UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTES

SOME ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT:

Where in Europe is Greece located? How did geography affect its development?

What events led to the rise of the Greek empire?

What was the importance of a system of democracy in the daily life of the Greeks?

What features does ancient Greek democracy share with modern-day democracy?

What role did mythology play in the lives of ancient Greek people?

What do Greek myths reveal? What did the Ancient Greeks believe/value? How did the Persians cause Greece to change over time? How did Athenian culture contrast Spartan culture? How did Alexander the Great influence the spread of Greek

culture into Asia?

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTES What is the impact of Greek achievements on art, philosophy, and culture

on modern day life in America?

ANCIENT GREECE: THE CRADLE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATIONThe civilization of ancient Greece flowered more than 2500 years ago but the

ideas of the ancient Greeks continue to influence the way we live today. Greece is made up of a peninsula and group of islands in southeastern Europe. A peninsula is a piece of land that is almost surrounded by water. The people of ancient Greece attempted to explain the world through the laws of nature. The ancient Greeks made important discoveries in science. They developed democracy, where people govern themselves rather than being ruled by a king. The Greeks also valued beauty and imagination. They wrote many stories and plays that continue to be performed today.

The people of ancient Greece could not farm most of their mountainous, rocky land, so they became excellent sailors who traveled to distant lands. Greek sailors learned from many different cultures and spread their ideas to many lands far from their home. The Greeks learned the alphabet from the Phoenicians, a sea-faring people from modern day Syria and Lebanon.

Ancient Greek geographers divided the world into regions we still use today. The lands west of Greece are still known as the western world, while the lands east of Greece are often referred to as the eastern world.

A cradle is a small bed for an infant. Many of the ideas that flourished in the western world were “born” in ancient Greece. This is why Greece is often known as the Cradle of Western Civilization.

THE EARLY GREEKSMost of our study of ancient Greece is focused on what we call the Classical

Age. The Classical Age of Greece is a two hundred year period that began about 500 years before the Common Era. During the Classical Age, the Greek poli combined to defeat the powerful Persian Empire. The Greeks of the Classical Age created art, architecture and literature that have influenced the way we live today. The Classical Age came centuries after two earlier civilizations, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, flourished and then vanished, leaving the Greeks in a period later called the Dark Age of Ancient Greece.

The Minoan culture developed on Crete, an island southeast of the Greek mainland. The Minoans developed a system of writing and traded with other cultures that bordered the Mediterranean Sea, but the Minoan civilization mysteriously disappeared about 1450BCE. There is some evidence that the fall of the Minoan civilization is related to a catastrophic volcanic eruption. The Minoans traded with the Mycenaeans, a civilization on the Greek mainland that was known for making bronze weapons and pottery. About a millennium before

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESthe Common Era, the Mycenaean culture grew weak and was conquered by invaders from the north known as Dorians.

For the next several hundred years, Greece fell into a period called the Greek Dark Age. There have been several dark ages in history. A dark age occurs when a civilization regresses, or forgets some of the things they know. Both the Minoans and the Mycenaeans had writing, but during the Greek Dark Age, few people could read and write. The Greeks of the Classical Era could not read the writing of the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, but the Classical Greeks had many legends handed down by word of mouth. These stories became the basis of what the Greeks later called their Heroic Era.

During the Greek Dark Age, poets called bards traveled to different poli. The bards told stories in the form of long poems called epics. People would often pay to hear the bards describe stories of the distant past. The bards would sing many of the epic poems while accompanied by a stringed instrument called a lyre. The musical epics were called lyric poetry.

The two oldest surviving examples of Greek literature are the Iliad and the Odyssey, epic poems that describe the Trojan War, a conflict between the Greeks and the city of Troy that the epics say was fought almost 1200 years before the Common Era. The Trojan War was fought over Helen, who according to legend was the beautiful daughter of Zeus and the wife of the king of the Greek polis of Sparta. The war began after a Trojan prince named Paris kidnapped Helen.

According to the Odyssey, the Trojan War ended when the Greeks pretended to give up their quest for Helen. The Greeks left a huge wooden horse as a peace offering to the Trojans. The Greek navy pretended to sail away, but they only sailed out to a hidden location. The joyous Trojans opened the city gates and pulled in the giant statue. After a great victory celebration of their defeat of the Greek army, the people of Troy slept for the night. As the Trojans slept, Greek soldiers emerged from their hiding place inside the wooden horse, opened the city gates, and began to burn the sleeping city.

Modern scholars believe the Iliad and the Odyssey are based on oral legends, but the epics are often attributed to a storyteller named Homer. The language of the Iliad and the Odyssey suggest that Homer came from the western coast of the modern nation of Turkey. Homer’s name can be translated from a word that means blind, but the vivid imagery of the Iliad and the Odyssey suggest that the author of the poems must have had sight at some point in his life.

We have only a few clues about who Homer might have been. Herodotus was a Greek writer who lived in the fifth century before the Common Era. Herodotus is often called “the Father of History.” The great historian estimated that the story of the Trojan War was at that time at least seven centuries old.

The epic stories of the bards are the foundation of Greek theater. During the Classical Age, the Greeks often performed plays at festivals honoring Dionysus. Dionysus was the Greek god of the harvest, but he was also the god of pleasure. In many Greek plays, a few actors played roles while a chorus narrated the play

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESand offered advice to the characters. Greek tragedies were plays that described great conflicts and often ended unhappily; Greek comedies told amusing stories about Greek culture and society and generally had happy endings. The modern movies we see today are rooted in the plays of ancient Greece and the stories of the mysterious Heroic Era of ancient Greece.

THE GREEK POLIAncient Greece was not a unified nation, but a collection of city-states known

as poli. Poli is the plural of polis. Polis is often translated as city, but there was a very important difference between an ancient Greek polis and what we think of as a city today.

The ancient Greeks saw themselves as citizens of their poli no matter where they lived. If a person was born in Athens, he would consider himself an Athenian even if he had lived in another polis for many years.

Most Greek poli consisted of a small walled area and the surrounding farmland, but some larger poli were made up of several small villages. The poli developed independently of one another because they were isolated by rugged mountains or located on small islands, but the people of the poli spoke similar languages and worshipped many of the same gods. Each poli had an independent government. The word we use today for making decisions as a group is politics. Politics is derived from an ancient Greek word that refers to the Greek polis.

The Greek poli had to depend on one another to survive. Many of the city-states developed alliances, called leagues, for protection against other cities and foreign invaders. Each polis contributed soldiers and ships to form a common army and navy.

The Greek poli met every four years at a great athletic contest to honor the god Zeus. In ancient Greece, a period of four years was known as an Olympiad, so the ancient Greeks called their contests the Olympics. During the Olympic Games, poli that were at war would suspend hostilities until the contests ended. We don’t know exactly when the ancient Greeks began to hold Olympic Games because the contests are older than any Greek writing. Today the spirit of the ancient Greeks lives on as most of the nations of the world participate in Olympic Games every four years.

ATHENS AND DEMOCRACYAthens is the capital and largest city in modern Greece, but Athens also has a

long history that dates back 7000 years. Modern ideas about democracy first developed in ancient Athens. Unlike Sparta, it was difficult for the rulers of ancient Athens to have complete control over their citizens. Athens developed as a merchant poli whose ships traded with many faraway places. The traders were exposed to many new ideas.4 | P a g e

UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESThe first Athenian rulers were warriors who controlled the poli by force. The

warrior families called themselves aristocrats. Aristoi- comes from a Greek word meaning “best people.” The tyrant was the leader of the aristocrats. Today we use the term tyrant to describe a cruel ruler, but many of the Athenian tyrants were kind and effective leaders.

About 622BCE, a tyrant named Draco created a written legal system and a court to enforce his laws. Draco’s court meted out harsh punishments for even minor offenses. Today we use the word draconian to describe laws that are unnecessarily harsh or unjust.

The Athenian army fought in a phalanx, a military formation of soldiers with overlapping shields that moved together as a unit. The mighty phalanx was more powerful than any individual aristocratic warrior. By the time of Draco’s rule, soldiers no longer needed to be wealthy enough to afford a horse, so Athenians from less prosperous families could join the army. The aristocratic leaders learned to consider the needs of all Athenian families to keep from losing support from the army.

In 594BCE, Solon became the leader of Athens. Solon repealed Draco’s harshest laws assembled a group of ordinary citizens to vote on how Athens was to be governed. The Assembly gathered forty times a year and was open to all male citizens with at least two years of military service.

The word for people in ancient Greek was demos. Kratos meant rule. The government created by Solon was a democracy, where the people ruled the polis. Most democratic nations have elected representatives to make laws, but Athens was a direct democracy because the citizens acted as lawmakers.

Direct democracy was possible in ancient Athens and even today is the system by which many small towns operate. However, gathering all citizens together to make decisions is not practical in large countries such as the United States.

A council known as the boule managed the daily affairs of the polis. Members of the boule were not elected; they were chosen randomly from the Assembly so that every qualified person had an equal opportunity to serve on the council. At the end of the year, members of the boule appeared before the Assembly to account for their work.

Only adult males born in Athens participated in the assembly. Athens encouraged outsiders to move to their polis, but only free-born males could vote. Women could own property but were not allowed to participate in the democratic process. The members of the Assembly had time to work on public affairs because slaves did most of the physical work in the polis. About one in four people living in Athens were slaves.

Consequently, the members of the Assembly accounted for only about one-fourth of the total population of Athens.

Participation in government by common people was an idea that eventually became a model for other nations. The democratic government in Athens

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESinspired the writers of the American Constitution. Athenian democracy was limited, but it gave some people the opportunity to make decisions about how they were governed.

SPARTASparta was an ancient Greek polis that was surrounded by enemies, so

Spartan citizens began preparing for war at birth. Spartan rulers examined newborn babies to determine if they were healthy and strong enough to be of value to the polis. The rulers killed sickly or malformed infants deemed incapable of contributing to the security of Sparta.

Spartans had to conform to strict rules. Spartan boys would leave their homes at age seven to begin training as warriors. The boys would live in military housing called barracks where they faced rigorous training and discipline. Spartan trainers underfed the boys. If they caught a boy stealing food, the boy was beaten--not for stealing but for being caught. Spartan men could marry when they were twenty years old, but Sparta did not allow the men to live with their families until they reached thirty. A Spartan soldier who had not found a wife by age thirty would customarily capture an unmarried woman of his choice. Spartan men would continue to serve in the military until they were sixty years old. Both men and women in Sparta competed in athletic contests to keep physically fit.

Spartan men were constantly in training for war, so women completed many of the duties of running the polis. Woman were the sole owners of at least one third of Spartan land. Spartan girls were raised to be tough so the women could bear strong children for the polis. The people of other poli would tell the story of a Spartan mother who killed her son for running away from his duties. Spartan women were known for being stoic. A stoic person can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining. When Spartan soldiers went to battle, their mothers and wives would present the warriors with their shield and say: "With this, or upon this." The soldier was expected to return to Sparta either victorious with his shield in hand, or be carried home dead upon his shield. If a Spartan soldier returned home alive and without his shield, the soldier faced banishment from the polis or death.

The Spartans were Dorians who invaded the land they occupied on the Peloponnesus, a peninsula in southern Greece. Spartan warriors expanded their territory by capturing neighboring lands. They called the people they captured helots. The Spartans forced helots to farm the land the helots once owned, but the helots had to provide half of their harvest to Sparta. A Spartan police force spied on the helots and killed anyone suspected of being a threat. Every year, Sparta would declare war on the helots and Spartan warriors would kill helots as part of their training.

Spartan laws discouraged anything that would distract citizens from their disciplined military life. Sparta did not welcome visitors from other cities, and did not allow their citizens to travel. The Spartans were not interested in other ways

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESof life and did not want to bring new ideas to their polis. Today, we use spartan as an adjective to describe someone who leads a rigorously disciplined life that includes few comforts or luxuries.

Sparta’s army eventually came into conflict with Athens, a trading poli that developed the strongest navy of ancient Greece. In 431BCE, Sparta and Athens began a twenty-seven year long conflict called the Peloponnesian War. The Romans conquered Sparta in 146BCE, ending centuries of independence for the polis. In 1834, Greece began construction of a new city on the site of ancient Sparta. Modern Sparti is a small city with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants that lives on among the ruins of one of the most powerful cities in history.

ALEXANDER THE GREATAlexander the Great was a young general who amassed the largest empire of

the ancient world in just thirteen years. His career was brief because he died a young man, but Alexander’s legacy was a blending of cultures we now call the Hellenistic civilization.

Alexander’s father was King Philip of Macedonia. Macedonia is a mountainous land north of the Greek peninsula. From a young age, Phillip trained Alexander in warfare and by the age of sixteen, the young man was leading an army on his own. Alexander succeeded his father in power at age nineteen after Philip’s assassination in 336BCE.

Philip’s armies had conquered most of the Greek poli by that time, but the Greeks believed they could free themselves of Macedonian rule since their new king was a “mere boy.” Alexander proved the Greeks wrong by leading an army that captured Thebes; the young general burned all but one home in the polis as a warning to the other Greeks. Alexander then turned his attention to Persia, the longtime enemy of Greece and the mightiest empire in the world at that time.

In 333BCE, Alexander led an army of 40,000 soldiers, 30,000 sailors and 100 ships into Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). Alexander’s forces conquered several Persian provinces before turning south to face the army of Persian King Darius III.

Alexander’s army was less than half the size of the Persian forces, but the Macedonian outmaneuvered the Persians, causing Darius to flee the battlefield. Alexander captured the wife and daughters of Darius. The young general treated the Persian king’s family with great respect and the woman accompanied him for the rest of his life.

In 332BCE, Alexander moved south to Egypt. The Egyptian people welcomed the conquering general as a hero. They declared Alexander a pharaoh and a god because he freed them from harsh Persian rule. The young general founded Alexandria, a city that would become the greatest center of learning in the ancient world. A library in Alexandria housed the accumulated knowledge of the Greeks. The library operated until the seventh century of the Common Era, long after the fall of the Greek and Roman civilizations.

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESAlexander marched his army east where they again defeated the forces of

King Darius. Darius again fled the battlefield, but the Persian king was killed soon after by his advisors. Alexander’s army looted the Persian capital at Persepolis, but the young general divided the treasures of Persepolis among his soldiers, making the men richer than they could have ever expected to be.

Although a young man, Alexander was a military genius, possibly the greatest warrior of all time. His troops were better trained and organized than the Persian army. Alexander’s soldiers admired their leader because of his personal courage. Alexander led his soldiers in battle instead of remaining behind the lines. The troops saw that the young general was sharing their danger and was not asking them to take any risks he would not take himself.

As a child, Alexander was tutored by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle taught Alexander that the Greeks were the most advanced people in the world and that all other cultures were barbarians. Once Alexander conquered the Persians, he had a change of heart. Alexander adopted many Persian customs. He took the Persian title “King of Kings” and married one of the daughters King Darius abandoned on the battlefield.

Alexander’s army marched as far east as the edge of the Indian subcontinent in 326 BCE, but the heavy monsoon rains and a revolt among his soldiers forced the young general to end his conquests.

Alexander was only thirty-three years old in 323BCE, when he fell ill from a fever and died. The great conqueror was too young to make plans for a successor, so the empire Alexander created in less than thirteen years quickly crumbled after his death.

Alexander changed the world, but not through his accomplishments on the battlefield. Alexander’s empire combined Greek culture with the customs of Persia and the other lands he conquered. Later historians called this combination of cultures the Hellenistic civilization. Hellenism is a word derived from the Greeks’ traditional name for themselves. Long after Alexander’s empire fell apart, Hellenism produced great advances in science, philosophy, and drama.

WAR IN ANCIENT GREECEPERSIA

Wars among the Greek poli were common in the fifth century before the Common Era, but the city-states united to defend themselves against Persia, the most powerful empire in the world at that time. The victorious Greeks developed a sense of confidence that led to an era we now call the Classical Age of Greece.

The Persian Empire conquered Ionia. Ionia is east of the Greek peninsula in Asia Minor, land that is now part of the modern nation of Turkey. In 499BCE, Athens sent its army to aid an Ionian rebellion against the Persians.

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESAthens used a battle formation called a phalanx. In a phalanx, heavily armed

soldiers held overlapping shields that protected the combatants on either side. The phalanx required soldiers to depend on one another for their safety, so Athenian warriors fought as a unit instead of as individuals. The well-trained Athenian phalanx helped repel the Persians from Ionian land.

King Darius of Persia swore revenge on Athens. In 490BCE, Persian ships carried about 20,000 warriors to Marathon, a flat plain twenty-six miles from Athens. The Persians planned to use Marathon as a base from which to attack, but a spy alerted Athens. The Athenian army was outnumbered by about two to one, but they marched through the night to make a surprise attack on the Persian forces at dawn. The frightened Persians fled to their ships and retreated from Greece.

A messenger named Pheidippides ran to Athens without stopping to announce Athens’ surprise victory at Marathon, but the runner died from exhaustion shortly after gasping out his news. A modern marathon is a foot race that is named in honor of Pheidippides’ run. Modern marathons are exactly 26 miles, 385 yards. This is exactly the distance Pheidippides is believed to have run.

Ten years after the Persian retreat at Marathon, Darius’ son, Xerxes, prepared for another invasion of Greece. Xerxes sent about 200,000 soldiers and 800 ships to fight the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis in 460BCE. The Persian king watched from a mountaintop as the Greeks managed to destroy the Persian fleet. Xerxes was so enraged by Persia’s loss that he beheaded the few Persian captains who were able to escape the wrath of the Greek armies.

Athens had twice resisted the most powerful empire in the world, but Athens was certain that Persia would make another attempt to conquer Greece. Athens asked all of the Greek poli to meet on the island of Delios where the poli formed an alliance known as the Delian League. Each member of the Delian League contributed soldiers, ships and money to fight the Persians.

The Delian League used its powers first to punish the poli that supported Persia in the past. Then, the combined forces of the league conquered the remaining Persian territories in Ionia. The united Greeks no longer feared the Persians because the Greeks had enough military power to fend off the powerful empire in the world.

Historians call the period the followed the Greek victories over the Persians the Classical Age of Greece. During the classical age, artists, poets, sculptors and architects developed a culture that was unique to Greece. Sparta and Athens were the two most powerful poli of the Classical Age. Sparta was a disciplined military power that discouraged traveling and visitors. Athens was a port city whose merchant ships traveled throughout the Mediterranean Sea. In time, the rivalry between Sparta and Athens would lead of the end of the Classical Era.9 | P a g e

UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTES

PELOPONNESIAN WARThe Greek victories over the Persians in the fifth century before the Common

Era led to an expansion of Greek culture we now call the Golden Age of Greece.” During this period of political stability, democracy flourished in Athens under a revered leader named Pericles. The Greeks also made advancements in art, drama, poetry and philosophy. The Golden Age ended with conflicts between Athens and Sparta that led to the 27-year long Peloponnesian War.

Athens was the founder of the Delian League, an alliance of Greek poli that defeated the Persians. Athens collected taxes from the other poli to maintain the military forces required to combat the Persians. The Athenians also used money from the Delian League to build a colossal temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. In 447BCE, Athens began construction of the Parthenon at the top of the Acropolis (“high city”) of Athens. Resentment grew among many poli as Athens demonstrated its wealth at the same time the Athenians antagonized the rival city of Sparta.

Sparta called on the other Greek poli for assistance to quell a helot uprising. The helots were slaves forced to farm the land that fed the Spartans. Athens sent a force of 4000 soldiers, but the Spartans rejected the Athenian support. Thucydides later suggested that the Spartans feared the Athenians would switch sides once the Athenians were inside the Spartan city walls. The offended Athens ended their alliance with Sparta and at the end of the uprising, Athens assisted many of the escaped helots.

In 433BCE, Athens placed a ban on trade with a poli allied with Sparta. Athens’ high taxes of the other poli caused a weakening of the Delian League, so Sparta declared war to end the Athenian dominance of the Greek peninsula.

Sparta began a siege, or military blockade of Athens. Athens prepared for the siege by building long walls on either side of a four-mile road that connected Athens with a port. The Athenians resisted the siege for more than a year by receiving supplies at the port from their allies.

Pericles ordered the farmers living in the Athenian countryside to move inside the city walls for safety. The cramped and unsanitary living conditions inside Athens under siege were an easy target for disease. A plague, or contagious illness, spread through the overcrowded polis. The sickness killed more than 30,000 Athenians, about two-thirds of the population. Pericles, the leader of Athens during the Golden Age, was among the victims. The Spartans abandoned their blockade because the soldiers feared catching the disease.

Sparta and Athens agreed to a truce after a series of victories by the Athenian navy. The war had weakened both poli, but Persia, still bitter from their military losses to Athens, ended the brief period of peace. The Persians hoped to destroy the weakened Athens by contributing resources that allowed Sparta to create a powerful navy.

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESIn 404BCE, the Spartans once again began a siege, but this time the Persian-

sponsored Spartan fleet prevented ships from supplying Athens. Athens resisted the siege for almost a year, but without supplies from their allies, the starving Athenians were no longer capable of stopping the Spartan army from attacking.

The Peloponnesian War claimed thousands of lives and humbled both Athens and Sparta. A critic of the rulers of Athens named Socrates caused an uproar in the polis that eventually led to his execution. Conflicts continued among the Greek poli, who paid little attention to the growing military power of Macedonia, the mountainous land north of the Greek peninsula. Soon after the Peloponnesian War, Macedonia King Phillip conquered most of the Greek peninsula. His son, Alexander the Great, conquered the rest of the peninsula and went on to create the most powerful empire the world had known at that time

ART, BELIEFS, AND LEARNING IN ANCIENT GREECEGREEK ART

When the Greeks created a statue or painting of a real person, Greek artists created a "look" that somewhat resembled the person, but their appearance was improved, sometimes vastly improved. The artists gave men rippling muscles. They gave women long, flowing hair. Eyes and noses were spaced just right. The ancient Greeks loved beauty. Their love of beauty was reflected in their art. Be it a vase or a pillar or a statue, the ancient Greeks wanted their art to be visually interesting.

 The Greeks were also great architects. It was the ancient Greeks who invented 3 types of columns that were so lovely that their designs are still used by artists today. These beautiful columns could be found all over ancient Greece, even in 11 | P a g e

UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESancient Sparta. Greek columns held up buildings and rooftops and temples. The Doric column had a very simple design. The Ionic column was known for it's scrolls. The Corninthian column was very ornate.

The Greeks loved their beautiful columns. But they also wanted their columns to provided the support needed. To do this, they designed support pillars so from a distance they looked straight and graceful. But in reality, those pillars might lean this way or that way in order to provide better support. 

The Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens

The most famous acropolis in ancient Greece is probably the one in ancient Athens. The acropolis in Athens is so famous that it is usually capitalized, like a proper name, and referred to simply as "The Acropolis". But there was an acropolis in every Greek city-state, sometime more than one.

The Parthenon is a famous temple. It was built on The Acropolis (in Athens). It was built by Pericles around 2,400 years ago! The picture above is not a drawing of the real Parthenon. It is a building in Tennessee in the United States. Ancient Greek architecture has inspired many artists and many buildings through time. Greek architecture is one of the many gifts the world received from the ancient Greeks.

The Parthenon, or the Temple of Athena was built between 447 and 438 BC in the Doric style under the leadership of Pericles. The Acropolis had been the site of an older temple and other monuments which had been destroyed by the Persians when the people of Athens evacuated the city. When the Persians were defeated columns from the older buildings were used in the construction of the Acropolis walls as a reminder of what Athens had suffered. The Parthenon was designed by the architects Ictinos and Callicrates, built of local marble from Mount Pendeli and build by a large number of sculpturers, masons, painters and other craftsmen.

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESThe columns of the Parthenon supported a marble beam to which were attached the metopes, high relief sculptures of different subjects on each side. The eastern side of the building was a battle between the Olympian Gods and the giants. On the west are the Greeks battling the Amazons. On the north the scenes seem to be from the fall of Troy. On the south are battles between men and the centaurs. The triangle sections of the building were the pediments and contained about 50 large statues which were carved and then hoisted up. According to Pausanias, the east pediment showed the birth of Athena, the west showed the contest between Athena and Poseidon over who would rule Athens and Attika. The statues were originally painted, but by the time western Europeans

had arrived the paint was long gone and for many years they believed that this was their normal state. In fact the idea of the Greeks having painted their statues seemed almost like sacrilege to the Europeans. The Parthenon frieze by Phideas went around the whole building was also carved in relief and is believed to show the sacrifice of the daughters of Erechtheus, one of the founding myths of Athens and the subject of a lost play by Euripides. The main feature of the Parthenon was the giant statue of Athena which was inside and has since disappeared. There were several other buildings on the Acropolis. The propylaea was the entranceway. To the right was the small temple of Athena Nike and to the left was the Erechthion and the famous porch of the maidens.

The Parthenon and the other buildings of the Acropolis remained intact through the Roman conquests, when Athens was considered the cultural capital for the whole empire. The emperor Augustus built a small temple in front of the Parthenon and the Emperor Hadrian financed a building program said to be as ambitious as that of Pericles. When the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of the empire in the fourth century Athens was considered pagan and in 529 the philosophy schools were closed, putting an end to the traditions of classical Athens. When Alaric the Goth invaded the empire he spared Athens the plundering and devastation that other cities in his path had experienced. According to the legend, he took the sun flashing on the bronze shield of the statue of Athena as a sign from God. In the 6th Century the Parthenon was converted to a Christian church and the east pediment torn down and many of its sculptures defaced. When the crusaders who destroyed Constantinople

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESoccupied Athens they began a period of western rule and the Parthenon became the Roman Catholic Church of Notre Dame. Finally during the Turkish occupation it was converted into a mosque and a minaret was built on the top. Except for the statue of Athena, the statues of the east pediment and the treasures and statues in the interior, the building was still completely intact.

That changed on September 26 1687 when the Parthenon, which was being used by the Turks as a gunpowder magazine after the previous facility, the Propelea had been destroyed when struck by lightning, was hit by a cannon from the Venetians who were laying siege to the Acropolis. The whole building exploded, the roof blown off, sections of columns blown down and many of the sculptures were destroyed. When the Turks surrendered, the

Venetian general Morosini decided to take back to Venice the surviving sculptures from the west pediment but in the effort the cables broke and they all shattered. He left on the Acropolis the ruins of the Parthenon with piles of marble from the statues and the building which were taken and used as building material or ground into lime. After the Venetians left more of the Parthenon was torn town to be used as building materials and even the lead core which held the columns together was extracted, melted down and used for bullets. By the eighteenth century travelers from western Europe were buying sculpture which increased their value enough so they would not be used for lime. The Turks were happy to sell pieces of ancient buildings and statues though they could not understand why anyone would want them. These pieces made their way back to Europe. Most have disappeared but some of turned up in museums, private collections and in people's gardens.

GREEK MYTHOLOGYThe beliefs of the ancient Greeks were full of the violent storms, volcanoes

and earthquakes that were a part of their experience. Greek mythology is based on legends passed down through generations by word of mouth, so there are many versions of Greek mythology and not all of the stories agree with one another.

Myths explained nature, taught moral lessons, and provided entertainment. Greek poets created epic stories based on ancient legends. An epic is a long poem about great heroes and their deeds.

Like most ancient cultures, the ancient Greeks were polytheistic, but unlike other cultures, many of their gods looked and acted like human beings. The ancient Greeks believed their gods had unlimited powers, yet Greek gods 14 | P a g e

UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESmarried, had children, played tricks and fought great battles with one another. The ancient Greeks attributed natural disasters to conflicts among their gods.

A Greek poet named Hesiod wrote that the Earth goddesses emerged from nothingness called Chaos. The earth mated with the sky to produce the Titans. The Titans were giants who ruled over Greece from atop Mount Othrys. The giants were led by Cronus until he lost a great war with his children. The children of Cronus were called the Olympian Gods because they lived atop Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece.

Zeus was the youngest son of Cronus and the head of the Olympian pantheon. A pantheon is a family of gods. Zeus was also the god of rain who ruled the sky with his powerful thunderbolt. Ancient Greek farmers relied on the rain they believed came from Zeus, but they also feared the anger of Zeus during violent thunderstorms.

Poseidon was said to be Zeus’ brother and the ruler of the sea. Greek mariners and fishermen believed Poseidon had the power to create earthquakes by striking the ground with his mighty trident. A trident is a three-pronged spear used by the ancient Greeks both as a tool and a weapon. Poseidon might cause shipwrecks with his trident, but could also create new islands and favor sailors with food and safe travel to other lands.

A third brother named Hades ruled the underworld. The Greeks believed that people passed to Hades’ territory when they died, and while they were treated fairly in the underworld, Hades would never allow them to return to the world they once knew.

Greek legends say Zeus’ favorite daughter was Athena. Athena was the goddess of wisdom and courage. Legends say Athena gave the Greeks the olive tree. Olives are a staple of the Greek diet. The Greeks also use olive oil for cooking, fuel, and as a medicine. When the Greeks fought one another, they appealed to Athena because she was also the goddess of just warfare.Most people no longer share the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, but humanity still finds great inspiration in the stories and symbols of Greek mythology

ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHERSSOCRATES:

Wisdom can be defined as the knowledge of what is right and true. The ancient Greeks discussed, debated, and studied wisdom. This is called philosophy. The word philosophy comes from a Greek term meaning "the love of wisdom."

The Greeks believed they could become wise by using reason. Reason is the ability to think clearly. Greek philosophers developed logic, a step-by-step method of using reason to think through a problem. A philosopher named Socrates challenged the leaders of Athens by asked his students to use reason and logic instead of following the directions of the leaders of Athens.

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESSocrates was a retired stonecutter. As a young man he fought in the

Peloponnesian War and served in the boule, but he devoted the last years of his life to philosophy. Socrates believed that we all could find truth by thinking logically and trusting our inner voices. Socrates told his students that “wisdom begins in wonder.”

Socrates did not teach in a school. The old philosopher drifted around Athens, engaging his students in arguments about justice, bravery, and ethics. Socrates taught by asking questions that forced his students to use logic. When teachers ask questions that encourage students to draw conclusions, they are using the "Socratic method" of teaching. A priest called the Oracle of Delphi pronounced Socrates the wisest man in Greece. Socrates concluded that while others professed knowledge they did not have, Socrates knew how little he knew. Socrates asked many questions, but he gave few answers. He often denied knowing the answers to the questions he asked.

Socrates did not write any books because he believed in the superiority of rhetoric over writing. Rhetoric is speech that is used to persuade someone. What we know about Socrates comes mostly from his student, Plato. Plato wrote down his teacher’s ideas in a series of dialogues. A dialogue is a conversation between two people.

Athens had recently lost the Peloponnesian War to Sparta, and the humiliated leaders of the polis did not want a critic like Socrates challenging their authority. Socrates called himself a “gadfly.” A gadfly is a pest that bites livestock. Socrates tried to use his criticism of Athens to “sting” the polis into recovering the Golden Age that existed before the long war.

The Athenian leaders threatened to bring Socrates to trial on two charges. Socrates refused to honor the gods. He was also charged with corrupting the youth of Athens by teaching the young people to trust their own judgment instead of following the rules of the city leaders. Most Athenians expected the seventy-year-old Socrates to leave Athens before his arrest, but the old philosopher remained in Athens, stood trial, and was found guilty.

Socrates refused to participate in a plan to escape from prison. The philosopher calmly accepted his death by drinking from a cup of poison hemlock, the customary practice of execution of his time. Socrates believed that he must obey the law, even if he disagreed with it

PLATO:What we know about Socrates comes mostly from his student, Plato. Plato

called Socrates "the best of all men I have ever known." Plato wrote down his teacher’s ideas in a series of dialogues. A dialogue is a conversation between two people.

Plato was a young man when he began to study with Socrates. Plato came from a very wealthy and powerful family. He was named Aristocles, but he was better known as Plato, a nickname that means “broad.” Plato’s nickname could

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTEShave referred either to the philosopher’s broad shoulders, or to the breadth of his great intellect.

When Socrates died, Plato left Athens for more than a decade. He returned to start the Academy, a school where Plato and his invited guests would discuss philosophy.

Plato saw his imperfect world and thought of ways he could improve society. Plato wrote about utopia. A utopia is an imaginary place where governments and social conditions are perfect. No government has ever adopted Plato’s ideas, but his philosophy influenced leaders for over two thousand years.

Plato argued in favor of an "aristocracy of merit," or rule by the best and the wisest people. Plato believed that government should raise all children so that everyone would have equal opportunities. Schools would test students on a regular basis. Students who did poorly would be sent to work, while those who did well would continue their studies. Plato believed a small group of intelligent and educated men and women should govern society. This small group would select the best and the brightest students to join them.

Later in his life Plato mentored a young man named Aristotle. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. Aristotle’s ideas would form the basis of modern science

ARISTOTLE:Aristotle was the greatest scientist of the ancient world. He believed in using

logic and reason to explain natural events in an era when most people believed storms and good harvests were a consequence of the anger or the pleasure of the gods.

Aristotle was born in Macedonia, a mountainous land north of the Greek peninsula. At that time, many Greeks viewed Macedonia as an old fashioned land with no culture. Aristotle moved to Athens and studied at Plato’s Academy. Plato was a well known philosopher and a student of Socrates. Aristotle remained at the school for more than twenty years until shortly after Plato died.

Aristotle then returned to Macedonia, where King Philip hired him to prepare his thirteen-year-old son, Alexander, for his future role as a military leader. His student would one day be known as Alexander the Great, one of the greatest military conquerors of all time.

Once Alexander became King of Macedonia, Aristotle returned to Athens and opened a school he called the Lyceum. For the next twelve years, Aristotle organized his school as a center of research on astronomy, zoology, geography, geology, physics, anatomy, and many other fields.

Aristotle wrote 170 books, 47 of which still exist more than two thousand years later. Aristotle was also a philosopher who wrote about ethics (the study of moral principals), psychology (the study of the mind and its functions), economics (the study of the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth), theology (the study of religious beliefs), political science (the study of government), and 17 | P a g e

UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESrhetoric (the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing). Later inventions such as the telescope and microscope would prove many of Aristotle’s theories to be incorrect, but his ideas formed the basis of modern science.

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTESIMPORTANT FACTS TO REMEMBER:

The Parthenon was built on the acropolis in the city of Athens.o It was built for the goddess Athena. o Inside the Parthenon, there was a huge 40-foot gold and ivory statue

of the goddess Athena.o The Turks (Turkish warriors) invaded the Parthenon and used it to store

gunpowder which exploded and damaged the inside of the building. Socrates, the Greek philosopher, used a question-and-answer method of

teaching known as the Socratic Method. Government in which people rule themselves is a direct democracy. Government in which people rule themselves by way of a representative is a

representative democracy. Government in which power lies in the hand of just a few people is an

oligarchy. Ancient Greece had 4 different government types:

o Oligarchyo Monarchyo Democracy o Tyranny

Government and citizenship within the United States are 2 ideas based on the ideas developed in ancient Greece and Rome.

Plato was a Greek philosopher created the Academy and was known as the Father of Political Science. He founded Plato’s Academy.

The Pythagorean Theorem is a mathematical theory that originated in Ancient Greece by philosopher Pythagora.

Pericles eventually became one of the most powerful and influential men in Athens.

Athens and Sparta were the two city-states that joined forces in 480 BC when the Persian King Xerxes decided to attack.

The Delian League was made up of the Greek city-states formed in an effort to thwart any future attacks by Persia.

Thermopylae was the location of the battle that King Leonidas and 300 Spartans stayed behind to hold back the Persian army.

The destruction of the City of Athens was the result of the Peloponnesian War. Odysseus was a famous character written about by the historically recognized

author, Homer. o The Greeks gave us many advances, including literature and drama. o “The Odyssey” is an epic poem.

A myth is a story from long ago that explains the beginning of the world. Comedy and Tragedy are two kinds of drama the Athenians invented that are

still used today.

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UNIT 5: ANCIENT GREECE NOTES

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