Western Civilization

The Image of Socrates in the Ancient Greek Society

Socrates , one of the most prominent philosophers of the ancient Greece city-state era is also one of the few examples of the oppression some people experienced in the truly democratic ancient Greek society . His life and death is the bright illustration of the statement that even in the most democratic society there always would be talented people who would be punished for their views , just because they threaten the core values the society tries to engraft to all of its members

Talking about

Greece in the Socrates times we should remember the key notion for that period , which 's the city-state . The political and cultural life at those times was centered there , and all the cultural processes , the contemporary scientists study thoroughly , also took place in the city-states

The main opposition that existed in those cities was citizen - non-citizen . The population of the city-states consisted of citizens women and slaves (the last two categories couldn 't claim for this status . In the mentality of the citizens their city was the key value they had , they were the substance the city-state consisted of . Every citizen of the city-state knew his main duty was to participate in the life of his city all of them were , as some of the contemporary scientists say , homo politicus . The citizens of the Greek city-states couldn 't opt out from the political process , moreover , they couldn 't even think about it . Every other aspect of life was eclipsed by the right and duty to take the decisions that shaped the life of those , who took them

The average Greek city-state was quite a small settlement , with the quantity of families needed to provide its economical autonomy , usually several thousands of them . According to Aristotle the ideal quantity of families in the city-state was 5040 . As you see , keeping privacy was almost impossible in such a close company , thus there weren 't unknown people in those cities there were only more or less popular persons

The characteristic feature that distinguished them from the representatives of other epochs is that the ancient Greek considered almost all kinds of labor to be the prerogative of the slaves and women The only kind of physical labor accepted and approved for the free citizen was working on the earth . The economical abyss between the rich and poor ones was much less than anywhere in the world , as financial abundance and , especially its demonstration , were a sign of bad manners at those times

Religion manifested itself in all the spheres of Greek life . Of course there were numerous religions that existed in the city-states , of which the Greek polytheism , thoroughly researched and described , was the religion of the masses . The gods of the Greek pantheon are anthropomorphic , often even too anthropomorphic . They suited well for the uneducated masses , but the well-taught citizens mostly shared other beliefs

Most of the Greeks believed that if the human being is beautiful from outside , he /she is...