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Learn MoreLectures on Greek History and Culture
Lectures on Greek History and Culture
A series of lectures for beginners in Greek history, culture, and philosophy.
Created byBen Lugosch
Last updated 3/2022
English
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Course content
5 sections • 60 lectures • 27h 33m total length
- Synopsis of all of Greek history32:53An overview of Greek history.
- The Pre-Greek Cultures of the Cycladic Islands and Crete57:51
Explore the bronze age cultures of the Cycladic islands and Crete, the classic culture and the Minoans, before the Greek arrival around 1300 BCE, and trace linear a writing.
- The Late Bronze Age (AKA Mycenaean Age)1:00:42
- The Dark Age46:57
This lecture traces the dark age decline after the Mycenaean bronze age, its invasions and loss of writing, and the rise of the polis and geometric art.
- The Archaic and Classical Ages53:30
Explore the archaic and classical ages of Greece, tracing the polis origins, democracy, art and architecture innovations, and the rise of empire culminating in Alexander the Great.
- The Hellenistic Age54:33
Explore the transition from archaic and classical Greece to the Hellenistic age, tracing Macedonian expansion, Rome’s rise, and the era’s vibrant culture, science, and art.
- Statuary of the Archaic Style33:44
- Statuary of the Severe or Transitional Style13:12
Trace the transition from archaic to severe style in fifth-century Greek sculpture, detailing contra posto, motion in the curteous boy and Poseidon, and the Lapiths and centaurs tableau at Olympia.
- Statuary of the Classical Period13:00
Explore the high classical period of Greek statuary (450–400 BCE), driven by Phidias and Pericles, and the canon's proportions shaping ideal yet real figures for the Parthenon’s Athena.
- Statuary of the Late Classical and Hellenistic Periods 47:58
Explore late classical and Hellenistic statuary, where private commissions spurred emotionally charged, lifelike sculpture. See dramatic poses, contrapposto, and three-dimensional works like the boxer and Aphrodite.
- Pottery Shapes Part 112:23
Explore how Greek pottery shapes reveal function and meaning, examining amphora, audibles, hydra, crater, kylix, lekhithos, and related painting styles to infer use and date.
- Pottery Shapes Part 25:20
- Pottery Shapes Part 3 (Review)2:19
- Dating Pottery by Styles Part 120:48
Learn how Greek pottery dates artifacts by painting styles, from proto geometric to red-figure, including orientalising and Prato attic, with motifs like meander and Odysseus and Polyphemus.
- Dating Pottery by Styles Part 211:31
Identify pottery by shape, style, and date ranges from proto geometric through orientalizing to red figure, linking attic and Corinthian traditions with Panathenaic prizes.
- Greek Temples Part 141:36
Describe the purpose and evolution of Greek temples as sanctuaries for cult statues and offerings, from wooden origins to stone monuments, and learn core terms like naos, stylobate, and peripteral.
- Greek Temples Part 217:44
Explore how Greek temples preserve the look of wooden originals on the exterior, detailing the stereobait and stylobait, the entablature with architrave, frieze, pediment, and the Doric and Ionic orders.
- Greek Temples Part 39:52
Explore Greek temple architecture through iconic buildings on the Acropolis and Epidaurus, and learn to identify Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, with elements like stylobate, architrave, frieze, and pediment.
- Homer's Post-Apocalyptic World47:52
In the first lecture of the unit on Homer and the Iliad, we look at Homer's world.
- The Invention of the Alphabet24:56
- The Oral Tradition23:02
Explore how Greek bards preserved epic tales through oral performance in the dark ages, and how the alphabet's arrival reshaped the Iliad and Odyssey.
- The Iliad Book 0144:00
This lecture analyzes book one of the Iliad, tracing Achilles' wrath, Apollo's plague on the Greeks, and the prize dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles near Troy.
- The Iliad Book 0335:24
- The Iliad Book 0430:27
Trace how Homer's Iliad book 4 unfolds from Paris judgment to Helen's drama, as Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite drive alliances, and Pandarus's bow rekindles the war.
- The Iliad Book 0539:37
Book five of the Iliad traces an oresteia moment of battlefield excellence as a warrior gains momentum with Athena's aid, while Aphrodite and Apollo intervene for Aeneas and others.
- The Iliad Book 06 (1)41:42
- The Iliad Book 06 (2)38:07
Analyze Iliad book six, tracing the war’s disruption of social order and contrasting Hector with Alexandros, while exploring themes of pity, heroism, and Homeric cycles.
- The Ekphrasis of Achilles's Shield25:19
- The Iliad Book 06 to the End (1)23:21
Explore how the embassy to Achilles unfolds, with Phoenix, Ajax, and Odysseus shaping the appeal, the Patroclus tragedy, and the shield's ekphrasis fueling armor motifs.
- The Iliad Book 06 to the End (2)29:01
- The Iliad Book 2424:00
- Iliad: After the Iliad39:07
This lecture takes up some of the stories associated with the saga of the Trojan War but not included in either of the Homeric epics.
- What did the Greeks think of Helen?23:20
The lecture surveys how ancient Greeks imagined Helen across Homer, Euripides, Sappho, and Herodotus, debating blame, agency, and the war’s cause, and previews a later defense of Helen.
- The Defense of Helen by Gorgias27:59
- The Trial of Helen in Euripides's Trojan Women47:57
Explore Euripides's Trojan Women, focusing on Helen's trial scene and chorus responses as a critique of tragedy conventions, gods, and Athenian politics.
- Iliad: Review of Key Images and Texts5:02
This is a review of images only. There is no audio this time.
- Dark Ages To Cyrus the Great21:22
Trace Greek identity from the dark ages through the rise of the polis and early democracy, as Herodotus, the father of history, frames Persian threats and Croesus stories.
- The Ionian Revolt24:11
Greeks in Ionia rise against Persian rule, a revolt described by Herodotus as sparked by aristocrats seeking Persian aid to topple Naxos and gain a western beachhead.
- The Battle of Thermopylae35:48
Explore the battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans and thousands of Greek allies delay Xerxes' vast Persian army in a narrow pass, endure betrayal, and enact a legendary last stand.
- The Battles of Artemisium and Salamis32:29
Explore the battles of Artemisium and Salamis, where Themistocles drives Greek resistance against Xerxes, shaping naval strategy, the wooden walls prophecy, and Artemesia's pivotal role.
- The Spartans32:21
- Introductory Comments on Greek Philosophies13:08
Explore Greek philosophies through the unrestricted use of the mind to understand the cosmos and human experience, tracing Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and the rise of Epicureanism and Stoicism.
- The Milesians40:09
Explore how the Milesians advance natural philosophy by seeking unifying principles from water and air. Trace Aristotle's view that all people by nature desire to know and pursue first principles.
- Parmenides And Heraclitus 19:19
Explore the pre-socratic quest to explain motion, tracing the Milesian matter to Parmenides' 'Nothing comes from nothing' and what is is not, and contrast with Heraclitus' all is flux.
- The Sophistic Movement 29:37
- Socrates 36:20
Discover how Socrates, an unpaid local teacher who wrote nothing, used dialectic to test beliefs, contrasting with the sophists and preserved by Plato's dialogues.
- Execution Of Socrates 12:15
- Plato Phaedo 1 Of 713:33
Discover how Socrates argues that philosophers do not fear death, because the soul pursues absolute truth beyond the body's distractions, seeking ultimate reality.
- Plato Phaedo 2 Of 77:59
- Plato Phaedo 3 Of 712:30
Explore the immortality of the soul through the recollection theory, showing how memory and pre-birth knowledge reveal that learning is recollection and the soul endures beyond death.
- Plato Phaedo 4 Of 710:29
- Plato Phaedo 5 Of 714:00
- Plato Phaedo 6 of 713:03
- Plato Phaedo 7 Of 717:02
Plato's Phaedo finalizes the immortality of the soul, outlines the afterlife, judgment, and ascent toward a Platonic heaven through philosophy.
- Aristotle Introduction 24:17
Explore Aristotle's empiricist approach, contrasting him with Plato, and see how ethics emerges from politics, grounded in human nature and life in a city, aiming for long-term happiness.
- Aristotle "The Ethics"29:54
Aristotle argues the ultimate good is happiness achieved through a rational, virtuous life guided by the mean between excess and deficiency, developed by habit.
- Aristotle "Hard" Teachings 10:20
- Epicureanism I44:52
Explore epicureanism and Epicurus's atomic, void-based physics, the non-teleological cosmos, and the claim that gods are non-punitive and death is nothing to us, guiding a life of tranquility.
- Epicureanism II25:45
Epicureanism, revived by Epicurus, grounds ethics in atomistic physics and a hedonistic calculus, balancing kinetic pleasures with static pleasure while denying immortality and acknowledging divine indifference.
- Epicureanism III26:17
Description
Over the years, I've taught many different kinds of classics courses to all kinds of different audiences. This class on Udemy is a distillation of the topics that students have responded to most positively and have most often asked about. We start with a look at the physical world of the Greeks, and then take up the Iliad of Homer. After that we look in detail how Herodotus presents the beginning of the great conflict between Greece and Persian, and finish up with an overview of the various Greek philosophers.
If you're taking a class in Greek culture somewhere and need a little help, or if you are a motivated autodidact, I'm sure you'll find these lectures a good step forward in your understanding and appreciation of the world of the Greeks.
Thanks for having a look!
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