Download Chapter 2 The Cultural Context of

Chapter 2
The Cultural
Context of
Classical Myth
Notes:
• Blue Slides – Take
notes-include the
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underlined
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• Yellow Slides – Do
not take notes –
listen and learn!
Socrates said…
Is there anyone to whom you can entrust a
greater number of serious matters than
your wife? And is there anyone with whom
you have fewer conversations?
Myths reflect the society that produces
them. In this chapter we will consider the
background of the Greeks by examining:
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the nature of the land they lived in
their origins and history
how they lived as groups and individuals
something about their values – what they
hoped to achieve in life and how they
hoped to do it
Greek Geography
• Greece was barren and dry, just like today
• Its small rivers were not navigable and
often dried up in the heat of the rainless
summers
• the landscape is dominated by high
mountains – dominate ¾’s of the land
• small, isolated plains lie between the
mountain ranges
Ancient Greece
Other Resources:
• limestone crystallizes
under high pressure and
forms marble – the
Greeks used the marble
for sculpture and for
temples like the
Parthenon in Athens.
• clay provided material for
pottery, which the Greeks
produced in great
abundance and the
pottery and the fragments
give us many of our
illustrations of Greek
social life.
The Greatest Resource:
• the Aegean Sea played a
major role in the life of the
ancient Greeks
• fish was a staple of their
diets
• the sea was an avenue of
communication
• sailors always in sight of
land were able to travel
long distances in small,
open boats
• transportation of goods
for trading to and from
foreign lands
Geography - Concluding Thoughts:
• the extremely mountainous terrain
discouraged communication by land and
favored political independence for the citystates on the small, isolated plains.
• Many Greek legends told of the founders
and early rulers of the city states.
• Greeks were the greatest seafaring people
of the ancient world.
Greek History
• Greece was occupied even before the Paleolithic
(Old Stone) Age before 7000 BC (BCE)
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Early Middle Bronze Age
3000 -1600 BC
Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean Age)1600 -1150 BC
Dark Age
1150 - 800 BC
Archaic Period
800 – 490 BC
Classical Period
490 – 323 BC
Hellenistic Period
323 - 30 BC
The Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean Age)
(1600 – 1150 BC)
• the Greeks were ruled by powerful kings
who with their retainers constituted the
military and aristocratic elite
• lovers of war, rode to battle on horsedrawn chariots, and acquired great wealth
• the Mycenaean Greeks may have called
themselves Achaeans (a-ke-anz), a word
Homer uses to describe the men who
attacked Troy.
The Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean Age)
(1600 – 1150 BC) continued…
The coincidence between centers of power
in Mycenaean times and important
locations in cycles of Greek legend – the
Mycenae of Agamemnon, The Tiryns of
Heracles, and the Thebes of Oedipus –
indicates that many Greek legends
probably originated during the
Mycenaean period.
The Dark Ages (1150 – 800 BC)
• the destruction of the Mycenaean world
was attributed to people from NW Greece
– they were called the Dorians and
according to Greek legend, were the sons
of Heracles .
• few archaeological remains survive – this
period was known for social
disorganization, depopulation, and
impoverishment.
The Archaic Period (800 – 490 BC)
• the Greek alphabet was invented –
it was the first writing that encoded
an approximation of the actual
sound of the human voice. Earlier
languages - Linear B was nonalphabetic and Phoenician writing
had signs only for consonants
• the emergence of the Greek polis,
the politically independent city-state
• Homer -The Iliad and The
Odyssey, and Hesiod - Theogony
The Archaic Period (800 – 490 BC)
continued…
• rebirth of commerce.
• the introduction of
coinage, which made
for capitalism and the
enrichment of a new
social class.
• this social class, kakoi
(bad men) were
looked down on by
the aristoi (best men)
The Archaic Period (800 – 490 BC)
continued…
• in cultural matters the aristocracy clung to
power - as the most literate citizens, its
members were the creators or sponsors of
most Greek literature, art, and philosophy.
• What we know of Greek culture comes
from the aristoi, the free male citizens
descended from old families
• there is little information about the kakoi,
the poor, slaves, women and other noncitizens who were mostly illiterate
The Classical Period (480 -323 BC)
• 508 BC the emergence of the world’s first
democracy
• under the leadership of Cleisthenes (klis –
the nez) the polis was reorganized to
place all decision making in hands of all
adult male citizens
• now authority in government came from
ones ability to persuade a large, unruly
assembly of citizens, not from inherited
wealth and family prominence
The Classical Period (480 -323 BC)
continued…
• rule by written law
• reason supported by evidence as the
basis for decisions
• the separation of religious and political
institutions
• historical writing
• science
• philosophy
The Classical Period (490 -323 BC)
continued…
• 490 BC during a Persian invasion near
Marathon – the Greeks drove the Persian
army into the sea.
• Herodotus wrote “if there were need of
proof, how noble a thing is freedom.”
• the marathon race celebrates this victory
today
The Classical Period (480 -323 BC)
continued…
• the Golden Age of Greece brought us the
statesman Pericles, the philosophers
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
• once the Persian threat receded, the
Greeks were divided – one lead by Sparta
a military state ruled by aristocracy and
the other by democratic Athens
• a ruinous conflict known as the
Peloponnesian War from 431 BC to 404 BC
raged and Greece never recovered
The Hellenistic Period (323 - 30 BC)
• 338 BC Philip II of Macedon conquered the
city-states of Greece
• his 22 year old son, Alexander inherited
the throne and attacked the enormous
Persian empire
• Alexander the Great died in 323 BC and
this is the beginning of the Hellenistic
Period
The Hellenistic Period (323 - 30 BC)
continued…
• after his death Alexander’s empire broke
into separate kingdoms
• Greek culture became world culture
throughout the ancient East and cities
were established on the Greek model
• 146 BC the Greek mainland was
conquered by Rome
• This period ended in 30 BC when the great
city of Alexandria fell to the Romans after
the suicide of Cleopatra VII
Greek Society - Greek Males
• final authority over their wives and
other members of their
households
• obligated to fight in wars
• citizens of the polis
• taught to read and write, strong
athletics– highly competitive
society
• individuals were celebrated for
their wit and ability to entertain (tell
great stories) at the symposium
(drinking party)
Greek Society - Greek Females
• Greek proverb – A woman knows only two great
moments in her life: her marriage and her death.
• marriages arranged, women managed the
household, many died during childbirth
• usually not educated
Greek Society - Slavery
• up to 1/3 of the
workforce in classical
Greece
• slaves had no rights –
could be killed with
impunity
• made the Athenian
democracy possible
by allowing “citizens”
time to debate public
policy, philosophize,
and argue laws
Greek Society - Religion
• the Greeks had many gods – no Greek god was all
powerful, but each controlled a certain sphere of interest
• rituals were usually in the form of a sacrifice – animals
and foodstuffs – human sacrifice was highly uncommon
• the underlying logic of sacrifice: In order to gain the
god’s goodwill, destroy what you value the most.
Conclusion – Yeah!
• This concludes your notes for
Chapter 2.
• Be sure to put yourself in my
place, and think about the
questions you would ask about
this chapter and write those
questions down in the left
column.
• Next, summarize in your own
words, each page of your
notes.