Download Chapter 5 Greek Civilization - Ms-Jernigans-SS

Section 1
The Culture of Ancient Greece
•The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses controlled nature
and shaped their lives.
•Myths are traditional stories about gods and heroes.
•Greek mythology expressed the Greek people’s religious beliefs.
* The 12 most important gods and goddesses lived on Mount
Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece.
•The Greeks believed each person had a fate or destiny and certain
events were going to happen no matter what
•They also believed in prophecy, or prediction about the future.
•Many Greeks visited an oracle, sacred shrine where priests and
priestesses spoke for the gods.
•The most famous was the oracle at the Temple of Apollo at
Delphi (DEHL*fy).
•Greek poetry and fables taught Greek values and are the oldest
stories in the Western world.
•The earliest Greek stories were epics, long poems about heroic
deeds.
•The earliest Greek epics were
the Iliad and the Odyssey,
written by the poet Homer
during the 700s B.C.
•He based them on stories of a
War Greece had with the city
of Troy (northwestern Turkey).
•A prince of Troy kidnaps the wife of the king of Sparta and the
Greeks attack Troy.
•The battle for Troy drags on for 10 years.
•To finally take the city, the Greeks come up
with a plan to build a huge, hollow wooden
horse. They pretend to retreat, but actually hide inside the belly
of the horse.
•Thinking it was a gift/trophy of victory, the Tojans roll the giant
horse into the city.
•The Greek warriors climb from the horse and capture Troy.
•Tells the story of Greek hero Odysseus and his journey home after
the Trojan War.
•Odysseus faces storms, witches, and giants before returning home
to his wife.
•Because it took Odysseus 10 years to get home, we use the word
odyssey today to mean a long journey with many adventures.
•A fable is a short tale that teaches a lesson
•Aesop (EE*sahp)was a Greek slave made up many famous fables
•In most of Aesop’s fables, animals talk and act like people, and the
story ends with a message, or moral
•One of Aesop’s best-known fables is “The Tortoise and the Hare”
•Drama is a story told by actors who pretend to be characters in a
story
•The Greeks performed plays in outdoor theatres and developed
two types of dramas: comedies and tragedies
•In a tragedy, a person struggles to overcome difficulties, but fails,
and has an unhappy ending.
•In a comedy, the drama has
a happy ending
•The three best known writers of Greek tragedies were:
Aeschylus
(EHS*kuh*luhs)
Sophocles
(SAH*fuh*kleez)
Euripides
(yu*RIH*puh*deez)
• First to have 2 actors
• Introduced costumes, props, and stage
decorations
• Best-known play: Oresteia
• First to use 3 actors
• Best-known plays: Oedipus Rex and Antigone
• Used more down-t0-earth characters
• Used real-life situations
* The best known writer of Greek comedies was Aristophanes
(ar*uh*STAH*fun*eez)
* Encouraged thinking, but also humorous because his plays often made fun of
leading politicians and scholars
•Greek art and architecture expressed Greek ideas of beauty, reason,
moderation, balance, and harmony
•Greeks painted murals and pottery and also sculpted
•Architecture is the art of designing building structures
•The most important architecture were temples dedicated to a god
•or goddess: best-known is the Parthenon, dedicated to Athena
•The Greeks used three different
styles of columns in their
buildings: Ionic, Doric,
and Corinthian