385L4

BRONZE AGE 3000-1100 BCE Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations DARK AGE 1100-800 BCE economic collapse migration into Aegean ARCHAIC PERIOD 800-480 BCE trade and economic renewal literacy rise of polis Presocratic speculation CLASSICAL PERIOD 480-323 BCE Athenian supremacy scientific advances: logic, astronomy, medicine, physics, mathematics, biology… research institutes (Academy, Lyceum) HELLENISTIC PERIOD 323-31 BCE Alexander the Great syncretism research libraries (Alexandria, Pergamon) ROMAN REPUBLIC 509-31 BCE Roman conquest of Greece (150) expansion of Empire ROMAN EMPIRE 31 BCE — 476 CE collapse of Republic imperial rule religious cults “fall” of Rome

PERIOD INDIVIDUAL FIELDS ARCHAIC (800-480) early Presocratics natural science CLASSICAL (480-323) later Presocratics Hippocrates Socrates Plato (Academy) Aristotle (Lyceum) natural science, epistemology, logic medicine epistemology mathematics, astronomy astronomy, logic, physics, biology, meteorology, psychology... HELLENISTIC (323-31) Alexandrians Archimedes astronomy, botany, physics, medicine… mathematics, engineering ROMAN REPUBLIC (509-31) Hipparchus Strabo Celsus astronomy geography EMPIRE (31 BCE-476 CE) Hero Pliny the Elder Soranus, Galen Ptolemy engineering

physis : origin; organic growth; nature, natural world, physical world, perceptible world; order, arrangement, pattern; appearance; character, disposition; natural form or constitution physiologos : investigator of physis; natural scientist

Features of Ancient Greek Culture •polis structure •open, public debate •competitiveness •concern with definition, order, structure, boundaries •absence of religious orthodoxy •rise of (limited) literacy •institution of slavery •gendered space / gendered power

BELOW ABOVE EARTH SKY MOON SUN NIGHT DAY DARK LIGHT COLD HOT WET DRY SUMMER WINTER INSIDE OUTSIDE LEFT RIGHT ODD EVEN PLURALITY ONE UNLIMITED LIMIT OBLONG SQUARE CROOKED STRAIGHT BODY MIND SUBMISSIVE DOMINANT EMOTION REASON ANIMAL HUMAN NATURE CULTURE INFERIOR SUPERIOR BAD GOOD FEMALE MALE

absence of religious orthodoxy • religion normative, not “revealed” • absence of priestly caste • relative lack of religious dogma • emphasis on orthopraxy (NOT orthodoxy) • tolerance of alternative religious structures • consensus about role(s) of deity

rise of literacy • alphabet ca. 850 BCE • recording of oral (literary, mythological) traditions • link to rise of polis • pictographic vs. alphabet systems • alphabetic writing and democratic education • writing and memory • inventories and organization • prose vs. poetry • distancing and “objectification” of thought