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Welcome to Athens

Welcome to Athens. Created by Mr. Jackoboice (The slide-show not the polis).

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Welcome to Athens

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  1. Welcome to Athens Created by Mr. Jackoboice(The slide-show not the polis) The polis of Athens included all the land on the Attica peninsula, an area slightly smaller than Rhode Island. In this presentation, you will learn which questions I asked as I researched and what I did and did not find out as I tried to answer them. Enjoy!

  2. Government Question Box 1) Were there kings? 2) How could all of the people rule? 3) Was there an army in Athens? There were kings, but they lost power in Athens between 750 and 650 BC, when the nobles appointed a person to be something called an archon. Archons gradually took away the king’s power and the government shifted from totalitarianism to democracy - Demos (people) kratos (rule) Out of the total population of Athens (150,000 people), only free adult male Greeks who made a certain income were allowed to vote. Each person who met these qualifications was referred to as a citizen. The name of the whole group was the Ecclesia. For a meeting to be official, at least 6,000 people had to show up on a hillside called the Pnyx just below the Acropolis. Citizens also volunteered to decide what should be done to people who broke the laws. An elite group of men known as the Ten Generals headed the government. They were elected each year.

  3. Religion I “According to legend, the gods Athena and Poseidon quarreled over the naming of the greatest town in Greece. Poseidon thrust his trident into a rock on the Acropolis. Sea water gushed out, and Poseidon promised the people riches through sea trade if they named the city after him.Athena planted an olive tree as her gift to the people. It was decided that she had given the more valuable gift and the city was called Athens in her honor.” - The Usborne Illustrated World History: The Greeks pg.43 Question Box 1) Is the city named after the goddess Athena? 2) How did they worship her? They sought beauty and wisdom

  4. Question Box 3) Would it have been obvious to visitors that they worshipped Athena? Religion II

  5. Question Box 1) Was Athens an important trading center? 2) How did traders move goods from Athens to Peiraeus and from Peiraeus to Athens? 3) What did they export? 4) What did they import? 5) Did people always have to trade or could they buy things with money? (More on the next slide) Economy I Yes, but it depended on a harbor city called Peiraeus that was four miles away. Athenians exported wine, olive oil, cloth, pottery and statues. Athenians imported grain, copper, tin, wood, ivory, incense, spices, perfume, silk and slaves.

  6. Economy 2 Illustration from The Usborne Illustrated World History: The Greeks pg.33

  7. Questions 1) Did Athenians have to build with Doric columns? 2) What materials were the buildings made from? 3) Did slaves do most of the work? No, The Doric columns were the most popular on mainland Greece, but it was acceptable to construct buildings with ionic or later, Corinthian columns. Large public buildings were made of stone (usually marble and limestone). Roof frames and ceilings were made of wood, and roof tiles were made of terracotta. Slaves did most of the work throughout Greece whether it involved lifting heavy stone columns or simply escorting a woman to the agora. The slaves were directed by Metics - skilled foreigners who lived permanently in Athens without the right to participate in government and Athenian craftsmen who did not earn enough to be citizens. Art & Architecture I

  8. Questions 4) What was a typical house like? Most houses were made of sun-dried mud bricks on a stone base. (The walls were so soft that burglars could easily cut through them). Notice the altar in the open air courtyard. It was used for family prayers to the gods. Houses also had a dining room and bedrooms. Wealthy families could afford more furniture and painted walls. The statue just outside the door was supposed to guard the house like the Egyptian Sphynx. It was called a herm. Art & Architecture II

  9. Science & Technology I Questions 1) Were people known as scientists in Athens? 2) Who were some of the great Athenian philosophers? 3) How do we know who discovered/invented what? (More on the Next Page) No, people who studied nature were called philosophers. Anaxagoras (c.500BC -c.428BC) wrote a book called On Nature that tried to explain how the universe worked. He discovered that the Sun was a mass of flaming material and that the Moon reflected its light. He was the first person to explain a solar eclipse. Socrates, Plato & Aristotle also introduced useful methods for making discoveries by asking questions! (What a silly idea…..) During the Dark Ages, nothing was written down. Even Socrates’ lessons would have been lost if his pupils hadn’t taken time to transcribe and expand on his ideas. In other words, we know because the technology of writing came back after the Dark Ages.

  10. Science & Technology II Questions 4) How did people in other parts of Greece know what philosophers were doing in Athens?

  11. Education I YES Questions 1) Were there schools in Athens? 2) Could slaves go to school? 3) What did boys do in school? 4) How did girls learn? No, neither slaves nor girls were allowed to go to school. Only free boys could go. They learned how to debate, read, write and do arithmetic. They often studied Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey in order to learn wisdom and character. Girls learned how to run a home from their mothers. The most common tasks involved shopping and monitoring the slaves’ weaving. Wealthy families sometimes hired tutors for their daughters to learn to read and write.

  12. Education II Questions 5) Where & how did Athenian boys learn non-academic things like how to farm, be a soldier or master a craft? Skills like farming and crafts were passed down from father to son or mother to daughter. Some of the more common crafts included pottery, painting, mining, iron working, bronze working and sculpture. Greek men were actually taught how to be soldiers in school and they often played board games to develop winning strategies.

  13. Social/Cultural Values Questions 1) Aside from the pursuit of wisdom and beauty, what did it mean to be Athenian? 2) Did they think that they were better than Dorians? 3) What festivals did they celebrate? Athenians believed that they were the only original Greeks who had survived the invasion of the Dorians. They referred to themselves as Ionians. Yes, but each Greek polis was considered to be unique. Citizens had been brought up to serve their polis and make it as good as it could possibly be. Many Greeks considered the worst possible punishment for a crime to be ostracism. The Great Panathenae was a festival that lasted six days. It only happened every four years (like leap year) People celebrated by playing music, reciting poetry, displaying their athleticism. All of these things demonstrated their success at seeking beauty and wisdom. The festival ended when they offered a new dress to a special wooden statue of Athena.

  14. Lingering Questions 1) How could Greek philosophers continue to believe in the old myths as they learned more about the universe? 2) If the Athenians thought that they were the original Greeks, why didn’t they try to reclaim the land by chasing out the Dorians? 3) Were the people from Athens better sailors than people from other polises? 4) Did slaves ever try to escape? 5) Did citizens like to go to the Ecclesia or was it considered to be work? 6) Why were girls and boys treated differently? 7) How different was Athens from other Greek polises? 8) Which polis or foreign army did Athenians fear most? 9) Did Athenians think that it was risky to worship Athena more than Zeus? 10) Were theatrical plays considered to be religious functions or entertainment?

  15. Bibliography Ancient Greece: Eyewitness Books Alfred A. Knopf Inc.: London, 1992. Armento, Beverly J. et al. A Message of Ancient Days Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, 1994. Art, Suzanne Strauss. Early Times: The Story of Ancient Greece Wayside Publishing: Concord MA, 1992. Kitto, H.D.F. The Greeks Penguin Books Ltd.: London, 1951. Millard,Anne Welcome to Ancient Greece Usborne Publishing Ltd.: London, 1981. Peach S. & Millard, A. The Usborne Illustrated World History-The Greeks Usborne Publishing Ltd: London, 1990. Powell, Anton. Great Civilizations: Greece 1600-30BC Alladin Books Ltd.:London, 1987. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ http://www.emory.edu/CARLOS/ODYSSEY/GREECE/daily.html

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