The Complex Legacy of Ancient Greece: Culture, Society, and the Birth of Western Civilization

1. Greek History • Complex and sophisticated • motto: all things in moderation • they did nothing in moderation

2. Ancient Greece • importance to Western culture • fundamental ideas and categories • Individualism and Humanism • the rise of Reason • decline of superstition/religion

3. Important Precursors • Minoan Crete • Mycenaean Greece

4. The eastern Mediterranean area

5. Minoan Crete • ca. 2900 B.C. to 1450 B.C. • contemporary with Egypt • major, non-river valley culture • highly sophisticated • literate • Linear A and Linear B

9. Minoan Crete, con’t • surplus agriculture • industry • over-seas commercial trade

10. Minoan Culture • elaborate towns and villages • complex religious ideas • sophisticated art • sports and leisure • high status for women

11. an artist’s rendering of the main building of the Palace of Minos at Knossos

12. Another idea of Knossos

13. North entrance of the Palace of Knossos Iraklion Museum, Crete

14. Decorated storage jars Knossos

15. Storage cellars palace of Knossos

16. Palace of Knossos Room of the Double Axes

17. Palace of Knossos: the Throne Room of Minos

18. Palace, north entrance: the famous Bull fresco

19. Great Propylaea at the south entrance of the palace

20. A fresco with partridges from the Caravan seraglio of Knossos.

21. From the Palace of Knossos: The famous "bull leaping" fresco from the East wing of the palace

22. The Throne of King Minos

23. The Queen’s rooms, with blue dolphins

24. Rython bull’s head from Knossos

25. Poppy Goddess

26. Snake “goddess” -goddess? -priestess? -worshipper?

27. The Blue Ladies

28. Minoan Priestess

29. Religious procession

30. Labrys “double axe” Labyrinth = “the House of the Double Axe”

33. Temple entrance to a cave shrine

34. Minoan Culture, con’t • unwalled cities • no foreign invasions • few weapons • no civil conflict

35. Mycenaeans • Bonze Age Greeks • 2000-1100 B.C. • small, warrior states • war, trade, piracy • literate (Linear B)

36. Mycenaeans, con’t • the Heroic Age • the Age of Myth • the development of Greek Religion • beginnings of a common culture

37. Mycenae, ca.1450 B.C.

38. The great megaron at Mycenae

39. The death mask of “King Agamemnon” Mycenae

40. The Dark Ages • the Dorian Invasion ? • loss of literacy • loss of political sophistication

41. The Archaic Period • ca. 850 B.C. • beginning of classical Greek history • foundations of Western culture

43. The Polis • the city-state • city and dependent territory • independence of each city • warfare and rivalry

44. Rise of Literacy • the alphabet • Homer • the Iliad, the Odyssey • Hesiod • Works and Days, the Theogony • Lyric poetry • Sappho

45. Greek cities and colonies, 750-650 B.C.

46. The Good Ones • monarchy (rule by one) • aristocracy (rule by the best) • constitutional government(rule by a body of law)

47. The Bad Ones • tyranny (extra-legal rule by one man) • oligarchy (rule by a faction) • democracy (rule by the people, without law)

48. Athens and Sparta • most available evidence • both are exceptions to the norm • both dominate the Greek world

49. Sparta • no colonization, conquest of neighbors • the constitution of Lycurgus • a perpetual military state • all citizens are subordinated to the state • no private property

50. Athens • evolution from monarchy to democracy • aristocracy, with elected rulers • Cylon and Draco • Solon: reform and timocracy • Peisistratus: a tyranny • Cleisthenes: the rise of democracy