10/20 Aim : How did the geography of Greece influence its history?

1. 10/20 Aim: How did the geography of Greece influence its history? Do Now: Study the physical map of Greece and list the physical features that you see that might have influenced Greece’s history?

2. Effect of the Mountains • 80% of Greece is Mountains • Difficult to unify! caused many city-states to develop each with their own government! Ex. Athens and Sparta • Greece was not one unified empire! • Polis – Greek word for city • City-states were competitive and fought each other

3. Which Contributions of Ancient Greece were Most Important to Western Civilization? Stations

4. The Philosophers Plato – Student of Socrates and one of the greatest philosophers of all time. Like Socrates, Plato emphasized the importance of logic, reason and rational thought. He rejected democracy because he believed that people, in general, were pretty ignorant and therefore needed a “guardian” to regulate every aspect of their lives. Socrates – The first of the Athenian Philosophers. By the time he was 40, he began to think of the world around him. He wandered the marketplace asking people questions like “what is wisdom? What is beauty? What is the right thing to do?” He encouraged people to use logic and reason to understand the universe rather than simply explaining natural occurrences to be the work of the gods. Eventually, he was put to death for this. He was accused of corrupting the city’s youth and failing to respect the gods. “Since human reason is the most godlike part of human nature, a life guided by human reason is superior to any other… For man, this is the life of reason, since the faculty of reason is the distinguishing characteristic of human beings.” – Socrates Aristotle- Studies at Plato’s school and also emphasized the importance of logic and reason. He agreed with Plato on the issue of government, but was different in that he was more interested in how the real world worked. He was very interested in biology and the classification of plants and animals in a way that would make sense.

5. Democracy Democracy was not the first type of government present in Athens. Before democracy, Athens was ruled by a few, wealthy elite called tyrants. This oligarchy limited the power to a very few people. Democracy, on the other hand, was a government structured to serve the people. Unlike our representative democracy today, in which we choose representatives to vote on elections and issues, back in Athens, citizens would convene and openly vote directly. That’s why their democracy was known as a direct democracy Democracy in Greece was limited, however. You must be a citizen to participate in the democracy, and in order to be a citizen, you had to be a man born in Athens. So unfair! “ Our plan of government favors the many instead of the few: that is why it is called a democracy.. As for social standing, advancement is open to every citizen, according to ability. While every citizen has an equal opportunity to serve the public, we reward our most distinguished citizens by asking them to make our political decisions. Nor do we discriminate against the poor. A man may serve his country no matter how low his position on the social scale. - Pericles

6. Poetry and Drama Poetry: Homer (750 B.C) – the author of the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey. To people living in classical Greece, these epics play very much the same role as the bible. The Iliad is our chief source of information about the Trojan War, although the story involves gods, goddesses, and even a talking horse. For centuries, most people regarded the Trojan War purely as legend. Though most details still remain lost in legend, modern scholars agree that the Trojan War was an actual event! Drama – Tragedy: Sophocles, a tragic playwright wrote Antigone in 441 B.C. In this play, Antigone defies the king’s order and buries her brother, who was killed while leading a rebellion. Creon: And still you dared to overstep these laws? Antigone: For me, it was not Zeus who made that order. Nor do I think your orders were so strong that you, a mortal man, could overrun the gods’ unwritten and unfailing laws… I know I must die… but if I left my brother dead and unburied, I’d have cause to grieve as now I grieve not. Drama – Comedy: Comedies were humorous plays that mocked people or customs. Through ridicule, they criticized society. Almost all surviving Greek comedies were written by Aristophanes. In Lysistrata he tells what happens when the women of Athens together force their husbands to end a war against Sparta. Hysterical!

7. Miss Weinstein’s Inadequate Retelling of The Illiad The Greeks believed that the Trojan War lasted for ten years, and this story happens in the tenth year of the war, when both sides were really sick of being at war, and the Greeks were sick of being away from home. The Iliad begins with a fight between the leader of the Greeks, King Agamemnon of Mycenae, and the Greeks' best fighter, King Achilles (The Greeks lived in a lot of little city-states, and in the Bronze Age each one had its own king, but Agamemnon was leading them all during the war). The Greeks had won a battle and were splitting up the booty (the stuff they had captured). Everybody had a pile of stuff. Achilles had gotten a woman among his stuff, to be his slave, whose name was Briseis (brih-SAY-iss). But Agamemnon decided that HE wanted the pretty Briseis, and he just took her from Achilles, saying that he was the head of the army so he would do what he liked. Well, Achilles was so angry that Agamemnon took Briseis from him that he refused to fight for the Greeks anymore and just sat in his tent and sulked. Without their best fighter, the Greeks started losing battles. Finally Achilles' best friend, Patroclos, I’ll call him Pat, thought of an idea. He put on Achilles' famous armor and went out to fight. Both the Greeks and the Trojans thought Achilles had come back to the battle and the Greeks won a big victory, but Pat was killed in the fighting: he might dress like Achilles but he could not fight like him. When Achilles heard that Pat was dead, he was ashamed of how he had been sulking. He agreed to fight again. Now the Greeks really started to win. So the best Trojan fighter, Prince Hector, came out from Troy to fight Achilles. They fought for a long time, but finally Achilles killed Hector. Hector's father, King Priam, came to Achilles at night to ask for his son's body back, and Achilles gave it to him.

8. The Trojan Horse After the events of the Iliad and the death of Hector, the Trojan War still wasn't over. Neither the Greeks nor the Trojans seemed to be able to win, until one of the Greek kings, Odysseus of Ithaca, had an idea. "Build a big wooden horse on wheels," he said, "big enough for a bunch of Greek soldiers to hide inside it." So the Greeks did. Then the Greeks all pretended to sail home (except the ones hiding inside the horse!). They acted like they had given up and left. But really they hid just around the corner. Soon the Trojans found the horse. "What is it?" they asked each other. Nobody knew. (The Greek soldiers hiding inside kept very quiet). Then they found a Greek soldier hiding nearby. He said (though this was part of the trick) that the other Greeks hated him and they had left him behind. So the Trojans asked him what the horse was for. He said it was an offering to Athena. Well, the Trojans didn't want to upset Athena either, so they rolled the big horse into the city of Troy. It was so big it wouldn't go through the gate, and they had to tear down a piece of the city wall to get it in. They left it at the temple of Athena, and then the Trojans had a big party to celebrate the end of the war. (Still the Greek soldiers inside the horse kept very quiet). Finally everyone fell asleep, and NOW the Greek soldiers came out of the Trojan Horse and killed the guards on the walls. They signaled to the other Greeks to come attack Troy. They could get in now because the walls were torn down. There was a big battle and the Greeks won.

9. The Olympics Once every four years, men from all over Greece came to compete in a great athletic festival in in western Greece (Women were not allowed to compete). This was called the Olympic games because the place was called Olympia. It was a religious festival to honor the Greek gods Zeus and Hera and took place every 4 years. Like today! Once all the men had arrived, they spent a month practicing and training together in a big palaestra, or gym, with a sand floor. They had to follow strict rules. Judges (also all men) watched the men train, and picked out only the best ones to actually complete in the races.They Olympics began with religious sacrificed of pigs and rams to Zeus. Events of the Ancient Olympics included Chariot races, horse riding, running, discus, wrestling, boxing, and long jump. Of course, to show off the achievements of the human body, they competed in all of these events naked! Yikes! This is probably why married women were not allowed to be spectators at the games.

11. Art and Architecture Sculpture: Greek sculpture focused on the beauty and grace of the human body; especially the bodies of young, athletic, naked men. Women, of course, were only sculpted with clothing on. They sculpted the “ideal” human form showing no imperfections. Architecture: Architects in ancient Greece often built temples to the gods. Most famous is the Parthenon which was built for Athena, the goddess of wisdom. This temple is a perfect example of what classical Greek architecture entailed. Greek columns supported the roof structure which was almost always detailed with a triangular structure called a pediment. This style of architecture has been so admired that it has been copied by different architects from Ancient Rome through modern-day America!