Download Athens Slide Show - EHSWorldStudiesJackoboice

Created by Mr. Jackoboice
(The slide-show not the polis)
The polis of Athens included all the land on the Attica peninsula, an
area slightly smaller than Rhode Island. In this presentation, you
will learn which questions I asked as I researched and what I did
and did not find out as I tried to answer them. Enjoy!
Question Box
1) Were there kings?
2) How could all of
the people rule?
3) Was there an
army in Athens?
There were kings, but they lost power in Athens between 750
and 650 BC, when the nobles appointed a person to be
something called an archon. Archons gradually took away the
king’s power and the government shifted from totalitarianism to
democracy - Demos (people) kratos (rule)
Out of the total population of Athens
(150,000 people), only free adult male
Greeks who made a certain income were
allowed to vote. Each person who met
these qualifications was referred to as a
citizen. The name of the whole group was
the Ecclesia. For a meeting to be official,
at least 6,000 people had to show up on a
hillside called the Pnyx just below the
Acropolis. Citizens also volunteered to
decide what should be done to people who
broke the laws.
An elite group of men known as the
Ten Generals headed the government.
They were elected each year.
Question Box
1) Is the city named after the
goddess Athena?
2) How did they worship
her?
“According to legend, the gods Athena and
Poseidon quarreled over the naming of the
greatest town in Greece. Poseidon thrust his
trident into a rock on the Acropolis. Sea water
gushed out, and Poseidon promised the people
riches through sea trade if they named the city
after him.
Athena planted an olive tree as her gift to the
people. It was decided that she had given the
more valuable gift and the city was called Athens
in her honor.” - The Usborne Illustrated World
History: The Greeks pg.43
Question Box
3) Would it have been
obvious to visitors
that they worshipped
Athena?
Question Box
1) Was Athens an important
trading center?
Yes, but it depended on a harbor city called
Peiraeus that was four miles away.
2) How did traders move
goods from Athens to
Peiraeus and from Peiraeus
to Athens?
3) What did they export?
4) What did they import?
Athenians exported wine, olive oil, cloth, pottery
and statues.
Athenians imported grain, copper, tin, wood,
ivory, incense, spices, perfume, silk and slaves.
5) Did people always have to
trade or could they buy
things with money?
(More on the next slide)
Illustration from
The Usborne
Illustrated World
History: The
Greeks pg.33
Questions
No, The Doric columns were the most popular on
mainland Greece, but it was acceptable to construct
buildings with ionic or later, Corinthian columns.
1) Did Athenians have to
build with Doric columns?
2) What materials were the
buildings made from?
3) Did slaves do most of the
work?
Large public buildings were made of stone (usually
marble and limestone). Roof frames and ceilings were
made of wood, and roof tiles were made of terracotta.
Slaves did most of the work throughout Greece whether it involved lifting heavy stone
columns or simply escorting a woman to the agora. The slaves were directed by Metics skilled foreigners who lived permanently in Athens without the right to participate in
government and Athenian craftsmen who did not earn enough to be citizens.
Questions
4) What was a typical
house like?
Most houses were made of sun-dried mud
bricks on a stone base. (The walls were so
soft that burglars could easily cut through
them). Notice the altar in the open air
courtyard. It was used for family prayers to
the gods. Houses also had a dining room
and bedrooms. Wealthy families could
afford more furniture and painted walls.
The statue just outside the door was
supposed to guard the house like the
Egyptian Sphynx. It was called a herm.
Questions
1) Were people known as
scientists in Athens?
2) Who were some of the great
Athenian philosophers?
3) How do we know who
discovered/invented what?
No, people who studied nature were called
philosophers.
Anaxagoras (c.500BC -c.428BC) wrote a book
called On Nature that tried to explain how the
universe worked. He discovered that the Sun was a
mass of flaming material and that the Moon
reflected its light. He was the first person to
explain a solar eclipse.
Socrates, Plato & Aristotle also introduced useful
methods for making discoveries by asking
questions! (What a silly idea…..)
(More on the Next Page)
During the Dark Ages, nothing was written down. Even Socrates’ lessons would have been lost if his
pupils hadn’t taken time to transcribe and expand on his ideas. In other words, we know because the
technology of writing came back after the Dark Ages.
Questions
4) How did people in other parts of Greece
know what philosophers were doing in
Athens?
Questions
1) Were there schools
in Athens?
2) Could slaves go to
school?
3) What did boys do in
school?
4) How did girls learn?
YES
No, neither slaves nor girls were allowed to go to
school. Only free boys could go.
They learned how to debate, read, write and do arithmetic.
They often studied Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the
Odyssey in order to learn wisdom and character.
Girls learned how to run a home from their mothers. The
most common tasks involved shopping and monitoring
the slaves’ weaving. Wealthy families sometimes hired
tutors for their daughters to learn to read and write.
Questions
5) Where & how did
Athenian boys learn nonacademic things like
how to farm, be a soldier
or master a craft?
Skills like farming and crafts were passed down from father to son or mother to daughter. Some
of the more common crafts included pottery, painting, mining, iron working, bronze working
and sculpture. Greek men were actually taught how to be soldiers in school and they often
played board games to develop winning strategies.
Questions
1) Aside from the pursuit of wisdom and
beauty, what did it mean to be
Athenian?
2) Did they think that they were better
than Dorians?
Athenians believed that they were the only original
Greeks who had survived the invasion of the
Dorians. They referred to themselves as Ionians.
Yes, but each Greek polis was considered to be
unique. Citizens had been brought up to serve their
polis and make it as good as it could possibly be.
Many Greeks considered the worst possible
punishment for a crime to be ostracism.
The Great Panathenae was a festival that lasted six
days. It only happened every four years (like leap
year) People celebrated by playing music, reciting
poetry, displaying their athleticism. All of these
things demonstrated their success at seeking beauty
and wisdom. The festival ended when they offered a
new dress to a special wooden statue of Athena.
3) What festivals did they celebrate?
1) How could Greek philosophers continue to believe in the old myths as they learned more about the
universe?
2) If the Athenians thought that they were the original Greeks, why didn’t they try to reclaim the land by
chasing out the Dorians?
3) Were the people from Athens better sailors than people from other polises?
4) Did slaves ever try to escape?
5) Did citizens like to go to the Ecclesia or was it considered to be work?
6) Why were girls and boys treated differently?
7) How different was Athens from other Greek polises?
8) Which polis or foreign army did Athenians fear most?
9) Did Athenians think that it was risky to worship Athena more than Zeus?
10) Were theatrical plays considered to be religious functions or entertainment?
Ancient Greece: Eyewitness Books Alfred A. Knopf Inc.: London, 1992.
Armento, Beverly J. et al. A Message of Ancient Days Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, 1994.
Art, Suzanne Strauss. Early Times: The Story of Ancient Greece Wayside Publishing: Concord MA,
1992.
Kitto, H.D.F. The Greeks Penguin Books Ltd.: London, 1951.
Millard, Anne Welcome to Ancient Greece Usborne Publishing Ltd.: London, 1981.
Peach S. & Millard, A. The Usborne Illustrated World History-The Greeks Usborne Publishing Ltd:
London, 1990.
Powell, Anton. Great Civilizations: Greece 1600-30BC Alladin Books Ltd.:London, 1987.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
http://www.emory.edu/CARLOS/ODYSSEY/GREECE/daily.html