天津大学西方文化2016 Final Review

Cultural Snapshots: Western Mind

Final Review

Topics We Have Covered

1.Greek Culture

2.Roman Culture

3.Bible & Christianity

4.Middle Ages

5.Renaissance

6.Reformation & Counter-reformation

7.17th Century

8.Enlightenment

9.Romanticism

10.Realism

I．Greek Culture

A.History

Ancient Greece-the cradle of western civilization

1600 BC to about 1100 BC

✓History of Mycenaean Greece: known for the reign of King Agamemnon of Mycenae, and the wars against Troy.

✓Historical setting of the epics of Homer and much other Greek mythology.

the 8th century BC ~323 BC

✓Ancient Greece golden age

✓The reign of Alexander the Great

✓ended with his death in 323 BC.

B.Achievements

1. Epic

✓Homer, the first recorder of former oral epic poems served to entertain the ancient Greeks ✓Author of The Iliad and The Odyssey

✓The two major epics of ancient Greece.

2. Drama

✓Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.) Prometheus Bound

✓Sophocles (496-406 B.C.)Oedipus the King

✓Euripides (484-406) Medea

3. Philosophy

Socrates

✓an influential Greek philosopher

✓dialectical method

Plato

✓ a classical Greek philosopher

✓Idealism

Aristotle

✓ a versatile Greek philosopher

✓insisted theory should follow fact

✓emphasized direct observation of nature

4. Science

Pythagoras

✓considered as the first true mathematician

✓Pythagorean theorem/Proposition

Archimedes

✓“Give me a place to stand, and I will move the world.”

Euclid

✓Euclidean geometry—father of geometry

5. Architecture

✓The Parthenon in Athens --Temple of Athena the Virgin is an enduring symbol of Greek culture

II. Roman Culture

1. Roman Republic

✓The Roman Republic lasted for more than 700 years until around the time of the assassination of Julius Caesar.

✓The power was divided amongst a hierarchy of elected functionaries, the Senate, the Consuls and the Assemblies.

✓Roman citizens were allowed to vote. But women, children and slaves were not entitled to the voting rights.

2. Roman Empire

✓Augustus Caesar was proclaimed Emperor by the Roman Senate in 27 BC.

✓Leadership of Augustus marked the beginning of the Roman Empire

✓Augustus set into motion a process of political and social stability, resulting in a period of 200 years of peace called Pax Romana, the Roman Peace.

✓At the end, the empire was permanently divided into East (the Byzantine Empire, collapsed in 1453) and West(collapsed in 476).

3. Roman Architecture

✓The Colosseum（圆形剧场）is considered to be the best-known amphitheatre in the world. ✓The Pantheon（万神庙）is the greatest and the best preserved Roman temple built in 27 BC and reconstructed in the 2nd century AD.

4. Impact

✓Romans put their system smoothly and quickly into effect wherever they went in the world. ✓Roman law becomes the core of modern civil and commercial law in many Western countries.

✓The Greco-Roman culture took shape and is still reflected in the Western tradition.

III. Bible and Christianity

1. Bible is a collection of religious writings of Christianity, regarded as the essential of western civilization.

✓The Old Testament: God and the laws of God (written in Hebrew)

✓The New Testament: the doctrine of Jesus Christ (written in Greek)

2. The Old Testament

The Old Testament consists of 39 books, written in Hebrew.

The oldest & most important is called the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture, consisting Genesis, Exodus,Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy.

3. The New Testament

The New Testament consists of 27 books, written in Greek.

1.The Gospels: 4 books ---Matthew, Mark, Luke, John