Ancient Greece Chapter 5 Sec. 1

Aegean Civilizations Sir Arthur Evans from Great Britain dug up the island of Crete and found the remains of early Greeks known as the Minoans

MINOANS 2500 B.C. – 1400 B.C. Lived on island of Crete Capital and major city was Knossos Most all Minoans and King Minos lived there Women & men played sports, danced and were very artistic (murals) Polytheistic Chief Deity: Mother Earth who caused the birth of all living things

MINOANS 2500 B.C. – 1400 B.C. Earned their living and fed their people through sea trade At the peak of their power they owned the Mediterranean Sea Decline theory’s: City was demolished by a gigantic tidal wave! Mycenaean's succeeded in an invasion

Mycenaean's 2450 B.C. – 1100 B.C. Lived on Peloponnesus Set up kingdoms on hilltops and built large fortresses where many people lived and worked the land Mycenae – capital – main place for government, trade and tax collection Adopted Minoan beliefs and customs since they traded closely with them

Mycenaean's 2450 B.C. – 1100 B.C. May have conquered the Minoans but it is still theory Mycenaean's were conquered by the Dorian's from the north who came down with iron weapons and wiped out the city and the people

Dorian's 1100 B.C. – 800 B.C. Period known as the “Dark Age” Dorian's stopped all trade, crafts, art, writing and poverty increased 300 years of silence?!?! Bards – “singing story tellers” – kept Mycenaean and Minoan history alive and passed it on for generations

Iliad and the Odyssey Homer – a blind poet told the two epic stories about the Trojan War Trojan War was fought between the Mycenaean's and the trade city of Troy in Asia Minor In 1870 Heinrich Schliemann found the city of Troy, thus making the stories not totally myths

The Iliad A Troy prince fell in love with a Mycenaean king’s daughter, Helen and took her back to Troy (the face that launched a thousand ships) The Mycenaean king tried to get his daughter back by attacking the city of Troy, but could not capture the city Tricked the Trojans by making a giant wooden Trojan horse and put it outside the front gates The wooden horse was filled with Mycenaean soldiers who came out and attacked once the Trojans brought the wooden horse in

The Odyssey Described the homeward journey of the Mycenaean king, Odysseus, back to Greece Took ten years to return Was visited by gods and goddesses Greeks refer to any long, adventure-filled journey as an odyssey

Greek Deities Deity- a god or goddess Greeks were the first to believe that humans weren't just put on earth to obey the gods This gave them self confidence Deities were human looking and acted like humans in everyway BUT, had special powers