Period 5 · c. 1100-31 BCE
Ancient Greece
The Greeks gave Europe its columns, its ideal of the human body and most of the myths still on museum walls. Follow the story from painted Geometric vases to the Parthenon and the drama of Hellenistic sculpture, and find out why so much of what you see in museums is a Roman copy of a lost Greek bronze.
Featured
Start with these
Ancient GreeceAncient Greek Art: The Four Periods and How to Tell Them
Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic: the four periods of Greek art, each with one dated work to recognise it by.
Ancient GreeceTypes of Columns: How to Tell Doric, Ionic and Corinthian
No base, scrolls or leaves: three quick checks to tell Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns apart.
Ancient GreeceAncient Greek Fashion: What People Wore Every Day
Two rectangles of cloth, a few pins and a belt: what Greek women and men wore, and in what colours.
Ancient GreeceGreek Patterns: Meander, Wave, Palmette and Lotus Explained
Meander, wave, palmette, lotus and acanthus: the main Greek patterns, what they are and where to spot them.Most read first
All Ancient Greece guides
SculptureFemale Greek Statues: Why Were Women Shown Clothed?
Korai, caryatids and a goddess in her bath: why Greek women were shown clothed, and what their drapery says.
Myth and ReligionGreek God Statues: How to Tell Which God Is Which
Thunderbolt, trident, aegis, bow: how to tell which god a Greek statue shows, even when the attribute is lost.
SculpturePolykleitos and His Canon: The Sculptor Who Measured Beauty
Polykleitos made the statue other sculptors measured themselves by: who he was, what he made and what his Canon said.
SculptureGreek vs Roman Sculpture: What’s the Difference, Really?
Ideal bodies and wrinkled faces, originals and copies: what really separates Greek from Roman sculpture, and what connects them.
SculptureMale Greek Statues: Why Were So Many of Them Naked?
Athletes competed naked, so the naked body meant excellence: why so many male Greek statues wear nothing.
SculptureCanon of Proportions: The Greek Formula for the Ideal Body
Polykleitos measured beauty finger by finger: what the Greek canon of proportions was, and the golden ratio myth.
SculptureArchaic Greek Sculpture: Who Were Kouroi and Korai?
Naked youths and painted maidens in marble: what Archaic Greek statues were for, and how the pose slowly loosened.
SculptureGreek Bronze Statues: Why So Few Survive
Thousands were made, a handful survive: how Greek bronzes were cast, and why most of them were melted down.
SculptureWhat Is a Kouros Statue? The Archaic Greek Youth Explained
A naked youth, left foot forward, arms at his sides: what a kouros is and what it was for.
SculpturePolykleitos’ Doryphoros: Why This Statue Became a Model
A young man with a spear, lost in bronze, known from Roman marbles: why the Doryphoros became the model.
SculptureHermes and the Infant Dionysus: What the Statue Shows
Found in the Heraion at Olympia in 1877: the story, the details and the debate behind the Hermes of Praxiteles.
Myth and ReligionStatue of Zeus at Olympia: What the Ancient Wonder Was Like
A seated Zeus of gold and ivory, almost touching the roof: what Pheidias' lost wonder at Olympia looked like.
SculptureAnavysos Kouros: The Grave Statue of a Fallen Warrior
Kroisos fell in the front ranks; his grave got a marble youth. What the Anavysos Kouros tells us.
SculptureWhat Is the Archaic Smile? Why Greek Statues Smile
Why do Archaic Greek statues smile? What the evidence says, what scholars guess, and when the smile disappeared.
Myth and ReligionParthenon Pediments: What the East and West Ends Show
Athena's birth at dawn and her contest with Poseidon: what the Parthenon's two pediments showed, statue by statue.
SculptureHellenistic Sculpture: Why It Feels More Emotional
Old women, sleeping children, a bleeding boxer and a priest in agony: how Hellenistic sculptors widened what statues could show.
OverviewsHellenistic Art: Why It Feels More Dramatic Than Classical
Kings as patrons, new cities, libraries and collectors: what changed in Greek art after Alexander, and why it feels dramatic.
SculptureAphrodite of Knidos: Why This Statue Changed Greek Art
Praxiteles' nude goddess, refused by Kos and bought by Knidos: what she looked like, and how 200 copies remember her.
SculptureVenus de Milo: Where It Is and Why It Became Famous
Melos 1820, the Louvre 1821: who the Venus de Milo is, who made her, and her missing arms.
Myth and ReligionAthena Parthenos: What We Know About the Lost Statue
Twenty-six cubits of gold and ivory, lost for centuries: what the ancient writers and a small copy tell us.
SculpturePeplos Kore: The Painted Maiden Who May Be a Goddess
Blue, green and red under the marble: what the Peplos Kore wore, and why she may be a goddess.
Myth and ReligionLaocoon and His Sons: Why the Sculpture Feels So Intense
A Trojan priest and his sons crushed by serpents: the myth, the three Rhodian sculptors, the 1506 rediscovery.
SculptureMyron’s Discobolus: How One Statue Freezes Motion
A lost bronze of 460-450 BCE, a pose described by Lucian, and a famous copy with the wrong head.
SculptureGreek Statue 101: Six Clues to Recognise Classical Style
Weight on one leg, tilted hips, measured proportions, revealing drapery: six clues that a Greek statue is Classical.
SculptureApollo Statue: How to Recognise Apollo in Greek Sculpture
Lyre, bow, laurel and long hair: how to recognise Apollo in Greek and Roman statues, with five famous examples.
OverviewsAncient Greek Sculpture: How the Body Learned to Move
From stiff kouroi to bronze athletes and Hellenistic drama: how Greek sculptors taught stone and bronze to move.
SculptureGreek Marble Sculpture: Why It Looks So Soft and Alive
Paros and Pentelikon, claw chisel, drill and rasp: how Greek sculptors made marble look soft and alive.
SculptureHellenistic Artists: The Names Behind the Drama
Lysippos' pupils, the maker of the Colossus, the Rhodians of the Laocoön: the few names we know, and why.
SculptureClassical Sculpture: How the Greeks Made Bodies Feel Alive
Weight on one leg, drapery that shows the body, bronze and colour: how Classical sculptors made marble breathe.
PaintingPainted Greek Statues: How Do We Know They Had Colour?
Traces of paint, metal and new reconstructions: how we know Greek statues were coloured, and what they looked like.
OverviewsWhy Does Classical Greek Art Look Perfect?
Proportion, a weight shift, clarity and two thousand years of copies: why Classical Greek art looks perfect.
SculptureApollo Sauroktonos: Praxiteles’ Lizard-Slayer Explained
A boy-god with an arrow and a lizard: Praxiteles' Apollo Sauroktonos, its copies, and the Cleveland bronze.
SculptureWho Was Praxiteles? Style, Famous Works and Legacy
The Athenian who carved the first nude Aphrodite: who Praxiteles was, what he made, and how we know it.
SculptureContrapposto: Definition and the Pose That Made Stone Move
Weight on one leg, hips and shoulders tilted: what contrapposto means, who invented it and why it makes stone move.
OverviewsLate Classical Greek Art: Why Sculpture Turned More Human
The fourth century BCE: Praxiteles' nude Aphrodite, Skopas' travels, Lysippos' slimmer athletes, and Greek art turning more personal.
Reliefs