Ancient Greece

Geography EGYPT – banks of Nile flooded with silt; dry climate preserved bodies and structures GREECE – water, mountains led to independent regional cities: fragmented social & cultural life; fine clay to make pottery: vibrant red and dark black in classical Greek pottery

POLIS – independent city state Greatest loyalty to polis, not Greece Center of all political, religious, social, philosophic and artistic life Origin of word “politics”

AGORA – “open space” = market and political center of polis Most marble statues & monuments later burned in kilns by conquering Ottomans to make lime needed for cement or plaster (same in Rome later)

Mediterranean Diet Olives & olive oil Beans and lentils Wine Goat milk (lower fat than dairy cheese) Grains Fish, especially tuna Little meat

3 Periods of Early Greece Heroic Age (1,000 – 750 BCE) Age of Colonization (750 – 600 BCE) - Italy & especially Asia - pottery now with animals & fantastic beasts Archaic Period (600 – 480 BCE) - Egyptian influence: life-sized statues

Religion Greek gods differ from other Western religions (Zeus main god) None represent supreme or ultimate good or evil (Satan in Christianity & Judaism) Gods used to explain natural phenomena & peoples’ emotions Human morality problems needed human, not divine, solutions: mainly art and literature

HOMER Not even sure he existed First figure in Western literature Passed down orally & then written Iliad & Odyssey Humans are in control of their own destiny, not the gods Theme is consequences of action by humans themselves

Homer’s epics of Iliad and Odyssey helped shape & establish the Greek identity, rooted in the common ancestry of Mycean ancestors in the works.

Art Mainly in Pottery Early vases with geometric patterns(like woven baskets?) and triangular humans Later added more realistic humans forms and animals

Black figures on red background…

..changed to red figures on black

First time in history artists represented human figure true to nature Life-Size Statues Earliest were stiff & formal, modeled on Egyptian statues Soon focused on natural human form, often nude Relief sculpture on stone slabs First time in history artists represented human figure true to nature

Birth of History Previously, historians had only recorded events. Herodotus – “Father of History” Wrote entertaining, lengthy account of the 449 BCE Persian Wars – Greece defeated the much more powerful Persians! Asked HOW Greeks could possibly have beaten the stronger Persians? (Answer: modest Greek character; Persians had excessive pride & ambition) Asked WHY there was a war in the first place. Believed can only write history if personally observed by historian.

“historia” in Greek = story Herodotus also wanted an investigation to explain WHY We’re doing the same in this course!

Greece’s great victory in Persian War led to the greatest period in Greece – the Classical or Golden Age