ANCIENT GREECE
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Where does the words Europe and Nike come
from?
Answer: Greek Mythology
Origin of “Europe”

In Greek mythology, Europa
was a Phoenician princess
who was abducted by Zeus
in bull form and taken to
the island of Crete, where
she gave birth to Minos.

For Homer, Europa (Greek:
Ευρώπη) was a
mythological queen of
Crete, not a geographical
designation. Later Europa
stood for mainland Greece
and by 500 BC its meaning
was extended to lands to
the north.
Origin of “Nike”

In Greek mythology, Nike (Greek: Νίκη, "Victory",
was a goddess who personified victory, also known
as the Winged Goddess of Victory.
Minoan Civilization
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Archaeologists unearthed a site in Crete. They called the
people Minoans, after Minos, a legendary king of Crete.
These Minoans lived in the Palace at Knossos (NAHS uhs)
Circa 1400 B.C., this civilization had vanished.
There could have been a volcanic eruption or tidal wave, but
we know that invaders played a role.
These invaders were the Mycenaeans.
The Palace at Knossos
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Included religious
shrines, areas dedicated
to the honor of gods and
goddesses.
Included frescoes,
watercolor paintings
done on wet plaster.
The Mycenaeans
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They are the first Greek-speaking people of whom
we have written record.
They were an Indo-European people who
conquered the Greek mainland before overrunning
Crete.
The Trojan War 1250 B.C.
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There was a conflict between Mycenae and Troy, a rich trading
city in present-day Turkey.
The war could have been economic in root.
Troy controlled the vital straits, or narrow water passages, that
connect the Mediterranean and Black seas.
The root of war could also have been romantic.
After the Trojan prince Paris kidnapped Helen, the wife of the
Greek king Menalaus, the Mycenaeans sailed to Troy to rescue
her.
For the next 10 years, the two sides battled until the Greeks
finally seized Troy and burned the city to the ground.
The Trojan Horse

Menelaus' brother, Odysseus, planned
a way to win the war. Odysseus
planned to make a great horse. He
knew that Greek soldiers gave up
their horse when they surrendered, so
the horse would show to Paris of Troy
that Greece had surrendered the war.
However, in reality this horse was a
vehicle, which carried soldiers. If the
Trojans took the horse inside their walls
as a trophy, the Greek soldiers could
easily destroy the interior of Troy
without losing men when taking down
the exterior walls. The night the Trojan
Horse was inside Troy, the soldiers
came out and fought; by dawn, the
Greek had annihilated the Trojans and
Helen was safely back with Menelaus.
The Age of Homer
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Mycanaean civilization crumbled under the attack of sea
raiders.
Greek civilization seemed to take a step backward after this
where people forgot many skills, including the art of writing.
Homer gives us hints about life during this period from two epic
poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Many people probably wrote them, but they are credited to
him, who lived about 750 B.C.
Homer was a blind poet who wandered from village to village,
singing of heroic deeds.
Iliad


The Iliad is our chief source
of information from the
Trojan War, although the
story involves gods,
goddesses, and even a
talking horse.
Achilles, the mightiest
Greek warrior, is sulking in
his tent. He stubbornly
refuses to join the fight
when the Greeks begin to
lose. Only after his best
friend is killed does Achilles
return to battle.
Odyssey
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The Odyssey tells of the
struggles of the Greek
hero Odysseus to return
home to his faithful wife,
Penelope, after the fall
of Troy.
On his voyage Odysseus
encounters a sea monster,
a race of one-eyed
giants, and a beautiful
sorceress who turns men
into swine.
Geography of the Greeks
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Greece is part of the Balkan peninsula.
Mountains divide the peninsula into valleys.
They built many city-states, cut off from one another
by mountains or water.
Endless rivalry led to frequent wars.
The seas linked the Greeks to the outside world.
They became skilled sailors and returned with many
ideas.

They expanded the Phoenician alphabet.

The first two Greek letters are alpha and beta.
U of M Greek chapters
Frats
 Alpha Delta Phi
 Omega Nu Alpha
 Alpha Gamma Rho
 Phi Gamma Delta
 Alpha Tau Omega
 Phi Kappa Psi
 Beta Theta Pi
 Phi Sigma Kappa
 Delta Upsilon
 Sigma Nu
 Delta Tau Delta
 Sigma Chi
Sororities
 Alpha Chi Omega
 Gamma Phi Beta
 Alpha Gamma Delta
 Kappa Alpha Theta
 Alpha Omicron Pi
 Kappa Kappa Gamma
 Alpha Phi
 Lambda Delta Phi
 Alpha Sigma Kappa
 Pi Beta Phi
 Delta Gamma
 Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi
Organization of the City-State
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After 750 B.C. the Greeks evolved the city-state into
the polis. Our word “politics” is derived from this.
Two levels:
1.
2.

Acropolis was on a hilltop with marble temples
dedicated to different gods and goddesses.
Walled main city was on flatter ground with
marketplace, theater, public buildings, and homes.
The agora was below the acropolis and served as a
place where people could assemble and as a
market.
Acropolis
The Parthenon
Community of the Polis
1.
2.
3.
Citizens with political rights (adult males)
Citizens w/o political rights (women and children)
Noncitizens (agricultural laborers, slaves, resident
aliens).
New military system

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Based on hoplites, or heavily armed foot soldiers
who carried a shield, short sword, and 9 foot spear.
Marched shoulder to shoulder in a rectangular
formation known as a phalanx.
 Created
a wall of shields.
Changes in Warfare
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Nobles were the only ones with weapons because
they were bronze.
(650 B.C.) Iron replaced bronze and was cheaper,
so ordinary citizens could afford helmets, shields,
and swords.
Reduced class differences.
Tyranny in the City-States

(750-550 B.C.) Greek colonies, such as Byzantium,
were established as many settled distant lands and
gained wealth through trade.
 Exported
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pottery, wine, and olive oil
Some of the rich men became tyrants, or rulers who
seized power by force from the aristocrats.
Tyrant support:
 Rich-
wanted prestige and political influence that
aristocracy denied them
 Peasants- were in debt for land to aristocrats
Tyranny in the City-States
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Achievements:
Built new marketplaces, temples, walls
 Helped poor
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Eventually tyrants fell out of favor
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Greeks believed in the rule of law, and tyranny was an
insult to that ideal
Impacts:
Ended aristocratic rule in many city-states
 Led to democracy in some city states
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Rule by the people
Led to oligarchy in some city-states

Rule by the few
Sparta
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This region lies in the Peloponnesus, the southern part
of Greece.
The Spartans conquered the Laconians and
Messenians.
The invaders turned the conquered people into stateowned slaves, called helots, and made a military
state.
Lives of Spartans were rigid and tightly controlled.

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Spartan means “highly self-disciplined”
Citizens were male, native-born Spartans over the
age of 30.
Sparta
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Children were trained to be part of a military state.
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Women were expected to produce healthy sons for the army.
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Sickly children were abandoned to die.
At age 7, boys moved into barracks to become soldiers.
Military service from age 20-60.
Ate black broth consisting of pork boiled in animal blood, salt, and
vinegar.
Had to exercise and strengthen their bodies.
They had to obey their father or husband.

They did however have the right to inherit property and run a family’s
estate while the men were off at war.
Spartan Government
Oligarchy headed by two kings, who led army.
 Isolated themselves
 Looked down on trade and wealth
 Forbade their own citizens to travel
 Discouraged study of philosophy, literature,
and arts.
 While other Greeks admired their military
skills, no other city-state imitated their rigorous
way of life.
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Athens
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Located in Attica, just north of the Peloponnesus.
Athenian govt. evolved from a monarchy to a
oligarchy ruled by aristocrats
Economic turmoil spread as peasants were unable
to pay their debts.
Cleisthenes
(510 B.C.) another reformer, Cleisthenes
gained power.
 Created a council of 500 that supervised
foreign affairs, oversaw the treasury, and
proposed laws.
 Gave Athenian assembly power to pass laws
after free and open debate.
 He created the foundations for Athenian
democracy
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Limited Rights
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Athenian democracy was quite limited as citizenship
was tough to acquire.
Tens of thousands of Athenians were slaves.
 Slave
govt.
labor gave citizens the time to participate in
Women
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They had no share in public life and lived in
seclusion, managing the entire household.
Aristotle: “The man is by nature fitter for command
than the female.”
Education for Democracy
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Boys attended school if their family could afford it.
Studied to become skilled speakers because they
would have to voice their views.
Studied reading, writing, music, poetry.
Received military training.
Religious beliefs
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Greeks were polytheistic.
Believed that the gods lived on Mount Olympus in
northern Greece.
Most powerful Olympian was Zeus, who presided
over the affairs of gods and humans. His children:
1.
2.
3.
Aphrodite, goddess of love
Ares, god of war
Athena, goddess of wisdom, gave her name to Athens
Olympic Games
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Every four years, in the city-state of Olympia, the
Greeks held athletic contests to honor Zeus.
These games unified the Greek world, even in times of
war.
Views of Non-Greeks
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As trade and colonies expanded, the Greeks came
in contact with people with different languages and
customs.
Greeks felt superior and called them barbaroi.
 The

English word barbarian comes from this Greek root.
Phoenicians and Egyptians were considered
barbaroi.
The Persian Wars
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Athens had sent ships to help rebel city-states of Persia.
Darius I, leader of Persia never forgot this and wanted
revenge.
He sent a huge force across the Aegean to punish Athens.
The army landed near Marathon.
The Persians greatly outnumbered Athenian forces.
Athenians broke through then enemy lines despite a rain of
arrows and engaged the Persians in hand-to-hand combat.
Persians hastily retreated to their ships.
The First Marathon
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After the battle of Marathon, the Greeks sent
Pheidippides, their fastest runner, to carry home
news of the stunning victory.
He sprinted 26.2 miles to Athens.
“Rejoice, we conquer,” he gasped—then dropped
dead.
Renewed Attacks
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Darius died before he could mass his troops for
another attack.
His son Xerxes sent a much larger force to conquer
Greece.
This time Athens had persuaded Sparta and other
city-states to join in the fight.
A small Spartan force guarded the narrow mountain
pass at Thermopylae.
Led by the great warrior King Leonidas, 300
Spartans held out heroically against the enormous
Persian force.

“here they defended themselves to the last, such as
still had swords using them, and the others resisting
with their hands an teeth; till the barbarians
who…now encircled them upon every side,
overwhelmed and buried the remnant that was left
beneath showers of missile weapons.”
 Herodotus, The Persian Wars
Renewed Attacks
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After defeating the Spartans, the Persians marched south and
burned Athens.
However, the Athenians had withdrawn to safety.
The Greeks now put their faith in their fleet of ships that they had
been building since the first attack.
They lured the Persian navy into the strait of Salamis.
Powered by rowers, the Athenian warships drove into the Persian
boats with underwater battering rams and sunk their fleet.
The following year, the Greeks defeated them in Asia Minor.
Athenians then set up the Delian League, a defensive alliance to
protect Athens from Persia.
Later, the Delian League attacked Persia and eventually liberated
all the Greek states.
The Age of Pericles
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The years after the Persian
wars were a golden age for
Athens.
Under Pericles, Athens had a
direct democracy.
6,000 members of the Athenian
assembly had to be present to
decide important issues.

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We have a representative
democracy.
Greece is known as the
civilization with the first
democracy.
The Age of Pericles
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Athenians also served on juries.
This panel of citizens who have the authority to make
the final judgment in trial were to serve for one year
and receive a stipend.
Their jury may have included hundreds or thousands
of jurors.
Citizens could banish or send away or ostracize a
public figure if they wished.
They wrote that person’s name on a pot and if
enough votes were cast into it, they would have to live
outside the city for ten years.
The Peloponnesian War
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Many Greeks outside of Athens resented Athenian domination.
Warfare broke out between Athens and Sparta, then engulfed
all of Greece.
When Sparta invaded Athens, Pericles allowed his people from
the countryside to move inside the city walls.
A terrible plague broke out, killing 1/3 of Athenians including
Pericles.
Sparta allied itself with the Persian navy and with their help,
they captured Athens.
Athenian Empire was destroyed as Athens surrendered.
This war weakened the Greek states and ruined any possibility
of alliances between.
Later on
Thebes was the next new Greek power.
 Alexander the Great and the Macedonians
took over Greece.
 (146 B.C.) Romans rule over Greece
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Greek Philosophers
“lovers of wisdom”
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Challenged the belief that all events occurred at
the whim of the Gods.
Used observation and reason to find causes for why
things happen.
Many debated questions such as
 What
is the best form of government?
 What standards should rule human behavior?

Many mastered skills in rhetoric, the art of skillful
speaking.
Socrates
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Stonemason and philosopher.
Hung around public spaces
questioning people on their
beliefs. He wrote no books.
Using the Socratic method
challenged people to
examine the implications of
their answers.
“The unexamined life is not
worth living.”
More Socrates

He felt this approach was the best way to seek truth
and self-evaluation.

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Accused of Impiety and Corrupting the Youth.
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Put on trial at age 70.
He was found guilty and was asked what his
punishment should be.

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Others saw him as a threat to traditional values and beliefs
“gadfly”.
He suggested a lifetime of free meals.
The court not impressed sentenced him to death.

He obliged and drank the poison.
Plato
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We know of Socrates through the writings of Plato, as
he was Socrates’ student.
He outlined his vision of and ideal state in “The
Republic”

Three classes

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
Workers to produce necessities of life
Soldiers to defend the state
Philosophers to rule

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The wisest of which would be the “philosopher king”
Plato also believed the abilities of men exceeded
that of women, but that some women were superior
and should be educated to serve the state.
Aristotle
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Most famous of Plato’s students
He also analyzed all forms of governments
 He
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favored rule by a strong and virtuous leader
1,500 years after his death his works were used as
the foundation for the first European universities