YEAR 12 CLASSICAL STUDIES mythology

1. YEAR 12 CLASSICAL STUDIES mythology schoolhistory.co.nz

2. What is a myth? Muthosmeans ‘utterance’ or something which is told. Often includes legends – which are based in fact Edges often blurred Many myths contain elements of folk tales

3. Some myths are strongly religious • Passed on through the generations • Explain the origins of the world • Explain natural phenomena - day/night, seasons, storms etc • May explain or support existing customs or rituals: birth, marriage, status of women, crop fertility etc

4. Reflect human dreams and wishes e.g do tales of heroes reflect men’s desire to be superhuman?

5. Where do myths come from? • Usually found in most cultures • From a time before writing generally used • A time of genuine belief in the gods • A time lacking in scientific explanation • A time when people believed all events had a divine origin • Verbal communication allowed myths to change

6. Greek Myths • Earliest reference from Homer and Hesiod in the eighth century BC • Originated between 2000-1000BC

7. Ancient Greece Thessaly and Macedonia Asia Minor Attica and Boetia Peloponnese Crete

8. Important places • Coast of Asia Minor to the right • Cycladic Islands • Crete • Mainland Greece: Peloponnese (south) Attica and Boetia (central) Thessaly and Macedonia

9. Background to Greece

10. Stone Age Aegean pre 3000BC • Similar types of people in these areas • Possibly from modern Iraq • Farming and domesticated animals • Worshipped fertility spirits – mainly female • Placated male spirits - destructive

11. Early Bronze Age 3000-2000BC • Bronze used over whole area • Civilization flourished • Worship of fertility goddesses (Mother/Earth) • 2000BC upheaval on Asia mainland caused people to arrive • These people brought wheel pottery

12. Greek mainland invaded by several waves of less cultured people from the north • They were warlike • Patriarchal • Worshipped mainly male deities who lived on mountain tops and ruled the skies • Homer called them Achaeans • They looted and killed and eventually settled

13. Middle Bronze Age 2000-1450BC • Crete appears to have escaped the invaders and their civilisation continued uninterrupted • Around 2000BC it had a surge in trade and wealth • Largest palace was Knossos • May have had a powerful fleet • It is called Minoan Civilisation after King Minos

14. Minoan Civilization

15. Crete: Minoan Civilization(Palace at Knossos)

16. Minoans worshipped a mother goddess • The bull was an important symbol • Crete was the most advanced civilisation in the area • Minoans may have demanded ‘tribute’ from other areas

17. Knossos: Minoan Civilization

18. Achaeans • They lived on mainland Greece • Main centre was Mycenae • This civilisation was called Mycenaeans • Each state had a fort and a warrior king • Endemic fighting • Because of trade with Crete Mycenaeans began to worship earth goddess as well as sky god

19. Eventually civilisation on Crete collapsed • May be linked to Thera – volcano • Mycenaeans took opportunity to seize control of Crete around 1450BC • They burned and looted and by 1380BC the Palace of Knossos was destroyed

20. Late Bronze Age 1450-1100BC • Mycenaeans now dominated in the Mediterranean • Peaked around 1300BC • Had unstable parasitic nobility who survived by seizing the wealth of others in war • Describing a Greek hero as a ‘sacker of cities’ (Homer) was a compliment

21. The Mycenaean Civilization

22. Troy • May have been a battle to eliminate trade competition or to get scarce metals • Troy fell 1250BC • Within a century all major sites on the mainland Greece fell • Except Athens

23. Plan of the City of Troy

24. Homer: The “Heroic Age”

25. Original Wall of the City of Troy

26. The Mask of Agamemnon

27. The Dark Ages 1100-800 BC • General destruction had occurred which was disastrous for the Greek world • Loss of centralised control led to lawlessness, population decline, simpler life ensued

28. Homer, the Blind Poet

29. Homer’s Great Epics

30. Homer’s View of the World

31. The Dorians • The Dorians took advantage and moved south down through the Greek peninsula and settled in the Peloponnese and Crete • Many Greeks moved to the coast of Asia Minor to escape • The Dorians were even less ‘civilised’ and set progress back even further

32. Creation of Mythology • At this time the art of writing was lost and oral tradition flourished • Storytellers knitted together tales from a wide area • In later Classical times Sparta and Athens changed details of myths to suit themselves

33. "Hellenic" (Classical) Greece: 700 BCE - 324 BCE

34. The Rise of the Greek Polis Eboea Syracuse Athens Larissa Naxos Corinth

35. ATHENS: Yesterday & Today

36. Archaic Period and Classical Age • Between the end of the Dark Ages and the Persian Invasion which led to the Classical Age • The Classical Age ends with the death of Alexander in 323BC • Rome then dominated the Mediterranean area

37. Great Athenian Philosophers • Socrates • Know thyself! • question everything • only the pursuit of goodnessbrings happiness. • Plato • The Academy • The world of the FORMS • The Republic philosopher-king

38. Great Athenian Philosophers • Aristotle • The Lyceum • “Golden Mean” [everything inmoderation]. • Logic. • Scientific method.

39. Athens: The Arts & Sciences • DRAMA (tragedians): • Aeschylus • Sophocles • Euripides • THE SCIENCES: • Pythagoras • Democritus  all matter made up of small atoms. • Hippocrates  “Father of Medicine”

40. Phidias’ Acropolis

41. The Acropolis Today

42. The Parthenon

43. The Agora

44. The Classical Greek “Ideal”

45. Olympia