Bellwork

• Write down anything you know about:–Homer– Trojan War–Myceneans–Minotaur– Greek Gods– The Odyssey – The Iliad

World History

Ancient Greece p. 1Founding's of Greece

Objectives

• Identify the geography of Greece• Explain how the Minoans and

Mycenaean's helped form what would become Ancient Greece

• Identify the affects of Dorian rule on Mycenaean culture

• Categorize and identify the different groups of Greek gods in their mythology

Minoans• In 2000 B.C., the Minoans created an elegant

civilization on the Greek island of Crete.

Minoans

• Evidence shows that the Minoans arrived on the island before 7000 B.C., and then would have begun small farming communities around that time.

• Through these small communities formed small towns and cultural centers on the island. – Around 2700 B.C., the Minoans would have

experienced a Bronze Age of growth until around 1400 B.C.

Indo-Europeans

• At the same time, Indo-Europeans (mentioned in India-- “Aryans”) were migrating towards the places along the Black Sea and Anatolia.

• The Indo-Europeans would soon settle in mainland Greece and seaborn commercial networks would spread across the Mediterranean.

Geography • Ancient Greece is a mountainous peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean sea. It includes approximately 1,400 islands.

Effects of Geography

• The sea shaped Greek life very heavily. –Most Greek settlements were close to

the sea, being no farther than 85 miles from the sea border.

– The sea helped the Greeks trade amongst one another.

– The sea, which also connected to other bodies of water, also allowed the Greeks to meet other cultures.

The Land• Despite the

abundance of water, Greece has very few useful natural resources and would have to heavily rely on trade.

• Mountains covered approximately ¾ths of Greece.

Only a small percentage of the land could be used for farming.

Mountains

• Mountains divided the land into several different regions.– These mountains would make it very

difficult to form a unified government. – Instead Greece would develop small,

independent communities.

• As well, the poor land also made land-based transportation difficult.

Effects of Geography

• The small amount of usable land, and the difficulty farming made it so that the Greek population would never be more than a few million people.

• Greek people did, however, eat staple foods such as fish, grains, grapes, cheese, various meats, and olives.

The Climate

• On average, Greece experiences 48 degrees F in the winter and 80 degrees F in the summer.

• Such good weather supported outdoor life of the Greeks and allowed them to spend much leisure time in outdoor public events. – These events included discussing public

issues, news, and handling civic life.

Mycenaean Civilization

• The Indo-Europeans who migrated to Greece would later be known as the Myceneans. The name comes from their home city, Mycenae.

Mycenae

As you can see, Mycenae was on the lower part of the Greek isles and only a short distance from the island of Crete

Mycenean Civilization

• Many warrior-kings would lead Mycenae, which was protected by a large wall, making it virtually impossible to attack. – Around Mycenae existed many other

smaller communities and towns, such as Tirynus and Athens. These kings would dominate Greece from 1600-1200 B.C.

Mycenaean Culture

• The Mycenaean's lived a life of splendor, behind their walls.

• Mycenaean's had lavish dining halls and it was not uncommon for kings to be buried with gold.

• Because Mycenaean culture existed primarily during the Bronze Age (2000-1100 B.C.) the use of bronze was not uncommon for the warrior kings and their soldiers– However, the common people used stone and

wood for agriculture.

Assimilation of Minoan Culture

• The warrior-kings invaded the Minoans in around 1400 B.C.

• The Mycenaean's, although conquerors, preserved the Minoan culture by integrating it into their own lives.

Assimilation of Minoan Culture

• For example, the Mycenaean’s began to value seaborne trade, adapted the Minoan writing system into Greek, and even decorated their vases with Minoan designs.

• As well, the Minoan legacy would also continue to exist through legends the Greeks would share.

The Minotaur from the island of Crete

Question:What is the similarity between these two pictures? If you’re not sure, take a guess.

The Trojan War• About 1200 B.C.,

the Mycenaean kings fought a 10 year battle against Troy, an independent trading city in Anatolia (modern day Turkey).

• According to legend, the battle was fought over Helen- the wife of a Greek King- who was kidnapped by a young Trojan.

Troy

Trojan War (cont.)

• For the most part, historians believed the Trojan War was a fictional story.

• However, in 1870, the remains of nine layers of city life- including the Trojan Wall- were found in Turkey. Based on it’s distance from the sea and the dating of the walls themselves, it was decided that Troy did actually exist.

Outcome of the Trojan War

• In the end, the Greeks defeated the Trojans using the infamous Trojan horse, which the Trojans believed to be a gift from the gods.

• The war would most likely have been one of the last military campaigns of the Mycenaean's.

Fall of the Mycenaean's

• Not long after the Trojan War, Mycenaean civilization collapsed. Around 1200 B.C., sea raiders attacked and burned palace after palace.

Dorians

• According to belief, the new group of people, the Dorians, moved into the war-torn countryside of Greece.

• The Dorians spoke a dialect of Greek and were very distant relatives of the Bronze-Age Greeks.

Loss of Culture• The Dorians were much

less advanced than the Mycenaean Greeks. The centralized economy collapsed and trade came to a standstill.

• During this time, it also seems that Greeks lost the ability to write, as no written records exist between 1150-750 B.C.– Without the records, little

is known about the period of decline.

Effects on Greek Culture• Without writing, the

Greeks resorted to orally storytelling their tradition.

• A famous storyteller, Homer, composed various epics (stories about heroic deeds) between 750-700 B.C.– The Trojan War would be

the backdrop to two of his epic poems– the Iliad and The Odyssey.

The Iliad• The Iliad was a story

about two primary heroes: the Greek hero, Achilles, and the courageous and noble Hector of Troy.

• The story played to the Greek ideal of virtue and excellence- ideals that the Greeks would hope to display on the battlefield, in combat, or in athletic contests

Helen of Troy

The Odyssey

• The Odyssey, which is considered a sequel to The Iliad, concerns the adventures of Odysseus after the Trojan War.

• It concerns his 10 year journey home and the strange and mysterious lands he faces.

Greek Myths• The Greeks also developed a rich set of myths- traditional stories, about their Gods and the world around them.

• In these myths, the Greeks were attempting to better learn about the mysteries of nature- such as the seasons- and the power of human passions. – The Greeks had many

Gods to explain the many different events and things around them.

Helios- Greek God of the Sun

Greek Gods• The Greeks applied

human emotions to their gods, such as happiness, envy, and hate and their Gods would even go as far as to compete for power.

• The Gods were believed to have lived on Mt. Olympus, and the ruler of those Gods was Zeus.

Greek Gods• The Greeks developed extremely complex

relationships between the Gods, which often depended on the story or situation in which they were written.

• The gods were broken down into three general groups: Primordial Gods, the Olympians, and the Titans. – Primordial Gods- The first Gods to exist– The Titans- the children of the Primordial Gods– The Olympians- the Gods who overthrew the

Titans for powerGreek God Family Tree

Growth of Greece

• Despite the fall of Greece under the Dorians, Greece would soon experience a period of rebirth, under which new city-states would form and begin to define their culture.

Questions?

• If you have any questions, please ask now.

Review1. What was the effect of geography on how Greeks

traded? 2. Why were the ancient Greeks splintered (i.e., had no

central government)?3. What were the three different types of Greek gods? 4. How was Minoan culture preserved by the

Mycenaean's? 5. How did the Mediterranean Sea affect Greek life?

What did they use the sea for? 6. Why do Greeks have so many Gods and spirits? What

would the purpose have been? 7. The Dorians caused the Greeks to stop writing for

almost 400 years. In the Ancient China lesson, we discussed the importance of a single writing system and the effect of paper on Chinese civilization. How would the loss of writing contribute to setbacks in Greek culture and growth?

8. What was the effect of limited land on the population of the Greeks?

Next Lesson

• In the next lesson, we will be discussing the growth of Greek city-states and the changing political structures of Greece.