欧洲文化入门复习资料

1、Two major elements in European culture：the Greco-Roman element and the Judeo-Christian element.

2、The Homer epics consists of the Iliad and the

Odyssey.

The Iliad deals with the alliance of the states of the southern mainland of Greece，led by Agamemnon in their war against the city of Troy. The heroes are Hector on the Trojan side and Achilles and Odysseus on the Greek. In the final battle，Hector was killed by Achilles and Troy was sacked and burned by the Greeks.

The Odyssey deals with the return of Odysseus after the Trojan war to his home island of Ithaca. It describes many adventures he ran into on his long sea voyage and how finally he was reunited with his faithful wife Penelope.

3、古希腊三大悲剧家：Aeschylus, Sophocles,

Euripides

Works of Aeschylus：Prometheus Bound，Persians，and Agamemnon .There are only two actors and one chorus in these plays. Aeschylus is noted for his vivid character portrayal and majestic poetry.Works of Sophocles：Oedipus the King，Electra，and Antigone （theme：the difficult choice between public duty and private feeling）. He has had a great impact on European culture. The Oedipus complex（恋母情结）、Electra（恋父情结）were derived from his plays Work of Euripides：Andromache，Medea，and Trojan Women. He was more of a realist than other two. His characters are less heroic，more like ordinary people. He may be called the first writer of “problem plays”

4.Herodotus is often called “Father of History”，wrote about the wars between Greeks and Persians . His history is full of anecdotes and digressions and lively dialogue.

5.Thucydides is more accurate as an historian. He told about the war between Athens and Syracuse ，a Greek state on the island of Sicily. He traced events to their causes and brought out their effects. Macaulay called Thucydides “the greatest historian that ever lived”

6.Pythagoras was a bold thinker who had the idea that all things were numbers. He was t he founder of scientific mathematics.

7.Heracleitus believed fire to be the primary element of the universe，out of which everything else had arisen. To him,“all is flux，nothing is stationary”. He alsosaid，“you cannot step twice into the same river；for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you. The sun is new everyday”he held the theory of the mingling of opposites and believed that it was the strife between the opposites that produced harmony. 8.Democtitus speculated about the atomic structure of matter. Indeed，he was one of the earliest exponents of the atomic theory. He was one of the earliest philosophical materialists and Marx`s first published work was a study of Democritus.

9Socrates taught Plato，who taught Aristotle. They were active in Athens in the 5th and the 4th century B.C.

Socrates was known through Dialogues by Plato. Socrates liked to talk with people in the marketplace and in the streets ，asking and answering questions. He was ready to discuss anything in heaven and earth，specializing in exposing fallacies. When words like justice ，religiousness，virtue，wisdom，ect. Were used by others，he would ask the speaker to explain them and then dissect the answers to show how they were wrong and or illogical. This method of argument，by

questioning and answering，has come to be known as the dialectical method.

Plato showed himself a brilliant stylist，writing with wit and grace. His Dialogues are important not only as philosophical writing but also as imaginative literature. His other works: Apology（Socrates` defense of himself at the trial），Symposium （about beauty and love），and the Republic（about the ideal state ruled by a philosopher but barring poets）

Plato built up a comprehensive system of philosophy. It dealt with the problems of how，in the complex，ever —changing the world，men were to attain knowledge. The reply he gave was：men have knowledge because of the existence of certain general“ideas”，like beauty，truth，goodness. Only these ideas are completely real，while the physical world is only relatively real. For this reason，Plato`s philosophy is called Idealism. Many of his ideas were absorbed into Christian thought

Aristotle studied in Plato`s Academy for years. Later he became the tutor of Alexander the Macedonian King. In him the great humanist and the great man of science meet. On logic, moral philosophy，politics，metaphysics（形而上学），psychology，physics，zoology，poetry，rhetoric，he wrote epoch-making works，which dominated Europe thought for more than a thousand years. He did much to form，through his various and diverse interpreters，the philosophical，scientific and cosmological outlook of an entire world. Dante called him “the master of those who know”

His works：Ethics（an introduction to moral philosophy），Politics，Poetics（a treatise on literary theory），and Rhetoric （dealing with the art of persuading an audience）

Aristotle differed from his teacher in following ways：for one thing，Aristotle emphasized direct observation of nature and insisted that theory should follow fact. This is different from Plato`s reliance on subjective thinking；also，he thought that “form”（idea）and matter together made up concrete individual realities. Here ，he differed from Plato who held that ideas had a higher reality than the physical world

Aristotle thought happiness that could only be achieved by leading a life of reason，goodness and contemplation should be a man`s aim in life.

10.contending schools of thought:百家争鸣

The Cynics：got their name because Diogenes，one of their leaders，decided to live like a dog and the word “cynic”means“dog”in Greek. He rejected all conventions—whether of religion，of manner，dress，housing，food，or of decency. In fact，he lived by begging. He proclaimed his brotherhood，not only with the whole human race，but also with animals. On the other hand，he had no patience with the rich and the powerful

The Sceptics （诡辩学家）followed Pyrrhon，who held

that not all knowledge was attainable. Hence he and his followers doubted t the truth of what others accepted as true.

The Epicureans were disciples of Epicurus，who

believed pleasure to be the highest good in life，but

by pleasure he meant，not sensual enjoyment，but

freedom from pain and emotional upheaval. This

he thought could be attained by the practice of virtue.

His teaching wa s misunderstood by later people

and the word“Epicurean”has come to mean

indulgence in luxurious living. Epicurus

was a materialist.

Opposed to the Epicureans were the Stoics. To them，the most important thing in life was not pleasure，but duty. This developed into the theory that one should endure hardship and misfortune with courage. The chief Stoic was Zeno. He was also a materialist，asserting the existence of the real world. He believed that there is no such thing as chance，and that the course of nature is rigidly determined by natural laws. In the life of an individual man，virtue is the solo good；such things as health，happiness，possessions，are of no account. Since virtue resides in the will，everything good or bad in a man`s life depends only upon himself. If he has to die, he should die nobly，like Socrates.

Greek architecture three styles：a.the Doric style （masculine style. powerful, sturdy, showing a good sense of propotion）, the Ionic style(feminine style), the Corinthian style(oranmental luxury)

There famous temples: the Acropplis at Athens, the Parthenon.

The impact of Greek culture: a,The Greek culture played a vital part in the Renaissance in Italy and other Eruropean countries.b. The Greeks invented mathematics and science and phylosophy. Their spirt of innovation had immence influence in later generations c. The Greek is the birthland of the democracy. d.They set a great example of thinking rationally and logically. e. In literature, they have exerted an influence which can be still felt today. Epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, historical writing f.architecture, sculpture.

Romans and Greeks异同：Common:a. Both peoples had traditions rooted in the idea of cittizen-assembly, hostile to monarchy and to servility. b. Their religions were alike enough for most of their deities to be readily identified-Greek Zeus with Roman Jupiter, Greek Aphrodite with Roman Venus, and so on-and their myth to be fused. c.Their languages worked in similar ways, and were ultimately related, both being members of the Indo-European language family which stretches from Banglandesh to Iceland. Difference: a.The Romans built up a vast empire: The Greeks didn’t. b.The Romans were confident in their military and administrative capabilities. c.The Greeks enjoyed an artistic and intellectural inheritance much richer than the Romans.

Roman peace: The emperors relied on a strong army-the famous Roman regions-and an efficient bureaucracy to exert their rule, which was facilitated by a well-developed system of roads. Thus the Romans enjoyed a long period of oece lasting 200 years, a remarkable phenomenon in history known as the Pax Romana.

Virgil:The greatest of Latin poet, wrote the greatest epic, the Aeneid.

Tragic hero: Aeneas was a truely tragic hero because to fufil his hitoric mission he had to betray the great passion of his life. While he gained an empire, his love for Dido, qyeen of Carhage. While he gained an empire, he lost something no empire could compensate, happiness in life.

The Colosseum:斗兽场It is an enormous amphitheatre built in the centre of Rome in imperial times. It held more than 5000 spectatots.

The relationship between Judaism and Christianity: They are closely related. the Jewish tradition gave birth to Christianity. Both originated in Palestine-the