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Ancient Aegean Cultures
Aegean Art: Cycladic, Minoan Mycenean
Cycladic Cultures
3000-1000 bce
 Stepping stones across the Aegean, the Cycladic islands were early
settlement sites for migrants who developed a significant culture
centuries before the emergence of the civilizations of Crete and
Mycenae.
 Cycladites developed shipping and traded with mainland Greece, the
coastal areas of Asia Minor and with the western Mediterranean,
from the Neolithic period.
 The development of olive production helped in self-sufficiency.
 They buried their dead in box -shaped tombs of a trapezoidal shape, in
circular ones, and in chambers carved on the rock. The dead were
buried uncremated, in contracted positions. Bodies were accompanied
by objects used in daily life: vases, marble figures, jewelry, daggers,
and blades.
 Cycladic History
Cycladic
Tombs
Top: Cist grave of the
Gotta-Pelos culture.
Middle: Two-storeyed grave
of the Keros-Syros culture.
Bottom: Corbelled grave of
the Keros-Syros culture, of
the type found on Syros
Types of
Cycladic
Figurines
Abstraction
Cycladic Influence
on
Modern
Art
Constantin Brancusi
Amedeo Modigliani
Minoan Crete
NEOLITHIC PERIOD
(6000- 2600 B.C.)
 Archeological excavations in Crete indicated that the
island had been inhabited since 6000 BC .
 Neolithic ruins were found in Phaestos, Knossos and
Sitia, where the first settlements were formed by
farmers and stock-breeders.
 People lived in slate houses and caves such as the
caves of Ilithia, Stravouitis, Ellinospileo, Trapeza
Lasithiou, etc.
 Excavations brought to light pottery, weapons, tools,
blades made of bone or stone and offerings to the
goddess of fertility.
PREPALATIAL PERIOD
(2600-1900 B.C.)
 The extensive use of copper resulted in growth of the
population and commercial activity
 The island’s geographic location, the fertile ground
and the long periods of peace favoured the
development of a glorious civilization.
 The pre-Palatial period is divided into three periods
 In the first period, copper has not fully substituted stone and
clay (utensils) and communication with the nearby areas is
limited.
 The second period is characterized by growth in fishing,
farming and shipping acctivities, as well as the trade of tin.
 The third period is known for the improvement of
construction techniques, while new products are used, such
as precious stones, elephant bone, from Egypt and gold. The
various seals, from that period, are beautiful works of art.
PALOPALATIAL PERIOD
(1900-1700 B.C.)
 In 1900 BC the first palaces were built in Crete,
including the magnificent palaces of Knossos, Malia
and Kato Zakros.
 The settlements around the palaces had organized
watering, sewage and street systems.
 The period’s economy was based on agriculture and
thrived on trade, as indicated by finds from Crete that
have been located in Egypt as well as Cyprus.
 The end of this period comes after a strong earthquake
in 1700 BC, which destroyed most of the palaces.
Plan for
the Palace
at
Knossos
NEOPALATIAL PERIOD
(1700- 1450 B.C.E.)
 The palaces were restored and the Neo-Palatial Period, the thriving
years of the Minoan civilization, was inaugurated.
 The palace was the center of the economic, social and religious life.
 The locals were mostly occupied with shipping and wine and perfume
oil trade, as well as with farming, pottery and weaving, although not
in a large scale.
 The class of merchants, manufacturers and priests commanded
respect, second only to the King who was worshipped as a High
Priest, along with the Goddess of Fertility.
 The artistic production: pottery, painting, seal-making, lithotomy,
miniatures and jewels.
 Women played a prominent role in the Minoan civilization.
 In about 1450 BC, the cities and palaces of the Minoan civilization
were swept away by a tidal wave, caused by a volcanic eruption in the
island of Thera, while extensive fires demolished everything.
Palace at
Knossos
Snake
Goddesses
Bull Leaping
Hieroglyphics:
The Phaistos Disk
ca. 1600 bce
 In about 1450
BC, the cities
and palaces of
the Minoan
civilization
were swept
away by a tidal
wave, caused
by a volcanic
eruption in the
island of
Thera, while
extensive fires
demolished
everything.
Knossos
POSTPALATIAL PERIOD
(1450-1100 B.C.E.)
 The Myceneans (Achaeans), exploiting the destruction of the Minoan
civilization, occupied Knossos and established a strong dynasty.
 According to tablets written in Linear B script, the Myceneans soon
took control of the island.
 The economy was still based on trade with nearby Egypt and Asia
Minor, but change is evident in art and daily life. All ceramics, bronze
objects, jewels etc., testify to the coexistence and influence of the two
populations on one another, for a long time.
 In 1300 BC another strong earthquake destroyed the last remains of
the Minoan civilization, including the palace of Knossos.
 According to historians, in 1200 BCE, Crete had a powerful fleet that
raided the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.
 In the early 11th cent. BCE, European tribes descended on Crete from
the North.
Later goddesses
Goddess with
Poppy-headed
Pins. 1350 BC.
Bird Goddess. 14001200 BC.
Goddess with a Cone and
Horns of Consecration.
1400-1200 BC.
Myths about Crete and the
Minoans:
Zeus and Europa
 For stories and images
pertaining to the myths of the
founding of Crete, the
Minotaur and the labyrinth of
Deadalus, go to:
Greek Mythology: Crete
The Rape of Europa
The Minotaur
and
The Labyrinth
of
Daedalus
The Minoans
ZEUS
EUROPA
HELIOS
PERSE
CIRCE
MINOS
PASIPAHAE
POSEIDON’S BULL
DIONYSUS ARIADNE THESEUS PHAEDRA MINOTAUR
2 sons
The Athenians
AETHRA - - - - AEGEUS ----- MEDEA ----- JASON
MEDUS
2 sons
HIPPOLYTA ----THESEUS ----- PHAEDRA
HIPPOLYTUS
2 sons
Daedalus
and Icarus
Daedalus and Icarus
Frederic Leighton
(1830-1896)
Mycenean Myth:The Trojan War
A War among 3 Cultures
The Achaeans: The Greeks
The Trojans
The Olympian Gods
Pantheon
Olympians
 Meddle in the affairs of humanity
 Function as conceptual forces of nature and the psyche
 Aphrodite – lust
 Ares – war rage
 Athena – cunning strategy
 Bronze Age, pre-Greek city
state, conceive of
themselves as members of
the family of Troy
 Although they disapprove
of Paris, they unite in
familial responsibility and
assume his guilt in an act of
collective family
responsibility -- "our lot is
best, to fight for our
country” -- doomed
David, Helen and Paris, 1788
The Trojans
The Trojans
TROS
LAOMEDON
PRIAM ------ HECUBA
HECTOR -- ANDROMACHE
Astyanax
PARIS
POLYXENA CASSANDRA
many others
The Trojan
Family
King Priam and
Queen Hecuba
Hector and
Andromache
Paris and
Helen
Cassandra
Priam and Hecuba plead with Achilles for
the body of Hector
The Achaeans –
Mycenaeans
Greeks
 Historically piratical
 Barbaric chieftains whose prized values of nobility, pride,
power, glamour, and strength thrive only among violence
 Each hero is out for himself -- failure provokes shame
rather than assumption of responsibility -- leads to disorder
and tragedy
 Allied together against Trojans only because of pact made
with the wooing of Helen
Leda and the Swan
A sudden blow:
The great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in the bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening
thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it
lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her
drop?
-- William Butler Yeats
Leonardo da Vinci, Leda
The Spartans
Tyndareus
King of Sparta
Leda
Castor
Clytemnestra ---- Agamemnon
King of
Mycenae
ZEUS
Pollux
Menelaus ---- Helen ---- Paris
King of
Prince of
Sparta
Troy
Helen and
Menelaus
 For stories, images and background about the
Mycenaens/Achaens and the TrojanWar, see:
Greek Mythology: Troy
The ships must sail
Pompeian wall painting:
Sacrifice of Iphigenia with Agamemnon and Calchas
Clytemnestra
Image by John Collier
(1850-1934)
Achilles Slaying Hector
Odysseus
King of Ithaca
Major Strategist
Conceived the Trojan
Horse
Husband to Penelope
The
Trojan
Horse
Heroic Age (1200 – 750 BCE)
 1200 – Doric Invasion
 Stories of Ancient Greece kept alive orally for
generations
 All Greeks shared a common cultural heritage
 Myths, gods, and goddesses begin to take form
 Greek myths were never canonized
 There is no one scripture
 Religion wasn’t meant to control behavior
Function of Greek myths and
Gods
 Explain Natural events
 Demeter and Persephone
 Zeus
 Explain Human World
 Gods resemble/behave like humans
 Gods reveal psychological aspects of human
behavior/actions
 Apollo vs. Dionysus
 NOT an ethical system
Homer and the Iliad
 Blind poet who lived
around 850 BCE
 Composer of 2 epic poems:
 The Iliad
 The Odyssey
 Oral stories first, then
written down
 Iliad and Trojan War:
 Covers 51 days near the
end of a 10 year war
 Homer’s epics provided
material for Greek literature
and drama
Bust of Homer, British Museum, London
The Iliad
 Reveals how making heroic
valor a culture’s prime value
is fundamentally destructive to
social order and humane
community
 The first word in the poem is
menin: rage
 The rage of Achilles
 Rage as the hero and subject of
the poem
 Rage that transforms Achilles
into a killing machine and
Hector into a corpse
The Iliad
 “Rage: Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage, black and
murderous, that cost the Greeks incalculable pain,
pitched countless souls of heroes to dark Hades,
and leaving their bodies to be rot as feasts for dogs
and birds…Begin with the clash between
Agamemnon-the Greek warlord-and godlike
Achilles.” (lines 1-9)
Aeschylus
525-456 bce
THE ORESTAEIA
Agamemnon
The Libation Bearers
The Eumenides
The
Judgement
of
Athena:
the substitution
of trial by jury
for vengeance
in Athenian
law