Greece Notes #3

Greece in relation to other common places:

• North Carolina is 53, 818 sq. mi.
• Greece is 50, 949 sq. mi.
• Although small in size, Greece made a HUGE impact in the world.
• Pennsylvania is 46, 056 sq. mi.
• Life in Greece
• Fertile valleys cover 1/4 of the Greek peninsula.
• Of it, only 20% is arable (farmable) land.
• The Greek diet consisted of grapes, grains, olives, and fish.
• The lack of resources in Greece is likely what led Greeks to start colonizing.
• The temperature ranged from the mid 40's during the Winter and low 80's during the Summer.
• Led to people being out all the time (creating the Olympics and later, the birth of democracy).
• Mycenaeans began influencing the world around them in 2,000 BC.
• Mycenae was located on a rocky ridge on Peloponnesus protected by a 20 foot thick wall.
• Kings dominated Greece from 1,600 BC to 1,100 BC.
• They controlled the trade in the region.
• Around 1,400 BC, Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture.
• e.g. writing system, language, art, politics, literature, and religion.
• Trojan War.
• The Greeks have fought in many wars over time.
• The Trojan War was fought at around 1,200 BC.
• Until the nineteenth century, most historians had thought that, as many other parts of Greek history, the Trojan War was a myth.
• That is because gods and goddesses were involved in the war.
• Goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera were given the "apple of discord" and even though they were all good friends, they argued plenty.
• Paris judged Aphrodite as the fairest.
• Aphrodite then made Helen (who was married) fall in love with Paris, who took her back to Troy.
• Around 1,200 BC, mysterious "sea people" began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace.
• Then, the Dorians moved into the war-torn region, dominating from 1,150 to 750 BC.
• They were far less advanced,
• The trade-based economy had collapsed, and
• Writing disappeared during the 400-year period.
• So, oral tradition started to emerge.
• Greek oral tradition is composed of stories passed on by word of mouth.
• Homer, a blind storyteller, lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages" (1,100 - 800 BC).
• He composed, but didn't write down, stories (epics) of the Trojan War (c. 750 - 700 BC).
• The Iliad - probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaeans (inspired by the Trojan War).
• The Odyssey - Odysseus attempts to return to his home after the Trojan War, being thwarted by the god of the sea, Poseidon, while angry.
• The Odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter.
• Emphasizes the first syllable of at least six words on each line.
• Homeric question:
• Was Homer ever real, or is he also a product of the Greeks' imagination?
• He might have been a mythical creature himself.
• He was a blind, wandering minstrel; a heroic figure.
• The Iliad and the Odyssey may either be a culmination of many generations of storytelling.
• Or... Homer could have actually existed.