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The Rise of Greek Civilization Introduction to Greece • First there was Mother Earth • Next the gods of night and day appeared and then starry sky • Earth and Sky created the 12 Titans • These gods rebelled against their father Sky • The son of Cronos, Zeus toppled Cronos from his throne I. Greece’s Geographic Setting • Greece is a peninsula (surrounded by water on 3 sides) and clusters of islands • Mountains are the major landform and farmland is scarce • Greeks became traders and sailors • The geography of Greece made it difficult for people to get together • Greek communities thought of themselves as separate countries Greece’s Communities • Each community thought of themselves as independent with their own governments and customs • Each area was ready to go to war to protect their identity • Each one fought with each other even though they shared a common language, heritage, and religion II. Greek Beginnings • Greeks shared stories about how they began as a civilization • Greek myths told stories about the features of nature • The most famous story was about the Trojan War, a war between Greece and Troy across the sea The Trojan War • A prince named Paris from Troy was a guest of a Greek king, Menelaus • Paris kidnapped Menelaus’s wife, Helen and took her to Troy • A war began between Greece and Troy that lasted 10 years • The Greeks used a trick to conquer Troy and burned and looted the city Epics of the Trojan War • 2 epics or narrative poems were written by Homer, The Iliad and the Odyssey • The Iliad tells of a quarrel between the Greek leaders in the last year of the war • The Odyssey describes the adventures of the hero Odysseus as he struggles to return to his homeland from Troy III. The Dark Ages • Soon after the Trojan War, there was a collapse in the Greek Civilization • Poverty was everywhere and people no longer traded for food and goods beyond Greece • They had to depend on what they grew themselves and some people were forced to flee to islands to the west • The art of writing disappeared • From the 1100’s to 750 B.C. have been called Greece’s Dark Ages The Dark Age Continued • Without writing people depended on word of mouth to pass on their traditions which created myths that were told and retold • Families began to resettle in places where they could grow crops and raise animals • These family farms grew into small villages developed around places with rocky protected hills where they could be safe from attack • The name of such a place was acropolis meaning “high city” IV. Governing the City-States • Around 750B.C. villages joined together to form a city near the acropolis • These cities had their own government and traditions and they were called city-states • Hundreds of city-states grew up each independent from one another V. Aristocracy: Nobles Rule • Earliest leaders of city-states were kings or military leaders • Aristocrats or the rich and powerful ruled and controlled the good land • They had the best chariots and weapons A New Type of Ruler • As the Greeks grew rich from trade, a new middle class of merchants and artisans emerged who wanted a say in the government • These wealthy businessmen wage war against the nobles and took power • These rulers were called tyrants because they seized power by force • Tyrants were supported by the middle and working classes and were respected by ruling wisely Democracy: Rule by the People • Eventually the people of many city-states overthrew the tyrants • A few villages formed a government called a democracy where the citizens govern themselves • Athens was the city-state where democracy was fully expressed Democracy in Athens • Solon, an Athenian leader reformed laws by canceling all debts, freeing citizens who had been enslaved for having debts and allowing males over 18 to debate laws