Chapter 2 Lecture One of Two The Cultural Context of Classical Myth To Greek Society ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Cultural Context of Classical Myth “Myths reflect the society that produces them. In turn, they determine the nature of that society. They cannot be separated from the physical, social, and spiritual worlds in which a people lives or from a people’s history.” ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

GREEK GEOGRAPHY ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Greek Geography Mountainous Mostly dry, non-arable land Torrid, dry summers Pockets of land that could support agriculture Very little minerals Rich in limestone, good clay, and marble ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Satellite View of Greece Greece is mountainous with only a few pockets of arable land. Thessaly is circled. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc. NASA

Map II: Southern and Central Greece Locate Boeotia, Attica, Argolis, Laconia, Messenia, and Elis, regions where agriculture was sustainable. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Figure 2.1 Athens In the distance is Mt. Pentelicon, where marble was quarried (and still is). ©2012 Pearson Education Inc. University of Wisconsin–Madison Photo Archive

Greek Geography The Aegean Sea the greatest natural resource – Maps of Greece Maps of Greece Cycladic Islands and the Sporades Cycladic Islands Sporades Importance of trade and colonization Mountainous terrain encourage political independence of cities and spawned myths of city founders ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Greek Geography Cycladic Islands and the Sporades Cycladic Islands Sporades Importance of trade and colonization Mountainous terrain encourage political independence of cities and spawned myths of city founders ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

GREEK HISTORY ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Greek History – 7000 BCPaleolithic 7000–3000 BCNeolithic 3000–1150 BCBronze Age ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Greek History ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Greek History ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

EARLY/MIDDLE BRONZE AGE ( B.C.) The Origins of the Greeks ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Early/Middle Bronze Age Early Bronze Age (3000–2000 BC) peoples in the Greek area not Greek Agricultural peoples mainly Worshipped goddesses of fertility ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Early/Middle Bronze Age Minoans (on Crete) Started building elaborate palaces toward the end of the Early Bronze Age and beyond (2200–1450 BC) – Knossos Reconstruction and other images Knossos Reconstruction ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Early/Middle Bronze Age Migration of a people, whom we call the Indo- Europeans – around 2100 BC. Were no doubt speaking an early form of Greek. – Indo-European is the basis for many world languages today Language of the people they replaced still in many place names and names for plants and animals. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Early/Middle Bronze Age Appear to be more warlike than aboriginal peoples Society divided into – (1) kings and priests – (2) warriors – (3) food producers ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

THE LATE BRONZE AGE ( ) Mycenaean Age ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Late Bronze Age Known also as the Mycenaean Age. People called “Mycenaean” because that is one of their main sites. – They may have called themselves “Achaean” ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Figure 14.1 Lions Gate at Mycenae For more images of Mycenae, click here.here ©2012 Pearson Education Inc. Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, Athens

Late Bronze Age Mycenae taken over by Indo-Europeans in 1650 BC. Other Mycenaean sites: Thebes, Athens, Orchomenus, Pylos ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Late Bronze Age Ruled by powerful and rich warrior kings. Perhaps the Mycenaean destroyed the Minoan sites on Crete in – Impressed by Minoan art and culture ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Late Bronze Age Their writing system: Linear B (adapted from Minoan Linear A).Linear BLinear A – Translated in 1952; proved to be an early form of Greek – Does not record literature or myths, but consists only of inventory records ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Late Bronze Age Great heroic legends of classical myth set in this period. Historically related to a conflict with Troy in about – Were they Greeks or Hittites? ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

THE DARK AGE ( ) ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Dark Age Great Mycenaean palaces destroyed around 1180–1150 BC. The Dorian Invasion (a.k.a. the Heraclidae). Athens survived. Period of migration of Mycenaean Greeks across the Aegean. – Ionia and Aeolis on the western coast of modern- day Turkey ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Dark Age Social disorganization, depopulation and impoverishment. Petty kings and small dominions. – Families and small villages ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Dark Age The island of Euboea a possible exception. – Continued contacts with the Near East – Greek alphabet first appears on Euboea, allowing Homer and Hesiod to be written down ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

THE ARCHAIC PERIOD ( ) ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Archaic Period Invention of the Greek alphabet. Includes symbols for vowels, not just consonants. Colonization from Euboea to southern Italy and Sicily. A cultural revival. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Archaic Period The Greek polis. – People identified themselves geographically and not just by family ties – “Citizenship” – Competitiveness encouraged, not so much cooperation ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Archaic Period Rebirth of commerce depended on the sea. Greek economy thus decentralized and competitive, not like landed/river monarchies such as Egypt and Mesopotamia. 6 th century innovation of coined money spurned economic growth even more. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Figure 2.2 Papyrus All ancient Greek literature was originally recorded on papyrus. The Greek alphabet, adapted from earlier forms of writing, was the first time a writing system aspired to be a complete acoustic map of a spoken language, including not just the consonants and syllables of words, but also their vowels. Our own "alphabet," whose name comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha beta), is only a slightly modified version of the Greek alphabet. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc. From “The Wisconsin Papyri,” no. 76, vol. 1, no. 10, 468 AD. University of Wisconsin–Madison Photo Archive

The Archaic Period The “new” economy strains old social orders. – Period of conflict between the old, landed aristocracy (the aristoi) and the entrepreneurial class (the kakoi) Period of tyrants (650–600). – Perhaps can be thought of as populists – Negative connotation of the word tyrant from the hostility of the literate aristoi ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Archaic Period Toward the end of the Archaic Period and series of conflicts with Persia Persia conquers the Greek cities on the western coast of Turkey Mainland Greeks drawn into the conflict ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD ( ) ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Classical Period A democracy in Athens (508 BC) – Cleisthenes – All free men had a stake in the city and a role to play in its administration Persians first repelled by Athenian citizen army at Marathon in 490 – “What a noble thing freedom is” Persians finally defeated in 480 by Athens and other Greek cities ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Figure 2.3 A Greek Hoplite and a Persian The Greeks were better equipped for hand-to-hand combat. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource, New York

PERSPECTIVE 2 Frank Miller's 300 ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Perspective The story of the Battle at Thermopylae in 480. Even today seen by some to be a metaphor for the struggle of the West against "barbarism." ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Classical Period Classical floruit of Athens and Greece inspired by their national pride and their military prowess. Greek cities fought with one another but they recognized that they were all Hellenes, different from the barbaroi around them. The great “civil” war of the Greeks in the Peloponnesian War ( ) fatally weakened them all. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Figure 2.4 Sparta Mt. Taygetus towers over the modern village of Sparta. In antiquity Sparta was only a string of small villages. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc. University of Wisconsin–Madison Photo Archive

The Classical Period Myth reworked and re-presented in new forms to reflect the political and social realities of the day. – Tragedy above all Philosophy and science developed in the late Classical Period as a counterpoint to myth. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Classical Period The Macedonian king Philip II overran the southern Greeks in 338 and changed the political landscape. Greece cities yoked in a kingdom; their freedom limited. Alexander the Great follows; leads campaign against Persia. Death in 323 the conventional date for the end of the Classical Period. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD (323-30) ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Hellenistic Period Greek culture the “global” culture in the Mediterranean area. Center moved from the “old” Greece to the new cities of Alexandria. 146 BC, Greek mainland conquered by Rome, followed by another 100 years of conflict. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

The Hellenistic Period Finally pacified in 30 BC with the conquest of Egypt, by then a Greek dynasty. 30 BC the beginning of the Roman period and the end of Greek “independence.” ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

End ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.