Classical Studies 1000 Lecture 2: CS1000+-+Week+2+Sept+21-25
10 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Neolithic images give us a glimpse into pre-greek culture. There is a tendency to view the greek world in isolation, but this view is steadily losing ground. Greeks and pre-greeks were in constant dialogue with elaborate civilizations to the east. Subsistence economies don"t lend themselves to broad cultural development. Older, more developed civilizations (hittite, egyptian) achieved a level of sophistication and complexity before the greeks did (e. g. epic of gilgamesh) We remain somewhat possessive of the greeks (whom we view as our cultural forebears ), and we don"t like to view them as derivative. View losing ground? (see arguments of m. l. west in the east face of helicon, 1999) For example, homeric warriors are compared to lions (a near- Eastern symbol), but only visual representations are imported, not sound (a lion never roars in. Egypt, to the south of greece, may have influenced greek culture to a great degree. Statuary art ( kouroi statues, and size distortion in statues)
