Classical Greece 2

Today in class, we continued on taking notes on Classical Greece. These are the following notes that continue on from last week's notes.

THE TROJAN WAR

• 1200 BC: Mycenaeans fought a 10 year war with Troy  in Anatolia- independent trading city
• Greek army besieged and destroyed Try because a Trojan horse had kidnapped Helen (Greece's Queen)
• Trojan Horse: 1870- German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, suggested that stories about the Trojan Horse were true

DORIANS- Greek Culture Declines

• Mycenaean civilization collapsed after the Trojan War
• 1200 BC: Sea raiders attacked and burned many Mycenaean cities
• Dorians
•  moved into the war-torn countryside
• spoke a dialect of Greek, may have been distant relatives of Bronze Age Greeks
• Less advanced than the Mycenaeans. Economy and trade collapsed after the arrival
• Greeks appeared to have lost the act of writing during the Dorian age
• No written record from 1100-700 BC-----Little is known

EPICS OF HOMER

• Lacked writing. Greeks learned about history through spoken word
• Greatest storyteller- Blind man named Homer 
• not much is known about him, composed epics
• EPIC--- Narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds (750-700 BC)
• MADE THE ILLIAD
• ILLIAD---Warrior-; fierce Greek Achilles and the noble and courageous Hector of Troy

GREEKS CREATE MYTHS

• Myths: traditional stories about gods
• The works of Homer and other epics
• Greek mysteries--understand  mysteries of nature and power of human passions 
• Attributed human qualities (feelings, etc.)
• Explained the seasons
• Gods competed together
• Zeus--ruler of gods 
• Lived on Mount Olympus with his wife, Hera
• Athena--- goddess of wisdom--- Zeus' favorite child
• Guardian of cities--Athens

Other Notes from powerpoint will be linked tomorrow so they can be combined.