The document provides an overview of ancient Greek civilization. It discusses how the geography of Greece, with its mountains and many harbors, influenced the development of independent city-states. It also summarizes major aspects of Greek culture like the Minoans and Mycenaeans, the legacy of Greek architecture and democracy, and the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars that contributed to Greece's decline and allowed Macedonia to rise.

1. Greeks
A Study of a Classic Civilization

2. Hey… What’s the Big Idea?
• How does geography play a role in the development of
Greek culture?
• Why is government important?
• What factors led to the decline of the Greek civilization?
• How does war affect society?
• What is the legacy of Greek Culture?
• What can America learn from Greece?

3. Note Taking Strategies…
• Cornell Style..
• 2 columns
– Record – take notes, main ideas and facts
– Reduce – summaries the notes you’ve taken
– Recite – read only your summary and practice
– Reflect – read all and find
connections/relationships
– Review – to retain… 20 minutes/week

5. More strategies..
• Short hand – abbreviate and use symbols
Examples:
- civilization = cvzn
- Greek = gk
- BCE and CE = b.
• Don’t worry about spelling or mistakes…
keep writing…

7. Greek Civilization
• Grew from Minoan and Mycenaean
civilizations.
• Both thrived in the Aegean area for 1,400
years (2500 BCE to 1100 BCE)
• Minoans – lived on Crete (an island)
• Mycenaean – lived on the mainland

9. Today’s Essential Question
• How does geography play a role in the
development of Greek culture?
• http://prezi.com/idsr8vitowic/greek-geography/

10. Greek Influence
– Olympic games
– Architecture
– Democracy

11. Architecture
–http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/greek_arch.html

13. Marathon
• 490 B.C. - Athenian troops defeated a large
Persian invasion force on the plain of
Marathon, (about 25 miles from Athens)
• Athenians sent a military courier named
Phidippides to bring news of the victory at
Marathon.
• "Rejoice, we conquer”
• Then he died.

14. Olympic Games
• Every 4 years at Olympia
• Greek Men
• 776 BCE until 393 CE
• Abolished by Christian Byzantine
Emperor Theodosius I. (EC… Why?)
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/

15. Olympics
Main Sports
• Boxing
• Discus (part of Pentathlon)
• Equestrian Events
• Javelin (part of Pentathlon)
• Jumping
• Pankration
• Pentathlon
• Running
• Wrestling

16. Greek’s Geography
• Mountains make up ¾ of mainland
• Fertile plains lie between mts. and sea
good for farming
• many harbors suitable for trading

17. Greek Geography
• Mountains – protection and isolation
(much like Indus Valley)
– Made attack difficult
– Limited travel / communication
– Never united under one government
• The Sea
– Way of life
– Fishermen, traders, pirates

18. Other Greek Professions
• Actor • Fisherman
• Athlete • Marble Quarrying
• Banker • Market Trader
• Blacksmith • Merchant
• Craftsmen • Mining
• Doctor • Teacher
• Farmer

19. Minoans
• From the Island of
Crete
• Sea traders
• Easy to trade to Mesopotamia and Egypt,
China
•Fleets carried goods, and protected Crete
from attack

20. Mycenaeans
• Originally from Southeast Asia
– Rapid population growth, migrated west.
– Intermarried with locals (Hellenes/original
Greeks)
– Relied heavily on Conquest (in lieu of trade)
– Warrior aristocracy
– Great Engineers
• Bridges and fortification walls

21. Mycenaean Culture
Kingdoms
Centered on a hilltop (a fortress)
Stone walls
Nobles lived outside the walls

22. Mycenaean Culture
• Palaces were administrative
buildings and places of production
– artisans insides
• Tax collections
– Wheat, livestock, honey
• Great record keeping
– Wealth of everyone in the city
– Had banks which would exchange
foreign currency

23. Mixing of Culture / Dark Ages
• Mycenaeans adopted
Minoan culture
– Metalworking, shipbuilding,
navigation
– Worship Minoan’s Earth
Mother
• 1400s BCE - Mycenaeans
conquered Minoans
– Fighting destroyed hilltop
fortresses
– Start of the “Dark Ages”

24. Greek “Dark Ages”
• Archaeology shows a collapse
of civilization in the eastern
Mediterranean
• The great palaces and cities of
the Myceneans were destroyed
or abandoned.

25. Greek “Dark Ages”
• The Greek language largely
ceased to be written.
• Dark age pottery has simple
geometric designs and lacks
the figurative decoration of
Mycenean ware. (compare to
the pottery on page 140)

27. Greek “Dark Ages”
• Greeks lived in fewer and smaller settlements,
suggesting famine and depopulation
• foreign goods have not been found at
archaeological sites, suggesting minimal
international trade.
• Contact was also lost between foreign powers
during this period, yielding little cultural
progress or growth of any sort.
– Egypt, Mesopotamia impacted…
– Suggesting it may have had “global” impact
• http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/histor
y/darkages.htm

28. Poets and Heroes
• Bards – singing poets who
passed down stories from
generation to generation
• Homer – blind poet,
“composed” two of the most
famous Greek Epic Poems…
– The Iliad and The Odyssey
– Homer never wrote it down…

29. Discovering Greece
• Heinrich Schliemann
• 1870
• Homer’s Epics… fact or fiction?
• 12th or 13th Century BCE
– Trojan War as told by Homer…

30. The Works of Homer
The Iliad The Odyssey
• A prince, Paris falls in • The wanderings of
love with and steals
Odysseus, a
Helen, the wife of a
Mycenaean King. Mycenaean King after
• To avenge the kidnapping the fall of Troy.
the Mycenaeans attempt
to take Troy.
• For 10 years they are
unsuccessful until…
• The Trojan Horse

31. Greek Values
• Schools used Iliad
and Odyssey to teach
values
– Greek pride
– Love of nature
– Loyalty
– Strive for excellence
– Importance of
marriage

32. Persian Wars
• A series of conflicts between several
Greek city-states and the Persian Empire
• Fought from 500 BC to 448 BC
• Allied Greeks successfully defeated the
invasions.

34. The Golden Age of Greece
• After Persian Wars Athens emerged as a
powerful, confident city-state, ready for
expansion
• Athens was burned in Persian Wars
• Led by Pericles, determined to rebuild the
city

35. The Greek Mind
• Socrates
– Socratic Method, ask questions instead of
giving answers…
• Plato
– Developed Political Science
• Aristotle
– Encouraged modest living

36. Pericles
• Rebuilt temples and palaces
better than ever
• The Parthenon

37. Athenian Life under Pericles
• Aspasia – woman known for intelligence
– Prosecuted for ‘impiety’
– Acquitted by Pericles
• Delian League
– Pericles alligned with other city-states (except
Sparta)
– Greece grew richer
– Common currency
– Greece policed all of Aegean area
– Freed Ionia from Persian rule
• Essentially an Athenian Empire

38. Peloponnesian War
• Anti-Athenian Alliance (led by Sparta)
• Greece vs. Sparta
• Sparta had no navy
– Struck a deal with Persians
– Ionia for gold to build a fleet
• The Plague
– Kills Pericles
• Should Athens continue?

40. The End of Greece
• Athenian allies switch sides..
• Athens surrenders in 404 BC
– 27 years of battle
• Greek city-states destroyed
– Lost ability to govern
themselves
– Sparta tried to rule, overthrown
by several city-states (Thebes)
– Thebans overthrown by other
city-states…
– Greece was at its weakest…
– Allowed for a Great
Macedonian Leader to take
over…

41. Alexander the Great
• http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~atlas/europe/interactive/ma
p23.html