Early ancient Greece

1. Early ancient Greece

2. Geography • Ancient Greece was a mountainous peninsula and had a hilly interior. • Mountains covered 75% of the land. • Almost fully bordered by the Mediterranean Sea. • Lengthy and warm winters with hot and dry summers. • The yearly rainfall was 20-50 inches • The regions were the coast, the lowlands, and the mountains. • Since only 20% of the land was suitable for farming, Ancient Greece couldn’t hold a large population. They depended mainly on seafood and grains. • The close access to the seas greatly helped the Greeks trade because the mountains made travel hard.

3. City States • By the 800s BC, life in Greece was stable enough to create a new society. The society was centered on the polis or city-state. • The city-state became the political unit in Greece. • Greece was so rugged that travel and communication was hard. Because of this each polis has its own form of government, laws, and customs. • A typical polis was built around a high area called an acropolis. • Acropolis- A fortified hilltop • Agora- Marketplace • Ways to rule a Greek polis: • Monarchy- State ruled by a king (Mycenae) • Aristocracy- State ruled by nobility (early Athens) • Oligarchy- State run by a small group of citizens • Tyrant- A powerful individual who gained power by appealing to the poor

4. City States • Spartans: • Sparta was one of the mightiest city-states in Greece. It seized control of Messenia. The Spartans made the Messenians into helots or state slaves. • The Sparta saw war as the only way to have order in society. To keep the Helots in check they had a strong army. • Spartans demanded strength and toughness to support the lifestyle. • Iron weapons were used and armies were made of merchants, artisans, and landowners. • Phalanx- military formation, most powerful fighting forces in the ancient world. • Footsoldiers (hoplites) stood side by side, holding spear out.

5. City States • Women: • Trained in gymnastics for physical fitness • Had to be fit to bear strong children • Right to own property • Political: • Sparta led by two kings who served as military commanders • Considered honor to help run the city

6. The Trojan War • 1200 BC-Mycenaean kings fought a war with Troy for 10 years • Homer wrote a story about the events of the Trojan War, they weren’t thought to be right until recently. • The army attacked Troy because a Trojan prince took Helen, Menelaus's wife. • Menelaus was outraged to hear that Paris married kidnapped his wife, when he was staying with Menelaus as a guest. • Menelaus called on Helen’s last suitors, asking for help in finding Troy and Helen. • One of her suitors, King Cinyras didn’t want to fight in the war, so to compensate for his unwillingness, he offered the king fifty ships for the journey. • There was some confliction, but after a sacrifice and agreements, the fleet headed for the city of Troy. • Instead of Troy, the Greeks landed in Mysia. • They thought the Teuthranianstook Helen, so both civilizations fought. Greek won, but they had negative consequences of the war. • The Greeks left Mysia and went home.

7. The Trojan War • Telephus, the king of Mysia, found out that unless the one who harmed him healed him, he would die. • He returned to Greece and found the man. • In exchange for his life, he told the Greeks the route to Troy. • For the first nine years of the war, the Greeks fought Troy and the regions that supported Troy. • The Greeks simultaneously battled the regions along with Troy, destroying those regions. • After years of having no success, the Greeks tried a new method-the Trojan Horse. • Trojan Horse-a large, hollow horse in which the soldiers could hide. • A soldier, Sinon, was “abandoned” as a ploy to trick the Trojans into thinking they won. • Only two people questioned the story that Sinon told the Trojans. • The night the horse entered the walls, the soldiers were let out. They destroyed the Trojans as a whole. • To officially end the war, Polyxena and Astyanax were killed at the Tomb of Achilles.

8. The Persian Wars • War was also called the Greco-Persian War. • Between the Persian empire and Athens. • Began because King Darius wanted to conquer Greece and extend its territory. • Persians didn’t want a democracy near them- The Greeks were building cities close by. • They fought three battles- The Battle of Marathon, The Battle of Thermopylae, and the Battle of Salamis. • Battle of Marathon • 490 BC • Earliest battle that researchers know of. • Persia had 20,000 warriors while Greece only had 10,000. • 6,400 Persians and 192 Greeks were killed. • Greece beat Persia. It gave them the confidence they needed to defend themselves.

9. The Persian Wars • The Persians didn’t think highly of the Greeks and their numbers, so consequently, they lost the first two battles. • The Battle of Salamis • After 10 years, the new Persian king, Xerxes, wanted revenge. • He sent many warriors to not only defeat, but to destroy Greece. • He was so cocky, that he had a gold throne to watch his men kill the Greeks. • But because the Spartans were better trained and equipped, they killed many Persians while only few got away. • Xerxes ran away when he saw how skilled the Spartans really were. • After the Greeks defeated the ones who invaded them, they travelled until they met the rest of the Persians. They defeated them as well. • The Greeks were always cautious of the possibility of the Persians attacking again, so they created “The Delian League.” • “The Delian League”- a way for them to quickly prepare for war in emergencies.

10. Mythology • Olympian Gods • Zeus-God of the sky • Poseidon-God of the seas • Athena-Goddess of wisdom • Hera-Goddess of marriage • Hades-God of the underworld • Hestia-Goddess of home/family life • Artemis-Goddess of the moon • Apollo-God of music • Aphrodite-Goddess of love/beauty • Hephaestus-God of fire/forge • Ares-God of war • Hermes-Messenger of the Gods

11. Mythology • Myths were created to explain everything from thunder to the changing of seasons. • Helped shape modern culture. • Words and phrases from myths have entered our modern vocabulary. • The gods had some human characteristics. • Closely related to the Ancient Greeks’ religion. • Legends • Theseus and the Minotaur • Hades and the River Styx • Demeter and Persephone • Hercules • Pandora • Perseus and Medusa

12. Activity • The History of Ancient Greece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Mgb1mav_U • Questions • Who was the leader who helped Athens reach high cultural and militaristic heights? • Pericles led the city through a what? • What did the earliest Greeks constantly fight over? • Which of Homer’s stories was thought to be true? Who was involved in it? What was the war called? • Athens was the most ______ of the city states. • What does Acropolis mean? • Where did the most important and wealthiest people live? • Why was Athens the center of Greek culture? • What types of religious festivals were held?

13. Bibliography • http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/history.html • http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/geography/home_set.html • http://historylink101.com/2/greece3/climate-geography.htm • http://greece.mrdonn.org/persianwars.html • http://www.greek-gods.info/greek-gods/ • http://greece.mrdonn.org/myths.html • http://www.ancient.eu.com/Greek_Mythology/