The Importance Of Arete In Greek Art

As mentioned before, ancient Greece was inspired by the human body, and how beautiful it is. The origin of sculpting and modeling the human body started there in Greece. The sculpture called "Discobolus" is one of the most well-known works of art ever created. Typically, an easy way to know if a work of art is famous, inspiring, or simply amazing is if it has been replicated. Discobolus has been (Document 9). It also shows the spirit of the Olympics in this; the beauty of the body. This type of art resurfaces again later in the 14th century through the 17th century. One of the best examples to look at is

The people believed in the worship of multiple gods, a polytheistic society. Most Greeks and Romans were deeply loyal to the gods they worshipped and tended to find inspiration from their worship of gods and muses. Hence their love for their sculptures of curvy naked ladies, tales of mythology because of the taboos attached to them and the freedom to choose their religion of Gods or deities. (MindEdge, 2014).

Creating an amazingly life-like appearance to its sculptures, not only demonstrated, in my mind, a higher intelligence, but is defiantly a tribute to their focus on superior strength and fitness. Although the realistic style was soon changed to create an even more ideal human figure, the understanding of the human body and how to recreate it through art was only the beginning of Greece’s contribution to the “classical ideal.”

What is a good person, and how does one achieve the good life? These were the questions asked by the ancient Greeks. Arete, or excellence, was what the Greeks strove for in everything. In a quest for excellence, the Greeks experimented with new types of politics. Greece was divided into individual city-states that each had their own form of government. Most notable, however, was the democracy of Athens and the oligarchy of Sparta. The driving force behind all of Greek life and politics was this concept of arete. While arete differed between Athens and Sparta, this lust for excellence became the driving force behind their democracy and oligarchy.

Women 's status is a complex issue and a hard-to-define subject. Around the world, women 's status in each society and culture varies in different ways. Especially if we speak about centuries BC. In some societies, women 's status improved gradually, while in other, it declined or remained unchanged.Throughout history, society has stereotyped women, making it merely impossible for women to achieve her goals and desires in life. In life and in this county women have always been treated as second best by biased men. Women have always been treated like they are never good enough for opportunities

The Greeks took a huge step into entertainment. This step is still felt today. The whole reason we have olympics is because of the Greeks. There is way more to this story. The Greek theatre plays a huge role in our modern theatre. The ancient Greek Olympics, sports, and theatre all influenced our modern day entertainment.

He is a marble statue found in the ruins of the Athenian Acropolis, a bit smaller than life-sized, and is dated at 480 BC, a transitionary period from the Archaic to Early Classical era of Greek art. He is an emerging youth nearing the cusp of puberty, with a weight shift characteristic of this artistic period. Overall, the piece displays an incredible understanding of human physiology, and has moved away from the twisted perspectives and unnatural stiffness of earlier art. An anatomical chain of events occurs with the weight shift, and his overall musculature and skeletal structure are unforced and lifelike. He is the most famous Early Classical statue. Although, like the Venus of Willendorf, he is the pinnacle of man and perfection, he differs from the Venus in that he is a particular person, has facial features, and is not exaggerated in certain areas. He has a more lifelike appearance; he could be someone’s son, brother, or friend, or someone seen in passing at the Athenian market. He functions as the Ideal, and something to be strived towards, as many pieces from this period were, which is indicative of the culture

In Greece the Greeks looked up to the gods and goddesses of the Greek culture. The gods and goddesses were the rulers of Greece and had the most power. They over saw everything the humans would do whether it being barbaric or civilized. There were a number of Greek gods and goddesses, but some over powered others. They fought in many wars and helped humans accomplish many different activities in order for them to survive. They were also said to bring the good and the evil to the Greek people. One god that over powered all other gods and goddesses was Zeus. He played many roles in the Greek community and helped out in many ways. Although Zeus is best known as the leader of all gods, he is also known for his mythical influence on the modern day

Ancient Greek shaped the ideas of the what art should look like, and Greek culture plays such an important role of building the foundation of the western civilization. His ideas is absorbing, spreading and developing along with the conquered by Rome. Greece is kind of materialism, they barely believe the world in the mental, they prefer the world is all made by material instead. All the art work is the best example of Greece philosophy of life. The ideas of democracy, wisdom, religion is reflected in the Greek artwork, also represent the ancient people’s intelligence and creativity.

Ancient Greek culture is majorly influential in Western culture. Major works of literature, art, and political structure from ancient Greece remain relevant to modern Western society. However one can contrast these two societies by observing and valuing the art of ancient Greece. One can differentiate ancient Greek culture and modern Western culture by analyzing the treatment of religious figures, attitude towards emotion, and reaction towards nudity in each society.

Greek mythology can be viewed as a mirror to the ancient Greek civilization. Ancient Greek myths and legends often reflected how the Greeks saw themselves. Myths were used by Greeks to make justifications of every existing aspect of earth as well as their own society. In myths, Greek gods & heroes often represented key aspects of the human civilization. From Greek mythology, we can learn about the favorable characteristics of humans, such as their behavior and valuable skills that were approved of by the ancient Greek society. We can also learn about what was viewed as immoral or of little value. In addition, reviewing the Greek myths allows us to determine that the Greek society was generally a patriarchal society and agricultural and war were strong elements that shaped the ancient Greek society.

The sculptures in Greece are numerous, Greek art is considered greater than the Roman art yet almost half of the art we think is Greek is a Roman copy of Greek’s original. Not all Roman art is imitated from the Greeks. Greek sculptures measurements were related to human scale and organic form of the human body (anatomy). Greek artists signed their works, which in time made them famous. There are different styles of sculptures (art) first style to appear is the archaic style, Sculptures of human figures started appearing in Ancient Greece they called this period the Archaic period, and they were inspired from Egypt’s techniques but the Greeks adapted their own style and taste into their sculptures. The Greeks used mainly two materials to sculpt which is marble and bronze by the lost wax process. One of the first sculptures to appear was the New York Kouros it was cut out of pure marble and showing the spaces between the legs of the sculpture. In the archaic period, sculptures of females were called Korai the sculptures mainly show who serve Athena (The Greek

During the classical period from 500 to 300 B.C., the ancient Greeks experienced an age of long-lasting cultural developments. The developed in the areas of democracy, literature, but most importantly in art because art embodies that Greeks ideas and theories to be perfectionists.

Made from parian marble sculpted separately before being fixed with vertical legs, this piece of art is usually thought to portray Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of physical love and beauty. Venus de Milo is a statue of a naked woman with no arms, restoration experts have said that the statues arms and original base or plinth have been lost almost since the work arrived in Paris in 1820. It has been said that this was partly due to an error of identification because when the statue was originally reassembled, the other pieces that came of the left hand and arm were not believed to belong to it because of their overall rough appearance.This goddess is often shown with mystery, her attitude always tends to be unknown. However to this day, many experts are confident that these additional pieces were part of the original work of art despite the variation in the final product since it was often common to spend less time and effort to the parts believed to be less visible of a sculpture, Many sculpture reconstruction experts guess that the separately carved right arm of the Venus de Milo laid across her torso with her right hand rested on her raised left knee, hence her clasping the clothing covering

Ushistory.Org states “Ancient Greek art emphasized the importance and accomplishments of human beings. Even though much of Greek art was meant to honor the gods, those very gods were created in the image of humans”( Ushistory.org, 1). Ancient Greek sculptures made of either stone or wood and very few this day. Some sculptures the greeks made were freehanded, human form and preferred nudes. The Greeks saw beauty in the naked human body. Hemingway also states “Ancient Greek architects strove for the precision and excellence of workmanship that are the hallmarks of Greek art in general. The formulas they invented as early as the sixth century B.C. have influenced the architecture of the past two millennia.” (Hemingway.1) Without greek architecture other people would not have got some ideas of them.