Author: root

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Ancient Greece: Song of Seikilos

 

Channel: Toyotomi
Duration: 2:20
Description: This song is one of the earliest examples yet found of a complete musical composition from the ancient world. Although other songs have been found that pre-date ‘The Song of Seikilos’ by many centuries, they only survive in fragments. Seikilos carved the song on a grave pillar in dedication to his wife. The Grave was discovered in 1883, near Aydin in Turkey. Archaeologists believe it dates between 200 BC and AD 100.

Seikilos also inscribed a poem on the gravestone, it reads:

“Hoson zēs, phainou
Mēden holōs sy lypou;
Pros oligon esti to zēn
To telos ho chronos apaitei.”

In English:

“As long as you live, shine,
Let nothing grieve you beyond measure.
For your life is short,
and time will claim its toll.”

Published: September 6, 2008 11:22 pm

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The Human Body in Ancient Greek Art and Thought

 

Channel: Portland Art Museum
Duration: 1:11:9
Description:
IAN JENKINS, PH.D.
SENIOR CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF GREECE AND ROME, BRITISH MUSEUM, Jenkins explores Greek notions of ideal beauty in both nude and draped images of the male and female human bodies. He contrasts the moral aesthetic of sound mind in sound body with other representations to show how the human form served as a bearer of many meanings. Anthropomorphic gods, larger than life heroes, part-human part-animal monsters of myth are all considered as a visual language. His talk concludes with the legacy of the Greek experience in the Roman era and its transmission to the present day.
Published: October 15, 2012 11:34 pm

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Ancient Greece Delphi & the Oracle of Apollo

 

Channel: Ancient Cities
Duration: 23:49
Description: Nearly 2800 years ago, a group of Greek settlers landed on the coast of Italy. That event marked the start the process which created Magna Graecia, named after the motherland. Join us as we walk through the streets of Cumae, Pasteum, Puteoli, and Neapolis, reconstructed using the most advanced computer graphics. Magna Graecia (Latin meaning “Great Greece”, Greek: Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, Megáli Hellás) is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Croton, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north. The colonists, who began arriving in the 8th century BC, brought with them their Hellenic civilization, which was to leave a lasting imprint in Italy, particularly on the culture of ancient Rome. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC, for various reasons, including demographic crisis (famine, overcrowding, etc.), the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle in southern Italy (Cerchiai, pp. 14–18). Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and Massalia (Marseille). They included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy Magna Graecia (Latin, “Great Greece”), since it was so densely inhabited by the Greeks. The ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria — Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With this colonization, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites and its traditions of the independent polis. An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic civilisations. The most important cultural transplant was the Chalcidean/Cumaean variety of the Greek alphabet, which was adopted by the Etruscans; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the Latin alphabet, which became the most widely used alphabet in the world. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis (Νεάπολις, Naples, “New City”), Syracuse, Acragas, and Sybaris (Σύβαρις). Other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum (Τάρας), Epizephyrian Locri (Λοκροί Ἐπιζεφύριοι), Rhegium (Ῥήγιον), Croton (Κρότων), Thurii (Θούριοι), Elea (Ἐλέα), Nola (Νῶλα), Ancona (Ἀγκών), Syessa (Σύεσσα), Bari (Βάριον), and others. Following the Pyrrhic War in the 3rd century BC, Magna Graecia was absorbed into the Roman Republic.
Published: June 15, 2014 12:23 am

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Ancient Greek Art & Society

 

Channel: Carolyn McDowall
Duration: 27:42
Description: The perceived wisdom and wealth of the people who occupied the Mediterranean region in ancient times is both captivating and compelling. In almost every field of their endeavour the Greeks were pioneers. Their considerable achievements in literature, thought and science are but a part of a wonderful Greek legacy that belongs to the world at large.
Published: September 3, 2015 11:46 pm