A Golden Age refers to a time in a specific culture, where cultural advancements and enlightenments are at their highest point. For example, many refer to the Golden Age of Classical Greece as a time in the 5th century BCE when literature, drama, philosophy, art and politics were most inspired. A Golden Age is often followed by a decline, where new cultural products are derivative and less inspired and where politics begin to veer off from their initial course. Thus a Golden Age if it could be graphed, would be the high point, the top of the bell on a bell curve, or the apex of a society.

A Golden Age can also refer to a time when a specific thing seems to reach a high point. For example, many look at the 1940s as the golden age of American cinema. We might be soon entering the Golden Age of the electric automobile, or of genetics. However, recognizing a high point generally means that something is the best it will ever be, and many hesitate to use the term.

In a sense using the term Golden Age is often nostalgic and overly romanticized, particularly in history. For example, not all people benefited during the Golden Age of Classical Greece. In particular, slaves and women had few personal or political rights. However, generally, the Golden Age of a culture simply means a sort of cultural explosion occurs where new developments, and new ideas that benefit society as a whole happen with great rapidity.

Classical Greek literature, for example, clearly experienced its Golden Age with the great dramatists like Aeschylus, Euripedes, Sophocles and the comic playwright Aristophanes. We still read and study their work and find it relevant to not only its time but to present day. It is fascinating that all this great work should be produced in such a short time period, with few Ancient Greek dramas before or after this period having the same relevance or scholarly merit. Similar claims can be made about the Golden Age of theater in the Elizabethan period, which brought us Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe.

Often a Golden Age is ascribed to a period in time where one can observe a definite low point prior to and after the age. Thus it is frequently premature to call a new event a Golden Age, since without being able to foretell the future, we are not able to view its decline. Therefore, generally the term Golden Age relates to things past, and should not be applied to present events or cultural developments.