ANCIENT GREECE

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ANCIENT GREECE
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MINOANS - GEOGRAPHY

• Farmland, mountain ranges, tucked in between
  Ionian and Aegean Sea in the Mediterranean area
• Agriculture base, crops, sheep, goats, hunting,
  fishing
• interaction with other islands
• semi-tropical

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GEOGRAPHY
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MINOANS - TIMELINE

• Island of Crete, 2000 BC
• Early Minoan ca 3200 2000 BC
• Middle Minoan ca 2000 1550 BC
• Late Minoan ca 1550 1100 BC

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MINOANS - SOCIETY

• Form of writing Linear A (non-Greek speaking)
• Palace-based social organization no defensive
  walls
• Knossos main city
• King Minos most famous
• Frescoes (moist plaster and water-based paints on
  large surfaces for murals)
• Believed to be peace-loving as no art has scenes
  of blood or violence
• Most art of nature, games, beauty

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MINOANS - TRADE

• Advanced metal working (bronze)
• Bronze is from copper (Cyprus) and tin (perhaps
  Afghanistan)
• Volcanic obsidian from island of Melos (tools,
  knives)
• Surplus agriculture created wealth

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MINOANS - ART

• Highly skilled forms of art
• Myth of Minotaur (sounds like a bonus question to
  me)
• Curvaceous women, curly hair, women
  lighter-skinned than men
• Frescoes colourful and huge
• Nature in art scroll (wave) and dolphin

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MINOAN ART
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MYCENAEANS TIMELINE

• Destroyed Minoan civilization 1450 BC
• Developed Linear B (Greek-speaking)
• Much archeological evidence found by Heinrich
  Schliemann
• 1500 BC start to become more powerful not sure
  why
• 1200 BC citadels captured and destroyed
• Agamemnon of Mycenae, leader of Greek army at
  Troy, is most famous

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MYCENAEAN ART/ARCHITECTURE

• Gold masks
• Silver, ivory, pottery
• Huge stone buildings
• Ornate tombs
• (mask of Agamemnon)

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MYCENAEAN SOCIETY

• Elaborate feudal bureaucracy
• Kings to slaves
• Constantly warring
• Estimated that Greek population declined 75
  between 1100 1050 BC

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GREECE GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE

• Mountains and isolated valleys on multitude of
  islands
• Pastures for animals (cheese, meats)

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GREEK TIMELINE

• Classical Period (467 323 BC)
• Hellenistic Period (323 31 BC) (conquered by
  Rome)

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GREECE ART

• Early works kouros reflects rich Egyptian
  influence (6th century BC)

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ART

• Later Greek sculpture much more detailed, fluid,
  male nudes
• Realism and idealism
• amphoras

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ARCHITECTURE

• Parthenon built under Athenian Pericles

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GREEK ARCHITECTURE

• Greek architecture style of columns and large
  blocks copied by Romans and still very popular
  today

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GREEK ARCHITECTURE

• Acropolis in Athens

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GREEK TRADE

• Traded white marble, olives, pottery, wine,
  silver
• Imported metals (copper), grain (Russia, Sicily,
  Egypt), glass, alabaster, perfumes, ivory
  (Phoenicia and Egypt)
• Timber (north Aegean)
• Barter, and later monied economy

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GREEK COLONIZATION
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GREEK WARFARE

• Forced to migrate due to lack of land
• Hoplite warfare
• Constant warfare or threat of warfare with great
  Persian empire
• 400BC created Delian League to defend Greek
  states (some unity)

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GREEK WARFARE

• Athens vs. Sparta rivalry morphed into
  Peloponnesian War (431 404 BC)
• Sparta wins and Athenian power reduced
• Causes major recession and is end of Golden Age
  in Greece in 5th century
• Alexander the Great conquered entire Near East
  (334 BC) to India

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GREEK ACHIEVEMENTS

• Excellent sailors/shipbuilders
• Olympic Games (776BC for Zeus) ended 393 AD (by
  Christian Roman emperor)
• Democracy
• Pythagoras (geometry, algebra, trigonometry)
• Archimedes (inventor) Eureka!

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GREEK GOVERNMENT

• 700 city-states
• Kings/tyrants in early Greek period
• Democracy (demos the people and kratos power
  or the rule) created with Cleisthenes 500 BC
• Athenian citizenship male, over 18, parents
  free-born Athenians
• Ostracism (ostraka) with potsherds created to
  keep people from becoming too powerful

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GREEK RELIGION/BELIEFS

• Oracle of Apollo at Delphi often consulted
• gods/goddesses flawed just as humans
• See handout for Greek/Roman gods/goddesses
• Often religious festivals
• gods of Mount Olympus interactive

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GREEK THINKERS

• Herodotus (first historian)
• Hippocrates (medicine)
• Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (philosphers)
• Homer Odyssey and Iliad epic poems
• Aesops Fables
• Pericles we judge the man who takes no part at
  all in public affairs a useless, not just a
  quiet person.
• Sophocles playwright
• Aristophanes

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GREEK SOCIETY
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GREEK SOCIETY

• Homosexuality highest form of love (older/younger
  men)
• Often depicted in literature, poetry, and visual
  arts
• Sappho on island of Lesbos

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GREEK SOCIETY

• Women not equal (in Sparta more rights than in
  other places) but had role in religion

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GREEK SOCIETY

• Majority farmers or fishermen
• Agora (marketplace) centre of life