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YEAR 12 CLASSICAL
STUDIES
mythology
schoolhistory.co.nz
What is a myth?
•Muthos means ‘utterance’ or
something which is told.
•Often includes legends – which are
based in fact
•Edges often blurred
•Many myths contain elements of folk
tales
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Some myths are strongly religious
Passed on through the generations
Explain the origins of the world
Explain natural phenomena - day/night,
seasons, storms etc
• May explain or support existing customs or
rituals: birth, marriage, status of women,
crop fertility etc
• Reflect human dreams and wishes e.g
do tales of heroes reflect men’s desire to be
superhuman?
Where do myths come from?
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Usually found in most cultures
From a time before writing generally used
A time of genuine belief in the gods
A time lacking in scientific explanation
A time when people believed all events had a
divine origin
• Verbal communication allowed myths to
change
Greek Myths
• Earliest reference from Homer and Hesiod in
the eighth century BC
• Originated between 2000-1000BC
Ancient Greece
Attica and
Boetia
Thessaly and Macedonia
Asia Minor
Peloponnese
Crete
Important places
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Coast of Asia Minor to the right
Cycladic Islands
Crete
Mainland Greece:
Peloponnese (south)
Attica and Boetia (central)
Thessaly and Macedonia
Background to Greece
Stone Age Aegean pre 3000BC
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Similar types of people in these areas
Possibly from modern Iraq
Farming and domesticated animals
Worshipped fertility spirits – mainly female
Placated male spirits - destructive
Early Bronze Age 3000-2000BC
• Bronze used over whole area
• Civilization flourished
• Worship of fertility goddesses
(Mother/Earth)
• 2000BC upheaval on Asia mainland caused
people to arrive
• These people brought wheel pottery
• Greek mainland invaded by several waves of
less cultured people from the north
• They were warlike
• Patriarchal
• Worshipped mainly male deities who lived on
mountain tops and ruled the skies
• Homer called them Achaeans
• They looted and killed and eventually settled
Middle Bronze Age 2000-1450BC
• Crete appears to have escaped the invaders
and their civilisation continued uninterrupted
• Around 2000BC it had a surge in trade and
wealth
• Largest palace was Knossos
• May have had a powerful fleet
• It is called Minoan Civilisation after King
Minos
• Minoans worshipped a mother goddess
• The bull was an important symbol
• Crete was the most advanced civilisation in
the area
• Minoans may have demanded ‘tribute’ from
other areas
Achaeans
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They lived on mainland Greece
Main centre was Mycenae
This civilisation was called Mycenaeans
Each state had a fort and a warrior king
Endemic fighting
Because of trade with Crete Mycenaeans
began to worship earth goddess as well as
sky god
• Eventually civilisation on Crete collapsed
• May be linked to Thera – volcano
• Mycenaeans took opportunity to seize
control of Crete around 1450BC
• They burned and looted and by 1380BC the
Palace of Knossos was destroyed
Late Bronze Age 1450-1100BC
• Mycenaeans now dominated in the
Mediterranean
• Peaked around 1300BC
• Had unstable parasitic nobility who survived
by seizing the wealth of others in war
• Describing a Greek hero as a ‘sacker of cities’
(Homer) was a compliment
Troy
• May have been a battle to eliminate trade
competition or to get scarce metals
• Troy fell 1250BC
• Within a century all major sites on the
mainland Greece fell
• Except Athens
The Dark Ages 1100-800 BC
• General destruction had occurred which was
disastrous for the Greek world
• Loss of centralised control led to lawlessness,
population decline, simpler life ensued
The Dorians
• The Dorians took advantage and moved
south down through the Greek peninsula and
settled in the Peloponnese and Crete
• Many Greeks moved to the coast of Asia
Minor to escape
• The Dorians were even less ‘civilised’ and set
progress back even further
Creation of Mythology
• At this time the art of writing was lost and
oral tradition flourished
• Storytellers knitted together tales from a
wide area
• In later Classical times Sparta and Athens
changed details of myths to suit themselves
Archaic Period and Classical Age
• Between the end of the Dark Ages and the
Persian Invasion which led to the Classical
Age
• The Classical Age ends with the death of
Alexander in 323BC
• Rome then dominated the Mediterranean
area