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600 BCE
Sappho's Lyric Poetry (Literature)
Lyric poems are brief, often written for a specific occasion, and express inner thoughts and feelings. The most admired lyric poet of the Ancient Greek world was Sappho. Sappho was the leader of a circle of women devoted to music and poetry. The message of most of her poems are speaking to the younger group members in her group. Sappho's work is so important because in the modern world, it still gets imitated. Her work is timeless, down-to-earth and emotional. -
515 BCE
Parmenides (Philosophy)
Greek philosophical thinker, Parmenides, claimed that the cosmos was a single primal and universal substance-what Parmenides called the, "what-is" as an unchanging perfect sphere encompassing all existence, such that nothing cannot exist, but he further thought that all sense experience was illusion. Parmenides is important because he was the first known philosopher to assert that the world has an objective reality that is unchanged by perception, but that humans make the decisions. -
469 BCE
Socrates (Philosophy)
Socrates, the Athenian who founded classical Greek philosophy without writing a word. Socrates examined human affairs and taught through questioning. Socrates' philosophical technique, now called the Socratic method, was based on question and answer in which the definition of the terms (love, justice, good) produced insights into the truth. Socrates is important because he created the fundamentals of Western philosophy. He also was Plato's (another Greek philosophical thinker) teacher. -
447 BCE
Zeus of Artemision (also called Poseidon) Mid-5th Century BCE (Visual Arts)
In Ancient Greece, Poseidon was the God of the water, creator of storms, and earthquakes. The classical sculpture is one of the only few bronze statues surviving from the period. The figure projects confidence of a god and a hero. The message of the sculpture is to intimidate but to still have "perfect balance." This piece is important because it exhibits how artwork started to closely resemble the human figure in expressive motion, while maintaining harmony and balance. -
441 BCE
Greek Tragedy (Performing Arts)
Greek tragedies were staged in open-air theaters seating up to 15,000 spectators.The most admired Athenian playwright was Sophocles. Sophocles' Oedipus the King was the most admired tragedy of the classical period. It told the story of a man prophesied to murder his father and marry his mother, and like most classical tragedies, it retold a legend already familiar to the audience. Oedipus is one of the most profound characters in Greek tragedy then and now. -
411 BCE
Greek Comedy (Performing Arts)
Comedy is a dramatic form that humorously portrays everyday themes and characters. Originating in Dionysian fertility rites, Greek comedy featured choruses dressed as animals and actors in obscenely padded costumes. The greatest comedian was Aristophanes. Aristophanes' Lysistrata portrays the women of Greece engaging in a sex strike to halt the Peloponnesian Wars. Greek comedies are important because they give an insight into Greek society in general. -
180
Pax Romana (History)
Caesar Augustus established a period of relative peace and prosperity, the Pax Romana. The Pax Romana lasted until the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Pax Romana was basically a long period of relative peacefulness and minimal expansion by the Roman military force experienced by the Roman empire after the end of the final war of the Roman Republic and before the Crisis of the third century. It was very important because everyone was at peace and under Roman law. -
May 2, 1558
Elizabethan Age (History)
England was able to match the Renaissance achievements of Italy and Germany only in the late 16th century. By this time, navigational inventions such as the telescope had helped to expand England's maritime economy, while agricultural production had also increased. The new prosperity and political stability maintained by the English monarchy created the conditions for a Renaissance in England. Although influenced by European fashions, it achieved its own distinctive expressions. -
Encyclopedia (Literature)
The great project of the philosphes (thinkers in Paris) was the Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia was an ambitious attempt to compile systematically all human knowledge. The Encyclopedia was a fulfillment of the belief that reason should enhance humanity's material well-being. The Encyclopedia was so important because it put everyone's thoughts into the same place. The Encyclopedia is still used today. -
Nighthawks by Edward Hopper - 1942 (Visual Arts)
The modernism painting was inspired by a New York restaurant. Hopper stated, "unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city." With that being said, I believe Hopper was trying to portray human isolation and urban emptiness. This piece is important because not only does it exhibit fluorescent lights that were new to the era, but it gives the viewers a glance into 1940's urban culture from the outside. -
Monotheism (Religion)
The Israelites gave the Western religious tradition the unique concept of monotheism, the belief in one all powerful and beneficent god. The Hebrew Bible describes the Israelite God as an all powerful enigma, the author of all creation. Through Moses, God prohibited his followers from representing him in statues and even declined to be named directly. The idea of monotheism is important because it offered a religious alternative to the dominant polytheism. -
Egypt Polytheism (Religion)
The Egyptians believed in many gods, a form of religion known as polytheism. Some gods (some portrayed as animals) had only local powers. Other deities played roles in myths of national significance. The Egyptians believed that life continued unchanged after death, an exception that gave rise to the great pyramids of the Old Kingdom. It's important to understand polytheism because it helps historians understand the Egyptians. Polytheism explains a lot of why the Egyptians did what they did.
