Greek people did feel a cultural connection or a cultural identity with one another. They called themselves Hellenes.

GREEK IDENTITY

City-Sates were independent. They had different laws and government

WHY ?

They believed they had a common ancestor, the hero Hellen.

Olympics Games: About 776 B.C., every four years Greeks met to compete in athletics contests to honour the god Zeus.

In the 700 B.C. the Greeks developed an alphabet based on the alphabets of the Phoenicians. The Greek Alphabet

Capital Lowercase Name Roman Letter Capital Lowercase Name Roman Letter

alpha

mu

nu

rho

Greeks had a common religion: they believed that Zeus and the other gods controlled daily events in the world

Hermes: messenger of the

gods

Temple of Athena: goddess of arts and

war

Venus

Poseidon: god of the sea

Statue of Zeus: father of gods and men

What helped the Greeks feel a cultural identity ?

1. A common religion.

2. Written language. A B C

3. Belief in a common ancestor

The Persian Wars540 B.C.: Persian armies conquered Babylon, Assyria. Egypt and Greek cities in Asia Minor.

500 B.C.: Greeks of Asia Minor rebelled against the Persian. Athenians sent help, but they could not defeat the Persians.

490 B.C.: Darius I turned his soldiers toward Athens because Athens helped the colonies fight the Persians. Athenians defeated Persian in the battle of Marathon.

Persian King Darius I

Persian king Xerxes

486 B.C.: King Darius died.

480 B.C: His son Xerxes sent 800 ships to attack Athens. In the sea battle of Salamis, the Greeks defeated the Persians.

Salamis 480 BC

Marathon 490 BC

Thermopylae 480 BC

What happened in Greece after the Persian Wars ?

To prevent future attacks by invaders, Greek city-sates formed leagues

Sparta led the Peloponnesian

league

Athens led the Delian League

The golden Age of Athens

From 479 B.C. to 431 B.C., Athenians enjoyed a time of achievements called the Golden Age.

Pericles

Pericles led Athens during much of this period, with the help of an assembly. He believed the democracy could be better.

How?

Pericles made the government of Athens stronger by allowing all citizens to take part.

He also made it easier for Athenians to working the arts and sciences by having the government support them.

Architects designed beautiful publics buildings

The Parthenon: built to honour goddess Athena

Acropolis of Athens

Amphitheatre of Salamis

Temple of Athena

Greek columns

Doric Order

Ionic Order

Corinthian Order

Sophocles wrote tragedies: serious plays, in which the main character comes to an unhappy end.

Great writers of Golden Age

Sophocles

Aristophanes wrote comedies: humorous plays in which made fun of political

leaders or traditional ideas. Aristophanes

Herodotus is considered the first historian and one of the earliest geographers, wrote about the Persian Wars.

Herodotus

Hippocrates discovered that illnesses came from natural

causes. They were not punishment of the gods, as most people had believed.

He wrote a code of conduct that doctors still follow today .

Hippocrates

Socrates

Aristotle

Socrates : he taught by asking questions and makings his students think rather than simply telling them information.

Plato

Plato was student of Socrates

Great thinkers

and teachers

Aristotle was student

of Plato

The end of the Golden Age

During Golden Age, Athens and Sparta became the most powerful city-states in Greece.

What were the

problems?

Athens wanted more land.

BUT…

Sparta wanted to waken the

influence of Athens.

What happened with the leagues?

The city-states of Peloponnesian League supported Sparta

The city-states of Delian Leagues supported Athens

In 431 B.C. the Peloponnesian War

broke out

Peloponnesian War

Persian Empire

Athens & supporters

Sparta & supporters

Athens & members of Delian League

Aegean Sea

Persian Empire

Ionic

Sea

Mediterranean Sea

Athens

Sparta

Thessaly

Ephesus

Peloponnesus

Corinth

After Sparta attacked Attica, many people from the countryside moved into Athens.

With Athens crowded, diseases swept through the city-state.

A lot of Athenians soldiers died, including Pericles.

What happened with Athens without Pericles ?

The members of the assembly began to follow bad leaders called demagogues.

They made promises they could not keep and led the assembly into make poor decisions.

404B.C.: Athens surrendered to Sparta

Sparta replaced the Athenian assembly with an oligarchy.

The Athenians soon rebelled and brought

democracy back to Athens.