"Brilliant Greece, Great Rome" is a high generalization of the cultural characteristics of ancient Greece and Rome.
I. Ancient Greek culture and its cultural characteristics
As a representative of classical culture, ancient Greek culture occupies an extremely important position in the west and even the world. Although Aegean civilization was later than ancient Egyptian civilization, ancient Babylonian civilization, ancient Hebrew civilization and ancient Indian civilization, it had greater influence. In other words, the above-mentioned civilizations have been eliminated in the long river of history, but the spirit of ancient Greek culture has not been annihilated, which shows that its cultural connotation is profound and profound. Greece is a federal city, and each city is an independent slave country. There is no unified political system. The so-called Greek civilization is an all-encompassing civilization, including Athenian civilization, Trojan civilization, Spartan civilization and so on. It pays more attention to literature, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and other sciences, and is generally advanced.
Let's start with ancient Greek literature and philosophy. Ancient Greek literature refers to the literature of the ancient Greek world. Ancient Greek literature in a broad sense covers literature from clan Greek society to Hellenistic era, which lasted nearly 65,438+0,000 years. It is the source of the whole western literature and the first peak of European literature. Ancient Greek literature reflects the real life in Europe during the transition from clan society to slave society. In particular, it reflects people's thinking about the relationship between war and peace and between man and nature in the ancient world. The outstanding heroic behavior in ancient Greece and the great changes in social history are deeply reflected in literary works. These literary works not only laid the foundation for the development of the whole western literature, but also provided rich literature materials for people to study the history and society of the ancient Greek world. It is more representative that the period from 12 BC to the 8th century BC was a transitional period from clan commune system to slavery society in ancient Greece, which was called "the age of heroes" or "the age of Homer" in history. The main achievements of literature in this period are myths and epics, such as Homer's epic. Classical Greek philosophy, or early Greek philosophy, focuses on the task of debate and investigation. In many ways, it paves the way for both modern science and modern philosophy. The influence of early Greek philosophers on later generations never stopped, from early Muslim philosophy to Renaissance, to Enlightenment and modern general science. Famous ancient Greek philosophers mainly include Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
Ancient Greek culture has four main characteristics: 1 and idealism. An important aesthetic thought in ancient Greece is that harmony is beauty. The ancient Greeks put forward the idea of golden ratio very early and applied it to painting and sculpture. The most fundamental idea of Pythagorean philosophy is that the universe and the world are formed according to the relationship and principle of "number", so they are the most harmonious and have the most regularity of number. In literary works, most men have extraordinary strength, handsome appearance and developed muscles. Women have amazing appearance and charming figure. In fact, God has emotional shortcomings like people, but they have divine power that people don't have. In other words, God is just an idealized person. 2. humanism. The core idea of the Renaissance is that humanism is never accidental. Ancient Greek culture played an important role. Greeks attach importance to personal values and pursue freedom. Enjoy. There are often demigod heroes in Greek mythology, such as Heracles, theseus, Poerxiusi, etc. There is no need to mention them. God, like everyone else, pursues femininity and is competitive. 3. Rationalism. Greeks are unrestrained and have the so-called Dionysian feelings. However, compared with other ethnic groups, rationality is more prominent. The ancient Hebrews believed in God, while the Egyptians revered the sun god. Indians worship more. The attitude of the Greeks towards God is not so much worship as yearning. People even dare to play jokes on God. This rationalism enabled Socrates to drink the poisoned wine for truth. The Greeks applied this to philosophy, thinking about the origin of the world and exploring the logic of paradox. Apply it to science, study the buoyancy of lever pulley and discover the mystery of numbers. 4. tragedy. The contradiction between one's own pursuit and fate has formed a tragedy. Strictly speaking, every nation has a tragedy, but Greece is the strongest, and it seems that only Japan is close. Homer's epic is a representative of tragedy. Achilles and Hecktor are two typical tragic figures. The former is the contradiction between one's own pursuit and fate. The latter is the contradiction between one's own thoughts and the national mission. Here, let me introduce ominous. 5. order of magnitude. This is a continuation of the above viewpoint. Tragedy lies not in sadness, but in the grandeur of tragedy. Most Greek epic dramas embody heroism, strong lyricism, high-profile language and short sentences. The Parthenon in Greek architecture is magnificent and the sculpture "Stone Thrower" is handsome, which shows this point.
Second, the ancient Roman culture and its cultural characteristics
Roman civilization was more complicated. Generally speaking, we seem to be talking about the first Roman Empire and the former Roman Republic. Rome is unified in political system and implements federal democracy. It advocated and practiced the concept of democracy earlier. Its political system is very similar to that of the United States today. Compared with Greek civilization, Rome is a powerful country. However, civilization lags far behind Greece. So Roman civilization was inherited from Greece. This is similar to the Yuan and Qing Dynasties in ancient China. Ancient Rome was greatly influenced by Sparta, who advocated will and had the potential prototype of idealism philosophy. In addition, the vast territory of Rome makes Roman civilization more diverse, including inheriting and absorbing Greek civilization, Carthage civilization, Phoenician civilization, Germanic civilization, Egyptian civilization and even early Christian civilization.
I mainly talk about the philosophy and culture of ancient Rome. From the first half of the 2nd century BC, Rome defeated Macedonia and annexed the ancient Greek city-states, until the demise of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, which was the "ancient Roman period" in history. Philosophers in ancient Rome mostly expounded their thoughts by annotating predecessors' works. Although there are many insights, on the whole, they just synthesized the previous philosophy in different forms. Lack of originality. The important philosophical schools in this period included skepticism, Epicurism, Stoga School and Neo-Plato School, all of which contained certain psychological thoughts. We focus on understanding skepticism. The founder of this school is Pyrrho (about 365 BC-275 BC). Rationalism and empiricism bred in early ancient Greek philosophy provided two completely different ways to explore truth, or to believe in internal rationality. Still rely on external perceptual experience. However, Pyrrho believes that reason or feeling cannot provide real knowledge. Therefore, people had better be skeptical about everything, keep silent and don't judge easily. In this way, if you are mentally ignorant and content not to know, you can also achieve inner peace. Pursuing peace of mind is the purpose of life. Pyrrho represents the early skepticism, and later the ancient Romans' love for Naxi Hume.
The two great civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome are the cradles of western culture, two eternal monuments in the history of world culture, and the moderns that westerners relish. The industrious people of ancient Greece and Rome used their wisdom to create amazing masterpieces for us, leaving us a height that neither cultural history nor art history can surpass.