John Yowan Hour
1
Ms. Keeley Type
3
Freshman English
12 December 2002
The contributions to
Western Civilization from the ancient Greeks were architecture, mathematics,
philosophy, art, pragmatic plays, and sports.
The
Greek architecture is still used today on many buildings. The columns, Doric,
Ionic, and Corinthian are used on houses, museums and some government
buildings. Columns are mainly for aesthetic purposes. This form of architecture
is used on the White House.
The
Greeks contributed in mathematics. Western Civilization got Geometry from the
Greeks. The Greek mathematician Euclid was the founder of Geometry. He got
people to think about higher mathematics. With Geometry we are able to make new
things by helping us design such things as buildings, cars and many other
things.
Philosophy
used in Western Civilization came from the Greeks. We learned to think, ask
questions about life and to reason. Some of the great Greek philosophers were
Homer, Socrates, and Aristotle.
Western
Civilization also got drama from the Greeks. The two types of drama are comedy
and tragedy. A famous playwright in Ancient Greece was Sophocles. Sophocles was born about 496 BC in Colonus
Hippius (now part of Athens); he was to become one of the great playwrights of
the golden age. Sophocles helped influence the way drama is today by
adding more actors to his plays.
Western Cavitations have television shows and plays that
would not exist without the Greeks.
Another
major thing Western Civilization got form the Greeks is sports. Greeks were the
starters of the Olympics. The ancient Olympics began in the early 700 BC, in
honor of Zeus. No women were allowed to watch the Olympic games. Pottery dating
from around 550 BC shows men taking part in the games naked or wearing only a
thong. They had competitions in sports between city-states. Some of the Greek
sports were marathon running, discus throwing, short distance running,
wrestling, and boxing.
Ancient
Greece included many islands in the Ionian and Aegean seas and the Balkan
Peninsula south of Macedonia. The main area of Ancient Greece covered about
Thirty thousand square miles. The Greeks also regarded the colonies they
founded overseas as belonging to Greece. These include many towns in southern Italy
and Sicily, wealthy cities in what is now Turkey and trading posts scattered
around the Black Sea. The Ancient Greeks also colonized settlements as far away
as Sudan, India and Portugal.
The
people of Ancient Greece had a mixed European heritage. There was not enough
land to support more than Two million people, as a result of the shortage of
land many people born in Greece moved to overseas colonies. Greek society
varied from one state to another. However most consisted of these three
classes; citizens, slaves, and resident aliens or noncitizens. The Greeks
usually only allowed citizenship to people whose father was a citizen. Citizens
were the only people allowed to take part in the government and the only ones
that could own land.
The
peoples of Ancient Greece made many major contributions to the world, some of
which are still in use today.