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Greek ArtThe portals to immortality-Greek Grave Steles To us who live in modern times the melancholic look that we realize in the sculpture of cemeteries throughout the world is something we take for granted. Although its authenticity has been scattered to us, this so-c onlyed look can be traced back to 5th ascorbic acid Greek funerary sculpture. For us it is only natural to associate much(prenominal) a look with death. However, as the above verse elaborates, the Greeks viewed death slightly differently from the way we do. To them death freed their souls and brought true happiness then wherefore does their grave sculpture look so pensive and thoughtful? It is because strange today where the deathly are only represented figuratively in a sobbing angel or mournful cherub, the Greeks depicted their dead as they were in life - life which was full of uncertainties and burdens but similarly with simple pleasures that made it all worth while. The Greeks successfully combined these twain juxtaposed experiences, and harmonized its contradictions to portray in steles the individual, whose simplicities and complications was a reflection of the bitter-sweetness of life. No where is this combination more(prenominal) successful than in the Greek grave stele of the 5th century before Christ. The 5th B.C. encompassed two distinct periods the earlier classical and the high classical. However both these periods shared the uniquely contradicting, everlastingly explorative, and modestly idealistic vision of life, which made the subjects of the stele, at their moment of death, all the more human to the reviewer. Neither the previous Archaic period, nor the following fourth century, or the preceding civilizations quite so convincingly capture for the observer the poignancy of death the way a fifth century BC stele could. The period of the 5th century B.C. is sometimes referrd to as the thriving age, which is the height for Greek art and civilizations and ironically has its beginning and ending in war The 480 B.C. marked the defeat of the Persians and 404 B.C. the beginning of the pelopannasian war and the collapse of Athenian democracy. Perhaps the culturally significant buildings and sculptures that were destroyed and the many lives that were lost during the big war with Persia might made grave monuments and stele all the more personal to the Greeks during this time. For whatever reason Greek stele of this particular period, amid two historically significant moments (480-404), stand-alone in more shipway than one.