欧洲文化入门课后习题--修订编选

欧洲文化入门课后习题答案： Division one: Greek culture and Roman culture 希腊、罗马文化希腊、罗马文化 .Greek culture 希腊文化希腊文化 1.What are the major elements in European culture? There are two main elements the Greco-Roman element and the Judeo-Christian element. 2.What were the main features of ancient Greek society? In Greek society, only adult male citizen had real power and the citizenship was a set of rights which a man inherited from his father. The economy of Athens rested on an immense amount of slave labor. Slaves worked for their masters. The exploitation was a serious social problem. The Greeks loved sports. They often took part in the contests of sports in Olympus Mount, thus Olympic Games came into being. 3.What did Homer do? Why is he important in the history of European literature? He depicted the great Greek men who lived in the period 1200-1100B.C. and wars happening at that time. As an author of epics, he employed fine literary language to describe wars and men, even though they were dull. He stood in the peek of Greek literature and exerted a great influence on his followers. 4.Who were the outstanding dramatists of ancient Greece? What important plays did each of them write? Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides were three outstanding dramatists of ancient Greece. Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound, Persians, Agamemnon Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Electra, Antigone Euripides: Andromache, Medea, Trojan Women 5.Were there historians then? Who were they? What did each of them write about? Yes, there are. They were Herodotus and Thucydides. Herodotus wrote about the wars between Greeks and Persians. Thucydides wrote about the war between Athens and Sparta and between Athens and Syracuse. 6. Would you say that philosophy was highly developed then? Who were the major philosophers? No, I wouldnt. Because those philosophical ideas were only idealism or simple materialism or metaphysics. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were the major philosophers at that time. 7. Did Socrates write any book? How then do we know about him? What distinguished his philosophy? No, he didnt. We know Socrates chiefly through what Plato recorded of him in the famous Dialogues written by Plato. He considered that philosophy rested with the dissect of oneself and virtue was high worth of life. His method of argument, by questions and answers, was known as the dialectical method. 8. Tell some of Platos ideas. Why do people call him an idealist? (1) Men have knowledge because of the existence of certain general “ideas”, like beauty, truth, and goodness. (2) We should not look at the things which are not seen: for the things which are not seen eternal. Because he emphasized the importance of “ideas” and believed that “thought” had created the world, people call him an idealist. 9. In what important ways was Aristotle different from Plato? What are some of Aristotles works that are still influential today? (1) Aristotle emphasized direct observation of nature and insisted that theory should follow fact. This is different from Platos reliance on subjective thinking. (2) He thought that “idea” and matter together made concrete individual realities in which he differed from Plato who held that ideas had higher reality than the political world. His significant works includes: Ethics, Politics and Rhetoric. 10. Who were some of the other philosophers active in that period? Does the word “Epicurean” in its modern sense convey the true meaning of the philosophy of the ancient Epicureans? What were their views on pleasure? (1) They were Heracleitue, Democritus, Diogenes, Pyrrhon, Epicurus and Zeno. (2)No, it doesnt. The ancient Epicureans believed pleasure to be the highest worth of life, but by pleasure they meant, not sensual enjoyment but that attained by the practice of virtue. But this idea was misled by modern people, in their sense, the word “Epicurean” has come to mean indulgence in luxurious living. 11. Say something about Greek sculpture, pottery and architecture. What was the most famous Greek temple? Is it still there? (1) Along with the formation of Greek civilization, Greek sculpture, pottery and architecture got many great achievements. Greeks put into works of art the things they admired and worshiped, the scientific rules they discovered. Greek art evolved from the archaic period to the classical period which marked its maturity. (2) the most famous temple was the Acropolis at Athens. (3) Yes, it is still there. 12. Give some examples to show the enormous influence of Greek culture on English literature. Some examples: (1) A Freudian term “Oedipus Complex” of 19th century originating from a Greek tragedy in which king Oedipus unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. (2) In the early part of the 19th century , in England alone, three young Romantic poets expressed their admiration of Greek culture in works which have themselves become classics: Byron s Isle of Greece, Shelley s Hellas and Prometheus Unbound and Keats s Ode on a Grecian Urn. (