Western Civ Blog 22

Today in class we read about democracy and Greece's Golden Age. The main idea was that Democratic principles and classical culture flourished during Greece's golden age. It matters now because at its height, Greece set lasting standards in art, politics, literature, and philosophy that are still influential today. Some important terms in the text were direct democracy, classical art, tragedy, comedy, Peloponnesian war, philosophers, socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Direct democracy is a from of government inn which citizens rule directly and not through representatives. Classical art are values of harmony, order, balance, and proportion. Tragedy is a serious drama about common themes such as love, hate, war, and betrayal. Comedy is contained scenes filled with slapstick situations and crude humor. The Peloponnesian war was between 2 city states. the Athens had a stronger Navy, Sparta had a stronger Army. The location made it easy to be attacked from the sea. Philosophers means "lovers of wisdom." we also read about Socrates and Plato. Plato was a student of socrates. He wrote down conversations of socrates "as a means of philosophical investigation." Aristotle was a philosopher. The Athenians democracy is similar to the U.S. democracy in many ways. Some being that they both had 3 branches of government, the legislative branch passes the laws, the political power was exercised by citizens, and the judicial branch conducts trials with paid juniors.