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Early Greeks
Essential Learnings

Geography - students will be able to identify the major
geographical concepts per region (i.e. political, cities,
landscape, bodies of water, climate).

Social Structure - students will be able to identify and
understand the following; social class, gender roles, social
behaviours and cultural norms.

Politics / Bureaucracy - students will understand the various
systems of government, the types of leadership, the
evolution of government and the influence of specific
individuals (i.e. oligarchy, democracy, republic)
OUTLINE

Early Greece
 Dark
Ages after Mycenae
 The influence and impact of geography on
Greece.
 Rise of the City-State
 Athens
 Sparta
 Daily
Life of Athenians and Spartans
 Education in Athens and Sparta
Ancient Greece
Dark Ages
After the fall of the Mycenaean civilization,
Greece fell into the dark ages.
 Little is known of this time other than the
fact that foreign invaders (Dorians) came
in from the north conquering settlements
forcing residents to flee.
 Many fled to Asia Minor or islands in the
Aegean.
 The Dorians destroyed food supplies in
their trek causing a massive famine.

Greek Geography
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Greece has 3200 km of rocky coastline.
There are excellent harbours which provided
excellent ports for ships.
This helped develop trading of ideas and
products.
The sea unified Greece.
The mainland is very mountainous. What would
be the effect of this?

Hard to conquer by land, but also the mountains were
a division between communities so, the land divided
Greece.
It was an area that was based on the sea.
Many civilizations were developed on the
Islands that filled the Aegean Sea due to
the fertile soils on the island.
 Most people on mainland Greece lived
within 70km of coast.
 Many of the rivers throughout mainland
Greece are not navigable as they would
dry up in the summers.

The problem is there are more than 2000
islands in a small area so navigation could
be very dangerous.
 Winters were mild and wet and summers
were dry.
 There were few mineral deposits.
 This meant Soil was not very fertile. So
there was limited farmland. City-states
relied on foreign trade.

Colonization of Greece

Colonization – the process of establishing
colonies.

Greek settlements started to spread to
other areas in efforts to help with the food
supply and over population.
The Rise of the Polis
(City-State)
At first Greece was called Hellas
 People were called Hellenes.
 The Romans renamed the country Greece.
 Greece did not have cities, they developed
city- states known as a polis.
 City states were self governing.
 They rarely exceeded 20,000 with the
exception of Athens and Sparta.
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Result

Several developments come out of this:
 Metal
currency came into use.
 Middle class developed made up of business
people.
 Learned how to use Iron.
 Metics (foreign workers were welcomed into
the city-states.
 1st Olympic Games held (776BC)

Phoenician alphabet which was passed on
to us from the Romans.
Two Main City-States

Athens

Social classes
 Citizens – most people
Wives and children of
citizens.
 Slaves
 Metics – resident
aliens who worked in
Athens, but were from
other city-states.
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Sparta

Social classes
 Citizens – males over 30
born in Sparta.
Women and children of
citizens.
 Perioeci (non citizens)


Helots or serfs (worked
the land)
•Metics had no political rights, but they had personal
rights and freedoms. They were protected by the law.
Athens Today
In order to be a citizen your father also
must have been a citizen.
 Only citizens could take part in
government or own land.
 In Sparta serfs (slaves) could own land,
but they could not move from their
birthplace. Therefore you couldn’t move
from your social class.
 Land was handed down from generations.

Each polis (city-state) had its own
government.
 The greatest division between the Greeks
was that of their polis.
 A problem for mainland Greece was that
people became more loyal to their citystates than to their country of Greece.

Athens
Famed for their literature, poetry, drama,
theatre, schools, buildings, sciences and
government. (direct democracy!)
 Before the Greek dark ages, Athens was
a small village, home to a tribe of Ionian
people.
 Athens’ God was Athena, goddess of
wisdom.
 The men of Athens ran gov’t and met
each week to discuss problems.

Athenian Theatre
Greek Theatres pt. 1
Greek theatres pt 2
Sparta

Sparta began as a small village of Dorian people
who were warriors. (This led to the Spartans being
warriors.)
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The Spartans were famed for their military
strength.
Sparta’s God was Artemis, the goddess of the
wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and
fertility.
Sparta eventually controlled 2/5 of the
Peloponnese.
Sparta's government was an oligarchy (rule by a
few).
The people were ruled by a small group of
warriors.
Ancient Sparta
Ancient Spartan Theatre
Activities of the Greeks
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Language
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At first many languages, but around 330 BC a
common language called Koine was developed.
Food
Two meals per day: mid-morning (Ariston Breakfast) and at sunset (Deipnon - supper)
 No sugar was used, honey was used to sweeten
because it was plentiful.
 Olive oil was used in soap, cooking and as a
substitute for butter.
 Never drank milk, it was only fit for animals.
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Clothing
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Men and women wore a gown called a “chiton”
made from wool with a belt at the waist.
 Brown
gown – for casual wear
 White gown – special occasion

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Barefoot indoors and sandals outside.
Home
Had simple homes (2-3 rooms)
 Made from stone and dried brick
 Had an overhanging roof for gatherings called
“pasta”
 A courtyard in the centre was very important to
daily life.

Education (Athens)
The school was called “grammatikos” (school).
 The state required that all boys learn to read
and write beginning school at age 6.
 Girls didn’t receive a formal education

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They were to stay home and learn from the mother.
They learned household chores.
The goal of education was to make boys good
citizens. They tried to strengthen a boy’s
strongest talent.
 Each boy had a slave called a “paedagogus” who
was responsible for their manners and tutoring.

Athenian Education
stressed physical and cultural development. All
were required to sing, play instruments, and
learn to box/wrestle.
 At 14 many boys became apprentices in a craft
or trade.
 Compulsory courses

Math
 Literature
 Physical education
 Writing
 Music
 Memorization of long poems.
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Education (Sparta)
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One purpose: to create an effective soldier and
obedient citizen.
Weak babies were left outside to die.
The rest were raised naked and were NEVER
allowed to whimper or complain.
Sent to live in a barracks (army life) at 7.
Reading and writing not important.
Become citizens at 30 could marry and live in
home but ate at the barracks until 60.
They had no home life until they were 60 when
they could retire.
SPARTA & ATHENS DRAW A
SPARTA
ATHENS
VENN
DIAGRAM
LIKE THIS
ONE, AND
USE IT TO
COMPARE
SPARTA AND
ATHENS IN
RELATION
TO THE
TOPICS WE
DISCUSSED.