Gustav Holst - The Planets - Jupiter

This post really doesn't have much to do with our class discussions. I'm posting just for fun. I don't listen to classical music very often, but this song is quite awesome. Link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz0b4STz1lo

Enjoy!

my pictures of the Parthenon/Acropolis (plus Cassidy)

This photo better demonstrates how the acoustics would have worked in Greek amphitheaters. As far as I can remember, this shot was taken from the Akropolis in Athens on the other side of the hill from the one that is still in tact in my last post.

Greek Amphitheater

This may not be the best photo of a Greek amphitheater, but I took this shot from the top of the Akropolis in Athens. If you fill in the rest of the image with your mind, you can easily figure out how the acoustics were so well designed.

Hellenic vs Hellenistic Culture

While reading Chapter 3 of Arts and Ideas, I found many similarities and differences between the Hellenic and Hellenistic cultures. For instance, although art is a major part of both cultures, Hellenistic art focuses on emotion, like in the "Laocoon Group" (page 81) and "The Dying Gaul" (page 66), whereas Hellenic art seems to focus more on balance and composure, as shown by the statue of Zeus (page 42).
The underlying themes of the Hellenic culture, humanism, idealism, and rationalism, greatly contrast with the main ideas of Hellinistic culture, which are individualism, realism, and empiricism.
Did you all notice any other differences or similarities?

The Theater at Epidaurus

This is a picture of the the theater at Epidaurus I took on my vacation. If you can see, there is a circle in the center of the stage; the aucustics were designed so that if an actor was standing at this point, the entire audience could hear him speak.

Pompeii

The Arts and Ideas textbook makes a reference to Pompeii as an ancient Roman city. This is a picture from my trip to Pompeii. You can see the different orders of columns in this picture (Doric in the center and Corinthian on the right).