Greek Arts & Music
A short history of the major arts and musical styles of Greece.
Traditional Arts of Greece
Greece is home to one of the oldest, most widely recognized, and influential art histories in the world. The works of early Greek artists and their mastery of the human form would set the tastes of the Roman Empire, the Byzantines, and later Renaissance artists. Echoes of their aesthetics can still be found all over the Western world. While they did practice painting, the major surviving arts of the Ancient Greeks can be found in their pottery, architecture, and sculpture. In addition, the Greek islands have produced several important pieces of literature, philosophy, and mythology. Since its ancient times, the arts of Greece have been shaped by ruling empires and the trends of Europe, as well as by its own long history and national identity.
Ancient Greek Sculpture
Ancient Greece is perhaps most famous for its sculptural tradition, which can be traced back to prehellenic cultures like the Minoans and Mycenaeans. These early works emphasized human activity but favored more geometric styles. Classical Greek sculpture began to develop around 600 BCE, influenced by increasing contact with civilizations like Egypt as well as bronze casting. The Classical period, from about 480 to 330 BCE, saw sculpture in the Greek city-states reach its peak. After that point, the empires of Alexander and Rome would begin to consume and modify Greek art through new cultural lenses.
Contrary to popular perception, most of the statues of Ancient Greece were not colorless sculptures of white marble. While marble was a popular material, bronze casting and terracotta were more common methods of production. Furthermore, their sculptures were brightly painted, only losing their color over time. This same trend continued through the Romans, who studied under Greek artists and reproduced many of their original works. The modern, austere white statues commonly associated with Greek art are not representative of how they were originally displayed.
Pottery in Ancient Greece
Another major branch of Greek art is its pottery and mosaics. In Ancient Greece, pottery represented both a local trade and an urban industry. Workshops in cities like Athens produced vessels in bulk, generally decorated with plain paints or a black glaze. More valuable pieces could be decorated with natural imagery, human forms, or scenes from mythology and religion. This pottery filled any number of roles in daily life, from transporting wine, water, and olive oil to holding expensive perfumes.
Greek Literature
Greek art since ancient times has shown a particular preoccupation with mythology. Like many preliterate cultures, the Ancient Greeks possessed a strong tradition of oral literature, memorized and recited by professional storytellers. These were generally told as poems or songs. Most famous of these are the Iliad and Odyssey ascribed to Homer, who is thought to have lived around the 8th century BCE. Other tales deal more directly with mythical figures and the gods.
Ancient Greek literature tends to view the world as a complex mix of human and divine affairs. People can be controlled, influenced, killed, or aided by the gods and other natural spirits. The story of the Odyssey, for example, follows the hero Odysseus as he attempts to return home from the Trojan War. Along the way, he invokes the wrath of Poseidon, who sends him and his crewmates on an impossible journey spanning ten years. In other cases, people created poetry, ballads, and dramas that dealt with the more mundane affairs of daily life and romance.
Ancient Greek literature spans centuries and was an object of study even in ancient times. Later philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle referenced and criticized the works of Homer, among others. Theater, history, and philosophy all flourished in the cities of Greece and the Roman Empire, a media environment similar in many ways to our own.
Byzantine Arts
Pottery has remained a Greek art up to the modern day, but sculpture experienced a decline alongside the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire, retained greater Greek influences but rejected many elements associated with polytheism. That combined with iconoclasm, in this case the destruction of religious subjects in art, caused sculpture in the round to take a back seat to mosaics, textiles, and reliefs. Byzantine mosaics in particular are noted for their use of vibrant colors and stylized depictions of human beings. They became a popular adornment for churches and cathedrals, replacing the statues that once loomed over temples and shrines.
Music and Dance of Greece
Music has always played a central role in Greek culture, though little has survived from ancient times. As mentioned earlier, long stories were typically performed melodically, along with shorter songs and dances. Apollo, god of the sun, healing, and youthful beauty, was also a god of music. The most important early Greek instrument was the lyre, followed by pipes. During religious ceremonies, choruses of men, women, and children sang paeans, a type of tributary hymn or chant. More privately, musicians, singers, and acrobats performed at dinners, celebrations, weddings, and similar events.
Over time, the music of Greece expanded to include Orthodox hymns and chants, as well as folk music drawn from across the cosmopolitan Ottoman Empire. Instruments like the tambourine, flute, clarinet, and a variety of stringed instruments such as guitars, lyres, violins, lutes such as the bouzouki, and dulcimers are now all common elements of Greek music. Of these, the bouzouki and associated laïkó folk music remain most popular.
Modern Arts of Greece
Today, the artists of Greece work across all media and express themselves along a wide variety of themes. Musical genres like hip-hop and rock are played alongside more traditional folk songs and dances. During the early 20th century, painting inspired by European schools became very popular, which has led to renewed interest in sculpture, photography, and the digital arts. Common themes explored today include the turbulent events of the 20th century and the more recent financial crisis, as well as the long history of Greece and its natural scenery.
References
Connor, Carolyn. Saints and Spectacle: Byzantine Mosaics in their Cultural Setting. Oxford University Press. 2016.
Clogg, Richard. A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge University Press. 2013.
Doumanis, Nicholas. A History of Greece. Macmillan. 2009.
Leontis, Artemis. Culture and Customs of Greece. ABC-CLIO. 2009.
Martin, Thomas R. Ancient Greece. Yale University Press. 2013.
Sparkes, Brian A. Greek Pottery: An Introduction. Manchester University Press. 1991.
Spivey, Nigel. Greek Sculpture. Cambridge University Press. 2013.
West, M. L. Ancient Greek Music. Clarendon Press. 1992.
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