Bellringer for 10/10/12

BELLRINGER FOR 10/10/12

• What do you know about Greek mythology.• If you don’t know anything, why would this

religion be important to the Greeks.• 3-5 sentences.

BELLRINGER FOR 10/11/12

• Which 3 Greek gods/goddesses do you think were most important?

C H A P T E R 5

GREEK CIVILIZATION

THE CULTURE OF ANCIENT GREECE

SECTION 1

GREEK MYTHOLOGY

• Myths• Traditional stories about gods and heroes• Mythology expressed people’s belief in many gods and

goddesses• Believed the gods and goddesses affected people’s daily

lives and shaped events• The reason the most impressive buildings were temples

GREEK GODS AND GODDESSES

• Greeks believed gods and goddesses controlled nature• Zeus• Ruled the sky and threw lightning bolts

• Demeter• Made the crops grow

• Poseidon• Caused earthquakes

GREEK GODS AND GODDESSES• The 12 most important gods and goddesses lived at

Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece.• Zeus chief god/ god of sky, rain, and lightning• Athena goddess of wisdom and crafts• Apollo god of the sun/light and poetry• Ares god of war• Aphrodite goddess of love• Poseidon god of the seas and earthquakes• Hera goddess of marriage• Artemis goddess of the hunt and wild animals; twin sister of

Apollo• Hermes messenger of the gods; god of the market• Hestia goddess of the home• Hades god of the underworld

ATHENA

APOLLO

POSEIDON

HERMES


• Greek gods and goddesses were not thought to be all powerful• According to Greek myths, even though gods had special

powers, they looked like human beings and acted like them

• They married, has children, fought, and played tricks on one another and fought wars

• Greeks sought the favor of the gods• As a result, they followed many rituals• Prayed to gods• Gave gifts to gods• They hoped the gods would grant good fortune in return


• Greeks also believed in an afterlife• Believed once they died, their spirits would go to

a gloomy world beneath the earth ruled by Hades

WHAT WAS A GREEK ORACLE?

• Greeks believed each person had a fate• Believed certain events would occur regardless• Believed in prophecy (prediction about the future)

• To find out about the future, many Greeks visited an oracle a sacred shrine where a priest or priestess spoke for a god or goddess• The most famous oracles was at the Temple of

Apollo at Delphi• The oracle room was deep inside the temple.• The room had an opening in the floor where

volcanic smoke hissed from a crack in the earth.

ORACLES

• A priestess would sit on a tripod and listen to questions• A priest would translate their answers• The answers were often in the form of riddles• Croesus• Asked oracle if Greece should go to war with Persia• Oracles replied that if he attacked the Persians, he would

destroy a mighty empire• Croesus declared war on the Persians• The Persians crushed the Greeks

POETRY AND FABLES

• Epics earliest Greek stories that told about heroic deeds• Homer• Wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey• These were based upon stories from the war between

Greece and the city of Troy

ILIAD

• A prince of Troy kidnaps the wife of the king of Sparta

• The kidnapping outrages the Greeks• The king of Mycenae and the brother of the king of

Sparta lead an attack on Troy• The battle lasted 10 years• The Greeks eventually build a huge wooden horse

with Mycenaean warriors inside and give it as a gift to the Trojans

• The Trojans begin to celebrate and the Greeks come out of the wooden horse and capture the city.

ODYSSEY

• Tells the story of Odysseus• Describes his journey home from the Trojan War• He faces storms, witches, and giants before

returning to his wife• This journey took 10 years.• Homer would become a role model for Greek boys

AESOP

• Aesop wrote fables• Fables are shorts tales that teach a lesson• In most of his fables, animals talk and act like people• “The Tortoise and the Hare”

GREEK DRAMA

• Drama a story told by actors who pretend to be characters in the story• in a drama, actors speak, show emotion, and imitate the

actions of the characters they represent• Tragedy a person struggles to overcome

difficulties but fails• Comedy the story ends happily

FAMOUS PLAYWRIGHTS

• Aeschylus• Oresteia• Describes what happens when the king of Mycenae

returns home from the Trojan War• Teaches that evil acts cause more evil acts and suffering• The moral people should not seek revenge

• Sophocles• Used three actors in his stories instead of one or two• Placed painted scenes behind the stage as a backdrop• Oedipus Rex• Antigone

FAMOUS PLAYWRIGHTS

• Euripides• More down-to-earth characters• Showed war as cruel and women and children as victims

• Aristophanes• Made fun of leading politicians and scholars• Encouraged the audience to think as well as laugh.

GREEK ART AND ARCHITECTURE

• Made pottery, paintings• Architecture• Parthenon• Greek columns

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY

SECTION 2

GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

• Philosophy “love of wisdom”• This led to the fields of history, political science, science,

and mathematics• Philosophers believed the human mind could

understand everything• Pythagoras• Taught pupils the universe followed the same laws that

governed music and numbers• Believed all relationships in the world could be defined by

numbers• Pythagorean theorem

WHO WERE THE SOPHISTS?

• Sophists were professional teachers in ancient Greece• They traveled from city to city and made a living by

teaching others• They did not believe the gods and goddesses influenced

the people• Rejected the idea of absolute right or wrong• Believed what was right for one person might be wrong

for another

THE IDEAS OF SOCRATES• Socrates was a critic of the Sophists• He was an Athenian sculptor• Left no writing behind• Believed an absolute truth existed and all knowledge was

within each person• Socratic Method• Asked pointed questions to force his pupils to use reason and

to see things for themselves.• Some Athenian leaders considered the Socratic Method to

be a threat to their power• 399 BC, leaders accused Socrates of teaching young

Athenians to rebel against the state• Drank poison to carry out a jury’s sentence

THE IDEAS OF PLATO

• Plato was one of Socrates’ students• Republic• Explains his ideas about government• Plato decided democracy was not a good form of

government• In Republic, he describes his ideal government• Philosopher kings at the top• Warriors• Rest of the people

WHO WAS ARISTOTLE?

• Plato established a school in Athens known as the Academy• Aristotle was the best student here• Wrote more than 200 books• 335 BC, he opened his own school, the Lyceum• Here he taught the “golden mean”• a person should do nothing in excess• Ex. A person should not eat too little or too much

ARISTOTLE

• Wrote Politics• Divided government into three types• Government by one person, such as a monarch or tyrant• Government by a few people like an aristocracy or oligarchy• Government by many people as in a democracy• He thought the best government was a mix between

government run by a few and by many.

GREEK HISTORIANS

• Herodotus wrote the history of the Persian Wars• In this book, Herodotus tried to separate fact from

legend.• He asked questions, recorded answers, and checked the

truthfulness of his sources• His book does contain some errors and he uses gods and

goddesses to explain some events, Western historians consider him the “father of history”

• Thucydides considered the greatest historian of the ancient world• He fought in the Peloponnesian War• After he lost a battle, he was sent into exile• There, he wrote his History of the Peloponnesian War

ALEXANDER THE GREATSECTION 3

431 BC

MACEDONIA ATTACKS GREECE

• Macedonia is north of Greece• Raised sheep and horses• Grew crops in their river valleys• Fought on horseback• Were looked down upon by the Greeks

A PLAN TO WIN GREECE

• 359 BC Phillip II became king of Macedonia• He had lived in Greece as a young man• Admired everything about Greece• Phillip wanted to make a kingdom strong enough to defeat

the Persians• Phillip wanted to unite his own kingdom with Greece • He began conquering city-states one by one

• Demosthenes• Lawyer and one of Athens’ great public speakers• Gave several speeches warning Athenians that Phillip was a

threat to Greek freedom• He urged other city-states to join Athens to fight the

Macedonians

A PLAN TO WIN GREECE

• The Peloponnesian War had left the Greeks weak• While some city-states joined to fight the

invasion, but they were no match for Phillip’s forces.• 338 BC, Macedonians crushed the Greek allies at

the Battle of Chaeronea• This battle gave Phillip control over most of Greece

ALEXANDER BUILDS AN EMPIRE

• Phillip planned to conquer the Persian Empire with the help of the Greeks, but Phillip was murdered• Alexander was 20 when he took over for his

father• Phillip had carefully trained his son for leadership.• Alexander often went with his father to the battlefront• At age 16, he rose to commander in the Macedonian

army.

ALEXANDER’S CONQUESTS

• In the spring of 334 BC, Alexander invaded Asia Minor with about 37,000 Macedonian and Greek foot soldiers• Also had around 5,000 mounted warriors• Alexander won an early victory at Granicus

• 333 BC, Alexander freed Greek cities in Asia Minor from Persian rule• Defeated a large Persian army at Issus

• Winter 332 BC• Captured Syria and Egypt• Built city of Alexandria as a center of business and trade• This became one of the most important cities in the world


• 331 BC, Alexander headed east and defeated the Persians at Gaugamela, near Babylon• After this battle, his army easily overran the rest of the

Persian empire• Over the next 3 years, .Alexander marched as far

east as modern Pakistan• 326 BC, he crossed the Indus River and entered

India• After a few bloody battles in India, Alexander’s soldiers

refused to go any further.


• On the return trip, thousands of soldiers died from thirst and exhaustion as they marched through the deserts of modern day south Iran• 323 BC, Alexander returns to Babylon• He immediately began planning an invasion of southern

Arabia• He then came down with a bad fever• 10 days after returning, he died.

ALEXANDER’S LEGACY

• Alexander was a great military leader• Brave and even reckless• He often rode into battle ahead of his men

• Alexander kept a copy of the Illiad under his pillow as a child• Inspired by Achilles

• Because of his achievements and fame, he is now known as Alexander the Great.


• Legacy what a person leaves behind when he or she dies.• Alexander’s skill and bravery formed his legacy• He helped extend Greek and Macedonian rule over a vast

area• He and his armies spread art, ideas, language, and

architecture wherever they went in southwest Asia and northern Africa


• Alexander’s conquests marked the beginning of the Hellenistic Era• The word Hellenistic comes from a Greek word meaning

“like the Greeks”• This refers to a time when the Greek language and Greek

ideas spread to the non-Greek peoples

THE EMPIRE BREAKS APART

• Alexander the Great planned to unite Macedonians, Greeks, and Persians in his new empire• He used Persians as officials an encouraged his

soldiers to marry Asian women• After Alexander died, his generals fought one

another for power• The empire Alexander had created will fall apart

because of this

THE EMPIRE BREAKS APART

• Four kingdoms took the place of Alexander’s Empire• Macedonia• Pergamum• Egypt• The Seleucid Empire

• All business in these kingdoms was conducted in Greek• By 100 BC, the largest city in the Mediterranean

world was Alexandria, Egypt

THE SPREAD OF GREEK CULTURE

SECTION 4

GREEK CULTURE SPREADS

• During the Hellenistic Era, philosophers, scientists, poets, and writers flocked to the new Greek cities in southwest Asia and Egypt.• Many came to Alexandria for the library which contained

more than 500,000 scrolls• Hellenistic kings and other wealthy citizens hired

Greek sculptors to fill their towns with statues• Appolonius of Rhodes• Wrote Argonautica

• Theocritus• Wrote a series of short poems

PHILOSOPHY

• Epicureans• Founded by Epicurus• Taught that happiness was the goal of life• The way to be happy was to seek out pleasure• Today, the word epicurean means the love of physical

pleasure, such as good food• Epicureans avoided worry by staying out of politics and

public service.

PHILOSOPHY

• Stoics• A Phoenician named Zeno developed Stoicism• Zeno taught from a building known as the “painted

porch”• Stoicism comes from the Greek word “stoa” which means

“porch”• For Stoics, happiness came from following reason, not

emotions and doing your duty• Today the word stoic is used to describe someone who is

not affected by joy or grief• Stoics felt they had a duty to serve their city.

SCIENCE AND MATH

• Astronomers study stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies• Aristarchus• Claimed the sun was at the center of the universe and the

Earth circled the sun• Eratosthenes• Was in charge of the library at Alexandria• Concluded the Earth was round• Used geometry and astronomy to measure Earth’s diameter• He estimated 24, 675 miles• This was within 185 miles

SCIENCE AND MATH

• Euclid• Wrote the book Elements • Plane geometry a branch of mathematics that shows

how points, lines, angles, and surfaces relate to one another

• King Ptolemy I• Archimedes of Syracuse• The most famous scientist of the Hellenistic Era• He worked on solid geometry the study of ball-like

shapes called cylinders• He figured out the value of pi

Bellringer for 10/10/12

Documents

Transcript of Bellringer for 10/10/12