YEAR 12 CLASSICAL STUDIES

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• YEAR 12 CLASSICAL STUDIES
• mythology

schoolhistory.co.nz
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What is a myth?

• Muthos means utterance or something which is
  told.
• Often includes legends which are based in fact
• Edges often blurred
• Many myths contain elements of folk tales

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• Some myths are strongly religious
• Passed on through the generations
• Explain the origins of the world
• Explain natural phenomena - day/night, seasons,
  storms etc
• May explain or support existing customs or
  rituals birth, marriage, status of women, crop
  fertility etc

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• Reflect human dreams and wishes e.g
• do tales of heroes reflect mens desire to be
  superhuman?

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Where do myths come from?

• Usually found in most cultures
• From a time before writing generally used
• A time of genuine belief in the gods
• A time lacking in scientific explanation
• A time when people believed all events had a
  divine origin
• Verbal communication allowed myths to change

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Greek Myths

• Earliest reference from Homer and Hesiod in the
  eighth century BC
• Originated between 2000-1000BC

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Ancient Greece
Thessaly and Macedonia
Asia Minor
Attica and Boetia
Peloponnese
Crete
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Important places

• Coast of Asia Minor to the right
• Cycladic Islands
• Crete
• Mainland Greece
• Peloponnese
  (south)
• Attica and
  Boetia (central)
• Thessaly and
  Macedonia

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Background to Greece
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Stone Age Aegean pre 3000BC

• Similar types of people in these areas
• Possibly from modern Iraq
• Farming and domesticated animals
• Worshipped fertility spirits mainly female
• Placated male spirits - destructive

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Early Bronze Age 3000-2000BC

• Bronze used over whole area
• Civilization flourished
• Worship of fertility goddesses (Mother/Earth)
• 2000BC upheaval on Asia mainland caused people to
  arrive
• These people brought wheel pottery

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• Greek mainland invaded by several waves of less
  cultured people from the north
• They were warlike
• Patriarchal
• Worshipped mainly male deities who lived on
  mountain tops and ruled the skies
• Homer called them Achaeans
• They looted and killed and eventually settled

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Middle Bronze Age 2000-1450BC

• Crete appears to have escaped the invaders and
  their civilisation continued uninterrupted
• Around 2000BC it had a surge in trade and wealth
• Largest palace was Knossos
• May have had a powerful fleet
• It is called Minoan Civilisation after King Minos

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Minoan Civilization
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Crete Minoan Civilization(Palace at Knossos)
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• Minoans worshipped a mother goddess
• The bull was an important symbol
• Crete was the most advanced civilisation in the
  area
• Minoans may have demanded tribute from other
  areas

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Knossos Minoan Civilization
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Achaeans

• They lived on mainland Greece
• Main centre was Mycenae
• This civilisation was called Mycenaeans
• Each state had a fort and a warrior king
• Endemic fighting
• Because of trade with Crete Mycenaeans began to
  worship earth goddess as well as sky god

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• Eventually civilisation on Crete collapsed
• May be linked to Thera volcano
• Mycenaeans took opportunity to seize control of
  Crete around 1450BC
• They burned and looted and by 1380BC the Palace
  of Knossos was destroyed

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Late Bronze Age 1450-1100BC

• Mycenaeans now dominated in the Mediterranean
• Peaked around 1300BC
• Had unstable parasitic nobility who survived by
  seizing the wealth of others in war
• Describing a Greek hero as a sacker of cities
  (Homer) was a compliment

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The Mycenaean Civilization
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Troy

• May have been a battle to eliminate trade
  competition or to get scarce metals
• Troy fell 1250BC
• Within a century all major sites on the mainland
  Greece fell
• Except Athens

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Plan of the City of Troy
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Homer The Heroic Age
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Original Wall of the City of Troy
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The Mask of Agamemnon
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The Dark Ages 1100-800 BC

• General destruction had occurred which was
  disastrous for the Greek world
• Loss of centralised control led to lawlessness,
  population decline, simpler life ensued

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Homer, the Blind Poet
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Homers Great Epics
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Homers View of the World
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The Dorians

• The Dorians took advantage and moved south down
  through the Greek peninsula and settled in the
  Peloponnese and Crete
• Many Greeks moved to the coast of Asia Minor to
  escape
• The Dorians were even less civilised and set
  progress back even further

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Creation of Mythology

• At this time the art of writing was lost and oral
  tradition flourished
• Storytellers knitted together tales from a wide
  area
• In later Classical times Sparta and Athens
  changed details of myths to suit themselves

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"Hellenic" (Classical) Greece 700 BCE - 324 BCE
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The Rise of the Greek Polis
Eboea
Syracuse
Athens
Larissa
Naxos
Corinth
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ATHENS Yesterday Today
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Archaic Period and Classical Age

• Between the end of the Dark Ages and the Persian
  Invasion which led to the Classical Age
• The Classical Age ends with the death of
  Alexander in 323BC
• Rome then dominated the Mediterranean area

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Great Athenian Philosophers

• Socrates
• Know thyself!
• question everything
• only the pursuit of goodnessbrings happiness.
• Plato
• The Academy
• The world of the FORMS
• The Republic ? philosopher-king

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Great Athenian Philosophers

• Aristotle
• The Lyceum
• Golden Mean everything inmoderation.
• Logic.
• Scientific method.

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Athens The Arts Sciences

• DRAMA (tragedians)
• Aeschylus
• Sophocles
• Euripides
• THE SCIENCES
• Pythagoras
• Democritus ? all matter made up of
  small atoms.
• Hippocrates ? Father of Medicine

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Phidias Acropolis
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The Acropolis Today
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The Parthenon
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The Agora
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The Classical Greek Ideal
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Olympia