Ancient Aegean CulturesCycladicMinoan

Mycenean

Phases of Hellenic (Greek) Civilization

Neolithic Culture (3000-1000 BCE) Cycladic

Bronze Age (2000 -1200 BCE) Minoan and Mycenaean

Heroic Age (1200 – 750 BCE) Age of Homer

Archaic Age (750 – 480 BCE) Classical Age (480 – 323 BCE)

Golden Age (480 – 430 BCE)

The Aegean Sea: Homer’s Wine Dark Sea

The Mediterranean: Rome’s Mare Nostrum

Cyclades

SyrosNaxos

Paros: marble quarries

Cycladic Cultures3000-1000 bce

Stepping stones across the Aegean, the Cycladic islands were early settlement sites for migrants who developed a significant culture centuries before the emergence of the civilizations of Crete and Mycenae.

Cycladites developed shipping and traded with mainland Greece, the coast of Asia Minor and the western Mediterranean, from the Neolithic period.

Olive production helped in self-sufficiency.

CycladicTombs

They buried their dead in box -shaped tombs of a trapezoidal shape, in circular tombs, and in chambers carved on the rock.

Top: Cist grave of the Gotta-Pelos culture.Middle: Two-storeyed grave of the Keros-Syros culture.Bottom: Corbelled grave of the Keros-Syros culture

Cycladic Painting

Flying Fish fresco

Cycladic Pottery:

“frying pans”

Cycladic Pottery:zoomorphic pots

Types of Cycladic Figurines

Early Cycladic Figurines: violin shaped

Later Cycladic Figurines

Pregnant figurine

Rare male figurines

Hunter and Female

Companion

Cycladic Musicians

Abstraction Cycladic Influence on Modern Art

Constantin Brancusi

Amedeo Modigliani

Minoan Myth and Culture

Minoan Civilization 2000-1400 BCE

Palace at Knossos - Crete

Neolithic Art6000-2600 bce

PREPALATIAL PERIOD (2600-1900 B.C.)

Development of a glorious civilization fostered by: Geographic location Fertile ground Long periods of peace

The pre-Palatial period is characterized by: Extensive use of copper Growth in fishing, farming and shipping activities Tin trade Improvement of construction techniques Use of precious stones, elephant bone and gold:

the various seals from that period are beautiful works of art.

Minoan symbols

Bull

Snake Goddess

Labrys

Bull-Jumping

Gold ring with a depiction of a bull-jumping scene from Phourni. Before 2000 BC.

Gold ring with a depiction of the goddess with a griffin from Phourni. Before 2000 BC

PALOPALATIAL PERIOD (1900-1700 B.C.)

1900 BCE: the first palaces were built in Crete: Knossos, Malia and Kato Zakros.

The settlements around the palaces had organized watering, sewage and street systems.

Economy was based on agriculture and thrived on trade: finds from Crete have been located in Egypt and Cyprus.

1700 BCE: a strong earthquake destroyed most of the palaces.

KnossosReconstruction of palace at Knossos by archeologist, Sir Arthur Evans

Palace at Knossos

Aerial view of Knossos

Queen’s megaron and

throne

Townhouses

Mosaic

NEOPALATIAL PERIOD (1700- 1450 B.C.E.)

The palaces were restored and the Neo-Palatial Period, the thriving years of the Minoan civilization, was inaugurated.

The palace was the center of the economic, social and religious life

The class of merchants, manufacturers and priests commanded respect, second only to the King

King was worshipped as a High Priest, along with the Goddess of Fertility.

Women played a prominent role in the Minoan civilization.

Snake Goddesse

s or

Priestesses

Labrys: double-headed axes

Bulls

Ca. 1200 bce

Ca. 1500-1450 bce

Ca. 16th c. bceCa. 1500 bce

Bull Leaping

Pottery

Hieroglyphics:The Phaistos Disk

ca. 1600 bce

Jewelry

Knossos

In about 1450 BC, the cities and palaces of the Minoan civilization were swept away by a tidal wave, caused by a volcanic eruption in the island of Thera, while extensive fires demolished everything.

POSTPALATIAL PERIOD (1450-1100 B.C.E.)

The Myceneans (Achaeans) occupied Knossos and established a strong dynasty.

The economy still based on trade with Egypt and Asia Minor, but change is evident in art and daily life.

Ceramics, bronze objects, jewels etc., testify to the coexistence and influence of the two populations on one another, for a long time.

1300 BC: another earthquake destroyed the last remains of the Minoan civilization, including the palace of Knossos.

According to historians, in 1200 BCE, Crete had a powerful fleet that raided the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.

In the early 11th cent. BCE, European tribes invaded Crete from the North.

Later goddesses

Goddess with a Cone and Horns of

Consecration. 1400-

1200 BC.

Bird Goddess. 1400-1200 BC.

Goddess with Poppy-headed Pins. 1350 BC.

Linear B

Minoan Myth

Zeus and

Europa

Karl Plattner The Rape of Europa

The Bull from the Sea

Pasiphae’s Passion

Daedalus, Pasiphae and wooden cow: Pompeian wall painting (House of the Vettii),

The Minotaur

andThe

Labyrinth of

Daedalus

Athenian Tribute

King Minos and Ariadne

King Aegeus and Theseus

The killing of the

Minotaur

Ariadne on Naxos

Dionysus and Ariadne

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne

The Return to Athens

Lynne Frehm, Black Sails

Theseus: Hero and King of Athens

Roman wall painting

Daedalus and Icarus

Daedalus and IcarusFrederic Leighton (1830-1896)

Odilon Redon, The Fall of Icarus

Mycenaean Civilization

1600-1200 BCE

Mycenaean Civilization 1600-1200 BCE

Mycenaean Citadel

Lion Gate

Entrance to Citadel at Mycenae

1500-1300 BCE

Mycenean Myth:The Trojan War

A War among 3 Cultures

The Achaeans: The Greeks

The Trojans

The Olympian Gods

Olympians

Meddle in the affairs of humanity Function as conceptual forces of nature and the

psyche Aphrodite – lust Ares – war rage Athena – cunning strategy

Pantheon

The Trojans

Bronze Age, pre-Greek city state, conceive of themselves as members of the family of Troy

Although they disapprove of Paris, they unite in familial responsibility and assume his guilt in an act of collective family responsibility -- "our lot is best, to fight for our country” -- doomed

David, Helen and Paris, 1788

The Trojan Family

King Priam and Queen Hecuba

Hector and Andromache

Paris and Helen

Cassandra

Priam and Hecuba plead with Achilles for the body of Hector

The Achaeans

The Achaeans – Mycenaeans

Greeks Historically piratical Barbaric chieftains whose prized values of

nobility, pride, power, glamour, and strength thrive only among violence

Each hero is out for himself -- failure provokes shame rather than assumption of responsibility -- leads to disorder and tragedy

Allied together against Trojans only because of pact made with the wooing of Helen

The Spartans

Tyndareus Leda ZEUS King of Sparta

Castor Pollux

Clytemnestra ---- Agamemnon Menelaus ---- Helen ---- Paris King of King of Prince of Mycenae Sparta Troy

Helen and Menelaus

The Judgeme

nt of Paris

Giordano Luca, Abduction of Helen

AGAMEMNON

Achilles Slaying Hector

Odysseus

King of Ithaca

Major Strategist

Conceived the Trojan Horse

Husband to Penelope

The Trojan Horse

Heroic Age (1200 – 750 BCE) 1200 – Doric Invasion

Stories of Ancient Greece kept alive orally for generations

All Greeks shared a common cultural heritage

Myths, gods, and goddesses begin to take form

Greek myths were never canonized There is no one scripture

Religion wasn’t meant to control behavior

Function of Greek myths and Gods

Explain Natural events Demeter and Persephone Zeus

Explain Human World Gods resemble/behave like humans Gods reveal psychological aspects of

human behavior/actions Apollo vs. Dionysus

NOT an ethical system

Homer and the Iliad Blind poet who lived

around 850 BCE Composer of 2 epic

poems: The Iliad The Odyssey

Oral stories first, then written down

Iliad and Trojan War: Covers 51 days near

the end of a 10 year war

Homer’s epics provided material for Greek literature and drama Bust of Homer, British Museum, London

The Iliad Reveals how making

heroic valor a culture’s prime value is fundamentally destructive to social order and humane community

The first word in the poem is menin: rage The rage of Achilles Rage as the hero and

subject of the poem Rage that transforms

Achilles into a killing machine and Hector into a corpse

The Iliad

“Rage: Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage, black and murderous, that cost the Greeks incalculable pain, pitched countless souls of heroes to dark Hades, and leaving their bodies to be rot as feasts for dogs and birds…Begin with the clash between Agamemnon-the Greek warlord-and godlike Achilles.” (lines 1-9)

Aeschylus525-456 bce

THE ORESTAEIAAgamemnon

The Libation BearersThe Eumenides

Clytemnestra’s Revenge

Orestes and Electra at Delphi

TheVengean

ce of Orestes

The Erinye

s

Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William Bouguereau (c.1862)

The Judgement

of Athena:

the substitution of trial by jury for

vengeance in Athenian

law