Egyptian Society :: essays research papers

Egyptian Society   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Egyptian society, with all its complex writing and monuments, was like any other; if you understand the hieroglyphics. In this essay, I will report to my government how the Egyptian writing and scribes affected the Egyptian life and government.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Egyptian writing material used was stone and papyrus. It was used to inscribe writing in the big monuments known as pharaohs. The word â€Å"pharaohs† meant a form of title â€Å"great house.† The writing in these monuments was called hieroglyphics; which meant â€Å"priest writing† in ancient Greece. This writing was on every monument and was there to describe the power that the pharaohs had; it also described the deeds and accomplishments that each pharaoh had. The writing was also not that easy understood, it wasn’t like the writing we use today; it was more complex. They did not appear to use words but figures that meant different things. They often had symbols of animals and even other people. The writing was what made the monument.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If we were to be able to read fully what this hieroglyphics were it would be very useful to us. Not useful in a sense to use this information against them, but it would be useful to recognize the people that lived and ruled Egypt at that time. It would give us a sense of history as to how our world was ruled in past times.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In addition, if these writings were to be erased, the impact on the society would be tremendous. Not only would the society loose place as to who was what but they would loose their pasts. Although some might still have memories, they would not have the writings to back up the monuments, the monuments would therefore be useless and they would have no meaning.

Euthymides’ Three Revelers Essay

Euthymides’ Three Revelers is a Greek red-figure vase painting which dates back to about 510 BC. It was found in an Etruscan tomb in Vulci, Italy, where it had probably been imported from Athens. This is proof of the virtuosity of ancient Greek artists, and is quite ironic since the Greeks learned vase painting from the Corinthians. The earliest ancient Greek vase paintings were created using the black-figure technique. This involved using a clay-based slip to draw on the figures and later adding details by incising them into the clay of the vase. Through a process of firing the vase multiple times, the slip would turn black; the silhouetted painted figures contrasted with the natural brown-orange color of the vases. Exekias’ Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice (c. 525-520 BC) is a well-known example of black-figure vase painting. The background of the scene is the natural clay color and all the painted figures are blackened slip with incised details. In Exekias’ painting, there are also details in white on the capes of the two men. The red-figure technique was developed shortly after and is the opposite of black-figure. The background around the figures was painted with slip, leaving them to be detailed with black against the natural color of the vase. This allowed the artist to paint with higher detail since no incisions were necessary. The painting of the Three Revelers is found on a vase used for storing wine called an amphora, so it is appropriate that the three men are celebrating (and indeed reveling) in their drunkenness. The man on the left hasn’t even considered putting down his cup before joining the fun. The scene probably takes place during or after a symposium- a combination drinking party, orgy, and debate. Symposiums were held and attended by aristocratic Greek men, often to debate political, moral, or ethical issues. Perhaps the most famous story of one of these events comes to us by way of literature as Plato’s The Symposium. Euthymides was a rival of Euphronios, who was considered to be the master of red-figure painting. Euphronios’ innovation can be seen in his depiction of  Herakles Wrestling Antaios (c. 510 BC). The two combatants are shown in higher detail and more naturally than any prior work. The giant Antaios is shown grimacing, his hair unkempt, and his body contorted. Herakles, however, shows no signs of struggle: his hair and beard are neat, his face is calm. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Greek vase painters was their attempt to make art more of an optically correct experience than an ideally correct one. For instance, Herakles’ right foot can be seen tucked behind his leg. The artist’s use of perspective assumes that viewers will understand that Herakles’ calf is behind his thigh, leaving only part of his foot to be seen. Before this point an artist would assume no such thing. His goal and purpose was to show his subjects so that they could be understood and identified by anyone at any time with no conjecture necessary. For instance, the low relief figures chiseled into the Harvester’s Vase (c. 1500 BC), though they are marching from left to right across the scene and we might expect to see them from the side view, are portrayed in the composite profile (profile legs, frontal torso, profile head, frontal eye). Euthymides took this idea of correct optical representation one step further. Whereas the two main figures in Euphronios’ Herakles Wrestling Antaios are shown from the side view and the frontal view, the Three Revelers are shown not from a frontal or rear view, not from a side view or profile, and not in the composite profile used exclusively for centuries prior. They are shown in a three-quarter profile, seen from the side but not completely. The figures recede into the background creating a third dimension: depth. Euthymides knew just how revolutionary this was, so he signed his work with the customary â€Å"Euthymides painted me,† but added â€Å"as never Euphronios [could do].† The three-dimensional foreshortening of painted figures eventually became the artistic standard because of it’s representation of optical experience rather than representation of the ideal, easily identifiable aspects of the body. This can be considered not only an important technical advance, but an artistic one as well. In Onesimos’ Girl Preparing to Bathe (c. 490 BC), the  three-quarter profile lends a flowing, lifelike movement to the subject. Conversely, the contorted composite profile used in the centauromachy detail of Kleitias’ Fraà §ois Vase (c. 570 BC) virtually stops the motion of an otherwise active and exciting scene. The innovation and creativity found in Euthymides’ Three Revelers began to establish the aesthetic, naturalistic focus of Greek art that followed it. Though they were first realized by ancient Greek artists, attention to detail and depiction of figures as they are seen rather than in a universally understood, simplified rendering are indeed two important concepts which can be recognized in any piece of modern visual art. Further, the Three Revelers is the beginning of a dynamic from the ancient techniques of simple representation to the infinite levels of abstraction that we find today in all art forms: music, literature, film, and so on. It should be no surprise that the same culture that turned symbolic portrayals of the world and their own mythology into what we would today call art is the same one that concentrated the eternal search for truth by giving it a name- philosophy, and in both cases provided the basis for all following thought and analyzation.

Building Sentences With Absolute Phrases

Among the modifiers that are used to add information to sentences, the absolute phrase may be the least common but one of the most useful. Identifying Absolute Phrases An absolute phrase is a word group that modifies an entire sentence. It consists of a noun plus at least one other word, as shown here: The hunters rested for a moment in front of the shack, their breaths white in the frosty air. The noun (breaths) that begins this absolute phrase is followed by an adjective  (white) and a prepositional phrase (in the frosty air). In addition to adjectives and prepositional phrases, adverbs and participles can also follow the noun in an absolute phrase. As the sentence above shows, an absolute phrase lets us move from a description of a whole person, place, or thing to just one or more parts: from hunters, for instance, to their breaths. Building and Arranging Absolute Phrases Consider how the sentence might be broken down into two sentences: The hunters rested for a moment in front of the shack.Their breaths were white in the frosty air. The second sentence can be turned into an absolute phrase simply by omitting the linking verb were. As we have seen, the absolute phrase may appear at the end of a sentence: The hunters rested for a moment in front of the shack, their breaths white in the frosty air. The absolute phrase may also appear at the beginning of the sentence: Their breaths white in the frosty air, the hunters rested for a moment in front of the shack. And occasionally an absolute phrase is positioned between the subject and verb: The hunters, their breaths white in the frosty air, rested for a moment in front of the shack. Notice that an absolute phrase, like a participle phrase, is usually set off from the rest of the sentence by a pair of commas. NEXT: Revising Sentences with Absolute Phrases