Ancient Greek civilization: Ancient Greece was located in the northeastern part of the Mediterranean. In addition to the current Greek Peninsula, it also included the Aegean Sea, Macedonia, Thrace, the Italian Peninsula and Asia Minor. This land witnessed the two earliest civilizations in Europe: the Minoan civilization and the Mycenaean civilization. In the fifth and sixth centuries BC, the brilliant Greek civilization emerged.

In the history of world civilization, ancient Greek civilization is renowned for its unique style and outstanding achievements. It is even said that "it must be called Greece". Shelley once sang in a poem: "We are all Greeks." Greece is the birthplace and cradle of European civilization. Without Greece, it is impossible to imagine what European civilization would be like. The legacy of Greek civilization is everywhere in the Western world today. Tradition. However, except for the citizens living on the Greek peninsula who consider themselves Greeks, few people think of themselves as Greeks with philosophical imagination like Shelley. So who are the Greeks?

History shows that the Mycenaeans, the conquerors of Crete and the destroyers of Troy, were one of the earliest residents of Greece. Later, they became slaves of the northern barbarians and gradually divided into Dorics and Ionians. They all had the same beliefs and language, so they were called Greeks.

In the 12th century BC, the Aegean civilization was seriously damaged by the invasion of northern barbarians. But the unyielding Greeks re-established the splendid Greek civilization on the ruins of a rich civilization and became the true ancestors of European civilization.

The Greek peninsula, which entered the slave society, established more than 200 slave city-states. Each city-state formed a country of varying sizes with the city as the center and the rural areas on the outskirts of the city, each with its own governance. The most powerful of these were Athens and Sparta. Because the country is poor and the people are poor, in order to survive and develop, there are constant wars between the city-states. In order to preserve themselves and plunder wealth, the city-states implement the policy of strengthening the country and the army, implement democratic politics within the city-state, and free people directly participate in the governance of the city-state. , attaches great importance to the training of national physical fitness, so managing the country and exercising are the sacred duties of every citizen.

Mainland Greece has a pleasant climate, abundant sunshine, and moderate temperatures. Under such natural conditions, it is suitable for outdoor naked exercise and competition. Due to the nude movement, people's concepts have changed. They are no longer ashamed of exposing their bodies, but are proud of a healthy body. This has attracted the attention of aesthetes and the performance of artists. Aestheticians have discovered the beauty of the human body, and artists have created beautiful human bodies. The great statesman Pericles said: "We are people who love beauty." The Greek nation is a nation that loves beauty and creates beauty.

In an environment of democracy, freedom and fierce competition, the Greeks not only discovered, nurtured and created beauty, but also created gods. In the minds of the Greeks, the most perfect person is the god, so the Greeks respect Human beings are raised to the level of gods and affirmed. Gods and humans are of the same type. The Greeks regard a strong body as the origin of all goodness and beauty, and regard Greek mythology as the spiritual origin of art, as Marx pointed out of: "Greek mythology is not only the arsenal of Greek art, but also its soil."

Ancient Greek mythology: Greek mythology originated in the ancient times of Greece. It has been passed down orally for a long time and is a collective creation of the ancient Greeks. It is scattered in Homer's epics, Hesiod's "Theogony" and In later literature, history and other works, the image or storyline of the same mythical character often appears to be different or even contradictory in the works of different writers. The common systematic Greek myths now are all compiled by later generations based on ancient books.

Greek mythology mainly includes two parts: stories about gods and heroic legends. The collection of stories about gods and heroic legends is scattered in "Homer's Epic", Hesiod's "Theogony" and classical literature. period literature, history, and philosophy.

The stories of gods mainly include stories about the creation of the world, the birth of gods, the genealogy of gods, the change of dynasties in heaven, the origin of mankind and the daily activities of gods. In the imagination of the ancient Greeks, mountains, rivers, trees, sun, moon, sea and land, even the rainbow after the rain, and the narcissus on the riverside, are all the figures of gods; life, old age, sickness and death, misfortune, success or failure all depend on the will of gods, and they created huge gods. family. Zeus is the leader of the gods, Poseidon is the god of the sea, Hades is the god of the underworld, Apollo is the god of the sun, Artemis is the god of hunting, Ares is the god of war, and Hephaestus is the god of fire. Hermes is the god of commerce, the nine Muses are the goddesses of literature and art, and the three Moiras are the goddesses of fate. The gods lived on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece, and so on.

The gods in Greek mythology are different from the gods in other more developed religions. They are very close to secular life. Most of the gods are very much like the nobles in the clan. They are willful, love pleasure, have strong vanity, jealousy and revenge. They like to fight for power and gain. From time to time, they sneak down the mountain and have affairs with beautiful men and women in the world. Most gods, represented by Zeus, like to play tricks on humans, and even plan to destroy humans repeatedly. Ancient Greeks often laughed at the evil of gods and accused gods of injustice in their myths. Homer's epic poem once said, "God brings fear and pain to poor people, but God himself lives a happy and worry-free life." However, there are also great gods like Prometheus who benefit mankind. Prometheus stole fire from heaven into the human world, which brought about epoch-making progress for mankind. Zeus nailed him to the Caucasus Mountains and released evil eagles to eat his liver every day.

Heroic legends are memories of ancient history, social life, and man’s struggle against nature.

Heroes are regarded as the offspring of gods and humans, and are actually representatives of collective strength and wisdom. Heroic legends have formed many systems centered on different families, including the Trojan War, Heracles completing the Twelve Great Deeds, King Theseus of Athens getting rid of harm to the people, Jason leading the heroes to capture the Golden Fleece and other popular stories. Among them, Achilles recorded in "Homer's History", it is said that the oracle predicted that he would have two fates: either live a long life in obscurity; or die gloriously on the battlefield. The mother loves her son so much that she disguises him as a girl, but the wise man Odysseus recognizes him. Achilles went to the battlefield to fight the Trojans and made countless feats. His mother predicted that he would be buried under the city of Troy, but he still stood up to fight, which reflected the courageous spirit of the Greeks.

Another example is the widely circulated story of Hercules completing the Twelve Great Deeds. Hercules was a famous strongman who strangled a water snake in his cradle. When he was young, the goddess of evil and virtue came to seduce him to take the path of pleasure, but he followed the advice of the goddess of virtue and determined to defy hardships and benefit everyone. Legend has it that after he became an adult, he killed the nine-headed poisonous dragon and the snake-haired succubus Medusa. He even went to the lower world to defeat Hades, rescued the imprisoned Theseus back to the world, and made them husband and wife. Live a happy life. The story about Hercules is full of heroic spirit and reflects the ancient people's precious qualities of loving labor and cherishing the collective.

Tips on ancient Greek civilization:

Greece: The word "Greece" means elegance and beauty. The ancient Greeks who created a splendid and glorious ancient civilization are worthy of this elegant and beautiful name.

Homer’s epic: The blind poet Homer compiled a comprehensive collection of epic short songs circulated orally in Asia Minor, including "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey". It is a milestone in the history of European literature. It is like an encyclopedia, containing knowledge such as astronomy, geography, history, society, philosophy, art and mythology. "The Iliad" describes the story of the Trojan War, and "The Odyssey" describes the story of the Greek hero Odysseus' return home after the Trojan War. The Odyssey is the first work in European literature to feature personal encounters as its main content.

Music: The Greeks called music Muse, and Muse refers to the nine goddesses responsible for managing music in Greek mythology. At that time, this word was not what we now refer to as music. Rather, it includes poetry, drama, and all other arts. The word music today refers to comes from this.

Drama: The world’s dramatic art first appeared in ancient Greece about 2,400 years ago. There were three major tragedians in ancient Greece, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, as well as a major comedy writer.

Sappho: the first famous female poet in the history of Western literature. Some people have compared her to Homer, and others have called her the tenth goddess of poetry.

History: Herodotus, who lived in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, is recognized as the first important historian in ancient Greece. He traveled throughout the East and collected many legends. Later, His work developed into a history of the Greek-Persian wars. His work is fluent and solemn. It is not only an important historical document, but also an important literary work. It can be compared with China's Sima Qian's "Historical Records".

Ancient Greek philosophers:

▼Socrates, Plato and Aristotle together created today’s Western philosophical thought.

▼Anaximander - the man who drew the first global map.

▼Anaxagoras - the first person to imagine that moonlight is the reflection of sunlight, and also the first to use the idea that the moon's shadow covers the earth and the earth's shadow covers the moon to explain solar eclipses and Lunar eclipse people.

▼Pythagoras - ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician. He was the first to discover the Pythagorean Theorem.

▼Heraclitus - His famous saying is: "One cannot step into the same river twice, because both the river and the person are different."

▼Thales - Thales believed that all things are composed of water, and water is the source of all things.