Greek Life

By 750 BC. The Polis (City-State) had become the center of Greek Life

The Polis is a city, town or village where people would meet for political, economic, social and religious activity

The modern term Politics comes from this Greek root word.

Acropolis

The main gathering place, usually on a hill. Topped with a fortified area

This place was a refuge in times of war

Often where the Patron god or Goddesses temple was placed in the town.

Daily Life

Athens had the larges population of any Greek Polis by the end of the fifth century. With around 285,000 including slaves and foreigners.

Economy: largely based on farming and trade. Grapes and Olives were the primary

exports of the Greeks. Imported 50-80% of their grain

however, which was a staple of the Greek diet.

Women in Classical Athens

Women were citizens without voting rights

They could participate in festivals, but not in other public life.

Women in Classical Athens

Women could not own property beyond personal items

Always had a male guardian, that must accompany her if she left the house.

They were expected to be a good wife, bear children, and keep up the household.

They were rarely educated and married at around 14 or 15.

Greek Religion Homer described the Greek Pantheon in

his works, explaining the Greek belief structure.

The Twelve most important gods lived on Mt. Olympus

Primarily the Greek religion was focused on making the gods look favorably on the people

Created complex rituals to please the gods

When a Greek died, their spirit (most of the time) passed into the gloomy Underworld ruled by Zeus’ eldest brother Hades.

Greek Creation

In the beginning only Chaos existed, which spontaneously created the first beings, Gaea (the Earth) and Tartarus (the Underworld).

Gaea then gave birth to the sky and called him Uranus.

When Earth and Sky mated (yes with her own son) they gave birth to the Titans.

Greek Creation The Titans Hyperion and Theia

produced children of there own (yes, they are brother and sister).

These children became known as Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon) and Eos (the Dawn)

Greek Creation

The Titans were only some of the offspring from Gaea and Uranus. The Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires (The Hundred Handed Giants)

Uranus did not these abominations born and refused to allow Gaea to give birth to them.

Gaea asked Cronus, the youngest of the Titans to Castrate his father to “rob him of his ability to rule”.

Upon doing so, Cronus seized control of the Greek cosmology

Greek Creation

Bitter from his defeat, Uranus warned the new ruler of the Titans that one day his children would defeat him.

In response Cronus ordered his wife/sister, Rhea, to hand over any children she produced, whom he then devoured.

To stop this madness Rhea hatched a plan when her sixth child, Zeus, was born.

Instead of handing Cronus the infant Zeus, she wrapped a stone in blankets and presented the stone to Cronus.

Zeus was hidden on Earth (Gaea) on the island of Crete.

Greek Creation

When Zeus became a man, he acquired a potion that caused Cronus to vomit up Zeus’ trapped siblings

Celestial war broke out between the Titans and the Olympians

Eventually the mythology says once the Titans were defeated they were imprisoned in Tartarus, under Mt. Olympus.

Olympian Gods

Being the leader that freed his siblings Zeus was selected as the new king of the Gods.

His brothers assumed the roles of the most important aspects of Greek Life

Olympian Gods

Hades, Zeus’ eldest brother, became lord of the dead and king of the underworld.

All Greek souls would pass through his realm, whether good or bad.

Olympian Gods Poseidon, Zeus’ older

brother, assumed the mantle of Lord of the Sea as well as the god of horses.

Thus when the Trojans thought the Greeks had left the Trojan Horse as a gift to Poseidon for a safe journey home, the Trojans took the Trojan Horse into the city as a Trojan offering to Poseidon.

Troy was latter sacked by this ruse.

Olympian Gods

Hera was Zeus’ wife and Queen of the gods.

She became the Goddess of Marriage and Women.

She had to put up with Zeus’ cheating heart.

In other myths Hera used her abilities to torment the many illegitimate children, including Hercules.

Olympian Gods

Apollo assumed the responsibility of guiding the sun across the sky in his fiery chariot.

His sister Artemis assumed control of the moon, also is goddess of the hunt.

This is after the fall of the Titans Helios and Selene

Olympian Gods The bloody God of

War. It is said that Ares

lined his bed with the skins of all the humans he has killed.

An important God, due to the almost constant warfare the Greeks suffered in there history

Olympian Gods

Demeter became the Goddess of Agriculture

Another important Grecian Goddess, because of the heavy farming community that developed in Greece.

Olympian Gods

Goddess of Wisdom, patron Goddess of the Athenians, whom Athens is named after.

It is said she developed as a headache in Zeus’ head. When his head was opened, Athena leapt out of his head fully grown and decked out in metal armor.

Olympian Gods

Because of the Greek love of wine and it being a chief export for the Greek Polis, the Greeks established Dionysus as the God of Wine and Jollity.

Olympian Gods

Messenger of the Gods, Hermes also was established as the god of travelers, merchants and theives

His winged sandals allowed him to return to Zeus within a day whenever something happened in the cosmos.

Olympian Gods

Smith of the Gods, Hephaestus, hammered out the thunderbolts for Zeus to defend Olympus with, or to strike down those who displeased him.

Also became the God of Metallurgy, the art of working metal.

Olympian Gods Aphrodite: Goddess of

Beauty The Greeks were

obsessed with perfection and idealized what men and women should look like in there art

Therefore all Greek art has these perfect looking people in them. Even if they were not a god.

It wouldn’t be until the Romans took control of the Mediterranean that blemishes could be found in art.

Oracles

Greeks always wanted to know the will of the gods/goddesses

Oracles at these sites often times had responses that could be taken two ways

Oracles

King of Lydia, Croesus: “Should I go to war with the Persians?”

Oracle: “If you war with the Persians you will destroy a great empire.”

Taking the response as a yes, Croesus attacked Persia and was soundly defeated. Destroying his own “great empire”

Greek Tragedies

Examine universal themes as: The nature of good

and evil The rights of the

individual The role of the

Gods in life The nature of

Human Beings

Greek Comedies

Developed later but, criticized society to get a reaction

Modern Comedians follow this style of entertainment even today.

Oedipus Rex

Written by Sophocles Centers around an Oracle’s

Prophecy stating that one day Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother.

The king and queen chose to abandon the child on a hillside to prevent this from coming to pass.

Oedipus Rex The infant Oedipus is found by a

neighboring kingdoms’ royal family, adopted and raise as their own

As a adult Oedipus conquers his True homeland, slays their king (his real father) and marries their Queen (his real mother)

When all is revealed Oedipus scratches out his own eyes from this horror.

In Psychology when a male patient has an unnatural attachment to his mother it is called the Oedipus Complex. Named after the lead in this play.