Ancient Greece

Here are the notes we took today in class on Ancient Greece: 


Location:

• Next to Italy and what is now Turkey
• Egypt is below it
• Sparta barely connected

Geography:

• Mountainous peninsula
• Mountains cover 3/4
• Approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas
• Location shaped its culture
• Skilled sailors
• Poor natural resources
• Difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain; developed small, independent communities
• Approximately 20% suitable for farming
• Fertile valleys cover 1/4 of peninsula
• Because of geography the Greek diet consists of grains, grapes (wine), olives (olive oil, soap)
• All plants are healthy; in demand when trading
• Lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
• temperatures range from 48° on the winter to 80° in the summer 

Mycenaeans:

• Began around 2000 B.C.
• Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20 ft. thick wall
• Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1200 B.C.
• Controlled trade in the region
• 1400 B.C. Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture and language 

Culture in Decline:

• Around 1200 B.C. sea people began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace
• The Dorians moved into the war-torn region
• Far less advanced
• Economy collapsed
• Writing disappeared for 400 years

Homer and Myths:

• Only stories were kept and passed on by word of mouth
• Homer lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages"
• Recorded stories of the Trojan War in The Iliad and The Odyssey (written 750-700 B.C.)
• Trojan war was probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaeans 

Greek Concepts:

• Arete
• virtue and excellence
• Epics
• narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds
• Myths were created to explain creation 
• Zeus: leader of the gods 
• Hera: Zeus' wife 
• Athena: goddess of wisdom