Lectures on Greek History and Culture

Name: Lectures on Greek History and Culture
Rating: 4.6 (691 reviews)

A series of lectures for beginners in Greek history, culture, and philosophy.

Highest Rated

Created byBen Lugosch

Last updated 3/2022

English

English [Auto],

Course content

5 sections • 60 lectures • 27h 33m total length

Synopsis of all of Greek history32:53
An overview of Greek history.
The Pre-Greek Cultures of the Cycladic Islands and Crete57:51
The Late Bronze Age (AKA Mycenaean Age)1:00:42
The Dark Age46:57
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

Statuary of the Archaic Style33:44
Statuary of the Severe or Transitional Style13:12
Statuary of the Classical Period13:00
Statuary of the Late Classical and Hellenistic Periods 47:58
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
Greek Temples Part 217:44
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
The Iliad Book 0539:37
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
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 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.

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
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 "Hard" Teachings 10:20
Epicureanism I44:52
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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Lectures on Greek History and Culture

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Course content

Outlines of Greek History6 lectures • 5hr 6min

Greek Material Culture: A Survey of Pottery, Statuary, and Temples12 lectures • 3hr 49min

Homer and Homer's Iliad18 lectures • 9hr 30min

The Persian Threat5 lectures • 2hr 26min

Greek Philosophers19 lectures • 6hr 41min

Description