Ancient Greece

Height of Minoan Civilization of Crete1600-1500

BC 1400 BCMinoans Disappear

Mycenaean Civilization develops

1250 BC

Trojan War: Helen or

economics?

1100 BCGreek Dark Ages

“Dorian Invasion”

750 BCLife of Homer

Bull of Knossos

The Earliest Greeks: The Mycenaeans

Blind poetRetold/had written down The Iliad & The

Odyssey Other stories & hymns as well

Gives us:Description of godsDetails of lifeImportant values

Greek ReligionPolytheistic Mt. Olympus Gods took on human qualities Stories help explain the natural world

Homer

Family Tree of the Greek Gods

Geography Issues:

Islands Mountai

ns

City-States—Individual kingdoms or govs within a city

“Polis”

The political, religious, and social center of the cityAcropolis: high city Agora: market place

The Polis

The Acropolis of Athens

Athens & Sparta: Two different city-states

Greco-Persian War

Persian Empire, 521-486 B.C.

Persia too strong, Greeks rebel At first—Grk city-states are weak b/c not

unitedEventually unite Defeat Persian army after 50 years of

fightingBattle of Marathon—1st major victoryBattles of Thermopylae—Grks outnumbered,

300 Spartans fend off Persians in support of the other Grks

Battle of Salamis—Naval Battle, Persian downfall

Athens emerges as major power in Greek WorldCreate Delian League (alliance of Grk

City-States)Pericles leads them into a “Golden Age”

Greco-Persian War: 499–449 BC

Athens v. SpartaSparta resents Athens’s

PowerSparta stronger military

powerPlague breaks out in Athens

Kills 1/3 populationSparta allies with PersiaAthens is defeatedWeakens Greece again

Peloponnesian War: 431-404 BC