ARTH Courses | ARTH 209 Assignments
Mid-Term Project
The Parthenon
Our first seminar class is tentatively scheduled for the Tuesday, October
23, and will be devoted to an examination of the Parthenon. Since the Parthenon
is such a central monument in the study of Greek art, we need to gain a good
understanding of its historical and artistic contexts.
Assignment:
We will divide the class up into teams to work together to develop presentations
on the following topics. It is left up to the teams to determine how the material
should be presented. The material for each topic can be subdivided into sub
topics with each student responsible for a sub-topic, or teams can designate
a spokesperson. Whatever format the individual team decides, every student is
expected to be an active contributor. The bibliography at the end of this hand-out
should provide you with the appropriate resources to develop your presentation.
Avoid understanding your presentation as a collection of information, but maintain
your focus on how your particular topic has a bearing on an understanding of
the Parthenon as a whole and its place in Greek Art and History. All students
are expected to have read the required readings, and come prepared to actively
participate in the discussion.
Short Paper:
Each student is required to submit a three to five page paper responding to
the seminar class. It would be impossible to summarize the whole class in the
context of a paper of this scope, so instead you should pick an aspect or general
theme which interests you to be the focus of your paper. Papers can be devoted
to discussions of an individual work or a comparison of works. The papers will
be due the week following the completion of the seminar (tentatively that would
be October 30, but this is subject to change). The paper should be typed, and
will be evaluated principally on the basis of the quality of the thinking presented
in the paper.
List of Topics
1) The Early History of the Acropolis to 480 B.C.
2) Periclean Athens and its position in the Greek world.
3) The Architecture of the Parthenon
4) The statue of Athena Parthenos by Phidias
5) The Metopes of the Parthenon
6) The Panathenaic Festival
7) The Ionic Frieze of the Panathenaic Procession
8) The Pedimental Sculptures of the Parthenon
Bibliography:
What follows just skims the surface of the material available on the Parthenon.
You are encouraged to explore your topic more extensively through the footnote
and bibliographic sources found in these preliminary sources.
Required Reading
Web-page material:Gallery of Images related
to the Parthenon & Parthenon Texts. You are also encouraged to review the page dedicated to the Parthenon I created for the ARTH 200 class.
Osborne, pp 174- 187.
Other Web Links:
The Greeks: the Crucible of Civilization.
Secrets of the Parthenon (show on NOVA)
Suggested Reading:
John Boardman and David Finn, The Parthenon and its Sculpture.
John Boardman, Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period, pp. 90-145.
Paul Cartledge, "The Greek Religious Festivals," in Greek Religion
and Society, P.E. Easterling and J.V. Muir eds., pp. 98-127.
David Castriota, Myth, Ethos and Actuality: Official Art in Fifth-Century
Athens, University of Wisconsin, 1992, especially pp. 134-229.
William Bell Dinsmoor, The Architecture of Ancient Greece, pp. 159-178.
Simon Hornblower, "Greece: The History of the Classical Period,"
in The Oxford History of the Classical World, pp. 124-141.
Jeffrey M. Hurwit, The Art and Culture of Early Greece, 1100-480 B.C.,
pp. 234-253 (for the early history of the Acropolis).
Jennifer Neils ed., Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens, Princeton, 1992. (Available in the Hartwick Library).
J.J. Pollitt, Art and Experience in Classical Greece, pp. 64-110.
Martin Robertson, A Shorter History of Greek Art, pp. 90-106.
Terms:
areté: bravery, courage, personal excellence; later moral virtue.
hybris (hubris): arrogance, insolence, violence, injury, rape.
sophrosyné: self-restraint engendered by self-knowledge.
Athena Promachos or Polias: Athena a protector and champion of the city, and as the patroness of the urban arts and handicrafts.
Athena Nike: Athena of victory.
Athena Parthenos: Athena as warrior maiden.