The Ancient Greece culture has made many contributions to western civilization. The ancient Greeks affected our fine arts, government, sports, medics, and philosophies. The Greek culture has had a very profound impact on the way people live nowadays. One way that ancient Greece affected western civilization is politics. Greece had the first known democracy. The Greek states man Pericles had three goals, to Strengthen Democracy, Hold strength in the empire, and to glorify Athens.
Pericles stated that he wanted all citizens to have an equal opportunity to serve the public. The Greeks affected many of our constitutional rights. In both the US democracy and the Athenian democracy political power can be exercised by citizens. An example of the political power to be exercised by the citizen in Athens was that laws were voted on and proposed directly by assembly of all citizens. In the US when citizens are eighteen and older they are granted the right to vote in political elections.
Both the US and the Athenian government had the Legislative branch, the Executive branch, and the Judicial branch. The Legislative branch passes the laws, the Executive branch carries out the laws, and the Judicial branches had trials with paid jurors. In the US most of the democratic theories that the government uses are either identical or very similar to the Ancient Athenians theories. Ancient Greece’s philosophers have made contributions to western civilization. Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato are some of the most well known philosophers ever.
Socrates was famous for questioning about life, and also about “why”” Socrates once said to a court “The unexamined life is not worth living. ” Socrates had been charged with Heresy, a crime that threatened the established religion, and sedition, that threatened the state. Aristotle is well known for believing that if people study the origin of life they will understand it more. Many Philosophers today still study, and conclude ideas from many of Ancient Greek philosopher’s quotes. Medics in the western civilization have been impacted by many of ancient Greece’s contributions.
Hippocrates, who created the Hippocratic Oath, was a renounced mathematician, and doctor he is sometimes referred to as “the father of medicine. The Hippocratic Oath states that Hippocrates will treat his patient to the best of his abilities that he will refuse to give deadly medicine to his patients. Today some medical students and doctors still take the oath and learn about it. The Hippocratic Oath is now starting to be used less often due to more revised oaths and law concerning the medical field. Greeks affected sports in western civilization.
Myron’s famous sculpture, the Discus Thrower is an example of a kind of sport in ancient Greek times that resembled modern day javelin mixed with Frisbee. Greece was the first civilization to incorporate sports and make it a tradition. Greece was the hosts of the first Olympics, the sports that this involved were Running, Chariot racing, wrestling, boxing, javelin, and many more sports. In modern day western civilization athletes compete in many of the same sports as the first Olympics had. The Olympics have now been around for many centuries.
The fine arts of Greece affect western civilization. The discus thrower and most other Greek sculptures are emotionless, and usually capture the serenity of motion, and were always proportional, this form of art was known as classical art. Many sculptures and paintings of presidents, and high ranking military leaders are emotionless. The Greeks believed that the emotionless art showed a sense of power. Western civilization was shaped and largely based on Greece’s powerful politics, classical art, sports, philosophers, and medics. Greece has given a lot to western civilization.