Module 1 -- Humanities Test #1

Minoans: 1900-1400 BCE 

Lived on the island of Crete, capital of Knossos.  

Prosperous- vast building structures 

Seafaring- large harbors for ships 

Peaceful- no walls around the city, no weapons discovered by archeologists 

Evidence that they lived in a matriarchal society (ruled by women) 

Mycenaeans: 1600-1200 BCE 

Lived on the Peloponnese Peninsula, capital- Mycenae. 

Militant and aggressive- Had giant walls, loved war 

Conquered all of Minoans by 1400 BCE 

Trojan War- attacked Troy in a ten-year battle 

Heinrich Schliemann: 

German boy AD 1800s, loved the story of Trojan War and wanted to visit the site. His mom told him the story was fake, but he became an Archeologist and went there with a team of archeologists, using the texts of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, along with other traditions. Went to modern day Turkey, discovered the burned remains of the city of Troy. Also discovered the Ancient Greek city of Mycenae and a golden mask that could have belonged to Agamemnon. 

Homer: 

Either a blind poet named Homer or a collection of poets who wrote the accounts and formed the Iliad. 

Greek gods: 

Greek religion had no scripture, doctrine, or rituals 

The Greek gods were a lot like humans, immoral, unpredictable, jealous 

Lived on Mount Olympus, a real place 

Zeus (Jupiter)- King of gods, throws lightning, cheated on his wife, Hera a lot 

Hera (Juno)- Patron of women and goddess of marriage and maternity 

Poseidon (Neptune)- god of the seas, waters, and earthquakes. Brother of Zeus. Carries a trident 

Hades (Pluto)- god of the underworld, land of the dead. 3-headed dog (Cerberus) guarded the entrance to the underworld 

Apollo (Phoebus)- god of the sun, intellect/reason, music, prophecy, and medicine. Son of Zeus. Often depicted with a lyre.  

Aphrodite (Venus)- goddess of love and beauty 

Athena (Minerva)- Virgin goddess of wisdom, war strategy, and civilization. Patron of Athens. Often depicted wearing a helmet, carrying a shield and spear. Associated with owl (wisdom), olive tree (peace). Daughter of Zeus, born from his head 

Ares (Mars)- god of war. Son of Zeus and Hera. Often depicted wearing armor. 

Hermes (Mercury)- messenger god, god of fertility, theft, dreams, commerce, and the marketplace. Usually depicted with winged sandals and a winged hat. 

Artemis (Diana)- goddess of the moon, childbirth, hunting, and wild creatures. Often depicted with a bow and arrow or hunting dogs. Daughter of Zeus. 

Demeter (Ceres)- goddess of the harvest. Has the power to make crops grow. 

Persephone (Proserpina)- goddess of fertility. Daughter of Demeter. Wife of Hades. 

Dionysus (Bacchus)- god of wine, reveling, and sexuality. 

Heroic Code- Doing brave deeds in battle so the poet will sing your name forever. 

 3 Characteristics of the Archaic Style: 

1. Rigid and robot-like 

2. Fists clenched at side 

3. Weight equally on both feet 

Polis- During this time, Ancient Greece was made up of 200 independent city-states called poleis; the singular is polis. 

Acropolis- The highest hill in the city, where temples to the gods were built. 

Democracy- Invented by the Greeks. Demos meaning “people” and kratos meaning “power”->> “Power to the people.” 

Olympics: 

Instituted in 776 BCE in Olympia on the Peloponnesian Peninsula 

Happened every 4 years 

They were so significant to the Greeks, they counted time by them. Year one was 776, and every four years was called an Olympiad 

5-day festival, held even during times of war. Temporary truces were called and visitors were granted safe travel conditions. 

200-yard dash, 1-mile footrace, discus-throw, javelin, long-jump, wrestling, boxing, etc.  

Only men and boys were allowed to compete or attend 

Athletes competed nude (Ancient Greeks loved and celebrated the human body) 

Winners just received a crown of wild olive or laurel leaves, along with their pride. 

Persian Wars: 

War between Greeks and Persians 

Greeks were at a disadvantage because they had independent states, which had its own military, while the Persians had one unified army. 

Battle of Marathon: 

490 BCE, 10,000 Greeks get lucky and defeat 90,000 Persians at the plains of Marathon, 26.2 miles outside of Athens.  

One of the Greeks, Phidippides, runs 26.2 miles back to Athens to tell them the news (26.2 miles is the distance of a marathon today) 

Battle of Thermopylae: 

150,000 Persians return to Greece, led by Xerxes 

Go up against 300 Spartans, led by King Leonidas 

The Persians have to travel through a tight mountain pass to reach the Plain of Thermopylae. The 300 Spartans hold them off long enough for word to reach the city of Athens, so the citizens can evacuate in time.  

The 300 are all killed in battle, but the delay allows word to reach Athens so the citizens can escape the city in time.  

The Persians conquer Northern Greece and destroy an abandoned Athens. 

Battle of Plataea: 

Greeks defeat Persians, who never again return to Greece 

Athenians claim to be the saviors of Greece and set about liberating the rest of the country 

This launches the Golden Age in Athens 

The Golden Age in Athens: 

Period of relative peace, great intellectual enlightenment and artistic expression blossoms 

Athens becomes the dominant city-state and ushers in a Golden Age of drama, philosophy, music, architecture, and art between 480-430 BCE 

Significant in history because they spent their time creating things and helping people, rather than killing foreigners  

Delian League: 

478 BCE Several independent city-states band together with Athens to form the Delian League (name comes from a treasury that was set up on the island of Delos) 

Independent city-states would send money to support a standing army to protect the Greeks from outside invaders, if the need were to arise.  

454 BCE Pericles, an Athenian leader, steals the Delian League treasury money, brings it back to Athens, and uses it to rebuild the city, including the Parthenon, a monument to Imperialism. 

He justifies himself by telling the people that since Athens did most of the work in the Persian Wars, it is rightly theirs 

This launches the Peloponnesian Wars (written about by Thucydides) 

Peloponnesian Wars: 

431 BCE Sparta, angry about the stolen money, launches war against Athens (independent city-states vs independent city-states) 

404 BCE Spartans conquer Athens 

4 Characteristics of the Classical Style: 

1. Humanism: Human beings have unlimited potential. Humanism believes that people are the ultimate measure of everything and continue to travel toward perfection. “Man is the measure of all things”- Greek philosopher, Protagoras. “Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.”- Greek playwright, Sophocles. 

2. Idealism: Representing things in a perfect state. Idealized figures have no blemishes, in their prime of life, not sick or wounded.  

3. Rationalism: Placing faith is reason. Can usually see the rationalism in the faces. Figures have a thinking face rather than an emotional expression. 

4. Contrapposto: “weight shift”, more weight on one leg than the other. Not rigid, look like they could twist with their flexible spine.  

3 Orders of Greek Architecture: 

1. Doric: The capital is plain---like a rectangle 

2. Ionic: The capital looks like a scroll 

3. Corinthian: The capital looks like a plant (acanthus leaves) 

Know the parts: Capital, Base, Frieze 

Naturalist Philosophers; 

Applied reason to the outside, natural world to try to understand it. 

Key members… 

Thales “The Father of Philosophy” wanted to find the fundamental substance of all things. (Believed it was water) 

Pythagoras developed math and music. Believed that proportions developed through number, is the true basis of reality. Known for Pythagorean theorem. (absolute truth) 

Hippocrates “The Father of Medicine” thought disease came from an imbalance in the bodily humours (blood, phlegm, black and yellow bile). 19thh century physicians would “blood let” if you had a fever. Hippocratic Oath: “first, do no harm” 

Sophists: 

Turned from the world of nature to the inner world (the mind)  

Believed in relative truth 

Protagoras believed sensory appearances and beliefs are only true for the person whose appearances and beliefs they are (relative truth) 

Socrates: 

(1 of the Big 3) 

Believed in absolute truth and cared about the inner world of people. 

Opposed the views of the naturalists bc they disagreed with each other so how could truth be absolute? And they cared about the outside world when he cared more about the inner world (how we should conduct our lives, what is good, what is just) 

Opposed the views of the Sophists because they believed in relative truth. 

Famous sayings: “know thyself”, “The unexamined life is not worth living” 

Socrates would go down to the Agora (marketplace) and ask the citizens of Athens questions to help them think about what matters most in life. 

Question-and-answer technique is known as the Socratic Method (aka dialectic method) 

Considered himself a large gadfly, stinging Athens into consideration of why they did the things they did.  

399 BCE Socrates was brought to trial for 2 crimes: 1) corrupting the youth, and 2) not believing in the local gods. He was sentenced to death by drinking the poison hemlock. 

Socrates’ pupil, Plato begged him not to drink it because it was an unjust sentence. Socrates drank it and died anyway because he believed it was better to have injustice done to you than to do injustice. He believed that Athens had done so much good for him, he should have to take the bad (unjust sentence) with the good. To violate the will of the community would be unjust and he’d prefer death to that.  

Plato: 

Student of Socrates, founded the academy in Athens (world’s first school of philosophy) 

One of Plato’s biggest ideas was The Theory of Forms: we can’t trust our senses because they don’t tell us the truth. Everything is an illusion. 

Allegory of the Cave: Group of prisoners chained up in a cave, all they have known since they were young, never been outside the cave. Because of their chains, they can only look forward at the cave wall, where they see shadows of the outside world. They think these shadows are the real things, but if one of the prisoners broke out of the chains, they could go and see the real things rather than the shadows. He would run back and tell the others, but they would want to kill him because they think he’s crazy. 

The Allegory of the Caves illustrates Plato’s Theory of Forms. It shows how everything in this world is all just illusions and shadows. 

Aristotle: 

Student of Plato. Tutors Alexander the Great (Socrates taught Plato, who taught Aristotle, who taught Alexander the Great) 

Rejects Plato’s Theory of Forms. Thinks we can only know things through our senses. Doesn’t know of a higher realm that we can access through our senses, the only world we need to be concerned about is this world of experience, here and now. 

Empirical Method- Truth comes through experience (through our senses) 

Golden Mean- (way to know how to live- ethics) A virtue is a midway point between 2 vices. Ex. Between pride and self-abasement is self-respect. 

4 Characteristics of the Hellenistic Style: 

1. Individualism- Focusing on a singular person, not the whole community (comes from Alexander the Great) 

2. Realism- Emphasis of showing things how they truly are (not perfect) 

3. Internationalism- Having an understanding and respect for all people 

4. Emotionalism- Emphasis on emotions and feelings