Hellenic Art

Melissa Aviles

Essay 2

There were many beautiful literary and philosophical works that came out of the ancient classicism Greek era. Some of the stories and poems of today would not have a much structure and meaning if this great era would have not taken place. The ruins of the past have been preserved for us in architecture and artwork that the world holds on to and restores every day. In this essay I will give reason as to why the Parthenon, the sculpture of Laoccon and His Son's and the literary work Antigone were dawned as Greek classicism.

The Parthenon, which is a temple that was dedicated to the goddess Athena and is famous all over the world gets thousands visitors every. The Parthenon is classical Greek due to the perfect proportions of the massive structure. According to ancient-greece.org, "the fact that there are no absolute straight lines on the Parthenon bestows a subtle organic character to an obvious geometric structure". This structure was also made to be in proportion with the human body. This temple was mirrored to mark the reverence for clarity, balance and harmonious proportion, which were the key factors in classism. The columns of the temple play a big part as well. They were created to make an illusion with that contrast of the light that was hitting them.

The sculpture of Laocoon and His Sons can represent the classicism of Greece because it shows a great deal of emotion The Greeks believed in showing humans and gods in their various emotional states. The intensity of emotion can be read on each of the sculptures faces. This artwork has a lot of symmetry that was used in this era too. The way the limbs, and strained muscles and the look of the impending doom of their faces show the Hellenic and classism that the artist wanted to display at this time. The extension and flexion of Laocoon's muscles play a part too,

The literary work of Antigone was a classic Greek tragedy. It had the hero, or heroin, internal conflict, and a lot of tensions as to where loyalty should lie. Antigone is one of much tragedy's that has become famous and is acted out all over the world. Antigone explored these issues, "the conflict between the rights of an individual and the rights of the state; between dedication to family and loyalty to the community; between personal and political obligations; between female will power and male authority; and finally between human and divine law" (Fiero 92). A lot of these issues people may have wanted to talk about out in the open. I think that they made these tragedies as a way to get their feeling off their chest and make fun of them at the same time too. Its writer Sophocles was looking for a way to show human passions, the will of the divine gods they loved and the law of the state or polis they resided in.

There are numerous works of art, literature, and architecture