kronos Zeus, god of thunder, lightning and rain. According to legend, Zeus and the gods around him lived on Mount Olympus, and the Greeks called them Olympians

After the victory over the Titans, Zeus the Thunderer became the supreme god, his wife Hera, the patroness of marriage, became the mistress of the sky.

Marriage to the patroness of marriage, Hera, did not interfere with the connections of Zeus, who personified social order, with other goddesses and mortal women. Zeus seduced Leda by turning into a swan, Europa by a bull, and Daia by turning into a golden shower.

Zeus gave his brother Poseidon the ownership of the sea, and his other brother, Hades, the underworld. The son of Zeus, Apollo, became the god of light and poetry; he was usually accompanied by nine muses - patronesses of the arts and sciences. Nine muses, nine sisters - goddesses of science, poetry and the arts: Euterpe - lyric poetry, Clio - history, Thalia - comedy, Melpomene - tragedy, Terpsichore - dance, Erato - love poetry, Polyhymnia - hymn, Urania - astronomy, Calliope - epic poetry.

Other children of Zeus - Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty, the god of fire and blacksmithing - the cunning Hephaestus, the god of war - Ares, the goddess of wisdom - Athena, the goddess of the Moon - Artemis. Each branch of economic activity had its own patron god: Demeter patronized agriculture, weaving - Athena, winemaking - Dionysus, trade - Hermes, hunting, wild animals and pregnant women - Artemis, etc.

In addition to the pan-Greek gods, in every region of Greece there were also local deities who inhabited forests, mountains, springs, meadows (nymphs, satyrs, dryads, etc.). The Greeks considered their gods immortal and omnipotent, and imagined them in an anthropomorphic form, i.e. similar to people. The gods, like people, were not free from disasters - an inevitable fate reigned over the world, controlling the fate of both people and gods.

In addition to myths about the gods, the Greeks had various versions about the origin of people, all kinds of myths about heroes were very common, and the most popular ones were combined into cycles, for example, about the Trojan War, about the exploits of Hercules.

The extremely rich and fascinating mythology created by the Greeks had a great influence on other peoples and has been a source of inspiration for poets and artists for many centuries.

In the USH~U1st century. BC. Greek historiography was born, represented by the works of logographers, who for the first time tried to identify the real basis of mythological plots.

An important factor in the cultural development of Greece were games held in honor of certain gods. The most significant of them were: the Olympic Games - sports competitions dedicated to Zeus, held in Olympia from 776 BC every four years; Pythian - sports and musical competitions in honor of Apollo in Delphi (every four years); Isthmian - in honor of Poseidon (held near Corinth every two years).

During the Archaic era, the most developed region of Greece was Ionia ( West Coast Asia Minor), it was there that the first philosophical system of antiquity arose - natural philosophy. Its representatives tried to comprehend nature and its laws, to identify the fundamental principle of all things, while they perceived the world as a single material whole. Thales considered water to be the fundamental principle of all things, Anaximenes - air, Anaximander - apeiron (infinite), i.e. primary matter with its opposite principles - solid and liquid, heat and cold. Pythagoras (VI century BC) and his followers followed the same line of research into the root cause of the world, believed in the kinship of souls, they considered mathematical laws that create cosmic harmony to be the basis of all things, and made a significant contribution to the development of mathematics, astronomy and theory music.

The most prominent representative of the Eleatic school was Parmenides of Elea (b. c. 540 or c. 520 BC), who put forward the idea of ​​a single unchanging and indivisible being. Considering reason, and not sensations, as the source of knowledge, he explained the multiplicity of things and their movement by deception of the senses.

One of the greatest Greek philosophers was Heraclitus from Ephesus (late 6th - early 5th century BC). In his opinion, both in nature and in society there is an eternal movement, an eternal struggle, existence is constantly changing. Heraclitus considered fire to be the fundamental principle of matter, which, as the main enzyme of nature, connects all types of matter into one whole.

Literary creativity has long existed in Greece in oral form: epics, work songs, fables, etc., which prepared the appearance of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey - the first Greek literary works, so perfect that these poems are still considered the greatest achievements world literature, although they were created in the 8th century. BC.

The work of Hesiod (VIII-VII BC), who wrote the poems “Theogony” (about the origin of the gods) and “Works and Days”, which for the first time reflected the personality of the author himself, his life, also dates back to this time.

In the literature of this period, the leading role gradually moves from epic to lyric poetry. Attention to a person, his inner world, to events modern life characteristic of the works of Archilochus (2nd half of the 7th century BC), Solon (between 640 and 635 - ca. 559 BC), Alcaeus (late 7th century - 1st half. VI century BC), Theognis of Megara (2nd half of the VI century BC), Anacreon (ca. 570-478 BC).

The poetry of Sappho (VII-VI centuries) has not yet lost its charm. BC.):

I love you

I love youth

I love joy

And the sun.

My lot -

Be in sunlight

And the beauty of the lover

By the 6th century BC. This also includes the emergence of Greek theater, which grew out of round dances, songs and prayers, performed at religious holidays in honor of Dionysus. The development of the core of ethical ideas is associated with the separation of an active person from the chorus - the actor. The Greek theater is an open-air stage, surrounded on three sides by spectator seats, raised by steps. At their foot there was a round orchestra (a platform for the choir) and a skene (a room for actors and performances). The actors (men only) wore masks and buskins (high-soled shoes). Attending the theater was an important cultural and religious ritual that united all spectators through empathy with the characters (catharsis).

The art of the archaic period is characterized by the search for a convincing form that expresses the aesthetic ideal of a citizen of the polis who is beautiful in body and spirit. At this time, two main types of single sculpture appear: a naked youth (kouros) and a draped woman (kora) with a characteristic, so-called archaic smile, expressing tenderness and friendliness. Kurosov and kor were erected in memory of famous people. In addition, sculptural and multi-figure compositions and reliefs appear. The image of a person, developed in archaic art, has some features close to the art of the East: a certain conventionality of the image, static nature, solemnity.

The main elements of the urban structure of the Archaic period were the acropolis (sanctuary) and agora ( shopping mall, there were residential areas around. Central location In the development of the city, temples were occupied, which were first built from mud brick and wood, then from limestone, and from the end of the 6th century. BC. made of marble.

By the 6th century BC an architectural order was created in its Doric and Oinic variants. The suvorous, somewhat ponderous Doric style corresponds to the strict, geometrically correct column capital. In the Ionic, more magnificent style, the column acts not only as a support, but also as a decorative element. It is characterized by a capital with curls - volutes, a more complex base, and it itself is much more elegant than a Doric column. Among the buildings of the Doric order, the most famous were the Temple of Hera in Olympia, and the Ionic order - the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

During the archaic period, a synthesis of architecture and sculpture occurs - the outside of the temples is decorated with reliefs, and statues of the deity to whom the temple is dedicated are placed inside. The statues depict not only gods, but also mythical heroes (Hercules, Perseus, etc.).

Greek pottery from the Archaic era amazes with its richness and variety of forms and the beauty of its pictorial design. Particularly notable are the Corinthian vases painted in the so-called orientalizing style, i.e. oriental style, characterized by colorful and whimsical pictorial decoration, and Attic black-figure and later red-figure vases depicting the everyday life of people.

Peculiar archaic culture laid the foundation for the flourishing of classical culture, which played such a significant role in the development of world civilization.

Culture in the classical period (the heyday)

The Greco-Persian Wars (500-449 BC) became a milestone in the history of Ancient Greece. They end the period of formation of the ancient polis - the archaic one and begin the period - the classical one. The victory of the Greeks, the finalization of classical slavery, and the development of polis democracy contributed to the rise of the economic and political life of Greece in the 5th century. BC. and the flourishing of Greek culture, the center of which was Athens, especially during the reign of Pericles

During the classical period, science and art were given serious importance in the education of a full-fledged citizen. Scientists were no longer satisfied with the idea of ​​matter as something united and indivisible. The first to introduce into science the concept of atoms (first body), indivisible particles of matter, was Democritus (c. 470 or 460 BC - died in old age). He believed that there was nothing in the world except atoms and emptiness. All atoms are immutable, indivisible, but atoms of different bodies differ in shape and size, when identical atoms meet, bodies are formed. According to Democritus, there are no phenomena without a cause: nature and history have no purpose, but all events are conditioned. Matter is eternal and its occurrence does not need to be explained - only changes need to be explained, and this is possible without involving faith in gods.

If Democritus recognized the objective nature of knowledge, then another philosophical movement that arose in the same period argued that there can be as many truths as there are people. Representatives of this direction - sophists, taught to prove any position. They are characterized by the ability to find contradictions in established ideas, including religious ones, and an interest in the laws of human thinking. The most famous sophist was Protagoras (480-415 BC), who argued “Man is the measure of all things.” Socrates (469-399 BC) came from among the sophists, but he argued that there are absolute truths, absolute ethical values, but only God owns them. Socrates considered reason to be the basis of human existence and the development of knowledge.

Ancient Greek medicine was glorified by the physician Hippocrates (c. 460 - c. 370 BC). His works became the basis for the further development of medicine. The integrity of the body, the need for an individual approach to the patient and his treatment - these are the principles that Hippocrates defended. He created the doctrine of the causes of illness (etiology), prognosis, temperament, etc. He was a model of ethical behavior - it is believed that he is the author of the text of the code of ancient Greek doctors ("Hippocratic Oath"). This code has become the basis of the obligations that doctors in many countries accept when starting medical practice.

In literature of the 5th century. BC tragedy and comedy became the main genres. The creator of classical Greek tragedy is Aeschylus (525-456 BC). He introduced the second actor, thereby reviving the drama, making it more dynamic and interesting; the use of scenery and masks is also associated with his name. One of the main motives of Aeschylus's work is the glorification of civilians; virtues, patriotism (tragedy "Prometheus Bound"). Another important theme in Aeschylus is the idea of ​​retribution and the factor of fate, best expressed in the Oresteia trilogy.

The theme of inevitable fate also occupies a large place in the work of another Greek tragedian - Sophocles (497-4 6 BC). Perfectly showed the struggle of free human will against the injustice of blind fate, Sophocles emphasized the powerlessness of man, the inevitability of the fate prepared for him. The most famous are Sophocles' tragedies about the legendary King Oedipus.

The creator of psychological drama was Euripides (c. 80-406 BC). The main conflict in his works is the struggle between reason and passions, which, just as inevitably as fate, lead a person to death (“Medea” and “Phaedra”).

An excellent comedian was Aristophanes (c. 445 - c. 385 BC), who gave comedy political urgency and topicality ("The World", "Horsemen", "Lysistrata", etc.). Aristophanes used comedy as a political weapon: he criticized all aspects of public life, politics, art, and everyday conflicts.

In the 5th century BC. Greek historiography is actively developing. Even the ancients called Herodotus (484-430 BC) “the father of history.” Unlike logographers, who lacked a clearly expressed main idea of ​​the narrative, he wrote a complete, beautifully presented work - “History”, the main plot of which was the Greco-Persian wars

The greatest historian of antiquity was Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC). In his “History of the Peloponnesian War” he first applied the scientific-critical method, tried to reveal the causal connections of events and thereby contributed to the growth of political knowledge.

The main task of art of the 5th century. BC. was a truthful image of a person. The ideal of beauty of a naked healthy body spread into life - the Greeks did gymnastics, took care of personal hygiene, hair, did hairstyles, etc. The image of an athlete who competed naked was especially cultivated. But women were depicted in clothes until the 4th century. BC.

Among the Greek painters of the 5th century. BC. It should be noted Polyglot and Apollodorus, who is credited with the discovery of the play of chiaroscuro and the ability to give perspective. Unfortunately, their paintings have not reached us.

The main monument of painting that has come down to us from this period is beautiful vase painting, which continued the realistic traditions of the archaic era.

V century BC. was marked by magnificent architectural buildings throughout almost the entire territory of Greece. The most advanced complexes are being created, cities and monuments are being restored after the devastating Greco-Persian wars. During the classical period, the Doric and Ionic orders finally took shape, and a new, more elegant one appeared - the Corinthian order, which is characterized by a capital decorated with foliage and curls.

During this period they reached their peak ancient greek cities, a system of regular planning developed (dividing the city into a rectangular network of streets, complex development of residential areas with houses of the same size), which is associated with the name of the architect Hippodamus of Miletus.

The main type of public building was still the temple. In the first half of the 5th century. BC. The most significant monuments of the Dorian style were created, the majestic temples in the city of Poseidonil (Southern Italy), and the temple of Zeus in Olympia.

A special place in history ancient architecture occupies a complex of buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. Destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC, it was rebuilt throughout the 5th century. under the general artistic supervision of the sculpture of Phidias. Outstanding architects of that time, Ictinus, Callicrates, Mnesicles and others took part in the construction. The ensemble of the Acropolis is considered the pinnacle ancient greek architecture, a symbol of the era of greatest prosperity and power of Athens. It included a number of buildings - the Propylaea (front gate), the temple of Nike Apteros (Snoutless Victory). The main temple, the Parthenon Temple of Athens, also rises here. In this architectural monument, designed in Doric forms, the influence of the Ionic style is felt.

At that time, in the architecture of Athens, in connection with their increasing political role, a tendency appeared towards the development of a single Pan-Hellenic (pan-Greek) style of architecture. Two orders were either combined in the same building, or the proportions of the Doric style were simplified, giving them greater grace, as in the Parthenon. Perfectly found proportions, delicate sculpting architectural details, a magnificent combination of architectural and sculptural decoration - all this makes the Parthenon one of the masterpieces of not only Greek, but also world architecture.

Not far from the Parthenon, another magnificent temple of the Athenian Acropolis was built in the Ionic style - the Erechtheion with the famous portico of the caryatids.

Conclusion

Ancient civilization had a huge influence on all subsequent development of mankind. And it is not surprising that many of the monuments of material culture of that time that have survived to this day have become World Heritage Sites.

Both chronologically and territorially they can be divided into monuments of Ancient Greece and Hellenism.

Eight such monuments are included in the List of World Heritage Sites. Three of them (Acropolis of Athens, Delphi and Vergina) are located in the northern, mainland part of Greece, three (Olympia, Epidaurus and Bassai) - on the Peloponnese Peninsula and two - on the islands of the Aegean Sea.

In ancient culture, the main problems of the universe developed: being and becoming, the one and the many, the limit and the infinite, number and magnitude, measure and essence, atom, matter, Space. They have not lost their significance even today, which has ensured cultural dialogue between different civilizations on a global scale. Antiquity created inaccessible cultural examples of enduring value and attractive force. Today, historians, philologists, philosophers, and cultural experts are turning to antiquity. "... Without the foundation that was laid by Greece and Rome, there would not have been modern Europe". F. Engels.

Literature

1. Cultural studies for technical universities. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2001.

2. Maksakovsky V.P. World cultural heritage. - M.: Agency "Publishing Service", 2000.

3. F. Engels. Anti-Dühring. M., 1953. P. 171).

4.Kun N. Legends and myths of Ancient Greece. - M., 1955.

5.Culturology. XX century Encyclopedic Dictionary. - St. Petersburg, 1997.

The era of ancient culture begins with the formation of Greek city-states - city-states - on the Mediterranean lands of Hellas and Asia Minor at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. and ends with the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. In Greece and Rome during this era, cattle breeding, agriculture, metal mining in mines, crafts, and trade developed intensively. The patriarchal tribal organization of society is disintegrating. Income inequality among families is growing. The clan nobility, growing rich through the use of slave labor, is fighting for power. Social life proceeds rapidly - in social conflicts, wars, unrest, political upheavals.

Ancient culture throughout its existence remained in the embrace of mythology. Moreover, it merges disparate tribal myths into a single religious-mythological system, which becomes the basis of the entire ancient worldview.

However, the dynamics of social life, the complication social relations, the growth of knowledge is undermined by archaic forms mythological thinking. Trade connections and navigation broadened the horizons of the ancient Greeks. Alphabetical writing gives the Greeks the opportunity to record various information and observations that were difficult to fit into mythological canons. The need to maintain public order in the state requires the replacement of tribal norms of behavior with orderly codes of laws. Public political life stimulates the development of oratory skills, culture of thinking and speech. The improvement of crafts, construction, and military art is increasingly going beyond the scope of myth-sanctified models.

Thus, the flourishing of mythology in the ancient era was accompanied by a struggle against the archaic traditions of mythological consciousness, which fettered freedom of thought, the growth of knowledge, and the development of labor activity. The desire to resolve this internal contradiction of ancient culture is the driving force of its development.

The history of ancient times is divided into two overlapping phases - Greek and Roman antiquity.

Main areas Greek culture becomes philosophy and art. They grow out of mythology and use its images. But at the same time they acquire a meaning that goes beyond its limits.

Ancient Greek philosophy - a child of mythology - created a fundamentally different type of thinking from the mythological one. Mythological consciousness is satisfied with descriptions, while philosophical consciousness requires evidence. Philosophical thinking seeks to provide an explanation of reality through rational, logical reasoning using abstract concepts. Philosophy considers it necessary to clearly distinguish facts and logical conclusions from fiction and assumptions; Along with it, the beginnings of scientific knowledge develop - astronomy, mathematics, biology, medicine.

The art of Ancient Greece, like philosophy, comes from mythology and draws its themes and plots from it. However, it begins to serve not only ritual and mythological purposes. Works of art acquire their own aesthetic value, which is determined not by their religious purpose, but artistic merit. The ancient Greeks transformed art into an independent area of ​​culture, a sphere of activity aimed at satisfying aesthetic needs. Architecture, sculpture, lyrical poetry, drama, and theater emerge as special types of it. The ancient Greek style in art is a style commensurate with man, balanced, harmonious. Sensual enjoyment of things, their visible and tangible harmony, proportionality, proportionality - this is what art should have primarily provided to ancient man.

Ancient Greek art largely predetermined the development of artistic culture of later historical eras. It gave birth to classical architectural styles, canons of sculptural representation of the human body, examples of love poetry, tragedy, and comedy. The word theater itself is taken from the Greek language (literally translated - spectacle, place for spectacles). Theatrical performances that combined visual, stage, literary, musical creativity, were a favorite pastime of the ancient Greeks. In Athens, city authorities even gave the poor money to visit them. Ancient Greek theaters were huge structures that could accommodate up to 17 thousand spectators.

Roman Antiquity borrows many ideas and traditions of Greek culture. Roman mythology duplicates Greek, philosophy uses various ideas from the teachings of Greek thinkers. In the era of Roman antiquity, oratory, literary prose and poetry, historical science4 mechanics, and natural science reached a high level of development. The architecture of Rome uses Hellenic forms, but is distinguished by the gigantism characteristic of the imperial scale of the state and the ambitions of the Roman aristocracy. The most grandiose are the public buildings (the huge Colosseum amphitheater could accommodate 50 thousand spectators). Roman sculptors and artists follow Greek models, but, unlike the Greeks, they develop the art of realistic portraiture and prefer to sculpt “closed” statues rather than naked ones.

Both the Greeks and the Romans loved all kinds of spectacles - Olympic competitions, gladiator fights, theatrical performances. As you know, the Roman plebs demanded “bread and circuses.” All ancient art was subordinated to the principle entertainment.

The most important cultural innovations of Roman antiquity are associated with the development of politics and law. Managing the huge Roman power required the development of a system of government bodies and legal laws. Ancient Roman jurists laid the foundation of a legal culture on which modern ones still rely. legal systems. But the relationships, powers and responsibilities of bureaucratic institutions and officials clearly defined by legislation do not eliminate the tension of political struggle in society. Political and ideological goals significantly influence the nature of art and the entire cultural life of society. Politicization- a characteristic feature of Roman culture.

Ancient culture preserves its mythological shell and at the same time develops forms of cultural life that do not fit into this shell and tear it apart. This contradiction manifests itself in antinomies, which permeate the entire ancient culture.

1. Feelings and reason. Mythological consciousness does not know abstractions; it operates with visual, figurative, sensually accessible material. Even gods and human souls appear in it as observable, corporeal. For ancient man, the entire surrounding world - space - was something like a cozy home, filled with sensory data, visible and tangible things. The Greeks were frightened by everything that was inaccessible to the eye, that exceeded the capabilities of visual representation.

Perhaps this was facilitated by the nature of the Greek landscape: the coast dissected by bays and rivers, valleys bounded by mountains, islands scattered in the Aegean Sea - everywhere the eye encounters barriers enclosing small areas of space. Ancient people were afraid of infinity. The Greeks did not seek to explore the vast expanses of the universe. In Athens during the time of Periclabus, astronomy was prohibited. The Greeks imagined both the earth and the entire cosmos in the form of closed spheres. Even their gods lived on close, visible and tangible Olympus. Ancient Greek mathematics was visual, and it dealt exclusively with finite quantities. The discovery of an irrational number caused real horror among ancient mathematicians, which was reflected in the legend about the death of the one who made this discovery.

But the life of ancient society posed problems for people that could only be solved on the basis of rational, logically consistent reasoning. The authority of reason, its priority over feelings, became a necessary condition for achieving success in economics, legal legislation, judicial practice, public administration, military affairs, etc. Logic and precise calculation also penetrated into art - into the canons of architecture, versification, and human depictions. Ancient philosophy plunged deeper and deeper into the jungle of abstract thinking. All this led to the fact that reason in the consciousness of ancient man turned into the supreme ruler and arbiter, establishing the true state of affairs, into the main force governing the world. Rejoicing at the sensually perceived physicality of things and fearing everything inaccessible to the senses, ancient man at the same time placed logic above sensuality. The ability to think rationally was considered the most important asset of a person. Belief in the power of the human mind, in its great capabilities, was a distinctive feature of ancient culture.

2. Fate and struggle (“ananke” and “agon”). Following the traditions of the mythological way of thinking, the Greeks placed responsibility for the events of their lives on the gods. The Greeks believed that everyone is destined to live their life in accordance with the plans of fate, and no one can prevent what is about to happen to them. Ananke(fate, fate, inevitability, inevitability) rules over the whole world.

It would seem that the idea of ​​ananka should condemn a person to complete passivity. However, people are not given the opportunity to know in advance what is written in the book of destinies, and they act according to their own understanding. But if a person tries to violate the will of the gods and evade the fate that has befallen him, his life will inevitably turn into a tragedy. The genre of tragedy among the Greeks is a form artistic description the hero’s struggle with the inevitable ananke and the consequences of such a struggle, which are all the more terrible the more will and perseverance the hero shows: Oedipus, having learned that he was predicted to become the murderer of his father and marry his mother, leaves home, but this is precisely what leads him to fulfill the predicted , and his desire for truth, goodness and justice turns into terrible misfortunes for him and his entire city. The appearance of tragedy in ancient culture is the result of the Greeks’ awareness capabilities a person to violate the dictates of fate, despite the punishment for this. The behavior of the tragic hero showed the still unknown potentials of man.

3. Sociality and individuality. In Ancient Greece, the former tribal communities were replaced by the unification of people according to the place of settlement - policy. The Greeks and Romans believed that the absence of city policies was a sign of barbarism, and, conquering new lands, they built cities everywhere. It was believed that people could not live otherwise. To live like a human being, not like a barbarian, means to live in a polis, to participate in polis life. The very concept of a person among the Greeks began to be associated with the fact that he is a free citizen and belongs to the community of citizens of the polis. Slaves who did not have the right to participate in the life of the policy were not considered people. A person’s entire life in the polis, his rights and responsibilities were determined by his status as a citizen. For a Greek, polis was the only place where he felt safe and lived a full life. There he was protected by both gods and laws. There he had the right to protection from violence and arbitrariness. Therefore, there was nothing more terrible for a Greek or Roman than expulsion from the city and deprivation of the title of citizen.

Social life in the polis, on the one hand, led to strengthening social connections and dependencies. On the other hand, it stimulated the development of self-awareness of an individual who has the freedom to act according to his own will, regardless of the demands of society. These two trends combined with each other in very contradictory ways.

IN early period In antiquity, the idea of ​​the originality and uniqueness of the human personality was very vague. The ancient Greek language did not even have the word “personality” (it comes from the Latin word persona - mask, actor's mask). Their art testifies to how alien the interest in the human personality was to the ancient Greeks at that time. In the theater, the actors hid their faces under masks. Antique sculptures are beautiful, but not individualized, and their faces with eyes without pupils are inexpressive. Both spectators and sculptors paid attention to the body, not the soul.

Pygmalion, who fell in love with the Galatea he sculpted, was fascinated by her physical beauty - her spiritual qualities did not bother him. In Greece, it was not customary to take individual portraits. Even statues in honor of Olympic winners depicted idealized human figures, not the traits of athletes.

However, the organization of life in the polis created conditions for the emergence of bright and strong personalities who were able to think outside the generally accepted canons and defend their views. Ancient culture inevitably moved towards penetration into the inner spiritual world of the individual, towards an awareness of the diversity, complexity and inconsistency of individual human characters.

The very fact that an individual can be spiritually independent of society, that he can think and act contrary to social demands, was a kind of discovery for the Greeks. But from this discovery followed the opportunity to put personal interests above public ones and the realization that the discrepancy between the individual and society is not always reprehensible. Citizens of the polis began to realize that “man” and “citizen” are not the same thing, that the “human” in the individual sometimes comes into conflict with the “civil”. Socrates rejected the priority of the social over the individual. Thanks to his teaching, his entire life and death, the principle of independence of the “true sage” from circumstances entered into public thought social life with its bustle and struggle for momentary benefits. He placed the court of conscience above the people's court, individual self-awareness above collective consciousness, the individual's right to self-expression above the moral and legal practice of the state.

In the Roman Empire, the Socratic approach to understanding human individuality was developed by the Stoic philosophers. In Roman art, the artistic development of the unique world of personality began - in literature and portrait sculpture. Even the ancient Greek fans could depict a face “similar”, but only in Rome does a psychological sculptural portrait appear.

However, ancient culture as a whole was still characterized by the predominance of the public over the personal, the social over the individual.

Subject: Ancient culture

1. The culture of Ancient Greece and its features

2. Culture Ancient Rome

3. References

The culture of Ancient Greece and its features

The concept of "antiquity" appeared during the Renaissance, when Italian humanists introduced the term "antique" (Latin antiguus - ancient) to define Greco-Roman culture, the oldest known at that time. Without diminishing the importance of other ancient civilizations, it should be recognized that Ancient Greece, the Hellenistic states and Ancient Rome had a special influence on the history of the peoples of Europe.

In the history of ancient Greece, the following periods are distinguished: Homeric and early archaic (IX-VIII centuries BC - the collapse of tribal society); (VII-VI centuries BC - the formation of slave states - policies); classical (5th century to the last third of the 4th century BC - the heyday of the policies); Hellenistic (the last third of the 4th century - until the middle of the 2nd century BC - the decline of the poleis, the Macedonian Empire, Hellenistic states).

However, before antiquity, the Cretan-Mycenaean culture existed in the history of Ancient Greece. Its centers were the island of Crete and the city of Mycenae. The time of origin of the Cretan culture (or Minoan - named after the legendary king of Crete Minos) was the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. Having experienced periods of rise and decline, it existed until about 1200 BC.

All life in Crete was centered around palaces, perceived as a single architectural ensemble. The remarkable wall paintings inside the rooms, corridors and porticos deserve special attention. Among the monuments of the crafts and arts of the Cretan civilization that have come down to us are beautiful frescoes, wonderful bronze figurines, weapons and magnificent polychrome (multi-color) ceramics. Religion played an important role in the life of Crete; a special form of royal power arose there - a theocracy, in which secular and spiritual power belonged to one person.

The Mycenaean (or Achaean) civilization flourished in the 15th-13th centuries. BC. As in Crete, the main embodiment of culture is palaces. The most significant of them were found in Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Athens, Iolka.

At the end of the 13th century. BC. a huge mass of Northern Balkan barbarian tribes, not affected by the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization, rushed south. The leading role in this migration of peoples was played by the Greek tribe of the Dorians. They had a great advantage over the Achaeans - iron weapons were more effective than bronze. It was with the arrival of the Dorians in the XII-XI centuries. BC. The Iron Age begins in Greece, and it was at this time that the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization ceased to exist.

Culture of the Homeric period. The next period of Greek history is usually called Homeric, named after the great Homer. His beautiful poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", created in the 8th century. BC, is the most important source of information about this time. During this period, there is a kind of accumulation of strength before a new rapid rise. Of great importance was the radical renewal of the technical base - the widespread distribution of iron and its introduction into production. This prepared the path of historical development, upon which the Greeks were able to reach heights of cultural and social progress unprecedented in the history of mankind over the course of 3-4 centuries, leaving far behind their neighbors both in the East and in the West.

Culture of the archaic period. The archaic period of Greek history covers the VIII-VI centuries. BC. At this time, the Great Colonization took place - the development by the Greeks of the coasts of the Mediterranean, Black and Marmara Seas. As a result, the Greek world emerged from the state of isolation in which it found itself after the collapse of the Cretan-Mycenaean culture. The Greeks learned a lot from other peoples: from the Lydians - coinage, from the Phoenicians - alphabetic writing, which they improved. The development of science and art was also influenced by the achievements of Ancient Babylon and Egypt. These and other elements of foreign cultures organically entered Greek culture.

In the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. in Greece, socio-economic and political development reached a level that gave ancient society a special specificity in comparison with other civilizations of antiquity. These phenomena include: classical slavery, the system of monetary circulation and the market, the polis - the main form of political organization, the idea of ​​​​the sovereignty of the people and a democratic form of government. The largest policies are Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Argos, Thebes. Pan-Greek sanctuaries, the emergence of which was facilitated by the creation of a single pantheon of gods as a result of the merging of local cults, became important centers of economic, political, and cultural ties between city-states.

An important component of spiritual life was mythology, which was extremely rich and fascinating. For more than two thousand years it has remained a source of inspiration for many poets and artists. The work of Hesiod (VIII-VII centuries BC), who wrote the poems “Theogony” (about the origin of the gods) and “Works and Days,” is remarkable. In "Theogony" an attempt was made to systematize not only the genealogy of the gods, but also the history of the origin of the world.

In the archaic era, the first philosophical system of antiquity arose - natural philosophy. Its representatives (Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander) tried to comprehend nature and its laws, to identify the fundamental principle of all things, while they perceived the world as a single material whole. Pythagoras (VI century BC) and his followers followed the same line of research into the root cause of the world; they considered numbers and numerical relations to be the basis of all things, and made a significant contribution to the development of mathematics, astronomy and music theory.

In the VIII-VI centuries. BC. Greek historiography is born. The emergence of Greek theater also dates back to this time.

Despite the fact that in the archaic period Greece did not represent a single country, regular trade relations between individual policies led to the formation ethnic identity- the Greeks gradually began to recognize themselves as a single people, different from others. One of the manifestations of such self-awareness was the famous Olympic Games (the first in 776 BC), to which only Hellenes were allowed.

The classical period (from the turn of the 6th-5th centuries BC to 339 BC) is the heyday of the polis organization of society. Freedom in all spheres of public life is the special pride of the citizens of the Greek polis.

Athens became the center of Greek culture. The Athenian state in just one century (5th century BC) gave humanity such eternal “companions” of its history and culture as Socrates and Plato, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes, Phidias and Thucydides, Themistocles, Pericles, Xenophon . This phenomenon is called the "Greek miracle."

The external manifestation of the internal freedom of the Greeks is their democracy. The formation of Greek democracy begins with the “military democracy” of Homeric times, then the reforms of Solon and Cleisthenes (6th century BC), and, finally, its development in the “golden age” of Pericles (reign of 490-429 BC). BC.). Citizens of the polis, imitating nature and the gods, served by slaves, fully enjoyed the benefits of life in what they imagined were comfortable small states, feeling truly independent and sovereign. A polis system of values ​​was developed: a firm belief that the polis is the highest good, that human existence outside its framework is impossible, and the well-being of an individual depends on the well-being of the polis. His values ​​included recognition of the superiority of agricultural labor over all other activities (the only exception was Sparta) and condemnation of the desire for profit.

A special distinguishing feature from other civilizations is ancient anthropocentrism. It was in Athens that the philosopher Protagoras of Abdera (c. 490 - c. 420 BC) proclaimed famous saying"man is the measure of all things." For the Greeks, man is the personification of all that exists, the prototype of everything created and being created; it became not only the predominant, but almost the only theme of classical art. This feeling of the Greeks was reflected in the art of the archaic and classical periods, which knows no examples of not only spiritual, but also physical suffering. Myron, Polykleitos, Phidias - the greatest sculptors of this time - depicted gods and heroes. Their “Olympic” calm, majesty, state of mind, devoid of doubts and worries, express the perfection that a person, if he has not achieved, can and should achieve.

Only in the 4th century. BC. - late classics - when the Greeks discovered new facets in life that were beyond their control, human experiences, passions, and impulses gradually began to take the place of greatness. These processes are manifested both in sculpture and in literature. The tragedies of Aeschylus (late archaic) express the ideas (ideal obligation) of human feat, patriotic duty in general. Sophocles (classics) already glorifies man, and he himself says that he depicts people as they should be. Euripides (late classic) strives to show people as they really are, with all their weaknesses and vices.

In the 5th century BC. Greek historiography is actively developing. The ancients called Herodotus (454-430 BC) “the father of history”. He wrote a complete, beautifully presented work - “History”, based on the plots of the Greco-Persian wars. The main task of art of the 5th century. BC, its basis is a true depiction of a person, strong, energetic, full of dignity and balance mental strength- winner in the Persian wars, free citizen of the polis. At this time, realistic sculpture in marble and bronze reached its peak. The works of Phidias ("Athena the Warrior", "Athena-Parthenos" for the Parthenon in Athens, "Zeus" for the temple in Olympia), Myron ("Discus Thrower"), Polykleitos (statue of Hera, made of gold and ivory, " Doryphoros", "Wounded Amazon").

Harmony, proportionality, classical proportions - these are what fascinate us in ancient art and determined the European canons of beauty and perfection for centuries. The senses of order and measure were the most important for antiquity: evil was understood as immensity, and good as moderation. “Observe moderation in everything!” taught by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. "Nothing too much!" - read the inscription above the entrance to the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi.

Hellenistic civilization. IN last decades IV century BC. the end of the classical culture of ancient Hellas came. This began with the Eastern Campaign of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) and the massive colonization flow of Hellenes into the newly conquered lands. This led to the destruction of polis democracy. As a result, a new stage in the development of material and spiritual culture, forms of political organization and social relations of the peoples of the Mediterranean, Western Asia and adjacent areas gradually emerged. The spread and influence of the Hellenistic civilization was extremely wide: Western and Eastern Europe, Western and Central Asia, North Africa. The era of Hellenism has arrived - a synthesis of Hellenic and Eastern cultures. Thanks to this synthesis, a common cultural language, which formed the basis for all subsequent history European culture.

The culture of the Hellenistic civilization combined local stable traditions with the traditions of culture introduced by conquerors and settlers, Greeks and non-Greeks.

These changes determined the need for the Hellenes to understand their inner world. New philosophical movements met this need: Cynics, Epicureanism, Stoicism (philosophy in Greece was always considered not so much a subject of study, but rather a guide to life). The main question was: where do evil and injustice come from in the world and how to live in order to maintain at least moral, internal independence and freedom?

Even a cursory listing of the achievements of Hellenistic culture shows its enduring significance in the history of mankind. Hellenism enriched world civilization with new discoveries in the field of scientific knowledge and invention. In this regard, it is enough to mention the names of Euclid (III century BC) and Archimedes (ca. 287-212 BC). Within the framework of philosophy, social utopias were born and developed, describing an ideal social structure. The treasury of world art has been replenished with such masterpieces as the altar of Zeus in Pergamum, the statues of Venus de Milo and the Nike of Samothrace, and the sculptural group Laocoön. A new type of public building appeared: a library, a museum, which served as a center for work and the application of scientific knowledge. These and other cultural achievements, later inherited by the Byzantine Empire and the Arabs, entered the golden fund of universal human culture.

The dignity of Greek culture is that it discovered the human citizen, proclaiming the supremacy of his reason and freedom, the ideals of democracy and humanism. History knows of no more outstanding discoveries, for there is nothing more valuable to a person than the person himself.

2. Culture of Ancient Rome

Ancient Roman culture is a set of achievements in the field of spiritual and material culture of the Roman Republic (V-I centuries BC) and the Roman Empire (I century BC - V century AD). Concept ancient roman culture in the narrow sense of the word, it refers only to the culture of Roman Italy, and in the broad sense, to the culture of the Mediterranean united by the Romans.

Ancient Roman civilization went through a complex path of development from the culture of the Roman community of the city-state, absorbing the cultural traditions of Ancient Greece, experiencing the influence of the peoples of the ancient East. Roman culture became the fertile soil of the culture of the Romano-Germanic peoples of Europe. She gave the world classic examples of military art, government structure, law, urban planning and much more.

The history of Ancient Rome is usually divided into three main periods: royal (VIII - early VI centuries BC); Republican (510/509 - 30/27 BC); imperial period (30/27 BC - 476 AD).

If for the Greeks the main value in spiritual life is man - a citizen, man is the measure of all things, then for the Romans it is a citizen - a patriot, and the people themselves had a special, God-chosen purpose. A citizen must have courage, fortitude, honesty, loyalty, dignity, the ability to obey iron discipline in war and the rule of law and the customs of ancestors in peacetime, and be moderate in lifestyle.

In Rome, slavery reached its highest development in antiquity. A free citizen considered it shameful for himself to be suspected of “slave vices” (such as lies and flattery) or “slave occupations,” which here, unlike Greece, included not only crafts, but also performing on stage, writing plays, and working as a sculptor. and a painter. Only politics, war, and the development of law were recognized as deeds worthy of a Roman, especially a noble one.

The sciences were adapted to practical, political-legal, trade, military and construction activities. Cicero, the first philosopher, orator, theorist of pedagogy and politics, reproached the Greeks for their passion for speculative sciences, in particular mathematics, guided by practical benefits, he considered it right to limit the development of this science to “the needs of monetary calculations and land surveys.”

The Hellenistic and Greek cities remained the centers of scientific activity: Alexandria, Pergamon, Rhodes, Athens and, of course, Rome and Carthage. Great importance was attached in Rome in the 1st-2nd centuries. geographical knowledge and history. Particularly valuable contributions to the development of these areas of knowledge were made by the geographers Strabo (64/63 BC - 23/24 AD) and Claudius Ptolemy (after 83 - after 161), the historians Tacitus (c. 58 - c. 117), Titus Livia (59 BC - 17 AD) and Appian (? - 70s of the 2nd century). The activities of the Greek politician, writer and philosopher Lucius Seneca (c. 4 BC - 65 AD), the author of the "Letters to Lucilius", the tragedies "Oedipus" and "Medea", as well as the writer, date back to this time and the historian Plutarch (c. 45 - c. 127), whose numerous works are united under the code name “Morals”.

The key to understanding Roman art is the words of the Roman writer Julius Frontinus regarding the nine grandiose Roman aqueducts: “one cannot compare their stone masses with the useless pyramids of Egypt or with the most famous but idle structures of the Greeks.” The pathos of utility in the name of the state was realized in the construction of cities, forums (squares), triumphal arches (for the ceremonial entry of the winners), temples (to the patron gods of Rome), public baths (places for social interaction), circuses and amphitheaters (for the entertainment of the public) and etc.

It is impossible to deny Rome's civilizing mission. The Romans were not only a people of soldiers, but also of builders and organizers - architects, engineers, lawyers. Along with the power of Rome, the order of aqueducts (water pipelines), roads, the Latin school and Roman law came to the hitherto wild peoples of Western Europe.

During the era of the empire, literature reached its apogee. Among the poets, Virgil (70-19 BC), the author of the epic poem "Aeneid", achieved the greatest fame. The perfect form of verse was possessed by Horace Flaccus (65-8 BC), Ovid Naso (43 BC - 18 AD). The era of the empire was truly the golden age of Roman poetry. The satirist Junius Juvenal (c. 60 - c. 127), who wrote 16 satires, the writer Apuleius (c. 124 - ?), the author of the original fantasy novel "Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass", became famous for their skill. interest among our contemporaries.

Roman law should be highlighted as a special phenomenon in the development of world civilization. It included a system of legal norms regulating property and other economic relations related to property rights, rules for ensuring contractual obligations and liability, and very advanced rules on inheritance of property. Roman jurists divided law into private, that is, related to the “benefit of individuals,” and into public, related to “the state of the Roman state.”

Oratory developed in direct connection with the peculiarities of political life. Possession of it was considered an important and most effective way to strengthen authority in society and gain political success. Roman eloquence reached its apogee in the person of Cicero. Cicero's thoughts on culture are interesting. For Cicero, culture is not limited to education, the development of sciences and arts, the care of which he considers more characteristic of Greece than of Rome. For the famous speaker, true culture lies in a special structure of life, where the spiritual state of a person and the general interests of the state are in a contradictory, but inextricable unity. For the sake of the highest goal, the prosperity of the republic, citizens and society must engage in self-restraint. A man who has forgotten about the interests of society, and a ruler who has forgotten about the interests of citizens, are not Romans, but barbarians. The opposite of barbarism is culture, and therefore the most important thing about the Roman Republic is that it is a state of culture.

The interaction of Greek and Roman elements in culture created European civilization, the European as a cultural phenomenon: the unity of word and deed, idea and implementation, theory and practice, harmony and benefit - this is the precious heritage of antiquity, which, the further, the more it attracts admiring glances.

It was from antiquity that the current European and American civilizations inherited: the foundations of modern sciences, although their individual elements began to take shape in even more ancient societies - among the Sumerians, in the territories of modern Egypt, China and India; basic aesthetic forms, as evidenced by the general style of modern Western art and architecture in comparison with the completely different eastern examples; the basic norms of statehood and law, which still form the theoretical foundation of Western democracy with its separation of powers, elections, equality of citizens before the law, etc.; the basic moral norms and the main religion are Christianity, which arose in the conditions of the crisis of ancient civilization.

3. References

1. Berestovskaya D.S. Culturology: Textbook. allowance. – Simferopol, 2003.

2. Kononenko B.I. Fundamentals of cultural studies: Course of lectures. - M., 2002.

3. Culturology: Textbook. allowance / Ed. A. A. Radugina. – M., 1998.

4. Petrova M.M. Theory of culture: Lecture notes. – S.-P., 2000.

5. Samokhvalova V.I. Culturology: A short course of lectures. – M., 2002.

6. Skvortsova E.M. Theory and history of culture: Textbook. –M., 1999.

Ancient culture is dear to us, first of all, because it laid the foundations for the further development of science and art: in art the path to realism was indicated, and in science - to a materialistic worldview.

Ancient culture delighted and inspired the artists of the Renaissance, it was worshiped and taken as a model by the founders of all academies, and it helped many scientists in scientific research.

Ancient (ancient) Greece was the cradle of European civilization and culture. It was here that those material, spiritual, aesthetic values, which to one degree or another have found their development among almost all European peoples. Antiquity had a great influence on the subsequent development of European peoples and became their common property, the basis of all European culture. The achievements of this civilization are firmly fixed in consciousness, language, philosophy, and artistic images. The earliest images of the originality of this culture appeared at the level of the most ancient forms of folk art, in particular mythology, the plots of which have served as rich material for painters, sculptors, composers, and poets for many centuries. Many images of ancient mythology have become familiar and understandable: Ariadne’s thread, Achilles’ heel, apple of discord, etc. Also, many Greek and Latin words are found in everyday and scientific language.

In ancient classical architecture there are different orders: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan and compositional (complex). Order is one of the types architectural composition, consisting of vertical load-bearing parts - supports in the form of columns, pillars or pilasters and supporting horizontal parts - an entablature, including an architrave, frieze and cornice.

“Greek miracle” is the name given to the phenomenon of the culture of Ancient Greece, which in a fairly short period of time for civilization reached significant heights in the material and spiritual spheres. Ships ply the seas and make it possible to bring many colonies from Crimea to Gibraltar and carry out regular trade exchanges.

The main political, economic and civil legal unit is the polis (city-state). Policy was an association of private landowners, as well as citizens engaged in various trades and crafts, who, being full members, had the right to property. A polis is a city with an adjacent rural area, therefore peasants, like the townspeople themselves, are among the citizens of the polis.

The political system is democracy (democracy), but the “demos” (people) includes only full citizens (without slaves, immigrants from other policies and some other groups of the population; they make up less than half of the residents of the policy). Social change is given by the “slave – citizen” scale, and a slave was considered a vicious person by nature, and only a full citizen of the polis could be virtuous.

Ancient Greek culture gave the world democracy, which arose within the framework of the polis-state, the Olympic Games, the first complete alphabet (the Greeks took its basis from the Phoenicians), and in this culture writing turned out to be not a professional skill, but the property of everyone. The birth of European-style theater and philosophy also took place here. The development of philosophy - systematic reflection on the structure and essence of the world, about man, about morality, about the divine.

Religion of the Greeks - polytheism(polytheism). They believe in the existence of many gods, most of whom live on Mount Olympus (hence the “Olympian religion”). Olympic mythology defines the main dimensions of spiritual culture; it permeates works of art, literature, customs, etc. Belief in the transmigration of souls. Belief in a destiny initially predetermined for everyone, hence deep fatalism.

Time is cyclical. There is a great year (about 30,000 years), after which everything repeats all over again. At the same time, modernity, as a rule, is valued much lower than the past (legends of the “golden age”).

The Universe, space is limited, it is divided into several spheres inserted into one another. The sublunar world (everything below the sphere of the Moon) is changeable and impermanent, the supralunar world is monotonous, correct and imperishable.

The ideal of the Greek is the model citizen, the one who died happy. In art - a perfect, harmoniously developed person who meets certain proportions. The appearance, along with the developed epic, of lyricism and tragedy. The discovery of individuality, the emergence of narratives about the feelings of an individual.

Culture of oral communication. Books as a mnemonic device, external memory, but have value in communication, in conversation. Greek culture (“agon”), its manifestation in sports (Olympic Games, Nemean Games, etc.), in the love of discussions, in constant readiness to respond to challenges, love of judicial procedure. Hence Mens sana in corpore sano - A healthy mind in a healthy body.

"Hellenism" - historical period the spread of Greek culture to Egypt and the East, which arose after the campaigns of Alexander the Great in the 3rd century. BC e. The influence of Greek culture continued after the collapse of the huge state and the formation on its basis of the “Hellenistic” and eastern states and on the culture of these states until their conquest by Rome or Parthia (280-30 BC). The concept of “Hellenism” was introduced by the German historian I. Droysen.

In general, the main, most striking features of ancient civilization can be identified:

– humanism- here man is the “measure of all things”, the gods are the same people, only possessing a number of virtues and qualities that exceed human capabilities, therefore the temple in this culture is not a place where a person feels his insignificance compared to the deity, but on the contrary: it is here that you can feel your greatness and meet the gods one on one;

– rationalism– reason, reason here regulates actions, emotions fade, and the idea appears that reason is the only thing that helps a person make a choice in any situation;

– individualism– the meaning of emotions does not lose meaning only in a person’s relationship to himself: it is in this culture that we can say that the formation of a personal, individual principle takes place, here a person begins to recognize himself not just as a member of a clan, but as a separate subject, an individual;

– agonistic (agonistic) the nature of the culture - individualism as the most important feature influences the peculiarity of ancient culture: “agon” - competitive, competitive, achieving victory at any cost, just to satisfy one’s own ambitions and stand out from the “mass”;

– paideia– upbringing, education: within the framework of the policy there should not be a person who would not take part in its affairs, therefore the education of the individual and citizen becomes vitally important; thus, paideia becomes a way of forming a personality, by transferring to it a rational system of knowledge, as well as bringing the entire human body, which is the personification of a person’s inner world, into a state of harmony;

– legislative basis- this culture tries to achieve harmony between natural world and the law; here the law is an institution to which all people and gods obey; free man must obey only the law and he will not tolerate another person’s supremacy over himself, therefore in ancient culture, unlike many others, there is no master over a person except the law;

– patriotism– the cult of law gives rise to the exaltation of human freedom, both of an individual and of an entire state; thus, a cult of citizenship and patriotism is formed: the fall of one’s hometown threatened one’s own life and could lead to slavery, which in this freedom-loving and independent culture was perceived as death; therefore, the history of ancient culture is replete with constant riots and wars;

– culture of the present– ancient people rarely thought about the future, much less turned to the past, so this culture is often called the culture of children who think only about today those who want to get everything here and now;

– cyclical nature of development– this culture does not strive for linearity, for progress: ancient man believed that people had already achieved everything, new and better were not needed. Thus, all these features paint us a certain portrait, unlike other cultures, but in some ways close and understandable to us.

Ancient civilization- the “cradle” of European culture, which could hardly have reached such heights if it had not accepted its most important cultural values.

Here is some of the artistic heritage of ancient civilization:

1) Ancient Greece:

The ensemble of the Acropolis, including the Parthenon (Temple of Athena). Athens. V century BC e.

General guidance – Phidias. Architects: Ictinus, Callicrates, Mnesicles.

Myron of Eleuther. Statue “Discobolus”, 5th century. BC e. Roman copy. Thermal Museum; Rome

Polykleitos. Statue "Doriphoros". V century BC e. Roman copy. National Museum, Naples.

Skopas. Tombstone of a young man from the Ilissa River. IV century BC e. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

Lehar. Apollo Belvedere. Ser. IV century BC e. Roman copy. Pio Clementino Museum, Vatican (Rome).

Agesander from Antioch. Venus of Melos. II century BC. Louvre, Paris.

Aeschylus (525 - 456 BC) Prometheus Bound: Tragedy.

Aristophanes (c. 446 - 388 BC). Comedy "Clouds". 423 BC e.

Sophocles (496 - 406 BC) Tragedy “Oedipus the King”. 429-425 BC e.

Homer. Poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey".

Hesiod. "Theogony", "Works and Days".

2) Ancient Rome:

Coliseum. (Flavian Amphitheater). Rome I century n. e. (75-80).

Arch of TITUS. Rome I century AD (81).

Apollodorus of Damascus. Trajan's Column. Rome II century n. e.

Pantheon (“Temple of all gods”). Rome I century n. e.

Baths of Caracalla. Rome III century n. e.

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius. Rome (Capitol Square). II century AD

Portrait of Caracalla. III century n. e. National Museum. Naples.

Wall paintings at the Villa of Mysteries. Pompeii. I century BC e. (excavations).

Marcus Aurelius (121-180). Philosophical work"To myself."

Petronius (1st century; d. 66 AD) Satyricon: Roman.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (14 - 65 AD) Tragedy "Medea".

Publius Virgil Maro (70 BC - 19 AD) Poem "Aeneid".

Martial (c. 40-104), Horace, Ovid. Poetry.

Ancient culture- a unique phenomenon that has given rise to general cultural values ​​in literally all areas of spiritual and material activity. The distinctive features of ancient Greek culture: spiritual diversity, mobility and freedom - allowed the Greeks to reach unprecedented heights before peoples imitated the Greeks, building a culture according to the models they created. Developing under the influence of early civilization, the culture of antiquity made a huge contribution to the development of world culture. The monuments of architecture and sculpture that have reached us, masterpieces of painting and poetry, are evidence of a high level of cultural development. They have significance not only as works of art, but also social and moral significance. And now the thoughts about good, evil, honor and dishonor formulated in them are modern. On the basis of ancient culture, categories of scientific thinking first appeared and began to develop; the contribution of antiquity to the development of astronomy and theoretical mathematics was great. That is why ancient philosophy and science played such an important role in the emergence of modern science and the development of technology. The ancient world gave examples of the republican system, democracy, and showed the image of a real citizen who knows how to intelligently combine rights and responsibilities.

conclusions

In general, ancient culture was characterized by a rational (theoretical) approach to understanding the world and at the same time its socio-aesthetic perception, harmonious logic and individual originality in solving socio-practical and theoretical problems. In this way, Ancient Greece differed from the East, where the development of culture proceeded mainly in the form of commenting on ancient teachings that became canonical, in the form of perpetuating tradition.

The anthropological contradiction between spirit and body was resolved by ancient culture in favor of the latter, giving it a “corporal” style. Through the body and thanks to it, cultivate in oneself accordingly harmonious spiritual qualities, seeing in it the presence of feeling and mind in their mutual unity and contradiction, but the weak development of individuality did not allow Greek culture to reflect the heights of manifestation of human emotionality and spirit. Modern researchers see the roots of this “corporality” in ancient slavery. In a slave-owning society, neither the full value of man nor man himself could be understood, and therefore man and his spiritual life were conceptualized according to the type of physical bodies or things. This is how the entire ancient worldview is constructed: science, religion, philosophy, art, social and political life. Ancient humanism glorifies only the physical perfection of man, but the subjectivity of the individual, his spiritual capabilities have not yet been revealed. The standard of harmony was the human body. Even Greek gods- first of all, eternal perfect bodies. From this follows the proportionality of the proportions of Greek architecture and the flourishing of sculpture. An indicative expression of the physicality of ancient humanism was the exclusive position of physical culture in the education system. However, in ancient society the biosocial nature of man was recognized, enshrined in Aristotle’s formula: “Man is a social animal.” The body was conceptualized as an aesthetic symbol of the Greek city-state, the “polis.”

Exalting the body, in general, ancient art and culture, as in the East, resolved the contradiction between the personal and the public in favor of the latter. From here Salus populi suprema lex (also Salus publica) – The good of the people is the highest law. A person was considered useful to society only thanks to his civic virtues. The contradictions between object and subject, as aspects of the human personality, can be called the main nerve of ancient culture. If in relationships with society the individual found some way out, then in relation to fate both the individual and society were only objects, blind instruments of Fate. The idea of ​​the inexorability of Fate is closely connected with ancient slavery, for in the ancient world free people thought of themselves as slaves of the general world order.

Eight such monuments are included in the List of World Heritage Sites. Three of them (Acropolis of Athens, Delphi and Vergina) are located in the northern, mainland part of Greece, three (Olympia, Epidaurus and Bassai) - on the Peloponnese Peninsula and two - on the islands of the Aegean Sea.

In ancient culture, the main problems of the universe: being and becoming, one and many, limit and infinite, number and magnitude, measure and essence, atom, matter, Space. They have not lost their significance even today, which has ensured cultural dialogue between different civilizations on a global scale. Antiquity created inaccessible cultural examples of enduring value and attractive power. Today, historians, philologists, philosophers, and cultural experts are turning to antiquity. “... Without the foundation that was laid by Greece and Rome, there would be no modern Europe,” wrote F. Engels.

1. Religion. The idea of ​​the omnipotence of a deity; lack of a single religion; connection of gods with specific policies; totemism, the idea of ​​the universal animation of nature; heroes as intermediaries between the world of gods and the world of people. Deification of incomprehensible phenomena of nature and social life; animism (belief in spirits living in all material objects); late appearance anthropomorphic view of the gods; tribal and family cults; strong influence of Greek religion; the similarity of the gods with the Greek ones; free admission into the pantheon of foreign gods; the importance of sacrifices; formalism and practicality of religion.

2. Attitude towards a person. A person is always a mystery not only to others, but also to himself. Therefore, human existence includes the desire to know oneself. By getting to know the outside world and other people, a person gets to know himself. A person’s attitude towards others and the Cosmos characterizes, first of all, the person who knows the most, his intentions, potentialities, values ​​and beliefs. In a certain sense, man is the goal of existence, which was emphasized by the Greeks who proposed the maxim “Man is the measure of all things.”

Dictionary of definitions for the topic

Animism(from Latin soul, spirit) - belief in the soul and spirits and their influence on the lives of people, animals, objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, one of the primitive forms of religion.

Anthropomorphic form of deities- the likening of deities to people, appears at later stages of the development of religious consciousness, demonstrates a certain measure of a person’s awareness of his place in the world.

Anthropocentrism(from Greek anthtropos - man and Latin centrum - center) - the view that man is the center of the Universe and the goal of all events taking place in the world.

Harmony(Greek correspondence, agreement, consonance) - an aesthetic category denoting integrity, unity, interaction of all parts and elements of the form. Animated harmony, filled with human feeling and meaning, is called beauty.

Hedonism(Greek pleasure) - an ethical doctrine originally developed by the ancient Greek Cyrene philosophical school and Epicurus; recognizes pleasure as the purpose of life and the highest good; defines good as that which brings pleasure, and evil as that which entails suffering.

Dipter(an ancient temple, unlike the peripterus, surrounded by two rows of columns.

Doric order- is distinguished by the heaviest proportions and has a relatively simple capital, consisting of a round cushion of echinus and an overlying slab - abacus.

Ionic order- lighter compared to Doric. The Ionic column has a characteristic capital formed by two downward-facing spiral volutes.

Kalokagathia(Greek - generosity) - the term that Plato used to designate the ideal of education among the Greeks, a combination of nobility, wealth, physical and spiritual abilities.

Canon- in the fine arts, a set of firmly established rules that determine work of art norms of composition and color, a system of proportions, or the iconography of a given type of image.

Corinthian order– the lightest and most refined in its proportions. The Corinthian column has a tall basket-shaped capital.

Cosmology(from the word “kosmos” - Universe) - a world conceived as an ordered unity (as opposed to chaos); initially - the same as order, arrangement. The world was first called the cosmos by Pythagoras, who drew attention to the order and harmony reigning in it.

Cult(lat. Reverence) - 1) one of the obligatory elements of any religion, expressed in special magical rituals, actions of clergy and believers in order to have the desired effect on supernatural forces; 2) admiration for someone, something, veneration of someone, something, excessive exaltation (cult of saints, cult of personality).

Order– order in the arrangement of parts of ancient buildings. The main thing in the order is the columns standing on a stepped base; above the columns there is a ceiling - an entablature.

Totemism- the oldest form of religion, based on the belief in a supernatural blood connection between representatives of a particular community and some type of animal or plant.

Fetishism(amulet, magic) - one of the ancient forms of religion, characterized by the worship of a cult inanimate objects; belief in the supernatural power of things, amulets, talismans; deification of objects and phenomena.

Introduction
1. Culture of Ancient Greece
1.1. Culture of Hellas in the XXX-XII centuries. BC.
1.2. Culture of the “Dark Ages” (XI-IX centuries BC)
1.3. Culture of the archaic period (VIII-VI centuries BC)
1.4. Greek culture in the 5th century. BC.
2. Culture of Ancient Rome
2.1. Early Rome (VIII-VI centuries BC)
2.2. Early Roman Republic (V-IV centuries BC)
2.3. The heyday of Roman culture during the Republic era (III-I centuries BC)
2.4. The era of the early Roman Empire (27 BC - 2nd century AD)
2.5. Culture of the Roman Empire in the 1st-2nd centuries.
2.6. Culture of the decline of the Roman Empire (III-V centuries AD)
Conclusion
List of used literature

Introduction

The term "antiquity" comes from the Latin word "antiquus" - ancient. It is customary to refer to a special period in the development of Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as those lands and peoples that were under their cultural influence. The chronological framework of this period, like any other cultural and historical phenomenon, cannot be precisely determined, but it largely coincides with the time of existence of the ancient states themselves: from the 11th to the 9th centuries. BC, the time of the formation of ancient society in Greece and until the 5th AD. - the death of the Roman Empire under the blows of the barbarians.

Common to ancient states were the paths of social development and a special form of property - ancient slavery, as well as the form of production based on it. What they had in common was a civilization with a common historical and cultural complex. This does not deny, of course, the presence of undeniable features and differences in the life of ancient societies.

The main, core in ancient culture were religion and mythology. For the ancient Greeks, mythology was the content and form of their worldview, their worldview; it was inseparable from the life of this society. Then - ancient slavery. It was not only the basis of the economy and social life, it was also the basis of the worldview of the people of that time. Next, we should highlight science and artistic culture as core phenomena in ancient culture. When studying the culture of ancient Greece and Rome, it is necessary, first of all, to concentrate on these dominants of ancient culture.

1. Culture of Ancient Greece

1.1. Culture of Hellas in the XXX-XII centuries. BC.

The original and multifaceted early Greek culture was formed in 3000-1200. BC. Various factors accelerated its movement. For example, completed ethnogenesis Greek people strengthened internal ties throughout the Greek-speaking world, despite frequent local clashes.

The creative activity of the Greeks of the Bronze Age was based on their development of a large stock of experimental knowledge. It is necessary, first of all, to note the level and volume of technological knowledge that allowed the population of Hellas to widely develop specialized craft production.

Pottery also indicates fluency in complex thermal processes carried out in kilns of various designs.

The accumulation of technological knowledge and the progress of skill of a wide range of ordinary workers, as in agriculture, both in specialized and domestic crafts were the basis of intensive economic development countries.

Architecture was distinguished by its high achievements. Architectural monuments clearly reflect the presence of property inequality and indicate the emergence of early class monarchies.

During the XX-XII centuries. BC. The art of vase painting developed rapidly. The breadth of society's artistic demands was manifested in art's close attention to man and his activities. At the same time, artists did not forget about conveying the physical appearance of a person, reproducing nude figures in painting, sculpture, toreutics and glyptics. It is noteworthy that even in ordinary monuments of art one can notice respect for people.

The literature of the early Greeks, like other peoples, went back to the traditions of ancient folklore, which included fairy tales, fables, myths and songs. With the change in social conditions, the rapid development of folk epic poetry began, glorifying the deeds of the ancestors and heroes of each tribe.

Writing in Greek culture of the XXII-XII centuries. BC. played a limited role. Like many peoples of the world, the inhabitants of Hellas, first of all, began to make pictorial notes, known already in the second half of the 3rd millennium. Each sign of this pictographic writing denoted an entire concept.

Religion early Greece played a large role in the dynamics of Hellenic social thought. Initially, the Greek religion, like any other primitive religion, reflects only the weakness of man in the face of those “forces” that in nature, later in society and in his own consciousness, seem to interfere with his actions and pose a threat to his existence, thus more terrible that he poorly understands where it comes from.

1.2. Culture of the “Dark Ages” (XI-IX centuries BC)

The palace civilization of the Cretan-Mycenaean era disappeared from the historical scene under mysterious, still unclear circumstances around the end of the 12th century. BC. The era of ancient civilization begins only after three and a half or even four centuries.

Archaeological research in recent years has revealed true scale terrible catastrophe experienced by the Mycenaean civilization at the turn of the XIII-XII centuries. BC, and also trace the main stages of its decline in the subsequent period.

The main distinguishing feature of that period was the depressing poverty of material culture, which concealed a sharp decline in the standard of living of the bulk of the population of Greece and an equally sharp decline in the country's productive forces. The products of Submycenaean potters that have reached us make the most bleak impression. They are very rough in shape, carelessly molded, and lack even elementary grace.

The total number of metal products surviving from this period is extremely small. Large items, such as weapons, are extremely rare. Small crafts like brooches or rings predominate.

True, almost at the same time the first iron products appeared in Greece. Scattered finds of bronze knives with iron inserts date back to the very beginning of the period.

Another distinctive feature of the Submycenaean period was the decisive break with the traditions of the Mycenaean era. The most common method of burial in Mycenaean times in chamber tombs was replaced by individual burials in box graves (cysts) or in simple pits.

The most important factor contributing to the eradication of Mycenaean cultural traditions, of course, should be considered the sharply increased mobility of the bulk of the population of Greece. Began in the first half of the 12th century. BC. The outflow of population from the areas of the country most affected by the barbarian invasion also continued in the Submycenaean period.

If we try to extrapolate all these symptoms of cultural decline and regression into the sphere of socio-economic relations inaccessible to our direct observation, we will almost inevitably have to admit that in the XII-XI centuries. BC. Greek society was thrown far back, to the stage of the primitive communal system and, in essence, returned again to the starting line from which the formation of the Mycenaean civilization once began.

1.3. Culture of the archaic period (VIII-VI centuries BC)

One of the most important factors of Greek culture of the 8th-6th centuries. BC is rightfully considered a new writing system. The alphabetic script, partly borrowed from the Phoenicians, was more convenient than the ancient syllabic script of the Mycenaean era: it consisted of only 24 characters, each of which had a firmly established phonetic meaning. Unlike syllabic writing, which was used mainly for keeping accounts and, perhaps to some extent, for composing religious texts, the new writing system was a truly universal means of transmitting information, which could equally well be used in business correspondence. and for recording lyrical poems or philosophical aphorisms. All this led to a rapid increase in literacy among the population of Greek city-states, as evidenced by numerous inscriptions on stone, metal, and ceramics, the number of which is increasingly increasing as we approach the end of the archaic period.

Almost at the same time (second half of the 8th century BC) such outstanding examples of monumental art were created and, most likely, recorded at the same time heroic epic, like the Iliad and the Odyssey, with which the history of Greek literature begins.

Greek poetry of the post-Homeric period (VII-VI centuries BC) is distinguished by its extreme thematic richness and diversity of forms and genres. Lyric poetry is becoming widespread and soon becomes the leading literary movement of the era, which in turn is divided into several main genres: elegy, iambic, monodic, i.e. intended for solo performance, and choral lyrics.

While some Greek poets sought to comprehend in their poems the complex inner world man and find the best option for his relationship with the civil collective of the polis, others no less persistently tried to penetrate into the structure of the universe surrounding man and solve the riddle of its origin.

During the era of the Great Colonization, traditional Greek religion did not meet the spiritual needs of its contemporaries also because it was difficult to find in it the answer to the question of what awaits a person in his future life and whether it exists at all. In their own way, representatives of two closely related religious and philosophical teachings - the Orphics and the Pythagoreans - tried to solve this painful question. Both the Orphics and the Pythagoreans tried to correct and purify traditional beliefs Greeks, replacing them with a more refined, spiritually charged form of religion.

For the first time in the history of mankind, Milesian thinkers tried to imagine the entire universe around them in the form of a harmoniously arranged, self-developing and self-regulating system.

In the VII-VI centuries. BC. Greek architects for the first time after a long break began to erect monumental temple buildings from stone, limestone or marble.

The most widespread and accessible type of archaic Greek art was, of course, vase painting. In their work, aimed at the widest consumer, vase painters depended much less on the canons sanctified by religion or the state than sculptors or architects. Therefore, their art was much more dynamic, diverse and responded more quickly to all kinds of artistic discoveries and experiments.

1.4. Greek culture in the 5th century. BC.

In the first half of the 5th century. BC. Important changes took place in the religious ideology of the Greeks. Unfortunately, they are little known to us and are most often reflected in literary works, which makes it difficult to understand whether a given phenomenon arose as a result of individual or group creativity or reflects a widely held idea. The rise of the classical polis and the victory over the Persians had important consequences for the people's worldview. Modern researchers have noted an increase in religiosity among the Greeks.

Development at the end of the Archaic period on the basis of the ancient peasant cult of hope for immortality, which was previously considered to belong not to an individual, but to a series of successive generations, in Athens in the 5th century BC, when man felt free from the ties of family and traditions, reaches the cult of personal immortality.

There is a humanization of religion, it becomes worldly. From that time on, the state and the gods formed an inextricable whole. Religious feeling gives way to the patriotism and pride of citizens who are able to erect such magnificent monuments to their gods, which are the occasion for magnificent celebrations and become the subject of admiration throughout the world.

In philosophy of the 5th century. BC. The leading direction remained natural philosophy, which had developed in Ionia in the previous century. The most prominent representatives of the spontaneous-materialistic natural philosophy of this time were Heraclitus of Ephesus, Anaxagoras and Empedocles.

Ancient Greek materialism reached its highest flowering in the teachings of Leucippus and Democritus. Leucippus laid the foundations of atomistic philosophy. His student Democritus not only accepted the cosmological theory of his teacher, but expanded and refined it, creating a universal philosophical system.

V century BC. can be considered the time of the birth of science as a special field of activity. However, ancient Greek science could preserve this character only to a certain level. The expansion of the sphere of knowledge, the increase in its amount led not only to the spin-off of individual sciences from natural philosophy, but also (sometimes) to a conflict between them.

Significant changes that took place in Greek culture during the 5th century. BC, are clearly reflected in the literature. The beginning of the century sees the decline of choral lyrics - that genre of literature that dominated the archaic era; At the same time, Greek tragedy was born - the genre of literature that most fully corresponds to the spirit of the classical polis.

According to the most common periodization, the history of Greek fine art and architecture of the 5th century. BC. It is customary to divide it into two large periods: the art of the early classics, or strict style, and the art of the high, or developed, classics. The border between them passes approximately in the middle of the century, however, the borders in art are generally quite arbitrary, and the transition from one quality to another occurs gradually and in different areas art at different speeds. This observation is true not only for the boundary between early and high classics, but also between archaic and early classical art.

Thus, the end of the V-IV centuries. BC. - a period of turbulent spiritual life in Greece, the formation of the idealistic ideas of Socrates and Plato, which developed in the struggle against the materialistic philosophy of Democritus, and the emergence of the teachings of the Cynics.

2. Culture of Ancient Rome

2.1. Early Rome (VIII- VIcenturies BC.)

In the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC. The territory of the Apennine Peninsula was inhabited by Italic Indo-European tribes, divided ethnically and linguistically into several groups. The formation of early Roman culture was most influenced by the Latin tribes that lived in the region of Latium (where the city of Rome arose).

The Etruscans were experienced farmers and skilled craftsmen. They produced a kind of ceramics called bucchero. . The vessels were fired until black, then polished and decorated with relief images of animals and birds. Etruscan artistic bronze casting was also famous . Etruscan ceramics and various metal products found wide sales in Italy itself, Greece, Carthage and other places.

The heyday of Etruscan culture in Italy took place in the 7th-5th centuries. BC. The level of development of productive forces among the Etruscans was very high for that time. Their cities had a regular layout, paved streets, a good sewage system, and many temples on stone foundations. Almost all the achievements of the Etruscans in construction were subsequently borrowed by the Romans.

In general, despite numerous influences and borrowings, early Roman culture grew on local, Italian soil and was quite original.

2.2. Early Roman Republic (V- IVcenturies BC.)

The early Roman state acquired the main features of a polis. The Roman Republic was aristocratic and patrician.

Roman culture V-IV centuries BC. was formed and strengthened, absorbing various influences, primarily Etruscan and Greek.

There was development Latin language and writing, literacy spread in Rome, rhetoric developed, and large construction projects were carried out. In the 4th century. BC. in Rome, the custom of a three-syllable compound name took root (Gai Julius Caesar, Marcus Lininius Crassus, Publius Virgil Maro). Roman names consisted of personal (proper) , family names and family (nicknames) . Starting from the 4th century BC. The cognomen began to be inherited and denote the name of the family in the clan to which the person belonged.

2.3. The heyday of Roman culture during the Republic era (III- Icenturies BC.)

In the III-II centuries. BC Rome waged wars outside of Italy: first with Carthage, a strong state in North Africa. At the same time, Rome fought with the Illyrians, Macedonia and the kingdom

The Roman state, having turned into a powerful slave-holding power of antiquity, was torn from within by acute social and class contradictions. In Rome there was a fierce struggle for power between representatives of noble families, politicians and generals.

Against this eventful background, the further development of Roman culture took place. The socio-political and economic system of Rome gave rise to its own system of values, where military valor, military exploits and the glory of the Roman name had the main place. Among the Romans, myths - stories about the gods - did not develop as much as among the Greeks, giving way to some extent to historical legends, especially the history of Roman warriors.

A powerful cultural movement begins in Rome at the end of the 3rd century. BC. Its main feature was the influence of Greek culture, Greek language and education. For young and noble Romans, it was considered obligatory to master everything that was taught in Greece. Needs for educated people were satisfied by importing educated Greek slaves. Numerous figures of Roman culture - prose writers, poets, philosophers, orators, lawyers, teachers, doctors, artists, architects, the overwhelming majority were non-Romans. To get acquainted with Greek culture not only the nobility. But also the common people great importance there was an accumulation in Rome of paintings and statues taken from Greek cities, which were exhibited in squares and temples and served as models for Roman masters.

At the end of the 3rd century. BC. In Rome, the Latin literary language was formed and, on its basis, epic poetry. A whole galaxy of talented poets and playwrights appeared, who usually took Greek tragedies and comedies as models.

From the middle of the 2nd century. BC. Historical becomes the most important genre in prose. Roman historical works, as a rule, had a pronounced propaganda character; Rome remained the starting point for them.

In the last century of the Roman Republic (1st century BC), Gaius Sallust Crispus and Gaius Julius Caesar became famous for their historical works, which (among other historians) better reflected the severity of the political struggle in the era of civil wars; Sallust gave magnificent portraits of his contemporaries Roman politicians.

Along with historical works, scientific, philosophical and rhetorical works occupied an important place in Roman literature of the Republic era.

In the II-I centuries. BC. Various currents of Hellenistic philosophy became known in Rome. The politician, famous orator and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero (1st century BC) did a lot to familiarize the ancient Romans with them.

In the 1st century BC. in Rome, rhetoric, the art of political and judicial eloquence, reached its highest development, which was associated with the turbulent social life of the transitional era from the Republic to the Empire.

The most original achievement of the Roman fiction was satire, a literary genre of purely Roman origin.

Only a few have survived from the Republican period of ancient Roman history. architectural monuments. In construction, the Romans mainly used four architectural orders: Tuscan (borrowed from the Etruscans), Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. Roman temples resemble Greek ones in their rectangular shape and the use of porticoes, but unlike the Greek ones, they were grander and. as a rule, they were erected on high podiums (rectangular platforms with stairs). In the V-IV centuries. BC. In Roman construction, mainly soft volcanic tuff was used. During the late Republican period, fired brick and marble were widely used. In the II century. BC. Roman builders invented concrete, which caused the widespread spread of arched-vaulted structures that transformed all ancient architecture -

Very popular in Roman architecture were separately standing columns, erected, for example, in honor of military victories.

Very characteristic type Roman structures were arcades - a series of arches supported on pillars or columns. Arcades were used in the construction of open galleries running along the wall of a building, such as a theater, as well as in aqueducts - multi-tiered stone bridges. inside which were hidden lead and clay pipes supplying water to the city.

Arched and vaulted structures were also used in the construction of amphitheaters - original Roman theaters in which the seats for spectators were not located in a semicircle, as in the Greek ones, but in an ellipse around the stage or arena.

A specific Roman type of structure was the triumphal arch, which became most widespread in the era of the Empire as a monument to military and imperial glory.

2.4. The era of the early Roman Empire (27 BC - 2nd century AD)

During the reign of Octavian Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD), Roman culture experienced a brilliant flourishing, its “golden age”. The Principate of Augustus, the main slogans of which were: the restoration of the republic and the morals of the ancestors, the end of wars and unrest, was perceived by contemporaries as a long-awaited deliverance from the civil strife and wars shaking Roman society.

In the “Augustan Age,” the synthesis of ancient, Greek and Roman culture was completed. Under the influence of the final development and processing of the Hellenic heritage, literature and art reached high perfection, and ancient culture was finally formed, which became an essential component of European culture.

The development of architecture (but only in the capital Rome) led to the appearance of wall painting, best known from excavations of houses in Pompeii in Italy. The frescoes depicted colorful pictures of mythological, historical, everyday subjects and were reminiscent of Greek ones. Greek designs were reproduced by sculptors. True, Roman sculpture was distinguished by greater realism in reproducing the features of the original, since Roman art was characterized by an interest in psychology. Such is the marble statue of Augustus Primaporta, created in the style of Polykleitos, but more majestic and closer to the original. The culture of the “Augustan Age” created the preconditions for the comprehensive flourishing of Roman culture in the 1st-2nd centuries. AD

2.5. Culture of the Roman Empire in the 1st-2nd centuries.

Roman culture retained its brilliance and splendor, and in some respects surpassed its previous level. Never before has it shone with such a constellation of names: philosophers - Senka, Epithet, Marcus Aurelius, Sextus Empyrecus, Dion Chrysostomos.

A characteristic feature of the cultural life of Rome in the era of the early Empire was that natives not only of the city of Rome, but also of all of Italy and especially the Roman provinces took an active part in its creation.

The epistolary genre was very popular in the early Roman Empire. Such are, for example, the letters of Senator Pliny the Younger to his friends and Emperor Trajan. The genre of the novel was new, but only one of the Roman novels has reached us - “Metamorphoses” (or “The Golden Ass”) by Apuleius (2nd century).

The outstanding achievements of Roman architecture include triumphal arches, one-, three- and five-span, which were erected in honor of the emperor. If the Greeks explained a military victory by the valor of all soldiers, then the Romans attributed it to the personal merits of the commander. The triumphal arch served as an expression of the highest honors to the emperor-commander.

In the II century. The first equestrian statues appear in Rome. This is equestrian statue Marcus Aurelius, which still adorns the Capitoline Square.

One of the most remarkable Roman buildings are the baths, which played a large role in the daily life of the Romans. Roman baths have come a long way from republican simplicity to the luxury and excesses of the imperial era. They belonged to both private individuals and the state, the latter intended for public needs.

In the I-II centuries. rapid construction took place not only in Rome, but also in other cities of Italy and in the provinces. Throughout the empire one can find the remains of monumental structures and monuments of that time: the great temple of Zeus in Athens, the amphitheater in Verona, ports in Ostia and Herculaneum, the amphitheater in Pompeii. And in Mesopotamia, and in Egypt, and in Galia, and in Spain, traces of ancient, Greco-Roman architecture have been preserved: amphitheaters and circuses, baths and aqueducts, roads and bridges, arches and columns, temples and plastic compositions.

2.6. Culture during the decline of the Roman Empire (III- Vcenturies AD)

The events of the 3rd century in the Roman Empire received the name “crisis of the 3rd century” in science. Most of all, crisis phenomena affected the political life of Rome: new civil wars, “barbarization” of the Empire, growing separatism of the provinces, the ever-increasing pressure on the empire of tribal unions of Germans and other peoples, etc. Economically, by the middle of the 3rd century. the empire came to a state of complete ruin.

Crisis phenomena have also affected culture. Interest in philosophy and science practically disappeared. Instead of philosophy, there is increasingly an appeal to religion, to various mystical cults and superstitions.

In the visual arts, practically the only remarkable phenomenon was the realistic sculptural portrait - one of the greatest achievements of Roman art as a whole. Having emerged back in the Republican era (marble busts of Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, etc.), it reached its highest peak in the era of the Empire.

The cult of imperial power contributed to the creation of colossal, majestic structures. Late Roman art is symbolic - the statues of emperors embody inhuman greatness, they seem to be devoid of a body, life burns only in the eyes, reflecting the soul.

After the death of Constantine (337), the crisis of the ancient order sharply worsened in Rome again. Barbarian attacks on the borders of the empire intensified, and the Romans lost almost all of their provinces. Torn apart internal contradictions, the Roman Empire, pressed on all sides by external enemies, was steadily moving toward its end. In 395, the Roman Empire was finally divided into Western and Eastern. The capital of the western half remained the city of Rome, and the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (the future Byzantium) became the city of Constantinople, founded by Constantine on the site of the former Greek colony Byzantium.

In 410 and 455, Rome suffered a terrible defeat - first from the Goths, and then from the Vandals (hence the concept of vandalism). In the middle of the 5th century. Only Italy remained under the rule of the emperor. In 476, the commander of the German mercenaries stationed in Italy, Odoacer, removed the young emperor Romulus Augustulus and sent the signs of imperial dignity to Constantinople. This event is considered to be the end of the Western Roman Empire.

What is punishable for the Eastern Roman Empire is that it did not perish under the blows of the barbarians, but existed for almost another thousand years. With the end of the Western Roman Empire, ancient culture also perished. The history of the ancient civilizations of Asia, Africa and Europe allows us to trace the features and main stages of the development of world culture of that time - from the early class and rather primitive cultures of the East to the cultures of the ancient world, striking in their harmony and perfection,

The culture of ancient civilizations had a huge impact on the subsequent cultural development of mankind. The diverse cultural values ​​developed by the ancient Egyptian and ancient Mesopotamian civilizations were perceived, comprehended and creatively processed by later societies, primarily ancient Greece and Rome. In turn, the ancient world and its culture formed the basis of European civilization, which periodically turned to the ideas and motifs of the Greco-Roman cultural heritage. Outstanding astronomers of the Middle Ages - Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler - relied on the works of Aristarchus of Samos and his theory of the revolution of the Earth and planets around the Sun. The Pythagorean theorem, Euclid's geometry, and Archimedes' law became the basis of schooling in feudal Europe.

Christianity, having absorbed the values ​​of ancient culture, became the leading world religion.

Roman law formed the basis of all legal systems of Western European states.

Modern types and genres of literature also go back to antiquity. European theater, drama and literature constantly turned to it.

Conclusion

Ancient culture is a unique phenomenon that provided general cultural values ​​in literally all areas of spiritual and material activity. Just three generations of cultural figures, whose lives practically fit into the classical period of the history of Ancient Greece, laid the foundations of European civilization and created role models for thousands of years to come. The distinctive features of ancient Greek culture: spiritual diversity, mobility and freedom - allowed the Greeks to reach unprecedented heights before peoples imitated the Greeks, building a culture according to the models they created.

The culture of Ancient Rome is in many ways a successor ancient traditions Greece - distinguished by religious restraint, internal severity and external expediency. The practicality of the Romans found worthy expression in urban planning, politics, jurisprudence, and the art of war. The culture of Ancient Rome largely determined the culture of subsequent eras in Western Europe.

List of used literature

1. Kumanetsky K. History of culture of Ancient Greece and Rome. - M., 1990.
2. Philosophy: Textbook for universities/Under general. ed. V.V. Mironova. - M.: Norma, 2005.
3. World artistic culture: Educational publication/Ed. L.Yu. Vasilevskaya, O.V. Divnenko. - M.: Center, 1996.
4. Lessons of ancient culture: Textbook / Miretskaya N.V., Miretskaya E.V. — Obninsk: Title, 1996.
5. Zeller E. Ancient philosophy. - St. Petersburg, 1996.
6. Chanyshev N.A. Philosophy of the Ancient World: Textbook for universities. - M.: Higher School, 2001.