1. Ancient
Greece

2. The Geography of Greece
near anc. civs. of the MidEast/Egypt.
access to Black Sea grain.

3. mountainous mtns. block contact
not unified, dev. sep. city-states = polis
a “Civilization” not an “Empire”

4. coastal
never > 50 miles from sea.
turn to sea for trade/transport

5. Periods of
Ancient Greek History
Minoan (2000 BCE – 1400 BCE)

6. Minoan Civilization centered on Crete
well-built advanced cities and palaces
not walled, maze-like entry to access central courtyard, plumbing, etc.
Do Greek myths tell us more about the Minoans?
named for King Minos/the Minotaur legend, why?
Allegory for their conquest by mainland Greeks?
the legend of Atlantis?
weakened by explosion of Thera (1628 BCE)
overtaken by Mycenaeans by 1400 BCE

7. Crete: Minoan Civilization (Palace at Knossos = inspiration for “the Labyrinth”?)

8. Crete: Horns of Consecration (Bull Worshipping)

9. Minoan Civilization: Bull-leaping

10. Legend of the Minotaur, simple myth or historical allegory?

11. Periods of Ancient Greek History Minoan (2000 BCE – 1400 BCE)
Mycenaean (1400 – 1200 BCE)

12. The Mycenaean Civilization
Centered in Southern Greece

13. The Mycenaean Civilization
Classical Greeks look back (thru Homer) to this time as an “ideal”
“heroic age”
Setting for the Trojan War (ca BCE)
Agamemnon, Achilles, etc.
Greek gods
What does it mean to be a hero?
The Mycenaean Civilization

14. The Trojan War (The Iliad and the Odyssey)

16. The Mask of Agamemnon

17. Periods of Ancient Greek History Minoan (2000 BCE – 1400 BCE)
Mycenaean (1400 – 1200 BCE)
Dark Ages (1200 – 750 BCE)

18. Dark Ages Why did the Dark Ages happen? Organized society collapses
Dorian Invasions? Sea Peoples?
Organized society collapses
small isolated villages
population decline
writing vanishes
lack of historical records
When writing returns we see a disappearance of Mycenaean Linear b and shift to an alphabet adopted from …
Phoenicians
They come back later on (Carthage)

19. Homer Blind poet is the “bridge” from heroic past to classical Greece.
Epic (oral) poems pass down heroic traditions and values
The Iliad, The Odyssey
War-like, heroic values
external, shame-based values vs. western internal guilt-based
arete
striving for excellence
Leads to great achievements
leads to constant competition
Individual = Olympics
City-states = constant warfare
Rule by the excellent
“aristocracy”
Homer

20. Classical Greece
(city-state period)
750 BCE BCE

21. Periods of Ancient Greek History Minoan (2000 BCE – 1400 BCE)
Mycenaean (1400 – 1200 BCE)
Dark Ages (1200 – 750 BCE)
City-State/Classic Period (750 – 324 BCE)

22. unite to defeat superpower Persians!
Rise of City-States How to deal with problems? 1) social organization 2) protection of polis.
Sparta
Athens
Gradually becomes a “democracy”
Expand franchise to include protectors of the polis
dynamic society (art, culture, science, etc.)
Naval power
Ruled by small group (oligarchy)
enslave helots
Society org. like army
no luxuries = “spartan”
Land power
unite to defeat superpower Persians!

23. Underdog Greeks unite to defeat global superpower of the day
Persian Wars: 499 BCE – 480 BCE
Underdog Greeks unite to defeat global superpower of the day

24. Persian Wars: 499 BCE – 480 BCE Marathon (490 BCE)
Philippides runs 26 miles from Athens to announce victory (then dies)
Proves the Persians could be defeated
Thermopylae (480 BCE)
“300” Spartans stall Persians at mountain pass until they are betrayed
Athens has time to evacuate but is burned
Salamis (480 BCE)
Athenian navy wins by luring Persian navy into narrow waters!
Persia out of Europe forever

25. Battle of Marathon (Philippides arrives with news of Athenian victory)

26. Battle of Thermopylae (300 Spartans hold off Persian invaders)

27. Battle of Salamis (Persians lured into small area which offsets their advantages)

28. SPARTA

29. SPARTA

30. SPARTA

31. Golden “Age of Pericles”: 460 BCE – 429 BCE
Athens:
Golden “Age of Pericles”: 460 BCE – 429 BCE

32. Phidias’ Acropolis

33. The Parthenon

34. The Acropolis Today

35. The Parthenon

36. Peloponnesian War Athens vs. Sparta Lasts 30 years
Shift from individual quest for arete to polis competing to prove arete
Sparta wins!!!!!
weakens Greek world
Greece conquered by Philip of Macedonia (Alexander the Great’s father)

37. Great Athenian Philosophers
Socrates
“Know thyself!” & question all
Trial of Socrates
Used as a scapegoat for Athenian loss in Peloponnesian War
“corrupting youth” with new ideas
Plato
The Academy
The Republic  philosopher-king
Aristotle
Logic & Scientific method.

38. Athens: The Arts & Sciences
DRAMA
Tragedy (man brought down by hubris, trying to change his fate)
Aeschylus
Sophocles (Oedipus Rex, Antigone)
Comedy (make fun of leaders)
Aristophanes
Euripides
THE SCIENCES:
Pythagoras  a2 + b2 = c2
Democritus  matter = atoms.
Hippocrates  “Father of Medicine”

39. Periods of Ancient Greek History Minoan (2000 BCE – 1400 BCE)
Mycenaean (1400 – 1200 BCE)
Dark Ages (1200 – 750 BCE)
City-State/Classic Period (750 – 324 BCE)
Hellenistic (324 – 146 BCE?)

40. "Hellenistic"
Age:
324 BCE BCE

41. Alexander the Great

42. Alexander the Great’s Empire

43. Alexander the Great in Persia

44. The Hellenization of Asia

45. “Hellenistic” = Greek-like
Alexander d. 323 bc
Alcohol poisoning?
Legacy
Merging of Greek and Eastern cultures
Hellenism
CULTURAL DIFFUSION
Persia, Egypt, Israel are “hellenized”
Greek rulers = ex. Cleopatra is Greek
Christ = Greek for the “anointed one”

47. Hellenistic Philosophers
Cynics  Diogenes
ignore social norms avoid luxuries.
simple life
Today “cynics”= distrust others’ motives
Epicureans  Epicurus
avoid pain & seek pleasure.
excess leads to pain
Today = lovers of food and wine.
Stoics  Zeno
natural law/logic
free from passion
Today = “stoic” = emotionless

48. Hellenism: The Arts & Sciences
Greek science/math spread
Library at Alexandria
Scientists / Mathematicians:
Aristarchus  heliocentric theory.
Euclid  geometry
Archimedes  pulley

49. Roman becomes Hellenized
In 146 BC Rome conquers Greece
“When Rome conquered Greece, Greece conquered Rome”