The Rise And Fall Of Ancient Heroes: Greece 2500-500 B.C.

The Rise And Fall Of Ancient Heroes: Greece 2500-500 B.C. The Geography The Minoans The Mycenae The Downfall Of Mycenae

The Greek Peninsula • The Greek Peninsula was made of mountain ranges which lacked rivers and floodplains • Greeks lived in scattered communities among mountains and numerous bodies of water like the Aegean Sea and Ionian • Turned to the sea because of their location and accessibility to it • Climate average 50’s in winter and 80’s in summer

The Minoans: 2000-1450 B.C. • High point of Minoan history associated with King Minos • Island of Crete had a population of 250,000 and 40,000 lived in capital called Kronos • Economy was based on trade of bronze tools and weapons • Owned sea bearing ships unlike Phoenician ships

Minoan Art And Architecture • Built huge multi-roomed palaces that contained rooms of shapes and sizes • No sense of design for these palaces led them to them being called labyrinths • Produced colorful brightfrescoes influenced by the Egyptians • Created statuettes of female goddesses

Minoan Religion • Religion seems to have centered around a fertility goddess • Had a religious rituals that required males and females to vault over a charging bull • Feast followed ritual where bull was then sacrificed • King then wore head of bull (The Minotaur )

The Minoan Mystery • Disappearance a mystery • Believed that a volcano caused a tidal wave that destroyed Minoans • Greeks possibly invaded and ravaged Minoan civilization

Mycenaean's: The First Greeks 2000-1100 B.C. • Adopted cultural high points of Minoans like • Artwork • Language • Trade networks • Increased wealth holdings by continuing Minoan trade routes and links • Lacked arable farm land and were forced to trade extensively for wheat and barley

The Mycenaean's: Social Structure • A war like civilization with a class system that reinforced culture • Kings, nobles, soldiers and slaves formed social class • Burials were accompanied with vast number of arms • Cities were built with great protective walls and palaces were small forts

The Mycenaean's: An Economy Of Trade • Mycenaean’s could not support themselves had to purchase copper and tin to make bronze unlike Egypt, Indus and Mesopotamia • Relied on trade routes established by Minoans for food and resources • The Greek Mycenaean's traded pottery, olive oil as far as Egypt, Syria and Palestine (outskirts of Mesopotamian region)

The Mycenaean's: Invasion And Violence 1250-1200 B.C. • Economic conditions (trade competition) and expansion created a time of war • Mycenaeans embark on war in the Mediterranean region believed they laid siege and eventually destroyed the mythical city of Troy • Iliad, written by blind poet Homer, considered father of Greek literature, created myth of Trojan War • Iliad, defined heroic behavior and human weakness

The Mycenaean's: Invasion And Violence 1250-1200 B.C. • 1200 B.C. saw the downfall of Mycenaean civilization • Devastating droughts • Invasion from Northern Greeks called Dorians • Absence from Trojan War caused internal problems • All Mycenae writing was lost with its downfall this causes a lost period

The Rise And Fall Of Ancient Heroes: Greece 2500-500 B.C.