A Comparison of Societies in Ancient Egypt and Periclean Athens
Midterm Essay Maureen Cairns
In comparing and contrasting the societies of Periclean Athens and ancient Egypt, we must first mention some of the characteristics of an actual society: a society has a stable food supply, social levels and classes, specialization of labor, a system of government, and a highly developed culture. Both the societies of ancient Athens and Egypt fit into these parameters. In this essay we will explore social classes, gender relations, social inequality, and hierarchy as they apply to these societies. Both ancient Athens and Egypt adhered to a strict hierarchical framework, ranking people as superiors or inferiors. Old Kingdom Egyptian hierarchy is described as having the king and queen at the top, with priests, administrators, governors and army commanders coming second, then the commoners who worked mostly in agriculture, and finally, slaves, who had been captured in war. (Hunt, pg. 22). According to Esolen, (pg. 35), Egyptian society was structured as such: the Pharaoh came first, and was believed to be God on earth. Next came the “Vizier”, who was the pharaohs chief advisor. Nobles were next in the hierarchy, responsible for making local laws. Priests came next, and were responsible for performing rituals and ceremonies. Scribes were a very important group, as they were the only ones who could read or write, so they were the record keepers. A small percentage
In Egypt, the social structure was very important to everyday life. At the top they had their main gods, Ra, Osiris, and Isis. They even elevated some of their own people to the top, giving the god status. These were the Pharaohs. The Pharaohs had total control and power over their subjects and pyramids were built as their graves. There is also a chain of command at the top of hte social structure. After Pharaohs came his appointed assistant, known as the Vizier who collected and kept track of the taxes. Under the vizier came their scribes to helped record all the documents. These were vitally important because they were largely the only ones in the entire community who could read and write. Then came the soldiers, quite high up on the ladder compared to many of the other civilizations. This was because fighting for the Pharaoh was highly appraised work. The middle class was made up of the craftsmen, traders and merchants, and artisans. These are the people who created the everyday tools for people up and down the entire social structure. And finally at the very bottom came the farmers and slaves, doing the unsklled work unlike the middle
According to history there existed two of many important ancient civilizations that left a significant mark in the history of human development that even today leaves modern society in awe of its greatness. In spite of being distant civilizations, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece share similarities and difference in terms of how they practiced religion,political structure, everyday life style, and how they built the monumental architectures that continued to amaze the modern world of today. These comparison and contrast explain their difference in history and their dynasty's long term success. Through the early developmental age these two ancient civilizations contrasted in many ways perhaps due to
Greece and The Mayan Empire are two early civilizations that shared many similarities and differences in aspects such as economics, government, and culture. Although the civilizations have some similarities, daily life was very different in each civilization.
One of the most striking differences between ancient Athenian women and ancient Egyptian women was the ability to hold positions of power. Egyptian women were monarchs and held other positions depending on their social status. (Capel 1996, 176) Women were allowed to participate in low ranking government jobs, especially during war when the men are off fighting and leaving behind their positions. However, these positions were not kept for long because the men upon return automatically earned their position back by being the superior sex (Watterson 1991,).
The ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek civilizations are two of the oldest known civilizations in our history. The Egyptian civilization, based in the eastern part of North Africa, is believed to have started around 3150 BC and continued till the end of the Pharaoh rule in 31 BC. The ancient Greek civilization is believed to have been in effect from 1100 BC till about 146 BC. Many similarities and differences existed between these two civilizations, as even though they co-existed during a certain timeframe (1150 BC to 146 BC), they were located in different geographical areas. Because of these differences in geography, both these civilizations were subjected to different kinds of exposure, which included contact with other civilization and cultural inheritance. In the political sphere, we find that the Egyptian civilization had stronger emphasis on central authority, while the Greeks had a more decentralized structure, where powers were distributed over the cities and the states as well. As far as art is concerned, we find that the Egyptians were more involved in creating great monumental and gaudy structures, while the Greeks were more involved in creating smaller, more literary pieces of art.
The people groups in ancient Egyptian were very different than our societies social groups today. Ancient Egyptians were grouped in a hierarchical system with the Pharaoh at the top and farmers and slaves at the bottom. The groups of people nearest to the top of society were the richest and most powerful. The Pharaoh was believed to be a god on earth and had the most power. He was responsible for making laws and keeping order. Ensuring that Egypt was not attacked or invaded by enemies and for keeping the gods happy so that the Nile flooded and there was a good harvest. The Vizier was the Pharaoh's chief advisor
In today’s society, we as women often take for granted the rights, freedoms, and equality we share with men that women in the ancient world were not granted. As all civilisations in the ancient world exercised different treatment towards, this essay will illustrate a few comparisons in the status of women during ancient Egypt with women during ancient Rome. Academic sources will be relied on to provide the necessary actualities when one considers ancient civilizations. The legal status of women in society, the domestic atmospheres and roles that each unique region’s women held, and the possible occupations available to these women, will be discussed.
Ancient Egypt (3000 BCE – 30 BCE) and Ancient Greece (1200 BCE – 146 BCE) based their entire lives around their religious beliefs. These beliefs led to their religious practices which were included in every aspect of their lives. Since ancient Greece’s and ancient Egypt’s beliefs differ greatly, endless differences can be shown between their religious practices. However, between the two cultures, many surprising similarities can be seen in these religious practices despite the tremendous differences. Through learning about where their religious beliefs and practices started, the bigger picture of history in general can be learned. As well, the similarities between ancient Greece’s and ancient Egypt’s religious practices can be seen as not
In the ancient world, there were many different civilizations. In these civilizations, the peoples’ humanity, interaction with one another, and the belief in the supernatural were viewed differently. Ancient Greece was between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C. Ancient Egypt was between 3100 B.C. and 332 B.C. Both of these civilizations have many things in common, but were also very different when referring to the people. In Ancient Greece, the people had different roles in society depending primarily on their gender and class. On the other hand, in Ancient Egypt the people were given equality. Both civilizations believed in gods and goddesses, but their gods were different and had different purposes in their world. In many ways these parts of their civilization are different, but they are also similar.
Over the years of art history, there are many great empires that we think of and two of those were ancient Greek and Egyptian. When talking about Greek and Egyptian art history, it is the sculptures that come to mind when you are comparing and contrasting artworks. Egyptian art and Greek art both had mesmerizing sculptures but Egyptian art was more oriented towards religion and Greek art was more focused on philosophy. The Egyptian statue of the Menkaure and a Queen was similar to the Greek statue of Metropolitan Kouros in their posture but both of these statues also had many differences. Menkaure and a queen statue was created from an unusual stone and the statue was discovered in Menkaure’s valley temple. The sculpture has a hard texture and because of the time-consuming task of polishing this sculpture was never completely polished. So, the sculpture is greywacke and has traces of red paint on king’s face, ears and neck because male figures were traditionally painted red and there are traces of black in queen’s hair. The sculpture itself is 54 ½ inches in height and is displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Metropolitan Kouros was created from marble which seems like it has a rough and hard texture. The statue is 6 feet in height and is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
At the very top of the pyramid were the pharaohs.”pharaohs,an almost god like figure who stayed aloof from his people.” it was the pharaoh job to control the army. The pharaohs had to pass the laws. Taxes and land were also controlled by the people at the top. He had to manage each farmer and how much tax he paid.
Egyptian civilization was born from the vast and unique Nile River. This river provided the rich “Black Land” soil that was the foundation for agriculture (Duiker & Spielvogel, 2010). Although there was no need for irrigation as in Mesopotamia, Egyptians were able to provide an abundance of foods for their civilization base. The Nile River not only provided land perfect for farming it was also used as a mode of transportation for the Egyptians enabling the trade of imports and exports. Due to natural barriers in the geography and the strategic use of fortifications, Egyptians were able to create a secure way of life protected from invasion. This way of life was organized hierarchical lines with a god-king at the top (Duiker & Spielvogel, 2010). The ruling class consisted of nobles and priests who assisted the god-king and ran the government. The middle class society was made up of merchants and artisans who controlled trade and art while the rest of the population were common farmers and slaves. Similar to the Mesopotamians, controlling the vast civilization of Egypt were the numerous gods and goddesses created by the polytheism belief. These gods were represented in wall paintings,
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World fascinate and baffle the modern world. The list is comprised of the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and lastly the Lighthouse of Alexandria (history). Ancient civilizations had developed and grown without being as connected as countries in today's society are. Thus, cultures and societies remained unique from the others. Ancient communities such as the Greek are both similar and different from other ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians in many ways; some similarities are their interests in geometry and mathematics, having an insular society, and religious beliefs and some differences are religious structures, art style, and finally government structures.
Have you been to Ancient Egypt or Ancient India? Learning about the environmental characteristics of Ancient Egypt and Ancient India was very interesting. i hope you understand the similarities and differences of these two places long ago. The similarities of these two places are interesting in my opinion. These two places had similarities in the rivers.
Both ancient Athens and Egypt adhered to a strict hierarchical framework, ranking people as superiors or inferiors. Old Kingdom Egyptian hierarchy is described as having the king and queen at the top, with priests, administrators, governors and army commanders coming second, then the commoners who worked mostly in agriculture, and finally, slaves, who had been captured in war. (Hunt, pg. 22). According to Esolen, (pg. 35), Egyptian society was structured as such: the Pharaoh came first, and was believed to be God on earth. Next came the “Vizier”, who was the pharaohs chief advisor. Nobles were next in the hierarchy, and made local laws. Priests followed, and were responsible for performing rituals and ceremonies. Scribes were a very important group, as they were the only ones who could read or write, so they were the record keepers. A small percentage of boys from good families were trained for this particular job, starting at the age of five. Soldiers came next, and were responsible for the defense of the country. Craftsmen were workers who were