March 10, 2015: Greek notes

(Ancient) Greece is the Word

Three seas
The Aegean sea, The Adriatic sea, and the Ionian sea

Geography/ its significance
- Greece is a mountainous peninsula
- Mountains cover 3/4 of Greece
- Approximately 1400 islands in the Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean seas
- This combination shaped Greece's culture
- They had many skilled sailors and shipbuilders
- Also had farmers, metalworkers, weavers, and potters
- They had poor/ limited natural resources, so they needed to trade
- It was difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain
- They developed small, independent communities/ city-states

Even more geography...
- Although fertile valleys cover one quarter of the peninsula, only about 20% is arable/ suitable for farming
- Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, olives: Really healthy, Export to other places
- Lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
- Back then, temperatures usually ranged from mid- 40's in the winter to low 80's in the summer; although it could get hot in the summer, it was pretty nice year-round

Some early peoples - First, Mycenaeans
- Their influence began around 2000 B.C.E.
- Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20 foot wall
- Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600 - 1200 B.C.E.
- Controlled trade in the region
- 1400 B.C.E: Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture and language

then, "Sea People" & Dorians
- Around 2000 B.C.E. the mysterious "Sea people" (not sure who they were to this day) began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace
- So, the Dorians moved into this war-torn region

• They were far less advanced
• the trade-based economy collapsed
• Writing disappeared for 400 years 
• Talk about a culture in decline... except...

Enter Homer the storyteller

- Greek oral tradition: Stories passed on by the word of mouth

- Homer lived at the end of the "Greek dark ages"

- He composed stories of the Trojan war (took place in Troy) around 750-700 B.C.E. 

- The Iliad: Probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaeans (The Trojan War)

- The Odyssey: Odysseus attempts to return home, being thwarted by the angry god of the sea, Poseidon

- The Odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter

Did Homer actually exist?

- the "Homeric question": Homer may have been a mythical creation himself 

- A blind wandering minstrel; a heroic figure 

- Iliad and Odyssey may be the culmination of many generations of storytelling

- Or... Homer actually existed and was just that awesome