Influence of the Greek and Roman culture on the Western culture

Influence of the Greek and Roman culture on the Western culture Abstract: Western culture itself is a part of world culture, and it consists of two major components, the Greek and Roman culture and the Judeo-Christian culture. The Greek and Roman culture, especially in ancient time that the westerners take delight in talking about, is viewed as the cradle of western culture, as well two eternal monuments in the world's cultural history. Thanks to the laborious people with their wisdom, there are many breathtaking masterpieces everywhere in Western culture, leaving for the generations. Most importantly, the Greek and Roman culture play a significant part and have a great influence on the Western culture. Key words: Greek Culture; Roman Culture; Western Culture; Influence 1. Introduction: As one the major contributor to western civilization, Greek culture has provided the creative energy and the prototypes for later forms of western society and culture, and its intellectual and cultural achievements marks the real beginning of western civilization. Meanwhile, the Roman culture, as another contributor to the western civilization, mostly derives from Greek culture, constantly developing and innovating on the basis of Greek culture. As a whole, both of them, the Greek and the Roman, have crated much unique culture, artistic reception and the masterpieces. Besides, Greek and Roman culture has supernormal penetration and infinite vitality, absorbed and transferred by the later civilization from time to time. Hence, the Greek and Roman culture is the source and cradle of the whole Western culture’s emerging, and occupies a important position in the world cultural history. It is the eternal treasure of human beings, and has a far-reaching influence on the development of the generational culture. 2. Influences on the western culture Engels once gave a high evaluation on the Greek culture and Roman culture, “no Greek culture and Roman Empire lays the foundation, and there would be no modern western culture.” In other words, the Greek and Roman nation not only created a colorful civilization, such as in literature, in history, in science, in philosophy and in art, etc., but also give a birth to the modern western culture. Thus, it can safely demonstrate the influences of Greek and Roman culture on the Western culture as the following aspects: 1)In literature The influence of literature can be mainly illustrated from three aspects: mythology, epic and drama. Firstly, the mythology of Greek and Roman is the origin of the glorious western culture. The Greeks believe in polytheism, and comprise rich and colorful myths for all the Gods, the twelve Olympians, that they regard them as the most handsome, most intelligent and most powerful superman, so that these myths become the inexhaustible forms of literature. Meanwhile, the Romans have the equivalent Gods in comparison with the Greeks under the influence of the Greek religion, and transform them into Roman Gods, such as Greek Zeus with Roman Jupiter, Greek Aphrodite with Roman Venus,etc.. Based on mythology, the Greek and Roman cultivate splendid literature art, which become the source of literary creation of west and have an important impact on the religion, art and literature of modern west. Secondly, the epic and drama of Greek and Roman are the basic classic of western culture. Homer’s Epic, which consists of two long narrative poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, reflects the life and thought of the Greeks, together with Lyric poetry. Besides, a playwright named Aeschylus changed Western literature forever when he introduced the ideas of dialogue and interacting characters to playwriting. He essentially invented "drama”. His Oresteia trilogy of plays is seen as his crowning achievement. The drama is played by people to lead worship for the gods and to express joyous feelings. There are many dramatists, like Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. While the Roman literature, in epic and drama, is more or less influenced by Greek, there appear many well-known poets and playwrights, such as Virgil, Ovid and Plautus. 2) In philosophy and science The philosophy of Greek and Roman is the source of western philosophy, especially the irreplaceable position of Greek philosophy, which achieves high point in the history of human intellectual development marked by a series of important concepts. The most influential philosophers are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The philosophical points proposed by them are debated in its following age, even this time. Then, the Roman philosophy follows Greek philosophy. The philosopher provided many practical explanation and application of philosophical principles, which developed the genre to some extent. Many philosophers in Greek and Roman are also scientists. The achievements are involved in many aspects, like astronomy, mathematics, physical, geometry, geography and so on. It is the main source of science in later culture. 3) In art The art of Greek and Roman have a deep influence on the western world, especially the architecture and sculpture, which make great and brilliant achievements in the history of world art. The grand building in Greek and Roman is mainly the temples. In Greek culture, the Parthenon, a Doric temple for Athena, is the grandest building which built upon the hill and has been a great tourist attraction for people all over the world. The sculptures in early time are those of Gods, or mythological figures, like famous Discus Thrower and Venus de Milo. The Roman architectures and sculptures ar e superior to Greeks’. They construct large-sized public edifices to show off their power and merits. It bring with entirely new styles of architecture with grandly and richly adorned. The most magnificent is the Panthenon, which was the temple for all Gods. Moreover, the sculptures depict the Gods and Heroes. Although the two culture in art are much similar with each other, but in the western culture, they occupied an irreplaceable position and produced far-reaching influence. 3. Conclusion: The Greek and Roman culture is the cradle of western civilization and culture, and it has a great impact on the later age, especially in the Renaissance age, which advocates the people to study and imitate the classic. Its influences have penetrate everywhere in western world, not only in history, but also in literary art. 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