CLA160 UofT

problems with ancient literary sources

- no canonical ancient authors work survives in direct tradition

-all texts transmitted and reconstructed in manuscript tradition

- translated to English

Bronze Age Greece

3000-1100 BCE

Minoan Greece

2200-1600 BCE, Crete

Mycenaean Greece

1600-1100 BCE, Peloponnese

Early Iron Age Greece

Greek dark age, protogeometric period, agricultural society, life close to the land, some limited signs of wealth, Hesiod's philosophy was well suited for this society

Early Iron Age Greece dates

1100-700 BCE

Archaic Period Greece

- begins with start of Greek literature, ends with Greek defeat of Persians

- increase of wealth and social complexity

- birth of polis

- emergence of hoplite

- development of art and science

- Panhellenic games

- lyric poetry, greek symposium

Archaic Period Greece dates

700-479 BCE

Classical Greece

- ends with the death of Alexander the Great

Classical Greece Dates

479-323 BCE

Hellenistic Greece

-ends with defeat of Cleopatra, final hellenistic ruler

Hellenistic Greece dates

323-31 BCE

Minoan Civilization

major thalassocracy of sea-based empire used Linear A writing, untranslatable, Crete

Minoan civilization Dates

(c. 2200-1300 BCE)

Palace of Knossos

. Center was central court (open area) in which events Bull games, feasting, dancing, etc took place with A large number of people participated, grandest Minoan palace

Mycenaean Civilization

- based in mainland Greece

-named after the largest site (Mycenae)

-deeply influenced by the Minoans, whom they eventually absorbed

-excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in 1870s

-Used Linear B writing form, ancestor to Greek

Mycenaean Civilization Dates

(1600-1100BCE)

tholos tomb

a beehive-shaped tomb with a circular plan.

Mycenaean Government

Centralized, hierarchical, and bureaucratic

wanax

king

qasireu (basileus)

"village governor"

The Dark Ages

- Late Bronze Age collapse of palace system ("sea peoples"?)

-loss of linear B

- loss of population

- poverty

- little trade

Greek dark ages dates

1200-700 BCE

Greek transitional period Bronze- proto archaic

- collapse of Bronze Age society c. 1100 BCE

-recovery comes slowly c. 1050 BCE = iron working on mainland

-chieftain based society on small scale

- strengthening contacts with near east

Destruction of Troy

1250-1200 BCE

Hesiod

(c. 700 B.C.E. in Boeotia) Author of "Work and Days", which describes the hard life of the small farmer, and conflict with brother Perses (wisdom literature) and of the "Theogony", which describes the births of the gods and their legends.

Hesiod dates of activity

750-700 BCE

Hesiod context

roughly 750-700 BCE, strong near eastern influence, poems were initially composed for performance

Nestor's Cup

-Shows first example of Greek writing of a poem

-Indicates knowledge of these Greek homeric ideologies

-(Greek Alphabet derived from Phoenicians)

wisdom literature

-collections of sayings and wise proverbs,

-old and Middle Kingdom Egyptian poems include Maxims of Ptahhotep (c. 2400BCE) Interactions of Amenemope (c. 1200BCE)

-sumerian examples include Instructions of Suruppag (c. 1800BCE) Sumerian Agricultural Handbook (c. 1700BCE)

Hesiod biography

biographical material present in Works and days, poet shepherd, Claims to be from Cyme until his sailor merchant father settled in Ascra, brother Perses is wasting their fathers inheritance

Ascra

city state on the slope of Mt. Helicon, where Hesiod grew up, a so-called "terrible place"

two forms of strife

conflict and jealousy

Myth of Prometheus

aetiological myth, "civilization hero", Prometheus tricks zeus, zeus hides fire, Prometheus steals fire, Zeus gives humanity Pandora

Prometheus

forethought

epimetheus

afterthought

myth of ages

golden age, silver age, bronze age, heroic age, Iron Age

Content of works and days

-intro, invocation of muses, power of Zeus

-two kinds of strife

-Prometheus and Pandora

-Five ages of man

-Justice

-Works; four seasons, agricultural instructions

-seafaring; his father

-the good wife

-prohibitions

-days

Greek religion

polytheistic, no greek word for religion, Orthopraxy v. Orthodoxy, myth vs ritual

Hoplite Warfare

heavily armored infantrymen who fought in close formation--protected by a helmet, and a breastplate and leg guards, each hoplite held a round metal shield over his own left side and the right side of the man next to him--maintaining the cohension of ones fomation

Ritual

sacrifices, oaths, prayers, oracle consultations

Greek animal sacrifice

Procession, Purification and Lustration, kill scene, sacrificial feats

Curse Tablets

a type of curse found throughout the Greco-Roman world, in which someone would ask the gods, place spirits, or the deceased to perform an action on a person or object, or otherwise compel the subject of the curse, lead tablets written with a curse and buried near a homestead

Hesiod's Theogony

oral, poetic composition: succession and battle myths have Hittite and Near Eastern parallels

four generations in Theogony

1) chaos and primordial beings - reign of Earth and Ouranos; 2) reign of Sky and castration of Sky by Kronos; 3) third generation: Kronos; defeat of Kronos; gods defeat Kronos under leadership of Zeus; 4) fourth generation; Zeus' dominion and his offsprings

Divine succession in Theogony

- sense of development and change,

- power shifts from mother to father/son

- conflict is elemental and turns into increasingly complex family dynamics

- human morality resolves intergenerational conflict and mitigates desire to rule forever

Human condition in sacrifice

- animals, humans, and gods

- 'you are what you eat'

- Communication (vertical and horizontal)

Alcaeus

Alcaic verse poetry, 'ship of state'

Heinrich Schliemann dates

(1822-1890)

Homeric question

was homer one person or many

Epic poetry meter

dactylic hexameter

epic poetry features

long, narrative told in medias res (middle of the plot), typically about gods and heroes, serious themes, invocation of muses, epithets etc

Iliad time period

reflects late 8th century BCE, but describes events believed to have passed in 12th Century BCE

Homeric corpus

Iliad, Odyssey, Epic cycle, Homeric hymns

Two important moments for Homeric epic

the recension of peisistratos, Alexandrian scholarship

recension of peisistratos

(561-527 BCE) - turned oral tradition to script in panathenaic games

Alexandrian scholarship

3rd century BCE - 1st century ad

- deeply invested in studying epics and uncovering real homer

Hints the Homeric epics were oral

nature of the text, building blocks, metrical conventions, epithets

implications of oral tradition

epic poems may predate Greek literature

Prominent plots and themes Iliad

- six week period in 9th year of trojan war

- wrath of achilles and dispute between kings of Greeks

- Friendship of Achilles and Patroclus

- Return of achilles to battle

- implication of the gods in war, role of duty and fate

heroic moments

Homeric heroism

gain (arete) and kelps (fame) through positive actions

Eighth-century renaissance dates

750-700 BCE

early century renaissance

-population growth

- early colonization

-increase in trade

- invention of the alphabet

- advances in art and architecture

- panhellenism

The birth of the polis

- polis- city or city state

- a city and its surrounding land that make up a single self-governing political unit

- basileis -> agathoi

- oligarchy - rule by few

dēmos

the people

politēs

citizen

agathoi

aristocrats (the 'good people') 12-20% of the population

hoi mesoi

the middle >50% of the population

poor

20-30% of the population

stasis

faction, discord, civil war

classism in Ancient Greece

Theognis, nobles should 'breed' with nobles and 'bases' should stay with bases

Greek Symposium

men hanging out and drinking while discussing politics, science and other topics

sympinein

to drink together

kouros

young man

korē

young girl

bilingual pottery

pottery with both red-figure and black-figure decoration

the Persian wars

490-479 BCE

1200 BCE

stability in near east ends; documents refer to invasion of "sea people" - followed by period of instability

8th century BCE

Neo-assyrian empire from Iraq to Syrian coast and Sinai peninsula

600 BCE

Neo Assyrian empire collapses into warring factions

Croesus ruling date

(595-546 BCE)

Croesus

-With collapse of Neo-assyrian empire, peripheral kingdoms gain strength

-Herodotus' narrative begins

- consolidates western turkey where there are many greek-speaking poleis

Cyrus the great ruling dates

558-530 BCE

Cyrus the great 546 BCE

defeats Croesus and Lydians at Sardis

Cyrus accomplishments

- unites Persian empire from Mesopotamia to mediterranean coast

- his descendants include Darius I and Xerxes

Ahura Mazda

highest figure in Zoroastrianism, believed to have made Darius king

Persia

- long history of sophisticated society

- similar trajectory to Greece from 12th-6th c. BCE

- interactions with Geek poleis in Asia minor

- rise of Cyrus (mid 6th c.) and great Persian empire. Followed by Cambyses, Darius and Xerxes

Athens up to Persian war

-c. 590: Solons reforms

-c. 560 Athens comes under sway of tyrant Peisistratus

-by 514, his son Hipparchus is killed; other son hippies is expelled from Athens in 510

-508: lawmaker cleisthenes establishes New Democratic government based on citizenship and landownership

Herodotus biography and career

- born in Halicarnassus

- travels to athens

- writes c. 420 BCE

- Focus of Histories are conflicts between Greece and Persia culminating in Persian wars

Persian wars key events

-Ionian revolt

-Darius invades Greece

-Xerxes invades Greece

ionian revolt dates

499 BCE

Ionian revolts

greeks burn Sardis, Persians punish Miletus

Darius' invasion of Greece dates

490 BCE

Darius' invasion of Greece

- battle of marathon

Xerxes invasion of Greece dates

480 BCE

Xerxes invasion of Greece

- battle of thermopylae

- battle of salamis

- battle of plataea (479 BCE)

Leonidas

king of Sparta and hero of the battle of Thermopylae where he was killed by the Persians (died in 480 BC)

Herodotus' Artemisia

-singles out bravery of Persian commander Artemisia

- sunk Persian ship

Hubris

excessive pride or self-confidence

Metopes of the Parthenon

men vs amazons

gods vs giants

humans vs centaurs

greek vs trojans