EuropeBeginnings of Western Civilization

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The Aegean Civilization

Chief Cultures

• Minoans – Island of Crete

• Mycenaeans – Greek mainland

• Trojans – Asia Minor or Turkey

Minoan Civilization

• Ended 1400 BC

• Produced clay vases, bronze daggers, cups of gold and wall paintings

• Traded with Egypt• Mycenaeans were a warlike people

who likely destroyed them.

Mycenaeans• On the Greek mainland

• Greeks of the Trojan War in Homer’s epics of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

• Arrived in Greece in 1900 BC and adopted the Minoan culture

• Invaded by the Dorians 1100 to 800 BC

Trojan War

• 1200 BC

• Mycenaeans destroyed the city of Troy after a 10 year siege.

• They left a wooden horse – Trojan Horse

Homer

• Singing Poet

• 700 BC

• Iliad – War of the Greeks against Troy

• Odyssey – Adventures of a brave Greek Warrior on his 10 year journey after the war with Troy.

Greek Religion

• The Olympian Gods – Homer wrote about them.

• Associated with powers of nature

• Zeus was the chief god – thunder and lightning

• Apollo – Connection with the sun

• Poseidon – Sea

• Artemis - Moon

Heroes

• They were different than the gods

• They could die

• Achilles – invincible Greek warrior

Greek down fall

• Greek religion offered no standard of morality or incentives for just living

• “How far, indeed, did the Olympian or “Homeric” deities of the Acropolis – those gods to whom magnificent temples were dedicated in every Greek city – offer true freedom of spirit of the Greek citizen?”

• Those temples, and the gods’ images that stood within, were symbols of civic pride, and often of civic arrogance; these were “official” gods, but they did not speak to private conscience, or nourish the human longing for immortality, or clearly declare a norm for what men and women ought to be.

City- States

• Grew from the worship of Ancestors• Acropolis – “polis” – city which was on a

hilltop. Seat of government and of religion• 150 city – states • Start of the Olympics to honor the god

Zeus 776 B.C. was the first year of the Olympics

• Olympics were suspended in A.D. 394 but revived in 1896

Acropolis

Politics of Ancient Greece

• Monarchy – rule by one

• Council of the Elders and the Assembly

• Aristocracy – rule by the best

• Aristocrats were of noble birth and had an important religious role. They were better than the average citizen they thought.

• Oligarchy – rule by the few (rich)

• Tyranny – rule by one man who has seized power by rebellion and insurrection.

• Democracy – rule by the many or the common people. Only citizens could participate in government. (Women, slaves and men born outside the city-state were not citizens)

Spartan Military State

• Three classes of people – Ruling class, middle class and the slaves (helots)

• Expanded by conquering

• Education was only physical training

• Chief duty was that of a soldier

Athenian Democracy

• Last monarch 1050 BC

• Chose “Archon” to be chief

• Solon’s Laws 594 BC

• Repealed harsh laws

• Relieved debtors

• Redeemed slaves

• Forbade parents to sell their children

• Ordered every father to teach his son a trade

• Required sons to support their aged father

• Every native born had the right to vote

Pericles

• 461 to 429 BC

• Direct Democracy – citizens made the big decisions of government

• All citizens could assemble in one place, speak and listen to speeches and then make the decisions

• “Golden Age of Greece”

Alexander the Great

• Finished what his father Philip II started in conquering the Persian Empire

• Pupil of Aristotle – learned Homer’s Iliad

• Thought himself as the new Achilles

• Introduced Greek culture to the world

• Died 33 years of age – fever or poison after returning from India

• Empire divided among 4 generals

Greek Culture

• 700 BC to 338 BC when conquered by the Macedonians

• Hellenic Age

• Philosophy – “Man is the measure of all things”

• Education – high regard to learning , began at 7 years of age

• Sculpture – 5th century able to imitate the human form

• Architecture – Temples in Athens, most

famous is the Parthenon. It was dedicated to Athena, goddes of Athens.

• Greek writers – Aesop – freed slave

• He wrote fables – brief story used to teach a moral.

• Hippocrates – Father of medicine

• Disease resulted from rationally explainable causes.

Hippocratic Oath

• The regimen I adopt shall be for the benefit of my patients according to my ability and judgment, and not for their hurt or for any wrong. I will give no deadly drug to any, though it be asked of me, nor will I counsel such, and especially I will not aid a woman to procure abortion . . .

• Whatsoever house I enter, there will I go for the benefit of the sick, refraining from all wrongdoing or corruption, and especially from any act of seduction, or male or female, of bond or free.

Philosophy• Socrates 470-399 BC

• Search for Absolutes (Ultimate foundational truths)

• “What is the best way to live?”

• He was poisoned for denying the existence of the gods

• Inspired Plato who attempted to find an explanation for the obvious order, design,and purpose in the universe

• Aristotle – 384 -322 BC • Student of Plato• Concluded that the order of the universe

must have come from God• Tutor of Alexander the Great• Hellenistic – • Stoicism – live according to reason, obey

the law of nature, seek to do lasting good, honor all men as brothers and remain indifferent to the pleasures and pains of life.