Ancient Greek art has always been a fascination for me since I was very young. I would often look at pictures of ancient Greek statues and vases, and have a feeling that I could somehow relate to them and identify with them, even though they in fact existed several millenia before I was born. My interest in the subject has grown over the years and it has given me many hours of pleasure.
There are a few websites that deal with the subject of ancient Greek art, but they are all rather academic in nature, often written by academics who seem more interested in their own small field of expertise than the broad view.
The Ancient Art of Being Idle will try to present a broad view on the subject. There will be some discussion of the various subjects covered by ancient Greek art (sculpture, painting, architecture, pottery etc.), but most importantly there will be an attempt to put those subjects into context.
I hope this blog will provide some insight into ancient Greek art for people who are interested in it or have just started to discover it. And perhaps it will motivate others to delve deeper into this wonderful subject.
I have been toying with the idea of writing a blog about ancient Greek art for quite some time, and it has finally happened. I am very excited and hope that people find it interesting and informative. The blog is called “Ancient Greek art: The worthiness for modern day people”, and you can find it at http://greceart.blogspot.com/ or at the end of this posting (it may take a while to load).
The blog is meant to be a conversation about the topic in general, so please feel free to post your own thoughts and comments!
I will start by talking about my own experience with the subject, which I have been studying for around four years now. For my undergraduate degree I specialized in sculpture, which is what I will talk about most often. But personally I find painting and architecture far more interesting topics than sculpture. Thus the blog will feature painting as well as sculpture, but there will be no architecture posts unless someone really wants me to write one!
I want to especially mention that I am not an expert on any of these things, but rather just someone who has spent considerable time studying them. If anyone reading this knows something I don’t, please feel free to correct any errors you may see!
A few
The Ancient Art of Being Idle is a blog on art and aesthetics. It was founded by a group of three friends in the summer of 2009, who had all just completed their undergraduate studies in Classics. The main focus is on Greek art, but we hope to incorporate the insights of later thinkers as well.
The blog aims to be accessible to non-experts and specialists alike, and we take pleasure in explaining complex ideas in plain language without sacrificing rigor.
As for the name: hē kairos tēs kakias (ἡ καιρὸς τῆς κακίας) is a fragment from Hesiod’s Works and Days, and has been translated variously as “the season (or time) of bad be[h]avior” or “the season for bad behavior.” We chose it because it seemed like an evocative summary of what motivated us to start the blog: our sense that the ancient Greeks were concerned with something more than success or material gain, that they took time to cultivate leisure as an end in itself.
To that end, we hope to promote a vision of happiness that is neither idle nor hedonistic but one based on balance, moderation,
The Ancient Greeks had a word for it: anakolouthos. It means “unoccupied, lazy, unemployed.”
It can also mean “free from worldly concerns; indifferent to material things.”
As you might expect from a culture that gave us Plato and Pythagoras as well as Homer, this is not the simple “idle” of our modern day. It doesn’t mean doing nothing all day long while you watch reruns of Seinfeld on your big screen TV. It’s not just another word for being lazy or unproductive, or lacking motivation.
Taken to an extreme, it can be seen as a philosophy of life: Being idle means rejecting the values of our society in favor of a simpler existence that values contemplation and leisure over productivity and materialism. But it’s more than just a reaction against corporate culture or the rat race or materialism. It’s also a way of setting priorities in your life in such a way that you have time for what really matters – friends and family, art and literature, learning and reflection. In short, it’s about making time to do the things that really matter to you.
Ancient greece is associated with great art and architecture, but the ancient Greeks were also very good at idleness. This is how they did it.
In ancient times, not a lot of people could read or write. And for those who were literate, most had only a very basic education. But the Greeks valued science, philosophy and art – this was the result of their curiosity in these subjects. Theatre, sculptures and great buildings can be found all over Greece and these are just some of the things that are still famous throughout the world today.
The Ancient Greeks loved to do things, as long as those things were done in the correct way. When it came to leisure, they had a special affection for what they called kairos – meaning opportunity or potential. For example, there was kairotic dancing – dancing that was done at the right time and in the right place. And there was kairotic time – time that should be allowed to pass slowly and unhurriedly.
Taken to its extreme, this love of kairos leads us to one of my favourite words, idling. To idle is to turn off the engine of your life and wait for someone else to put petrol in it again. It is a deeply civilised art and involves many skills: an understanding of when it’s appropriate to be idle; good timing; self-confidence; a sense of proportion; a sense of humour; an ability not to mind being bored; and, most importantly, an ability not to mind other people thinking you are lazy . . .
It is also, I think, one of the most important ingredients in living well.
“We are always being told to get a job. Even in Greece, unemployment has risen from 2% to 20% in the last few years and I’ve had my share of the lectures: “Get a job!” And that’s not just when the economy is bad. It’s all the time.
“Get a job!” is a kind of default setting of our society. We’re used to it so much that we don’t even think about what it means. We take it for granted, like the air we breathe or the ground beneath our feet.
Why do we get lectures on how to get jobs? Shouldn’t we be getting lectures on how to get rid of jobs? I’m not saying that everyone should become an artist and live off their art — although this would definitely suit me — but why can’t people choose freely which way to go? Why can’t there be guides on how to live without working for money?
