Greece Notes #2

Geography / its significance

- Greece is a mountainous peninsula

- mountains cover ¾ of Greece

- approximately 1400 islands in the Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean Seas

- this combination shaped Greece’s culture

-had many skilled sailors and shipbuilders

- also farmers, metalworkers, weavers, 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

More Geography

- although fertile valleys cover one quarter of the peninsula, only about 20% is suitable for farming

- Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, olives

- lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization

- back then, temperatures usually ranged from mid 40s in the winter to low 80s 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 BCE

- Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20-foot thick wall

- Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1200 BCE

- controlled trade in the region

- 1400 BCE-  Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture and language

Then, “sea people” & Dorians

- around 1200 BCE the mysterious “sea people” began to invade Mycenae, and burnt palace after palace

- so, the Dorians moved into this war-torn region

- Dorians were far less advanced

- the trade-based economy collapsed

- writing disappeared for 400 years

Enter Homer the storyteller

- Greek oral tradition - stories passed on by word of mouth

- Homer lived at the end of the “Greek Dark Ages”

- he composed stories of the Trojan War c. 750-700 BCE

~ The Iliad - probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaeans (the Trojan War)

~ The Odyssey - Odysseus attempt 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; an heroic figure
- Iliad and Odyssey may be the culmination of many generations of storytelling
- or Homer actually existed