Download Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey Homer – The Iliad and The

Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey
After the fall of Troy, Mycenaean civilization crumbled
under the attack of sea raiders.
Another wave of Greek-speaking people, the Dorians,
invaded from the north.
As Mycenaean power faded, people abandoned the
cities, and trade declined.
1100 BCE to 800 BCE Greek civilization “DARK AGE.”
People forgot many skills, including the art of writing.
Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey
We get hints about life during this period from two
great epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
They are credited to the poet HOMER, who
probably lived about 750 BCE
According to tradition, Homer was a blind poet who
wandered from village to village, singing of heroic
deeds.
Homer's tales were passed on orally for generations
before they were finally written down.
Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey
The Iliad is our chief source of information about the
Trojan War.
At the start of the poem, Achilles, the mightiest Greek
warrior, is sulking in his tent because of a dispute with
his commander.
Although the war soon turns against the Greeks,
Achilles stubbornly refuses to listen to pleas that he
rejoin the fighting. Only after his best friend is killed
does Achilles return to battle.
Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey
The Odyssey tells of the struggles of the Greek hero
Odysseus to return home to his faithful wife,
Penelope, after the fall of Troy.
Odysseus encounters a sea monster, a race of oneeyed giants, and a beautiful sorceress who turns men
into swine.
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Homer – The Iliad and The Odyssey
Geography of the Greek Homeland
The Iliad and Odyssey reveal much about the values
of the ancient Greeks.
By 750 BCE, rapid population growth was forcing many
Greeks to leave their own overcrowded valleys.
The heroes display honor, courage, and eloquence.
With fertile land limited, the Greeks expanded overseas.
For almost 3,000 years, the epics of Homer have
inspired European writers and artists.
Gradually, a scattering of Greek COLONIES, territories
settled and ruled by people from another land, took root
all around the Mediterranean from Spain to Egypt.
Wherever they traveled, Greek settlers and traders carried
their ideas and culture.
Governing the City-States
The Greeks evolved a unique version of the city-state,
which they called the POLIS.
The city itself was built on two levels.
On a hilltop stood the ACROPOLIS, or high city, with its
great marble temples dedicated to different gods and
goddesses.
On flatter ground below lay the walled main city with its
AGORA, or marketplace, theater, public buildings, and
homes.
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Governing the City-States
The population of each city-state was fairly small.
This helped citizens share a sense of responsibility.
In the warm climate of Greece, free men spent much
time outdoors in the marketplace, debating issues that
affected their lives.
The whole community joined in festivals honoring the
city's special god or goddess.
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Governing the City-States
EARLY GOVERNMENTS
Between 750 BCE and 500 BCE, the ruler of the polis was
a king.
A government in which a king or queen exercises central
power is a MONARCHY.
Slowly, power shifted to the noble landowners and
military defenders of the city-states.
The result was an ARISTOCRACY, or rule by a
landholding elite.
Changes in Warfare
Governing the City-States
As trade expanded, a new middle class of wealthy
merchants, farmers, and artisans emerged in some
cities.
They challenged the landowning nobles for power and
came to dominate some city-states.
The result was a form of government called an
OLIGARCHY, where power is in the hands of a small,
powerful elite, usually from the business class.
Changes in Warfare
Changes in military technology increased the power of
the middle class.
By about 650 b.c.e., iron weapons replaced bronze ones.
Since iron was cheaper, ordinary citizens could afford
iron helmets, shields, and swords.
A new method of fighting emerged. The PHALANX was a
massive formation of heavily armed foot soldiers.
It required long hours of drill, creating a strong sense of
unity among citizen-soldiers.
Changes in Warfare
By putting the defense of the city-state in the hands of
ordinary citizens, the phalanx reduced class differences.
The new type of warfare, however, led the two most
influential city-states to develop very different ways of
life.
While Sparta stressed military virtues and stern
discipline, Athens glorified the individual and extended
political rights to more citizens.
Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers
The Spartans conquered the
region of PELOPONNESUS,
the southern part of Greece.
Sparta turned the conquered
people into state-owned
slaves, called HELOTS, and
made them work the land.
Because the helots greatly outnumbered their rulers,
the Spartans set up a brutal system of strict control.
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Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers
The Spartan government included two kings and a
council of elders who advised the monarchs.
Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers
THE RIGORS OF CITIZENSHIP
From childhood, a Spartan prepared to be part of a
military state.
An assembly made up of all citizens approved major
decisions. Citizens were male, native-born Spartans over
the age of 30.
Officials examined every newborn, and sickly children
were abandoned to die.
The assembly also elected five ephors, officials who held
the real power and ran day-to-day affairs.
Spartans wanted future soldiers or mothers of soldiers
to be healthy.
Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers
Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers
Boys began training for the military at the age of 7.
Girls, too, had a rigorous upbringing.
They moved into barracks, where they endured a brutal
existence. Toughened by a coarse diet, hard exercise,
and rigid discipline, Spartan youths became excellent
soldiers.
As part of a warrior society, they were expected to
produce healthy sons for the army. They therefore were
told to exercise and strengthen their bodies—something
no other Greek women did.
At the age of 20, a man could marry, but he continued to
live in the barracks for another 10 years and to eat there
for another 40 years.
Like other Greek women, Spartan women had to obey
their fathers or husbands.
At the age of 30, after further specialized training, he
took his place in the assembly.
Sparta: A Nation of Soldiers
The Spartans isolated themselves from other Greeks.
They looked down on trade and wealth, forbade their
own citizens to travel, and had little use for new ideas or
the arts.
While other Greeks admired the Spartans' military skills,
no other city-state imitated their rigorous way of life.
“Spartans are willing to die for their city,” some
suggested, “because they have no reason to live.”
Under Spartan law, they had the right to inherit
property.
Athens: A Limited Democracy
Athens was located just north
of the Peloponnesus.
Athenian government evolved
from a monarchy into an
aristocracy.
Around 700 BCE, noble
landowners held power and
chose the chief officials. Nobles
judged major cases in court
and dominated the assembly.
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Athens: A Limited Democracy
Under the aristocracy, Athenian wealth and power grew.
Discontent spread among ordinary people.
Merchants and soldiers resented the power of the nobles.
Foreign artisans, who produced many goods that Athens traded abroad,
were resentful that foreigners were barred from becoming citizens.
Farmers, during hard times, were forced to sell their land to nobles. Some
even sold themselves and their families into slavery to pay their
debts.
As discontent spread, Athens moved slowly toward
DEMOCRACY, or government by the people.
Athens: A Limited Democracy
Although Solon's reforms ensured greater fairness and
justice to some groups, citizenship remained limited,
and many positions were open only to the wealthy.
Widespread and continued unrest led to the rise of
TYRANTS, or people who gained power by force.
Tyrants often won support of the merchant class and the
poor by imposing reforms to help these groups.
(Although Greek tyrants often governed well, the word
tyrant has come to mean a vicious and brutal ruler.)
Athens: A Limited Democracy
Athens: A Limited Democracy
SOLON’S REFORMS
SOLON was appointed ARCHON, or chief official, in 594
BCE
Athenians gave him power to make needed reforms.
outlawed debt slavery and freed those who had already been sold into slavery for
debt.
opened high offices to more citizens
granted citizenship to some foreigners
gave the Athenian assembly more say in important decisions.
He encouraged an export policy helped merchants and
farmers by increasing demand for their products.
Athens: A Limited Democracy
LATER REFORMS
The first Athenian tyrant PISISTRATUS seized power in
546 BCE
He helped farmers by giving them loans and land taken
from nobles.
New building projects gave jobs to the poor.
By giving poor citizens a greater voice, he further
weakened the aristocracy.
Athens: A Limited Democracy
In 507 BCE, CLEISTHENES, broadened the role of
ordinary citizens in government.
LIMITED RIGHTS
Athenian democracy was quite limited.
He set up the COUNCIL OF 500, whose members were
chosen by lot from among all citizens.
Only male citizens could participate in government
The council prepared laws for the assembly and
supervised the day-to-day work of government.
The assembly was a genuine LEGISLATURE, or
lawmaking body. All male citizens over the age of 30
were members of the assembly.
Citizenship was severely restricted.
Tens of thousands of Athenians were slaves without
political rights or personal freedom.
Still, Athens gave more people a say in decision making.
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Athens: A Limited Democracy
WOMEN
In Athens, women had no share in public life.
The respected thinker Aristotle saw women as imperfect beings who lacked the
ability to reason as well as men. “The man is by nature fitter for command than
the female,” he wrote, “just as an older person is superior to a younger, more
immature person.”
In wealthy Athenian homes, women lived a secluded
existence.
Poorer women worked outside the home, tending sheep
or working as spinners, weavers, or potters.
Athens: A Limited Democracy
FORCES OF UNITY
Religious Beliefs
Athens: A Limited Democracy
EDUCATION OF DEMOCRACY
Girls received little or no formal education.
Boys attended school if their families could afford it.
They learned:
reading
writing
music
poetry
ORATORY, public speaking
military training
Athens: A Limited Democracy
FORCES OF UNITY
Religious Beliefs
Greeks honored their gods with temples and festivals.
The Greeks were polytheistic.
They believed that the gods lived on MOUNT OLYMPUS
in northern Greece.
The most powerful Olympian was ZEUS, who presided
over the affairs of gods and humans.
Greeks consulted the ORACLES, priests or priestesses
through whom the gods were thought to speak.
Although religion was important, some Greek thinkers
came to believe that the universe was regulated, not by
the will of gods, but by natural laws.
Athens: A Limited Democracy
FORCES OF UNITY
View of Non-Greeks
Greeks felt superior to non-Greeks and called them
barbaroi (English word BARBARIAN ), people who did
not speak Greek.
These “barbarians” included such people as the
Phoenicians and Egyptians, from whom the Greeks
borrowed important ideas and inventions.
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