ancient greece · 2015-09-17 · minoans •developed on crete •traded olive oil and wine...

Ancient Greece

Greek Geography & City States (polis) * Rocky and fertile soil, very mountainous

* Not good for growing grain, but great for grapes & olives

Trade & Patterns of Interaction

• Over time, the different city-states began to trade with one another.

• Geography didn’t leave much room for agriculture like the other river valleys, but they did have great natural harbors or ports!

• Eventually they began to trade with societies in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas as links to Europe, Asia, and Africa.

• These so called highways let to the spread of not only Greek goods but Greek ideas and values through the region and beyond.

Minoans

• Developed on Crete

• Traded olive oil and wine

• named "Minoan" after the legendary king Minos

• Had contact with Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria with whom they traded for copper, tin, ivory, and gold

• Women played a powerful role in society

Crete: Minoan Civilization (Palace at Knossos)

Knossos: Minoan Civilization

The Minoan World: mid-2M B.C.E.

Artist’s Recreation of Knossos

Minoan Culture - Religion

Minoan Priest Minoan Snake

Goddess

Bull Cult

Bull Jumping Fresco

MinoanTrade

“Bireme” ship

Coast of Crete

Mycenaeans

Bronze Age Enemies: The Trojan War

Mycenaeans • Some considered them “thugs” of the Mediterranean.

• First traded with the Minoans,

but then overpowered them taking over

their palaces, goods, and trade routes.

• Fought a war with the City of

Troy around 1200 BCE that served as

the inspiration for Homer’s epics

the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Hollywood or History?

• The site of City of Troy has never been found

• Archeologist continue to excavate looking for the site

• Was this Homers fictional story or History?

Mask of Agammemnon

Plan of the City of Troy

Homer’s Great Epics

Greece and the larger world…

• As the Polis prospered they established trading centers along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

• That brought them in contact with Persia and eventually Alexander

The Great conquest

*Results in commercial

and cultural exchange

From India to Egypt.

Trade and Conquest Brings War

• Darius and his Persian army invades Greece 490BCE

• Famous battle at Marathon where the outnumbered Athenians defeat the Persians

• Phidippides the runner, sent to tell of the Victory

• “Nike”

The Marathon

• Ancient Olympics

• 1896—Spiridon Louis

• 1908—London Olympics

• WR-Patrick Makau from Kenya in 2:03:38 (4:43 Per Mile!)

Greek Religion

• Polytheistic

• Explained the unknown

• Olympics were developed to honor the Gods

• Greek Gods human failings

– Anger, took sides, got drunk, had petty arguments, promiscuous

Greek Religion

• It is MYTHOLOGY that is divided into:

– Titans

– Olympic gods

– Monsters

– Greek Heroes

– Find some famous examples of each

300

• Xerxes marches on Greece, Battle of Thermopylae – 10 years later in 480BCE

• The Real story behind the Battle of 300

• Be able to describe what was Hollywood and what was History!

Pass of Thermopylae Today

Greek Society

• Patriarchal society-male family members headed households and help life/death power over their subordinate family members.

• Women could not own property, but might operate a small business

• Women enjoyed freedom to move freely in public places

• Only male citizens determined polis policy

Sparta

• Located in fertile region of Greece

• Relied on military power to control region

• Spartans forced Peloponnesian inhabitants to work as slaves called helots.

• Boys taken at age 7 for military training until 18. – Lived in Barracks away from family

– Girls were expected to do gymnastics to be physically strong and couldn’t marry until 19 unlike the rest of Greeks which was 14.

– Men could not live with wife until age 30

– Men were required to serve until age 60

Sparta

• Sparta was an agricultural and

highly militaristic city-state

In Sparta, they saw each other as a collective whole, not as individuals

Lived basic frugal lives

Lived highly disciplined lives

Athens

• Athens was a political, commercial, and cultural center of Greek civilization

• Draco and Solon, two Athenian politicians who worked to create the democracy to ensure fair, equal, and open participation.

• Citizens were only free adult males, not women, slaves, or foreigners.

The Parthenon

Greek Culture

• Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle- believed that truth could be discerned through rational thought and deliberate and careful observation.

• The Greek drama (comedies and tragedies) of human nature and public officials…

• Sculptures of the ideal body (resemble Gods)

• Homer-epic poems (Iliad and The Odyssey) about the Trojan War

Great Athenian Philosophers $ Socrates

Know thyself!

question everything

only the pursuit of goodness brings happiness.

$ Plato The Academy

The world of the FORMS

The Republic philosopher-king

Great Athenian Philosophers

$ Aristotle

“Golden Mean” [everything in moderation].

Logic.

Scientific method.

Athens: The Arts & Sciences

$ DRAMA (tragedians): Aeschylus

Sophocles

Euripides

$ THE SCIENCES: Pythagoras

Democritus all matter made up of small atoms.

Hippocrates “Father of Medicine”

Phidias’ Acropolis

Golden “Age of Pericles”: 460 BCE – 429 BCE

Athens (The Golden Age) of Pericles

• Rebuilt after the destruction by the Persians

• Became the cultural powerhouse

• Democracy for all adult males became firmly established

• Philosophy and arts flourished

• Delian League was established with other city-states (an alliance against aggression from its common enemies, mostly Persia).

Conflict Amongst Greeks

• Athens dominates the Delian League with its intellect and powerful navy

• Sparta jealous of Athens developed its own unification of city-states call the Peloponnesian League.

• They eventually will go to war with one another (the Peloponnesian War in 431BCE) will fight for 30 years

• Sparta will win, but all city-states are weakened by this war and will soon be conquered by Phillip the II of Macedonia.

Peloponnesian War

Alexander the Great 330 BCE

• Great Macedonian King, son of Phillip II • Conquered the Persian Empire and then into India • Did all of this before he died at 33 years old! *Conquered land spread ideas and Culture *Taught by Aristotle

The Breakup of Alexander’s Empire

Hellenistic Era • The word, Hellenistic, is derived from the word, Hellene,

which was the Greek word for the Greeks. The Hellenistic age was the "age of the Greeks; during this time, Greek culture and power extended itself across the known world. While the classical age of Greece produced great literature, poetry, philosophy, drama, and art, the Hellenistic age "hellenized" the world.

• Mostly spread by Alexander. However, the Macedonians did more than control territory; they actively exported Greek culture: politics, law, literature, philosophy, religion, and art.

• This was a new idea, exporting culture, and more than anything else this exporting of culture would deeply influence all the civilizations and cultures that would later erupt from this soil: the Romans, the Christians, the Jewish, and Muslim.