1. CLA/SRS 3333 Religions of the Graeco-Roman World Jitse H.F. Dijkstra

2. Historical background: Greek history Bronze Age Minoan Civilization 3000-1200 BC Mycenean Civilization (1600-1200) Trojan War? ‘Dark Ages’ ca. 1000: Dorian immigration into Greece 1200-750 Spartans and on Peloponnese); Ionians (e.g. Athens), Aeolians 1200-750 ( Spartans and on Peloponnese); Ionians (e.g. Athens), Aeolians Archaic Period 776: first Olympic games 750-500 Rise of the City State (polis); colonization of Italy (‘Magna Graecia’) Homer, Hesiod Classical Period 490-479: Persian Wars: Herodotus 500-323 431-404: Peloponnesian War: Thucydides sophists; Socrates/Plato; tragedy writers: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides; comedy: Aristophanes struggle between states

3. Greek History (next) Aristotle 338: Macedonia wins battle of Chaeronea; 336: Phillip dead 336-323: his son, Alexander the Great conquers the world Hellenistic 323: division of Alexander’s empire: Ptolemies in Egypt; Period Seleucids in Persia; Antigonids Greece 323-30 BC 148: Macedonia Roman 146: sack of Corinth; Greece Roman province 64: conquest of Syria; 30: conquest of Egypt 27: start Roman Empire under Augustus (27 BC-AD 14) Knowledge Greek Religion: mostly Classical and Hellenistic Period!

5. 1. City/village (polis, astu, kome): where you live

6. Akropolis (‘upper city’, Athens)

8. Acrocorinth: the akropolis of Corinth

9. Mt. Olympus

10. 2. Mountain: where you don’t live 3 symbolic connotations in myth: 1. outside/wild (you get raw materials from there: Argo; strange creatures: Centaurs live there; hunting ground: myth of Aktaion) 2. ‘before’ (Deukalion and Pyrrha survive flood on Mt Parnassos) 3. Reversals: place to meet gods (Aktaion), where mad women live (maenads) Rule: what is often ‘real’ in myth is symbolic in ritual, e.g. maenads were in reality not mad but taking part in women’s rituals outside of the male-dominated world!

11. 3. Sea: ambiguous