Directions: Choose ONE of the topics below. Try to include any relevant vocabulary, concrete details, and examples in your response. You do not have to
include specific sources with a bibliography or works cited page, but please consider using examples from our modules or your own optional research to
make your argument strong.
Topic 1. What is the legacy of the Akropolis (or Acropolis)?
How has the Akropolis influenced western ideals in architecture, sculpture, symmetry, and western beauty standards?
Consider the relevance of the sculptor Phidias and the mathematical ideals of phi (the Golden Ratio) to our ideas of beauty today.
How do architectural orders, such as Doric and Ionic, still influence architecture today? Consider examples relevant to us, such as the White House.
How can many architectural sites devoted to establishing state power (government buildings, courts, etc.) be compared to the ancient site of the Akropolis?
Topic 2. How did early Greek sculpture change from the Archaic Period (600-590 B.C.E.) with work like the Metropolitan Kouros (for example) through the
High Classical with Polykleitos’s Spear Bearer?
How can you compare and contrast these or other sculptures of these periods?
Consider the development and changes within the artistic canon.
How can you explain these changes based on the text, our class discussion, and your own research?
Topic 3. How is the Hellenistic period of Greek art, as seen through works like Old Woman (a 2 B.C.E. copy), different from earlier periods in ancient Greek
art?
How do we see different portrayals of people and subjects through Hellenistic art?
Consider comparing this sculpture to earlier works of other female or male nudes.
How does this sculpture show different concerns during changing times? How can we connect this to the instability of these times (following Alexander the
Great’s death, for example)?
Topic 4. Compare and contrast a female nude to a male nude in Greek art sometime between the Archaic through High Classical periods.
How were male nudes often portrayed? Consider depictions and sculptures of warriors and athletic youths.
Why do you think there was more emphasis on male nudes and bodies before the Hellenistic period? How may this have connected with Greek ideals and
values of a militant state?
Why do you think early examples of females (such as the Archaic Kore and statues and reliefs of Athena/Athena Nike at the Akropolis) were often portrayed
wearing clothing?