1. THE RISE OF THE CITY STATE GREECE

2. GEOGRAPHY Greece has a number of small mountain ranges that divide cities and make contact difficult Lots of small rivers help locally but not much for long distance trade This leads to the rise of the city state

3. THE CITY STATE Polis : This is a city state and was usually developed around a fort Acropolis : The hill in the middle of a city consisted of a temple, fort and political buildings Agora : The market place where goods were exchanged surrounded the Acropolis

4. THE CITY STATE Most city-states had three things in common: They covered a small amount of land Had a population fewer than 10,000 people (most of whom were slaves) Had a central identity (Athens was intellectual Sparta warlike) Each city state took pride in its own polis and was independent

5. GREEK CULTURE/RELIGION Most people learned about history through epics (long poems depicting heroes and great events) Homer was a blind poet in the 700’s BC that wrote two of the most famous epics Iliad Odyssey

6. ILIAD The Iliad covers the story of the Trojan war. Paris of Troy falls in love with Helen of Greece Paris kidnaps Helen Mycenaean Greeks attack for 10 years to get her back Wooden horse is constructed by Greeks and hides soldiers Notable characters include Agamemnon, Hector, Achilles, Particles, Paris and a bunch of gods

7. ODYSSEY After the Trojan War Odysseus travels home but gets into a lot of trouble Back home in Ithaca a bunch of punks are wasting Odysseus’ stuff and arguing who gets to marry Penelope. (Telemachus is angry at this treatment but too young to stop it) Defeats Polyphemus the cyclops Beats lotus-eaters Fights cannibal Laestrygonians Deals with Circe a temptress Sirens etc. Makes it home and kicks butt!

8. MYTHS AND RELIGION Greeks were polytheistic : Believed in many gods Greek gods lived on Mt. Olympus and fought regularly between each other and mortals Myths were collections of stories that Greeks saw as true Oracles (at Delphi) could tell you the will of the gods

9. GREEK GOD ASSIGNMENT In class today you will be heading to the computer lab and creating a caricature about one of the Greek Gods listed on my separate Greek Mythology power point. The caricature must include at least 4 characteristics incorporated into the pic and must have an explanation on the back. This will be due at the beginning of next week.