Transcript Ancient Greece 2200 B.C.E. – 323 B.C.E.

Ancient Greece
2200 B.C.E. – 323 B.C.E.
Geography
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Mountains
Small, scattered
coastal plains
Sea
Islands – Geographic
Isolation
Hot & arid climate
suitable for growing
grapes & olive trees
Early Settlements
7000 B.C.E. – Early
Neolithic
Settlements
 3000 B.C.E. –
Bronze is
introduced

– Minoans make the
most rapid
advancements
Minoans
Crete (150 x 35
miles)
 2000 B.C.E. –
height of
civilization
 Capital - Knossos
 1380 B.C.E. –
Conquered by the
Mycenaeans
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Minoan Society
Not ethnically or racially Greek
 Early sea traders – Crete was not suited
for farming
 Social Classes
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King
Middle Class
Lower Class
Status of Women
Developed written language
– Linear A (Crete)
– Linear B (Greece)
Minoan Religion
Mythical King
Minos –
worshipped as a
god
 Sacred Bull
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– Revered for
strength and power
– Minotaur
– Bull Leaping
Mycenaeans
Thought to be the
first true Greeks
 Powerful citystates
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– Strong kings
– Heavily fortified
cities
– Warlike
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Wealthy
– Metallurgy
– Trade
Mycenaeans go to War
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1200 B.C.E.
– Attack and destroy
the city of Troy
– Trojan War
(Homer’s Iliad and
Odyssey)
Later devastated by
the Peoples of the
Sea (end of 1200s
B.C.E.)
The Greeks
Religion
Anthropomorphism
 Creation Myth
 Gods
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Zeus
Hera
Poseidon
Hades
Athena
Apollo
Hermes
The Olympians
The Greeks
Government
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City-States (polis)
– Athens, Sparta,
Corinth
– Parthenon on the
Acropolis
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Republic
– Rule by citizens
– Limited Citizenship
The Greeks
Conflict

Athens
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– Originally a
monarchy
– Society based on
wealth (land
ownership)
– Age of Tyrants
 Draco
 Solon,
Sparta
– Republic with
strong leaders
– Distinct social
classes
– Contributions
 Constitution
 Assembly
Solon’s Code
 Council
of Elders
– Moral Code
 The
Spartan Code
The Golden Age of Greece
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Quest for knowledge
challenges religion
and science
Socrates
– Socratic method
– Question everything
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Plato
– The Republic
– The Allegory of the
Cave
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Aristotle
– Lyceum
Political Themes
the influence of Minoan and Mycenaean
and even Persian societies on the later
Greeks
 the diversity of ways in which the Greeks
ruled themselves in their city-states (from
kingdoms to limited democracies)
 the powerful regional influence the
Greek/Hellenistic empire had on the
Mediterranean basin

Regional influence the
Greek/Hellenistic empire had on
the Mediterranean basin
 developed
from its international
maritime trading network
 the establishment of colonies for
both trade and the reduction of
population pressure on the Balkan
Peninsula
 the conquests of Alexander the Great
Social Structures and long term
influences
 the
existence of slaves;
 a patriarchal gender structure that
pervaded all aspects of Greek
society;
 and discussions about the equality
and rights of citizens in a society
(even though those citizens were
only male).
Cultural Themes
 Enduring
legacies:
– philosophical,
– Scientific,
– literary writings
– spread south and eastward with the
subsequent Hellenistic empires and west
and northward with the Roman empire.