In Ancient Greece the some of the main arts were dram and art like paintings and sculptures. Also some pottery and ceramics. Myron, Phidias, Polyclitus, Praxiteles, Scopas, and Lysippus are some of the most famous artist in Ancient Greece.
Some of the architecture in Greece was dominated by religion and so temples of ancient Greece were the biggest and most beautiful. They also had a political purpose as they were often built to celebrate power and pride, or offer thanksgiving to the patron deity of a city for success in war. So some of the different types of Greek architectural system were called orders, each with their own distinctive proportions and detailing. there were three different types of orders in Ancient Greece called doric, ionic, and corinthian. Doric is were the top is plain and ionic is thinner and more classic. its top is also decorated with a scroll like design, and corinthian has different types of deigns and is mostly a roman template.
In Ancient Greece pottery was important to them for storage. Everything was stored in pottery from wheat to wine. Pottery was made by a wheel. Most of there pottery was known for geometric designs. Their pottery showed there gods and everyday life. Most of their clay was red from iron. The cost of pottery was from one to two drachmas. But with more designs the pottery was more expensive.
The Ancient Greeks love brightly painted pantings. Most of their paintings were mostly made of marble. Fresco was a famous artist in Ancient greece and loved to paint murals on walls. To this day there are few wall murals still up today. Greeks also used titles and rocks of different colors to create floor mosaics. One Mosaic found at Olynthus reportedly cost 3,500 drachmas, or the equivalent of ten years of wages for the average worker. Only the wealthiest of the Greeks had Mosaic paintings
The Greeks had lots of different types of literature. Around 700 BC, Homer wrote two connected epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Epics are long poems which tell the story of a hero. To this day these epics still exist and have been translated for us to read to day.
Two early Greek examples of poetry are Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days, both from around 700 BC. There are also many other of shorter poems by Archilochus and Sappho from the 600's BC. Sappho's poems are the only surviving literature by a Greek woman.
Theater in Ancient Greece was very interesting. Three well known Greek tragedy playwrights of the fifth century are Sophocles, Euripedes, and Aeschylus. Comedy was aProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

important part of ancient Greek theatre. All comedies of note during this time are by Aristophanes. Aristophanes, who competed in the major Athenian festivals, wrote 40 plays.
So the Greeks had many types of arts styles and cultures. They are a very fancating culture.

athenian housing

Athenian Housing
Housing for the Athenians seems like a joke for us today, but back then it was the only protection and shelter they had, which was not good enough.
The city had no planned housing and houses were built where the owners wanted to build their house. The random development caused houses to be very varied in price and extremely varied throughout the whole city. As one of socrates statements was written down it expressed how varied and difficult housing prices were. Socrates states to his rich friend krioboulos, “I expect that if I found a good buyer, everything [the barn and fields] including the house would fetch 5 minai, whereas your house, I bet, would sell for more than a hundred times that amount”. The majority of the housing was poor and simple. The great ... wrote that “Most of the houses are mean, the pleasant ones few. A stranger would doubt, on first acquaintance, that this was really the renowned city of the Athenians.” This clearly states the Athenians effort for the construction of houses and shelter for themselves and their families were way below minimum standards for a city like Athens.
Up to three generations of the same family, along with wives and children, lived in one extremely small to moderately large house, which was insanitary and very crowded all of the time. The daughters would move out to their husbands house when they were married. When they married the bride permanently moved to the grooms house.

The houses were of no use to the protection of families or valuable items. The walls were so thin and weak that people could literally knock a hole through the wall and enter the house. The walls were made of brick that could be baked but was not necessary. We get the term burglar, which literally means “wall digger”, from the robbers ability to just go through walls steal and then disappear, thanks to these weak walls they could.
Very few houses are left even partially preserved today, but there are a few houses of the bronze age that were hit by a volcano and perfectly preserved. Quite a few with paintings all over the walls and even though the second floor was gone one the best examples, the rest of the building was still perfect and most of the second floor was salvageable. Even though these houses were found untouched, the houses before the golden age were, like stated, very simple, varied, and unstable. The previous houses also lacked any sort of luxury, which was not normal for the Athenians.
At first housing was hard and complex for the Athenians. Later on they were able to prefect housing, the costs to build and sell, and the structural stability for a stable shelter.

Daily Life Essay (Metic)

In Ancient Greece, the populations of poleises were greatly made up of foreingers/aliens. Whether they were just stopping in for some sight-seeing, doing business, or even taking up a temporary residence they did not get the same rights as born-citizens even if they worked the same, and sometimes, were even more powerful due to their common successes. Although many of the poleises labeled themselves as democracies, with so many aliens occupying their land they adjusted the cognizant meaning a bit more to work with their desired ways of running their government.

To be so lucky as to be referred to as “a metic” and to be quasi-accepted within that city was a cherished rarity. When a metic, you were, “halfway house on the way to citizenship, though a metic’s chances of becoming a citizen were always doubtful at best. They always remained citizens of their native poleis” (Evans). The mass majority of the immigrated citizens couldn’t rise to that status and were, surprise-surpise, frowned upon, shunned, and treated harshly due to their differences. When considered a medic your rights were still unfairly limited. For example, you could not legally be married with an Athenian, and were not protected through Athenian law. However, you could actively participate in a commercial life. Also, foreigners could not invest in property, however, could invest in an prominent asset and money-maker at that time, slaves.

For a metic to even be able to live in a city, it was necessary for each metic to have a citizen acting as a sponsor for him, be registered in the deme (his residenciary town) as they keep lists of citizens, and pay a head tax annually (metoikion) as well as the same taxes an average citizen needed to. In addition, you could not own property on Athenian land without a special privilege granted. And yet, it was required to serve in the army where they often were the ones rowing the warships. Even with much being throw against them, it is likely (although there aren’t enough statistics to back up this hypothesis) in many cities metics were dominating the trades. Metics often increased their already steady income through the generous loans commonly given out.

“As the Hellenistic age wore on, there was a subtle change in the status of metic in Athens,” (Evans). Through evidence have we uncovered inscriptions indicating the requirements for citizenship grew more relaxed. For example, the metoikion disappeared and should one of your parents be a citizen, you were accepted by society. This occurred in not just Athens and “made the old exclusive citizenships increasingly obsolete,” (Evans). The values towards citizenship did not wear away with time and should a metic have citizenship they must have felt a sense of belonging and could now own property and the hosting of the city’s religious cults was now accessible. Throughout time, foreigners/metics were given more lee-way and were accepted at a positively respected level.

Works Cited

Evans, James A. Daily Life Online - Login. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. <http://dailylife.greenwood.com>.

*** WHEN COPIED AND PASTED IT ISN'T DOUBLE SPACED :/ ALSO CHOPPED MY TITLE OFF...L A M E ***

-Emilie

theocracy

Theocracy is a form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the state's supreme civil ruler, or in a broader sense, a form of government in which a state is governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. An example of this would be a monarchy.
A strength of this is the befit of the people of Muslim belief because they go by there gods laws such as no drinking and homosexuality.
A weakness of this would be that you might be force to believe in a religion that you don't support.

Totalitarianism is when a party/faction realizes ways to absolute power over the state and takes command for a specific purpose. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini coined the term totalitario in the early 1920s to describe Italy in its new form. By the beginning of World War II, “totalitarian” had become known as an absolute and oppressive single-party government. Some goods that can come out of it is since it is only 1 party it can stabilize a chaotic situation, but there is a lot more bad. Totalitarianism is bad in many more ways. Even though it helps stabilize the government in shaky situations it poses total control under the certain faction. The state is now being controlled by collective rule that are always focused on mostly one goal, and therefor they can use propaganda to further they’re rule and further the funding for whatever they want and eventually give the state nothing but imbalance and usually destruction.

Oligarchy Response

1.) WHAT IS IT? HOW DOES IT WORK?

An Oligarchy is, simply put, a government run by those from a specific group/clique that are normally more dominant or powerful. Because not everyone is creme-of-the-crop or meet the high standards set, an Oligarchy is one ruled by few and as such, pretty small. An example, (only sliiighhtttly controversial) is a Gov't run by the rich/wealthy.

2.) STRENGTHS:

The strengths in having such an exclusively setup government are as followed. With such a specific group of people, normally the more privileged, it presents a "better" opportunity for those they rule. The people running an Oligarchy seem to think that because they are at such a high advantage in life with all the classy-upbringings, money, opportunities etc. that they deserve and are more fit to run a government then those lesser than them. Yet, just because you might have gone to a more elite school, or are more financially sound than some others, are you really better? Perhaps you failed that school or don't know how to spend your money wisely or effectively. Due to their "pure" breeding, and high class they have had more access towards education and opportunities though. They were given the chance to succeed and there is a higher chance that they are smarter, academically, and with their money they have less boundaries as to what they can do. With an oligarchy it's more founded on everything that's not skin deep. A great education and a large financial sum are HELPFUL in a government, but does it shape or SHOULD it shape it? The less...elite might have better morals or ideas as to how the government should function. Although, theirs might be based on a lower-scale due to the opportunities given academically. The benefits of living under an Oligarchy as a citizen are the reassurance that you're being run by a very powerful, highly educated group of people.

3.) WEAKNESSES:

Weaknesses in an Oligarchy are that with such a small, specific group of people they could easily become arrogant, self-absorbed, and get power happy. If they are the only ones in control then there really isn't any room for a balance. In America, for example, we have a Republican side & a Democratic side to even each other out. So that the Government isn’t overwhelmingly run in just one direction, adding in some differences to counterbalance it are healthy. With an Oligarchy there isn’t any room for changes. It would all go in one direction with no one to exactly protest because they’re all on the same side. A form of Government built and run simple on the foundation/background of those running it is so risky. Although a higher education and a more privileged upbringing are positive additions to a government, it should not be the foundation. Many great leaders have come from a lesser background. This does NOT make them lesser of a person.

WORKS CITED:

www.dictionary.com
www.wikipedia.com

ORDER:
-Wasnaa
-Emilie
-Alessio

Blog Credit Check

For these first two posts, the grade is simply credit/no credit.

Taylor
Origins of Athens - Half-credit
Greece Links - Credit

Emilie
Origins of Athens - Credit
Greece Links - Credit

David
Origins of Athens - Credit
Greece Links - No Credit

Let me know if you posted and I missed it.