Ancient Greece World Civilizations

Where is Greece? Sunny Greece is 1,500 miles from England. It’s capital city is Athens It is famous for its beautiful beaches and sea!

Ancient Greece In Ancient Greece, the different cities were at war with each other. The most fearsome fighters came from the town of Sparta.

Ancient Greece Geography

Climate of Ancient Greece Greece has a Mediterranean climate Winters are mild and wet allows for limited farming grapes and olives Summers are warm and dry leads to drought grapes and olives are one of the few plants that can survive the summer droughts November Greece receives 2.2 inches of precipitation Average temperature is a balmy 64 degrees Minnesota receives 1.29 inches of precipitation Average temperature is a chilly 29 degrees How is this different from Minnesota?

Physical Geography Greece is very mountainous 75% of Greece is covered by mountains Difficult to farm Surrounded by seas Greece is located on the Balkan Peninsula Made trade easier Could get what they could not grow Also brought ideas back with them

Ancient Greek Culture Cut off by mountains and the seas Isolated Led to the formation of city-states Limited interaction and unity of Ancient Greece Created fierce rivalries Sea became a vital link Hundreds of bays to provide safe harbor for ships Skilled sailors Traded olive oil, wine, and marble Returned with grains, metals, and ideas Adapted the Phoenician alphabet Became basis for all Western alphabets

Ancient Greece Cultural Topics Roles of men, women, and children Olympics Art and theatre Aesop’s Fables

Roles of Men, Women, and Children Only free men were considered citizens Men were responsible for getting the crops grown and harvested, but everyone in the family helped, unless the family had slaves to do their work for them Men had drinking parties = no women or children allowed In larger houses, men had their own dining rooms A husband’s word was law (women couldn’t leave home without permission) Basically, women stayed at home and men went out

Roles of Men, Women, and Children In all Greek city-states, except Sparta, women had very little freedom In the home, however, women were the bosses Women cooked, cleaned, raised children, sewed, etc. In Sparta, women had a lot more freedom These women could leave the house without a husband’s permission, run a business, and were even trained as warriors

Roles of Men, Women, and Children Children were born in the home, but because babies frequently died just a few days after birth, they were generally named a week after birth Girls were educated at home by their mothers, but were not usually taught to read or write A girls education focused around how to take care of children and a home, cooking, sewing, etc. In Sparta, however, girls were encouraged to participate in athletics, music, singing, and dancing

Roles of Men, Women, and Children After girls reached the age of 12 or 13, they were considered adults and their fathers began to arrange their marriages These marriages were usually to men in their 30’s Once a husband was found, they were expected to start having their own children If a family had multiple daughters, it could get expensive since each daughter would have to begin marriage with a dowry A dowry is property or money brought by a bride to her husband at marriage Any young women who couldn’t have children were seen as cursed by the gods

Roles of Men, Women and, Children Boys were favored over girls They were able to continue the family line, care for older parents, and arrange proper funerals for them At age 3, boys would taste their first sips of wine at the festival of Dionysus and would also begin to assist with sacrificial rituals to the gods Most boys were trained by their fathers until age 6, then they were educated in schools Boys in Sparta left their families at the age of 7 to become part of the military and were not allowed to leave until they were 30 Most city-states required boys to join the military at 18 and do two years of service

Roles of Men, Women, and Children Rich families had a special slave whose specific job was to bring boys back and forth to school and guarantee that they worked hard Boys learned to memorize and recite poems, learned music, reading, writing, and arithmetic Most boys worked hard to become farmers, fishermen, or craftsmen, with many different kinds of crafts to choose from such as potter, building, metalworking, or stone carving

The Olympics Free men from all over Greece participated in competitive games First written records of the ancient Olympics date to 776 B.C. However, it is generally believed that the games had been going on for many years before that Ancient Olympics were held every four years between August 6 and September 19 during a religious festival honoring Zeus

The Olympics Modern Olympics The first modern Olympic games was held in Athens in 1896 Competitors came from 13 different nations and no women were allowed to compete During WWI and WWII there were no Olympic games held