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Transcript of First people to move into Greece came from Turkey around 3000 BC Remained a primitive Neolithic...
First people to move into Greece came from Turkey around 3000 BC
Remained a primitive Neolithic people for a
long time
MINOANS AND MYCENAEANS
• Came into contact with Minoan civilization on the nearby island of Crete
• Minoans were merchants who established trade contacts with early Greeks (known as Mycenaeans)– Brought rudiments of
civilization to them
MINOAN CIVILIZATION
Minoan civilization based on huge palace complexes such as one at
KnossosTop god was a female goddess
called “The Snake Goddess”Had writing system
MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION• Mycenaneans later invaded Crete and
destroyed Minoan civilization forever
• Mycenaean civilization:– No centralized state– Just numerous small city-states• Surrounded by stone walls• Ruled by self-styled “kings”
– Primary economic activity was piracy
– Primarily warriors who used bronze weapons and fought among themselves continually
CATASTROPHE• Mycenaean civilization ultimately
weakened itself by constant internal warfare– Became the victim of new
invaders who moved into Greece from the north around 1100 BC• Ionians and Dorians• Destroyed much of
Mycenaean culture– City-states were
destroyed, stone architecture ceased, and writing was forgotten– Greece plunged into a
Dark Age
END OF THE DARK AGEPopulation pressure pulled Greece out of the Dark Age
around 800 BC
In response to population explosion on Greek
mainland, many left and settled in groups
elsewhere
Never lost their Greek identity, remained “Greek” no matter where they settled
CIVILIZATION REVIVES
• With establishment of a world-wide network of colonies, the Dark Age came to an end– Greeks rediscovered
trade– Adopted and modified
the Phoenician alphabet– Evolved a new form of
government• The polis
THE POLIS• Greeks organized themselves
into independent city-states– Through a long and
complicated process of evolution during the Dark Age, Greek government was based on elected assemblies made up men who were eligible for military service• Such men were always
relatively wealthy• No hereditary kings
Greek ballot (made from pottery shard)
GREEK “DEMOCRACY”• Polis government was not “democratic” in the
modern sense of the word
• Athens– Population of 200,000– Only 30,000 considered “free citizens” (ie.,
eligible to participate in politics)• Male• Native-born• Free• Could afford to serve in army
– Women, slaves, residents not born in Athens, and the lower classes were excluded
LEGACY• Polis government was still better than
the god-pharaohs of Egypt or the absolute emperors of Mesopotamia– Greeks met together in assemblies to
work out policy and they elected their own leaders
– Citizenship was not as broad-based as we would like but at least the Greeks had rejected the idea that one individual had an inherent right to rule• Introduced the concept that
people could and should rule themselves
THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR
• In 499 BC, Greek colonies along the coast of Asia Minor rose up in revolt against Persian rule
• Persian emperor Darius I put down revolt with little trouble– But he learned that Athens and several
other city-states on the Greek mainland had aided the rebels
– Made up his mind to get revenge by destroying Athens and conquering the Greek peninsula• Started “The Great Persian War”
GREEKS WIN
• War lasted from 490-479 BC (21 years)• Led by Darius and, later, by his son Xerxes• Persia tried to invade and conquer Greece three times• But the Greeks dropped their differences, banded together,
and turned back each attempt– Led by Athens and Sparta– Persians finally just gave up
ATHENS
• Athens at forefront of Greek Golden Age– Pericles transformed
Delian League into a mini-empire• Which he then used
to finance massive rebuilding of the city-state• Transformed it to the
most beautiful city in the ancient world
SPARTA• Sparta was ruled by dual kings• Military state par excellence– Infants examined for defects
and killed if they had any– Boys taken from their mother
at age 7 for 14 years of military training
– All men lived together in barracks until age 30
– Entire life spent in army– Civilian work was performed
by slaves called helots
Sparta
Athens
PELOPONNESIAN LEAGUE
• Spartan soldiers had the deserved reputation of being the best in the Greek world– Very courageous– Never surrendered or
retreated• Sparta used military power
to create mini-empire in southern Greece– The Peloponnesian
League
PELOPONNESIAN WAR• Caused by conflicting imperialistic
ambitions of Athens and Sparta– 431-404 BC– Caused widespread destruction
and loss of life throughout the Greek world
– Sparta was the technical victor but it emerged from the war just as exhausted and bankrupt as Athens
– More suicidal wars would follow• Completely weakening the
entire Greek peninsula
PHILLIP II
• Greek city-states unable to put up any effective resistance when invaded by Philip II– “King and Warrior
Lord” of Macedonia• Conquered the
entire region• 338 BC
ALEXANDER THE GREAT• Philip II was assassinated in 336 BC– Was in the middle of planning a war
of revenge against Persia• In order to win the hearts and
minds of the Greeks– Replaced by his 21-year old son,
Alexander• Would continue his father’s plan
and go further than Philip’s wildest dreams–Would create the largest
empire the world had ever seen
ALEXANDER THE MAN• Complex personality– Enormous intellectual talent– Athletic– Brilliant general– But also cursed with an
unlimited ego and a strong vindictive streak
• Mixture of personality traits motivated him– Intelligence and talent, on
one hand, and an insatiable desire for glory and cut-throat ruthlessness on the other
CONQUEST• Joint Macedonian/Greek
army of 45,000 men invaded Persian Empire in 334 BC– Conquered the entire
empire and pushed eastward into Central Asia and then India• Leaving behind
hundreds of thousands of corpses, burnt villages and farms, and devastated cities
NEW CITIES
• To guard his lines of communication back to Greece, Alexander built new cities along his route of conquest– Many of them rapidly
developed into thriving centers of Greek culture and exerted a powerful influence on their surrounding regions
– The best known are Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch in Syria, and Pergamum in Asia Minor
Library in Alexandria
A SUDDEN AND SURPRISING END• Alexander’s army mutinied in central India
and refused to move any further east– Homesick– Demoralized– Frightened
• Alexander relents and agrees to return home– But marches them through a
devastating desert as punishment• 2/3s of his men die as a result
– Sets up temporary headquarters in Babylon• Dies there after a drinking party in
323 BC at age 32
UGLY AFTERMATH
• Alexander’s only legitimate heirs are killed during the civil war that erupted after his death– 12 year old son by
Persian wife– Retarded older brother
• Empire is ultimately divided between three of his former generals
Ptolemy gets richest portion: Egypt and Mediterranean
Coast of Middle East
Founds Ptolemy Dynasty that would rule Egypt until 31 BC
Selecus gets most of old Persian Empire
It would break up over time
Antigonus Gonatus gets Greece and Macedonia
Also plagued with trouble during the years that followed
Together, these states were known as the “successor kingdoms” and the time that
they dominated the ancient world (330-150 BC) is known as the Hellenistic Age
ILLIAD AND ODYSSEY I
• Iliad and Odyssey allegedly composed by the blind poet, Homer, around 800 BC– He did not write them– He was a professional
story-teller– Probably combined
several existing folktales into long narratives
– Both would be written down much later
ILLIAD AND ODYSSEY II• Deal with the wars of the Mycenaeans– Specifically their attack Troy
• Include some of the best-known characters in Greek mythology– Achilles, Odysseus, Helen of Troy,
Hector, Agamemnon, etc– Gods are also characters
• Portrays characters as both heroic and admirable but also flawed– Often prideful, stubborn,
vindictive, jealous, and lustful– Major breakthrough: characters
portrayed in sophisticated manner, not just in stark black and white terms
Achilles
OTHER POETS
SAPPHOLived on island of Lesbos
Only fragments of her poems surviveTremendous amount of descriptive
beautyand insight into human relationships
PINDARInvented the “eulogy” (long poems praising the lives and
exploits of famous individuals)
GREEK THEATER• Pioneers in the theater– Invented the dramatic forms of
comedy and tragedy– Actors in stylized masks acted
out stories surrounded by a chorus who sang, danced and chanted a commentary between scenes
– Plots were normally derived from Greek mythology• But playwrights modified
them to address issues concerning universal human problems and concerns
GREEK PLAYWRIGHTS
• Sophocles– Oedipus Rex
• Euripides– Trojan Women– Lysistrada
• Aristophanes– The Clouds
PHILOSOPHYThe most famous Greek philosophers were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
Appeared one after the other in Athens from the end of the Peloponnesian War to the rise of Alexander the Great
Socrates was the first and greatest but he never wrote a word. Everything we know of him comes from his student, Plato
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY• Socrates and Plato were primarily
interested in fundamental questions about the human condition– What is justice?– What is good?– What is beauty?
• Tried to find absolute answers to these questions– Universally valid answers that
would apply to all people, at all times, and in all places
– Employed rigorous question and answer form of inquiry
ARISTOTLE• Aristotle was also interested in the
same fundamental questions as Socrates and Plato– But he differed from them in
method• Rather than speculate in a logical
manner, he argued that a person should gather evidence on a topic, analyze that evidence, and then base conclusions on that analysis– Pioneered methodology to
obtain knowledge still used today by scholars and scientists
Aristotle’s school, The Academy, outside of Athens
OTHER SCIENTISTSPythagoras
Mathematician who developed the formula to find the square of a right-
angle triangle
Hippocrates“founder of modern medicine”
Rejected concept that evil spirits caused illnessDeveloped theory of “bodily humours”
Argued that body was made up of equal parts of four humours (blood, water, bile, etc.) and that a person became sick when the balance
between them was thrown offFunction of medicine was therefore to get
these humours back in balanceAlso wrote an oath of medical ethics: The
Hippocratic Oath
PARTHENON• Pericles’ building program turned
Athenian Acropolis into an eternal monument– The centerpiece was the
Parthenon• Temple dedicated to Athena• Huge rectangle-shaped
building with white marble columns supporting a red tile roof with gold trim• A panel ran along the roof line,
portraying scenes from the life of Athena• Inside was dimly lit and
dominated by a colossal ivory and god statue of Athena
HELLENISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
• “realistic sculpture”• Individualistic philosophies– Stoicism, Cynicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism
• Further advances in science– Work of Archimedes
• Emphasis was on the individual, not the collective
HELLENISTIC CITIES
• Center of scientific, artistic, and intellectual activity shifted from to the old city-states of Greece to the new and great cities of the successor kingdoms– Greece was progressively
weakened by this drain of its best and brightest people• Gradually sunk into
backwardness and decay• Greeks were still at the forefront
of achievement but they no longer lived in Greece
Lighthouse at Alexandria
HELLENISM• As new Middle Eastern people were
brought into contact with Greek culture as a result of the conquests of Alexander and the establishment of the successor kingdoms, Greeks themselves became influenced by Middle Eastern culture as they spread around the world– Result was a certain fusion
between East and West– Creation of a new common
culture that was part Greek/part Middle Eastern• Hellenism• Would provide cultural unity
to the ancient world
Colossus at Rhodes