Chapter 5 Part 1: The Culture of Ancient Greece
I. Greek Mythology
-Belief in many gods or goddesses (polytheism).
-Believed the 12 most important gods lived on Mount Olympus.
-Greek myths were stories about gods and heroes.
-The Greeks followed rituals to win the gods’ favor.
-Belief in prophecy, or predictions about the future.
II. Greek Poetry and Fables
-Greek poems serve as models for European and American poems.
-The first great epics were the Illiad and the Odyssey, written by Homer.
-A slave named Aesop wrote many fables.
III. Greek Drama
-The Greeks used drama as a part of their religious festivals.
-Two types of drama-tragedies and comedies.
-Aeschylus wrote a group of three plays called Oresteia.
-Sophocles wrote Oedipus and Antigone.
-Euripides wrote plays about real life people.
-Aristophanes wrote comedies.
IV. Greek Art and Architecture
-Greek artists believed in the idea of reason, balance, harmony, and moderation.
-Architecture included columns. Also began to use marble.
-Greek sculpture expressed Greek ideas.
Chapter 5 Part 2: Greek Philosophy and History
I. Greek Philosophers
-philosophy-“love of wisdom”
-philosophers believed the human mind could understand everything.
-Pythagoras-taught that the universe followed the same laws that governed music
and numbers.
-Sophists did not believe that gods and goddesses influenced people.
-Socrates-believed that an absolute truth existed and that all real knowledge
was within each person. Tried and sentenced to death.
-Socratic method-uses questions to lead students to discover things for
themselves.
-Plato-Republic-described the ideal government.
Top-rulers and governors
Middle-warriors
Bottom-all others
-Aristotle-opened his own school-Lyceum.
-“golden mean”- a person should do nothing to excess
II. Greek Historians
-Herodotus-“father of history”
-Thucydides- History of the Peloponnesian War
Chapter 5 Part 3: Alexander the Great
I. Macedonia Attacks Greece
-Macedonia-north of Greece
-Philip II –united Greece with Macedonia to defeat Persians.
-Demosthenes-lawyer-tried to warn the Athenians.
II. Alexander Builds an Empire
-Alexander the Great-King of Macedonia after father’s death.
-Conquest of Persian begins in 334 B.C.-Battle of Granicus
Persian forces are destroyed.
-Issus-Persian army defeated and Greek city states are freed. Egypt
and Syria are captured.
-Alexandria-built as center of business-one of most important cities
-323 B.C.- Alexander planned to invade southern Arabia, but fell ill and died.
-Hellenistic Era-Greek language and ideas spread to non-Greek areas
-After Alexander’s death, his generals fought for power-Four kingdoms
emerged.
-New cities were created in the Hellenistic Era.
Chapter 5 Part 4: The Spread of Greek Culture
I. Greek Culture Spreads
-Philosophers, poets, scientists, and writers move to the new cities.
-Hellenistic kings hired Greek architects and sculptors.
-Literature:
Appolonius-Argonautica
Theocritus-short poems about beauty and nature
-plays were about love and relationships
II. Philosophy
-Epicurus-Epicureanism-happiness was a goal of life
-Stoicism-developed by Zeno-happiness comes from reason, not emotions
III. Greek Science and Math
-Astronomers-stars, planets, other heavenly bodies
-Aristarchus-astronomer who claimed sun was at the center of the universe and Earth
revolved around the sun
-Eratosthenes-astronomer who believed that the Earth was round
-Euclid-Greek mathematician-described plane geometry
-Archimedes-scientist-solid geometry-value of pi-invented the catapult