1. YEAR 12 CLASSICAL STUDIES mythology
schoolhistory.co.nz

2. What is a myth? Muthos means ‘utterance’ or something which is told.
Often includes legends – which are based in fact
Edges often blurred
Many myths contain elements of folk tales

3. Some myths are strongly religious
Passed on through the generations
Explain the origins of the world
Explain natural phenomena - day/night, seasons, storms etc
May explain or support existing customs or rituals: birth, marriage, status of women, crop fertility etc

4. Reflect human dreams and wishes e.g
do tales of heroes reflect men’s desire to be superhuman?

5. Where do myths come from?
Usually found in most cultures
From a time before writing generally used
A time of genuine belief in the gods
A time lacking in scientific explanation
A time when people believed all events had a divine origin
Verbal communication allowed myths to change

6. Greek Myths
Earliest reference from Homer and Hesiod in the eighth century BC
Originated between BC

7. Ancient Greece Thessaly and Macedonia Asia Minor Attica and Boetia
Peloponnese
Crete

8. Important places Coast of Asia Minor to the right Cycladic Islands
Crete
Mainland Greece:
Peloponnese (south)
Attica and Boetia (central)
Thessaly and Macedonia

9. Background to Greece

10. Stone Age Aegean pre 3000BC Similar types of people in these areas
Possibly from modern Iraq
Farming and domesticated animals
Worshipped fertility spirits – mainly female
Placated male spirits - destructive

11. Early Bronze Age 3000-2000BC Bronze used over whole area
Civilization flourished
Worship of fertility goddesses (Mother/Earth)
2000BC upheaval on Asia mainland caused people to arrive
These people brought wheel pottery

12. Greek mainland invaded by several waves of less cultured people from the north
They were warlike
Patriarchal
Worshipped mainly male deities who lived on mountain tops and ruled the skies
Homer called them Achaeans
They looted and killed and eventually settled

13. Middle Bronze Age BC
Crete appears to have escaped the invaders and their civilisation continued uninterrupted
Around 2000BC it had a surge in trade and wealth
Largest palace was Knossos
May have had a powerful fleet
It is called Minoan Civilisation after King Minos

14. Minoan Civilization

15. Crete: Minoan Civilization (Palace at Knossos)

16. Minoans worshipped a mother goddess
The bull was an important symbol
Crete was the most advanced civilisation in the area
Minoans may have demanded ‘tribute’ from other areas

17. Knossos: Minoan Civilization

18. Achaeans They lived on mainland Greece Main centre was Mycenae
This civilisation was called Mycenaeans
Each state had a fort and a warrior king
Endemic fighting
Because of trade with Crete Mycenaeans began to worship earth goddess as well as sky god

19. Eventually civilisation on Crete collapsed
May be linked to Thera – volcano
Mycenaeans took opportunity to seize control of Crete around 1450BC
They burned and looted and by 1380BC the Palace of Knossos was destroyed

20. Late Bronze Age BC
Mycenaeans now dominated in the Mediterranean
Peaked around 1300BC
Had unstable parasitic nobility who survived by seizing the wealth of others in war
Describing a Greek hero as a ‘sacker of cities’ (Homer) was a compliment

21. The Mycenaean Civilization

22. Troy
May have been a battle to eliminate trade competition or to get scarce metals
Troy fell 1250BC
Within a century all major sites on the mainland Greece fell
Except Athens

23. Plan of the City of Troy

24. Homer: The “Heroic Age”

25. Original Wall of the City of Troy

26. The Mask of Agamemnon

27. The Dark Ages BC
General destruction had occurred which was disastrous for the Greek world
Loss of centralised control led to lawlessness, population decline, simpler life ensued

28. Homer, the Blind Poet

29. Homer’s Great Epics

30. Homer’s View of the World

31. The Dorians
The Dorians took advantage and moved south down through the Greek peninsula and settled in the Peloponnese and Crete
Many Greeks moved to the coast of Asia Minor to escape
The Dorians were even less ‘civilised’ and set progress back even further

32. Creation of Mythology
At this time the art of writing was lost and oral tradition flourished
Storytellers knitted together tales from a wide area
In later Classical times Sparta and Athens changed details of myths to suit themselves

33. "Hellenic"
(Classical)
Greece:
700 BCE BCE

34. The Rise of the Greek Polis
Eboea
Syracuse
Athens
Larissa
Naxos
Corinth

35. ATHENS: Yesterday & Today

36. Archaic Period and Classical Age
Between the end of the Dark Ages and the Persian Invasion which led to the Classical Age
The Classical Age ends with the death of Alexander in 323BC
Rome then dominated the Mediterranean area

37. Great Athenian Philosophers
Socrates
Know thyself!
question everything
only the pursuit of goodness brings happiness.
Plato
The Academy
The world of the FORMS
The Republic  philosopher-king

38. Great Athenian Philosophers
Aristotle
The Lyceum
“Golden Mean” [everything in moderation].
Logic.
Scientific method.

39. Athens: The Arts & Sciences
DRAMA (tragedians):
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Euripides
THE SCIENCES:
Pythagoras
Democritus  all matter made up of small atoms.
Hippocrates  “Father of Medicine”

40. Phidias’ Acropolis

41. The Acropolis Today

42. The Parthenon

43. The Agora

44. The Classical Greek “Ideal”

45. Olympia