The Emergence of Greek Civilization

1
The Emergence of Greek Civilization

• Importance of the sea
• No national identity as Greeks but people did
  identify with their cities
• Europe and the Middle East did not develop in the
  same way.
• No Mesopotamian cities, temples, palaces, no
  Egyptian bureaucracy in Europe

2
Emergence contd

• In Europe, possessions meant social status
• Warrior culture. Chiefs ruled small territories,
  fought each other, hunted, engaged in athletic
  competitions, feasted
• Burial customs chiefs buried under mounds of
  earth and/or stone

3
Amateur Archaeologists

• A.D. 1870s Heinrich Schliemann discovered the
  sites of Troy and Mycenae.
• A.D. 1900 Sir Arthur Evans discovered the palace
  at Knossos, Crete.
• Palace is his word. We are still not exactly sure
  what role this structure played in the economic
  and religious system of the area.

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Minoan Crete

• Crete probably 1st occupied around 2500 B.C. via
  Anatolia (modern day Turkey).
• around 2000 B.C. the structures which Evans
  called palaces started to be built.
• Palaces included residential and storage space.

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Writing I

• Linear A 1700 B.C.
• Linear B 1450 B.C. (the arrival of the Mycenaeans
  on Crete)
• Linear A and B were not like the Ancient Greek
  which we study today.
• Linear A has never been deciphered.
• Linear B is recognizable as an early form of
  Greek.

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Writing 2

• writing used for palace inventories.
• Much of it has been destroyed because it was
  written on perishable materials like clay
  tablets, animal skin and tree bark.

7
New Ancient Greek Alphabet

• New Greek alphabet circa 750 B.C. our Ancient
  Greek but with unusual Homeric forms
• Adopted later by the Romans and some letters
  become part of our alphabet.

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Linear A and Linear B
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Early Greece

• Bronze age 2500-1200 B.C.
• Minoan Age 2200-1400 B.C.
• Mycenaean age 1600-1100 B.C.

10
Religion

• Religious worship took place in caves and on
  mountain tops.
• Great Mother Goddess holding snakes symbol of
  divinity

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Crete conquered by Mycenaeans

• Circa 1450 B.C.
• Mycenaeans bring in their language Linear B
• Knossos important centre until 1200 B.C.

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Homer

• 8th century B.C.
• 1 man or a collection of unknown people.
• Oral tradition kept alive the tales of Mycenaean
  times such as the Trojan war (1200 B.C. if it
  existed at all).

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Homer 2

• Homer is reputed to have written both the Iliad
  and Odyssey
• Odyssey covers time after Iliad so it was
  probably written after Iliad
• Legend has it that Homer was blind
• Many cities claim him as their son

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The Archaic Age 850-700 B.C.

• Trade began anew between Greece and Middle East
• Desire for luxury goods, grain, lumber, metal,
  slaves
• Greeks trade with Etruscans in Italy and with
  Egyptians

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Hesiod

• Also 8th century
• We learn about his personality. He was crabby,
  hated his village, hated women, hated his brother
  for taking a larger share of inheritance than he
  was entitled to.
• Identifies himself as the author of the work, not
  the Muses.
• Wrote Theogony birth of Olympian gods and Works
  and Days (proper times of year for certain
  agricultural tasks).

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MarriageOikos

• Marriages were arranged. Men of 30 married
  teenager half their age and had to instruct these
  young girls in how to run a household. Women were
  legal minors for their whole lives in most of
  Greece except in Sparta where there could choose
  their own husbands, own property, even have
  relations with a man who wasnt their husband if
  it meant there was a chance of producing athletic
  children.
• Infant mortality and death in childbirth were
  common.
• A girl had to have a dowry if she had a hope of
  marrying.
• Oikos husband, wife, children, slaves and house
  w piece of property. Income from farm and income
  brought in by wife as dowry.
• A wife gave orders to the slaves but husband gave
  orders to everyone. It wasnt an equal
  partnership.

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MarriageOikos contd

• If wife left, dowry did leave with her and she
  went back to fathers house for him to find new
  husband. If her husband died, she also went back
  to dads house.
• Reputation Greece was always a shame culture.
  Everyone knew everyone elses biz and commented
  upon your comings and goings. If someone in your
  house was not a capable managerof money or was
  unchaste, this was known to all and would affect
  the chances that anyone would want to marry into
  your family.
• Adultery was so serious that a man could kill his
  wife and her lover. No questions asked.
• Mens club atmosphere. All own property, all
  farmers, all fight together as hoplites in the
  phalanx, all support each other in lawsuits.

18
Persian Wars

• Marathon 490 B.C. Athenians victorious over
  Persians
• Thermopylae 480 B.C. Spartans slaughtered by
  Persians. The rest of the Greeks retreat.
• 480 B.C. Sparta, Corinth and Athens lead Greek
  League against Persians at sea battle of Salamis.
  Greek League victorious.
• 479 B.C. Plataea decisive battle. Persian general
  killed. Battle was directed by Sparta

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After the Persian Wars

• After the Persians retreat, Athens forms Delian
  League to guard against future invasions and to
  free Greek cities still under Persian rule
• Delian League 1st was between equals but later
  allies were forced to join
• Delian League becomes Athenian Empire

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Peloponnesian Wars

• Athens and allies vs Sparta and allies.
• First Peloponnesian War 461/460-446 B.C.
• Pericles 495-429 B.C makes a peace treaty with
  Sparta in 445 B.C.
• The Peloponnesian War Athens vs. Sparta 431-404
  B.C.

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Peloponnesian Wars contd

• Peace of Nicias 421 B.C.
• Sicilian Expedition 415-413 B.C. disaster for
  Athens
• 404 B.C Athens surrenders to Sparta
• 404-403 B.C. Thirty Tyrants and then return of
  democracy to Athens

22
Tragedians

• Aeschylus 525-456 B.C.
• Sophocles 496-406 B.C.
• Euripides 480-406 B.C.

23
The Parthenon

• constructed circa 447 - 432 B.C.
• architects Iktinos and Kallikrates
• beautiful images of sculpture adorn the frieze 
• Main themes of sculpture on Parthenon mythl
  scenes of irrational creatures like Centaurs,
  Amazons, foreigners like Trojans, Giants vs
  rational Gks. The sculpture also shows how Greece
  has been blessed by the gods Zeus, Athena and
  Hephaestus with wisdom, power and technical
  skills.

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Institutions of Athens Words to Remember

• Deme district
• Hoplite heavily armed foot soldier
• Metic resident alien (i.e. foreigner) not E.T.
• Ecclesia Assembly
• Boule Council, Council of 500
• Agora marketplace
• Archon an elected official
• Strategoi generals
• Areopagus homicide court
• Old Athenian men loved jury duty because they
  were paid to attend.

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The Hellenistic Period

• 359 B.C. Accession of Philip II
• 338 B.C. Athens was defeated at the battle of
  Chaeronea
• 336 B.C. Accession of Alexander
• 334 B.C. Battle of the Granicus River (victory of
  Alexander)
• 333 B.C. Battle of Issus (victory of Alexander)

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The Hellenistic Period contd

• 331 B.C. Battle of Gaugamela
• 327-325 B.C. Conquest of India
• 323 B.C. death of Alexander

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Life in the Hellenistic Era

• Just as in the Classical Era, wealthy people were
  expected to perform public works.
• Federal leagues gave people the chance to marry
  anyone within the group of cities, to move within
  the territory and still keep civic rights, own
  property.
• In the past a woman without a dowry would have
  been a spinster but now she could move to another
  Greek city and find a husband and a young man who
  wanted adventure could move form his home polis
  to a new Greek city in Asia Minor.
• Women in demand as wives for Gk colonists in the
  new cities founded by Alexander in Greece and
  Asia minor.
• A woman could ask that husband not have a
  mistress and even take back her dowry if she
  could prove his infidelity.
• Uncertainty because colonists were far away from
  Greece. They started to pray to Fortuna fate.

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Alexandria

• Founded 331 B.C.
• Location and royal patronage made it the
  commercial and cultural capital of the
  Hellenistic world
• Museum a research institute founded 300 B.C. by
  Ptolemy Soter I who also built the great library
• Location of Alexanders tomb