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The Rise of Greek Cities. Lesson 2, Part 2. Shared Culture. Athenians did not meet daily, instead they would meet a few days of every month for religious celebrations. During their religious celebrations, they would honor gods & goddesses.
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The Rise of Greek Cities Lesson 2, Part 2
Shared Culture • Athenians did not meet daily, instead they would meet a few days of every month for religious celebrations. During their religious celebrations, they would honor gods & goddesses. • They believed the gods & goddesses ruled the world and that they lived on Mount Olympus. • Mount Olympus: the highest mountain in Greece, where the ancient Greeks believed many of their gods & goddesses lived.
Special Festivals • A god was honored as a special protector and provider in each polis. • Athenians looked up to Athena, the goddess of wisdom. • They held a huge festival where they would sing and dance all night to honor Athena. Then, they would walk to the city’s acropolis and priests would kill cattle in honor of Athena at sunrise. • Other city-states would gather at temples to worship Zeus, the most powerful god in Greece. • The city-states would compete in athletic competitions, called the Olympics. Here they would honor the gods.
A Greek Poet • Homer was a famous poet that the city-states loved. • His most famous poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey. They tell stories of war and adventure.
Beyond Greece • Shortly after the Olympics and Greek festivals began, Greek colonies came to participate. • Colonies: a territory or community that is under the control of another country. • They were made up of groups of people who lived apart from Greece, but still kept in contact. • They were important trading partners because they grew grains.
Beyond Greece Continued… • City-states ringed the Mediterranean “like frogs around a pond” as said by Plato. • However, Eastern Greek territories were being taken over by Persia. • The Persian empire was growing.
Main Ideas • Life in most of the Greek city-states revolved around an agora and an acropolis. • Spartans spent much of their time working to strengthen their bodies and their army. In Athens free women and girls worked at home. Boys and men worked, went to school, or took part in government.
