1. Ancient Greece
World Civilizations

3. 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!

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

5. Ancient Greece Geography

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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