Download The Greeks

The Greeks
2800BC
2000 BC
1250 BC
Minoan
Civilization
Begins
Mycenaeans
move into
Balkan
Peninsula
Trojan War
750 BC Homer
writes the Iliad
and the
Odyssey
Introduction
If you turn on the TV and watch a drama or pick
up a book with greek words and concepts….If
you visit a doctor chances are they took an
oath based on one written by Hippocrates.
Greek architecture, freedom of speech,
democracy and even looking up at the
constellations in the sky we can thank the
Greeks for the many things around us.
Why again, are we studying this?
The few things Greeks didn’t invent or pioneer
they greatly improved upon.
 Ancient Greek is often called the cornerstone
of civilization because of their contributions
 We study it because of it’s cool ideas,
traditions, customs. We study it because the
astonishing people, small in numbers,
politically organized, poverty-stricken,
technologically underdeveloped, suddenly
discovered in their remote corner of the
Mediterranean, in a burst of light, how to live–
Peter France
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Geography
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Modern Greece is about the size of Alabama
Most of the land is at the tip of the Balkan Peninsula
Country is made up of a “archipelago” or hundreds of islands that
scatter through four bodies of water: The Aegean Sea, the Ionian
Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Sea of Crete
Climate: mild, rainfall during winter, summer is hot and dry
Ancient colonies spread from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black
Sea
Homeland is mountainous and rocky
Farmland and fertile valley strips along the sea.
Sea was an important life line for Greece including trade and the
foundation for may great Mythological heroes
Minoans
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Rose in 2800 B.C.
Began on Crete
Grew Wheat barley, grapes, and olives
Traded
Learned to work with wood and were good
carpenters
 Learned to work with metal and built ships
 They made faster ships with three masts
instead of one.
Minoan People
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Small people
Clothing was robes, trousers, loincloths, full
skirts and jackets. Jewelry was worn .
Farmed and fished, raised cattle and sheep.
Had a navy and royal guard
Sporting events: built the first arena
Boxing matches, bull leaping (or bullfighting)
Minoan Cities
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Middle of the city had a palace
No walls but depended on their navy for protection.
Largest city of Crete was Knossos
Decorated with frescoes or water color paintings made on damp
plaster
Palaces had hot/cold running water, bathrooms and bathtubs
Several entrances and labyrinth of pathways.
Merchants, captains and ship builders lived in houses around the
palace and then past their houses were artisans
Houses were built around courtyards and you had to enter
through the roof
Parchment later covered doors and windows
Minoan Rulers/Religion
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Rulers were priest-kings
Made laws and represented the gods on Earth
Climb to Mt. Juktas for signs from heaven
Many gods but main god was Mother Earth
Worshiped by building shrines
Made sacred horns of clay and stucco
Lilies were the sacred flower, double ax was
sacred and stood for power of Mother Earth,
dove was sacred because it flew to the
heavens
Fall of Minoans
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Minoan civilization came to an end about 1400
B.C.
 Control of Crete passed to Mycenaeans
 The story of Theseus and the Minotaur
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A greek prince named Theseus was brought to
Knossos and was to be sacrificed to the Minotaur.
The Minotaur was a huge monster the king kept in
the palace labyrinth. The Minotaur had the body of
a man and the head of a bull and lived on human
flesh. Theseus fought the Minotaur with a magical
sword and killed it…….When he Minotaur died so
did the Minoans power.
Mycenaeans
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Came from grasslands of Russia
2000 B.C. made their way across Europe onto the Balkan
Peninsula and into Greece.
Built fortress/palaces on hilltops that protected people outside it’s
walls from attack
Had a megaron or a square room with a fireplace in the center
that was used for council meetings and entertaining
Land divided into estates farmed by enslaved people or tenants
Had horses chariots, weapons, farm animals, honey, and hides
given to king in exchange for protection.
Hunted for meat: rabbit, dear, boar, wild bulls, and game birds
Became a hunt and women rode with the men. Used greyhounds
Traders and Pirates
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Minoan traders visited the Mycenaeans and
the Mycenaeans began to imitate Minoan
ways……..most importantly ship building
 Grew olives and sold olive oil for cooking,
fueling lamps, and lotion.
 Founded trading stations on other islands.
 Created Pirate fleets to raid nearby island and
became the chief power of the Aegean world
The Trojan War
Mycenaeans are famous for their attack
on Troy
 Took place in 1200B.C.
 Trojans controlled the trade routes to the
Black Sea and made money by taxing
the ships that carried goods from Russia
to Greece.
 The story of the Trojan War have
become our first myths
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Homer- 700 B.C.
A blind greek poet that was famous for
writing about history.
 Create a poem called Iliad, which is
about the Trojan War
 Also composed the Odyssey which is
about Odysseus a Mycenaean hero of
the Trojan War.
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According to Homer……
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The Trojan War was fought over a
woman…….
 After years of fighting Odysseus suggested a
way they could capture the city by building a
wooden horse…..The story goes that the
Trojans believed it was a gift and when the
pulled the horse into the city the Mycenaean
army, carefully concealed inside, slipped out
and burned the city.
A “Dark Age”
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Mycenaeans were not peaceful but broke out into a
series of civil wars and within 100 years after the
Trojan War the Mycenaean palace/fortresses were
gone.
 Dorians entered Greece and conquered the
Mycenaeans and the Mycenaeans fled to Ionia.
 A “Dark Age” which lasted until about 800 B.C. fell
over the Aegean world…..it was a time of wandering
and killing……things did not flourish…..trade stopped.
Writing, record keeping, painting, and gold all stopped.
 Animal herding and farming became the way of life.
Local leaders rule and the borders became fixed
 They began calling themselves Hellenes or Greeks
City-States
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Polis- City State was the geographic and
political
Made up of farming villages, fields and
orchards grouped around a hill called an
acropolis.
Atop the acropolis was the temple
Agora was at the foot or a marketplace
Had own government and 5,000-10,000
citizens
Sparta
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South Central Greece
Greatest Military power by 500 B.C.
Ruled by a king but in 800 B.C> ruled by
aristocrats
Two kings
Only lead army and religious services
Citizens were members of an assembly which
passed laws and decided questions of war and
peace.
Assembly chose five managers known as
ephors to take charge.
Aristocrats, Helots and Perioeci
Little interest in farming so land worked
by helots or slaves. These people
turned over half of their crops to the
aristocrats who owned the land
 Perioeci or merchants and artisans living
in the city took care of the trade because
the aristocrats had no interest in trade.
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Spartan life
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Tried to become the strongest people in Greece
If babies weren’t healthy they would leave them on a hillside to
die
Spartan boys at 7 sent to live in military camps
Men expected to marry at 20 and could retire from military at 60
Spartan women had more freedom then other city-states. They
performed household duties and attend religious
ceremonies….mixed freely with men (sporting events)
New ideas weakened way of life so tried to prevent change
Coin was money but Spartans still used iron rods
Sparta remained poor and labor of slaves.
Defeated in 371 B.C.
Athens
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Northeast Sparta
Different philosophy about living
Athens was strategically located
Ruled by nobles, merchants, and manufacturers
Oligarchy or few people had ruling power
Draco a noble attemped to change the government.
Solon prepared a constitution which broke power of the rich.
Freed all people enslaved and offered citizenship to Artisans.
Under Solon more people get involved in government
Trade increases but people aren’t happy
Government get taken over by Peisistratus who encourages
growth
Democracy
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Athenians overthrown by Spartans and
Spartans overthrown by a noble named
Cleisthenes who puts into effect the world’s
first constitution that was democratic.
Cleisthenes opened the Assembly to all males
and elected ten generals to serve as chief
magistrates or judges
500 people were chosen to serve on the
council by a lottery format
Citizens were required to educate their sons
When 18 males became citizens
Persian Wars
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In 545 B.C. the Persians conquered Ionia- or
the Greek city-states.
 20 years later the Ionians revolted, asking for
help from the Greeks
 After 5 years of fighting, Ionians were defeated
but the Persian King Darius was not satisfied
and wanted to punish the Greeks for helping
the Ionians
 In 490 B.C. Darius sent armies to Greece.
They landed about 26 miles northeast of
Athens in a plain called Marathon.
The Story
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After landing in Marathon the Persians
decided to attack in Athens but the Greeks
caught them off guard and attacked them.
 The Persians were defeated
 A runner set off for Athens with the news of
victory and upon reaching Athens cried out
NIKE! Which is the Greek word for victory. The
runner then died of exhaustion
More Wars
The Athenians spent their money on
triremes or warships and were planning
and preparing for the Persians return.
 The Persians returned in 480 B.C. and
the battles insued. In 479 B.C. the
Greeks defeated them in the Battle of
Plataea…….the Persian Wars were
over.
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The Delian League and the
Athenian Empire
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Athenians suggested to the Greeks to form a
defensive league or a protective group amongst the
city-states.
Sparta did not join the league
Worked for a while but Athens gained more and more
power and other city-states were required to ask them
for permission to sail or trade
City-states began to be more resentful towards
Athens.
Athens attacked one of Sparta’s allies and so began
the war called the Peloponnesian, which lasted nearly
30 years.
Spartans took back control of Athens in 404 B.C.
City- States decline…..
After the Peloponnesian War, Greeks
began to lose sense of community.
 The war cost a lot of money and the polis
began to be separated by anger and
bitterness.
 Due to the weakness in leadership and
anger of people in the city-states they
were conquered in 338 B.C. by Philip II
of Macedonia.
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Philip II o Macedonia
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Philip became ruler of Macedonia , a country
north of Greece, in 359 B.C.
He was held hostage in Thebes during his
youth and learned to love Greek culture but
hated the weakness of their government.
His goal was to unite the city-states of the
Greeks.
Developed an infantry formation called
phalanx
He built alliances but was killed in 336 B.C.
Alexander the Great
Alexander, son of Philip II, took over the
throne at age 20
 He had been in command of the army
since 16
 Strong and good looking and had
developed under Aristotle
 He crushed the Persian empire many
others to extend his empire.
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Alexander’s Empire
Alexander had a dream of a world wide
state in which all people lived in peace
and unity.
 To do this he needed to unite the
Greeks, Macedonians, and Persian
 He claimed he was a god and insisted he
was treated that way.
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Alexandria
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Alexander founded 70n cities and named 16 of
them Alexandria.
Encouraged all the people to settle in these
cities.
The most noted Alexandria, located in Egypt,
became the center of trade and learning.
It had a lighthouse which is considered one of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
In it’s city center was library and school where
Euclid wrote his geometry book.
End of the Empire
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In 323 B.C. Alexander died in Babylon.
After his death he became a romantic legend
Fights broke out over who would rule the
empire.
The empire broke into three the Ptolemies in
Egypt, the Seleucids in Persia, and the
Greeks.
By 146 B.C. most of the Greek city-states were
under Roman control
Contributions
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Gods and Goddess of Mount Olympus
Olympic Games
The Theater
Advancements in Science (many fields in
math, astronomy, medicine, geography)
Philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,
Discovered eclipse of the sun, scientific
method, syllogisms, formalized schooling
Field of medicine through diagnosing and
curing illnesses