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FOR STUDENTS
The Rise of Greek Civilization: From Minoan to the Peloponnesian Wars

Introduction:
Map 3.1
1) Peloponnesus:
i) Mycenae
ii) Sparta
iii) Olympia
2) Attica:
i) Athens
3) Boeotia:
i) Thebes
ii) Delphi
4) Thessaly:
i) Mt. Olympus
5) Macedonia

Sequence
1. Minoan
2. Mycenaean
3. Greek Dark Ages
4. Magna Graecia: colonies and culture
5. Athens
6. Sparta and the Messenian Wars
7. Persian Wars
8. Athenian Empire, Delian League, Age of Pericles
9. Peloponnesian Wars
10. Rise of Thebes
11. Unification under Alexander the Great

Geography:
compact
mountainous
isolated Greeks from one another
separate developments
sea
contacts with the outside world
later establish colonies that would spread Greek civ.

Minoan Crete

The Mycenaeans: The First Greek States

Location: see map 3.1b
Timeframe:
approximately 1600-1100 BC
Ended in 1190 BC:
Mycenae torched, destroyed by fire, abandoned
Dorians (North,speaks Greek dialect) => Greek Dark Ages
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Sources:
1870 excavations by Heinrich Schliemann (German)
Egyptian records: Mycenaeans as “marauders of the Nile Delta”

The Mycenaeans: Culture & Society

Brothers: Agamemnon of Mycenae & Menalaus of Sparta (red-haired = northerner)
influenced by, but different from, Minoan/Cretan culture
traded with Crete: pottery, olive oil, animal hides
first to use “tholos” tombs: beehive-like tombs
warlike: as suggested by _____
The Fall of Mycenae

Greek DARK Ages (1100-750BC)

(see map 3.1)
Dorian invasion: occupied Peloponnesus & Crete
After the Fall of Mycenae: Greek Dark Ages=Period of Decline
Adoption of the Phoenician Alphabet (Spielvogel, p. 47)
Excavation shows no architecture, painting, sculptures
Greek migrations to Ionia/Asia Minor
Context: End of this Dark Age, Homer’s work appeared!

Who is Homer?
 blind, illiterate bard;
 “poetic magic” -- “It is precisely the Homeric genius which captured the imagination & therefore, is
basically responsible for the way poetry became converted into history...despite the Gods & the
inconsistencies”(Finley, p. 35)
 lived in the ____ BC
 epic poetry written down in the _____ C BC
 about Mycenaean heroes but does NOT reflect Mycenaean age/world (9th-10th C BC)
 many aspects are about Homer’s own time (____ C BC)

Iliad by Homer
Iliad and Odyssey by Homer (note: Aenid by Virgil, Roman)
Iliad’s main plot:
covers _____
 “wrath of Achilles” led to disaster
 opens with withdrawal of Achilles from the war
 dispute with King Agamemnon of Mycenae over Chriseis, a female slave & Briseis
ends ________
Note: Odyssey begins with __________
Odysseus: husband of Helen’s sister Penelope

Image: The Slaying of Hector

This scene from a Corinthian Greek vase painting depicts the final battle between Achilles and the Trojan
hero Hector.

Cast of Characters: SPARTA

Matrilocal
 Helen - married to Menelaus
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Were the Trojans foolish to fight over a foreign woman -- for 10 yrs?!?
Reminder: Matrilocal
Question: Rape/Abduction? Willing Victim?
Trojans to the besieging Mycenaeans & Greeks (an armada of 1,186 ships): “Helen is not here [in Troy]!”
Where is Helen?
 Steichorus said:
 Helen in ____; Paris brought Helen’s “doppleganger” (see Finley, p. 32)
 Thucidydes:
 Herodotus:
 Finley:
What was Homer’s Legacy?
aristocratic codes & values:
“Homer gave the Greeks a model of heroism, honor & nobility” (Spielvogel, p. 49)
“Arete”
“defend and increase honor of the family”

Did the Trojan War really happen?

Points of Contention
Read and discuss: Sir Moses I. Finley’s “Lost: The Trojan War”
Homer’s heroes...
 were cremated (not in “tholos”)
 worship Gods in temples (no temples during Mycenaean age)
 to prove this, these had to be ascertained: ____
 Heinrich Schliemann’s treasures in Troy AND Mycenae belong to the wrong civilizations!!! (Finley, p.
36)”
 Troy VIIa: _____
 Hittite sources? (contemporary of Mycenaean Age)
Egyptian sources? circumcision?

Greek City-States (750-500BC)

Polis (plural: Poleis): ex. Athens, Sparta
Agora: open space, assembly place, market
Citizens with political rights (adult males)
Citizens with no pol. rights (women/kids)
noncitizens (slaves; resident aliens)

Image: The Parthenon, built between 447 and 432 B.C. Located on the Acropolis in Athens, the Parthenon
was dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of the city, but it also served as a shining example of the power
and wealth of the Athenian empire.

Magna Graecia: Colonization

overpopulation, hunger
trade expansion = establishment of new colonies
originally, trading centers for transshipment of goods TO Greece
colonies/polis independent of metropolis (“mother polis”)
demand for products from homeland: pottery, wine, olive oil
imported: fish, grains/wheat, timber, metals, slaves
gave rise to the new rich
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Greek Homosexuality
Read and discuss: Reilly, pp. 98-103
Greek View on Women:
Greeks on Ideal Love:
 mature men & beardless youth
 “paideia”

Greek Homosexuality
Erastes
Eromenos

Athens & Sparta

map 3.1
2 very different city-states
Read and discuss: Spartan Women(Noble); Women in Athens & Sparta (Spielvogel)

Timeframe
Before unification of Greece
1st & 2nd Messenian Wars
 Messenia = helots
Persian Wars
Peloponnesian Wars
 who will dominate?
Alexander the Great: unification

Sparta & the Messenian Wars

unified into 1 single polis
helots
Growing # of Spartan citizens
turning point: Sparta=>military society

Live like a Spartan, Steal Like a Spartan, Hide like a Spartan

Read and discuss: “Lycurgan Reforms,” Spielvogel, p. 52
indoctrination
society
at birth: “alpha”
7 yrs old
 discipline, obedience
20 yrs old
 marriage
30 yrs old - live at home
note: men & women train in the nude

Spartan Government
“most powerful polis in Hellenic History”
unmatched stability: elements of ____,____,_____
Oligarchy: Council of 28 elders (over 60); for life
Democracy: all males over 30
Ephors: 5 men elected annually, oversee education of youth
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Spartan Internal Policies

Discouraged: _____
Encouraged: ____
Spartan Foreign Policies
Peloponnesian League: all of Peloponnesus, except Argos

Athens
unified polis in Attica
location
no overpopulation
Aristocratic Society:
Main Problem:
 slavery: peasants pledged themselves,or their family as collateral for loans
 demand for redistribution of land
 No written law yet
Draco to codify & publish laws => “Draconian”

Classical Greece: Persian Wars

Timeframe: began with the Persian Wars, ended with Philip II of Macedon
map 3.1
Cause: ____
 Why Athens helped? ____
Effect: ____
Darius the Great of Persia
Battle of Marathon (near Athens)
Chronology
Persian Wars: 499-449 BC: 50 years
series of wars
490 BC: Battle of Marathon
486 BC: Darius the Great died
480 BC: Battle of Thermopylae
18 years after the Persian Wars
Peloponnesian Wars: 431-404 BC: 27 yrs

Preparations for the Persian Wars

League of the Greeks
 representatives of different poleis met
 terminate all feuds: common enemy
 no single authority

Battle of Marathon
490 BC, Attica
Pheidippides: pro messenger
40 km: Athens to Marathon
Purpose: ___
Significance: _____
Battle of Marathon
490 BC, Attica
Pheidippides: pro messenger
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40 km: Athens to Marathon
Purpose:
declare victory
warn of impending attack
Significance:
Persian could be beaten
Athenian victory without Sparta

Athens Persia
Combatants 10,000 25,000
Casualties 192 6400
Infantry Heavily armed Lightly armed

Persian Wars
10 yrs after Marathon:
 Xerxes I of Persia
 150,000 men; 600-700 ships
 many Persian ships damaged due to storms in the Aegean
_______ sided with the Persians
Battle & Fall of Thermophylae
Day 3: Ephialtes
King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans: against 80,000-290,000 Persians, incl. IMMORTALS

Persian Wars
Persian casualties:Xerxes’ 2 brothers died
Greeks lost
King Leonidas killed: decapitated,crucified
Athenians evacuated
Xerxes I sacked Athens; burned Acropolis

Peloponnesian Wars
27 yr war
“Civil War”: Athenian Empire vs. Sparta & supporters
root cause: __
immediate cause: __
2nd yr of the war: plague devastated the city of Athens, killing 30%, including Pericles
Athenian fleet destroyed in the Hellespont (map 3.1)
consequence

Peloponnesian Wars
Rise of Thebes: Epaminondas & Pelopidas
 short-lived Theban hegemony
 Theban Sacred Band
 annihilated by Philip & Alexander
petty wars, oblivious to the Macedonian threat!

Theban Sacred Band

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378-338 BC: 40 yrs
Greek special forces, 150 partners
 formed by Pelopidas, inspired by Plato’s Symposium
 Pelopidas
 Philip II of Macedon: hostage of Epaminondas
Sources:
Plutarch’s Parallel Lives
 missing work on Epaminondas
Xenophon (see next slide)
 Challenges: Xenophon as pro-Spartan
 did not mention Epaminondas
Theban Sacred Band
Battle of Leuctra
 Who won?
 freed Messenian helots (enslaved by Sparta for 230 yrs)
 establish Theban independence

Thebans Sacred Band & Philip II of Macedon

Philip II of Macedon, hostage of Thebans

military/diplomatic techniques acquired from Epaminondas
Battle of Chaeronea:
Source: Plutarch
 Thebans surrounded, refused to surrender
 all 300 died
Culture/Society in Classical Greece
The Writing of History:
Herodotus (5th C)
Thucidydes (5th C)
 exiled General
 lost 2 provinces under his command
 History of the Peloponnesian Wars
Xenophon (4th C): continuation of Thucidydes work

Culture/Society in Classical Greece

Greek Drama/Tragedy:
Greek Comedy: Lysistrata by Aristophanes
 20th year of the Peloponnesian War
 appealed to Athenians & Spartans to end the war

Greek Art (Sculpture)

Image: The Ideal Beauty, Doryphoros
This statue, known as the Doryphoros, or spear carrier, is a Roman copy of the original work by the fifth
century B.C. sculptor Polyclitus, who believed it illustrated the ideal proportions of the human figure.

Classical Greek sculpture moved away from the stiffness of the kouros figure but retained the young male
nude as the favorite subject matter. The statues became more lifelike, with relaxed poses and flexible,
smooth-muscled bodies. The aim of sculpture, however, was not simply realism but rather the expression of
ideal beauty.
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