HST 121 - Early Greece: Society, Religion and the Polis

I. Geography and Environment [MAP]
	A. islands, peninsulas and mountains lead to small, isolated communities (city-states)
	B. surrounded by the sea

II. Bronze Age Greece (3300-1150 BCE) [MAP]	
	A. Minoans (2500-1450 BCE)
		1. centered on the island of Crete
		2. king Minos and his palace at Knossos
		3. strong navy
		4. devastated by tsunami generated by volcanic eruption
	B. Mycenaeans (1600-1200 BCE)
		1. centered on the Greek mainland
		2. destroyed the weakened Minoan civilization around 1450 BCE
		3. they themselves were destroyed around 1200 BCE

III.  Dark Age Greece (1100-750 BCE)
	A. cities are destroyed
	B. writing disappears

 IV.  Homer's Iliad (8th c. BCE)
	A. part of Greek oral tradition from the Dark Age and Bronze Age
	B. the Trojan War
	C. religion
		1. polytheistic
		2. mythopoeic
		3. Olympia 
			a. Zeus
			b. athletic contests
		4. Delphi 
			a. Apollo
			b. the oracle
	D. culture
		1. areté		
		2. honor
		3. fate
		4. excerpt from the Iliad, Book VI
			- the Trojan prince Hector says the following when bidding farewell 
			to his wife Andromache before heading out to the field of battle:
				...with what face should I look upon the Trojans...if I shirked battle 
				like a coward?  I cannot do so: I know nothing but to fight bravely
				in the forefront of the Trojan host and win renown alike for my father
				and myself...  My own wife, do not take these things too bitterly 
				to heart.  No one can hurry me down to Hades before my time, but if
				a man's hour is come...there is no escape for him...  Go, then, within
				the house, and busy yourself with your daily duties...for war is man's
				matter.
	E. position of women in society
		1. generally relegated to the domestic sphere
		2. no political rights
		3. divorce was difficult to get for women
		4. women could not own property by themselves
		5. wealthy women could not leave the house by themselves
		6. men could have mistresses who lived in the house with them

V. Post Dark Age Revitalization of Greek Society (750-500 BCE) [MAP]
        A. population growth
		1. decrease in warfare
		2. iron age = better tools = increased food production
	B. urbanization
	C. reintroduction of writing 
		1. did not return to their system of symbols, Linear B
		2. instead, they borrowed the Phoenician alphabet
	D. colonizing the Mediterranean
                1. spread of Greek culture
                2. increased trade
        E. political Change
                1. ethnos
                2. polis = city-state
		3. hoplites
		4. phalanx                 
		5. democratization of warfare = democratization of political life 
		6. those who fight are those who vote