Cultural Achievements For Ancient Athens

Over thousands of years ago in Ancient Greece many early civilizations formed in making a powerful civilized society. Many civilizations were successful at one point, but other civilizations did not have as much success. Much success was because of the size of the army and in addition the power one civilization had. One early successful civilizations that did not rely so much on the size of the army or society, but relied more on the quality of the army and making sure everyone works as one unit. Sparta was a city-state located in Ancient Greece that was based off a strict warrior society known as Lacedaemon.

Athens and Sparta are better in different aspects. For example, Sparta discouraged superfluous arts, but Athens appreciated them. This aspect is evident by the Athenian ruins, and that Sparta has no remnants of their history besides the tombs of their generals. This aspect concludes that Athens had more to lose during the Peloponnesian War. Athens had an empire, they stood up for values, they were the school of Greece, while Sparta were clinching onto their dear iron bars.

Athens had better cultural achievements. “The myths continued to be popular through the centuries, and major public buildings such as the Parthenon at Athens, the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, and the Temple to Apollo at Delphi were decorated with larger-than-life sculpture representing celebrated scenes from mythology.” (Greek mythology) The architecture of Athens often revolved around pleasing the gods, and because of the fact Parthenon is still standing today, it is still a major architectural influence for modern government buildings. “All citizens in Athens could participate directly in the government. We call this form of government a direct democracy.” (Government in Athens) Due to the fact that their government allowed their people to have a voice, and this affected their culture by

Each Polis had a patron deity and was named after their patron deity, Athens’s deity being the Goddess of Wisdom and of War, Athena. Athens was one of the largest city-states in Greece, the city-state that came second to Athens being Sparta, but it is one of the most well-known city-states due to having features of its own that were not seen in any other city-states and one other feature that it gave us that is still present today, known as Democracy. An example of one of these distinctive features, according to Polis, was introduced during the classical period, “In about 508-507 B.C., Cleisthenes prevented Athenian aristocrats from controlling the assembly by limiting citizenship” (“Polis”, 1998). By doing this, citizenship was no longer controlled by the rich, making it easier to become a part of Athenian society. But Cleisthenes did not stop there, proposing even more reforms, as according to Polis, “He also instituted the Council of 500, whose members were chosen by lot from male citizens 30 years of age or older” (“Polis”, 1998).

A Greek hero was brave, had the ideal body, and was loved by everyone. Theseus is one of the most famous heroes in Greek mythology. Theseus had despised this dreadful tribute where 14 young people were sacrificed every 9 years, so in order to stop this, he set up a plan to slay the Minotaur. This plan and adventure is what Theseus is most famous for. Theseus fits the image of a Greek hero because he was of royal birth, had a noble character, and performed extreme feats.

The name comes from demos-people and kratos-power, so literally power of the people. Apart from many smaller changes, it was mainly based on the opportunity for all citizens over 20 to take part in governing the country. One of the main advantages of Athenian democracy was that the archon and his eight assistants were elected annually. It was possible to prolong the rule for the next term but in case of any abnormalities a quick change of government took place. The biggest advantage of democracy in polis was the general possibility of taking part in public life for all free citizens.

Why mess with a system that has proven itself to work countless times in history? I mean when these building would have been designed the architect whether in 1700 or 1900 would have seen the ability of Doric and Ionic styles to last the test of time. As well as the fact that Greek architecture plays well with awkward pieces of ground so if they were building something on a hill they could make it appear perfectly level as well have made it structurally sound. As well as the columns disperse weight well so they would be able to get almost as large as they wanted safely. Second, the reason would have to be power.

The Progressive time called Hellenistic age, which took place roughly from, mid-third century BCE until mid-first century BCE. It Was a time spread of Greek language, literature, and education in the characteristic institution according to author Christine M. Thomas. Every new era ,the kingdom is reborn land is once again distributed and the battle begins. Alexander the Great was valued by many of the people of Greece he was one mighty leader. As he discover the new states he realized that this essential getting more trade routes, better income for the land now,later in the time being.

When you look at the literal definition of democracy in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, there is a decently large explanation. When looking at this definition and trying to decide whether the Athenian democratic system was truly democratic, one would have to go with the answer no. While it has been stated that Athens is the “cradle of democracy”, and that it was better than any of the other governments in the world, it was still a work in progress. The Athenian democracy, while it did give more power to the people, still left a lot of citizens out. The current American democracy may have steamed from Athens, but they do not really have that much in common.

‘The Rule of Law’ came into popularity under the hands of A.V. Dicey in the 19th Century. Aristotle, another renowned philosopher once said more than two thousand years ago, "The rule of law is better than that of any individual." [1] The Rule of Law is ultimately, the foundation of democracy that every country should acquire for the better of their own legal systems, regardless of whether it is criminal law, civil law or public law. It is a major source of legitimation for governments in the modern world.