Ancient Greece: History, Religion & Culture
(Chapter 4)
Geography: Isolation vs. Communication & A Shared Culture
Mycenaean Age
Homer and the “Cult of the (Aristocratic) Individual”
Illiad/Achilles/Trojan War/Arete & Hubris
Dark Age
Hellenic Age
Polis/Hoplite Phalanx (Army) and Trireme (Navy)
Rise in importance of the “common man”
Athens:
Monarchy/Oligarchy & Democracy
Solon
“Haves vs. Have-Nots”
Cleisthenes’ Reforms
Sparta:
Peloponnesus/Helots/”State Slavery”/Messenia/
Lycurgus
Militaristic Oligarchy/Dual Kingship
Communal Property/Social Equality/ Agoge/“messes”
The Persian Wars
1st-Darius I--Marathon/490BC
2nd-Xerxes--Thermopylae/Spartans & Leonidas/Salamis
Herodotus—The Histories
Inter-war Period
Delian League (Delos)
Pericles (Acropolis/Parthenon)
Peloponnesian War
Thucydides—The Peloponnesian War
Philip of Macedon
Alexander the Great
Greek Culture: Philosophy, Religion & Architecture
Religion
Zeus (nature-thunderbolts)/Apollo/Hera/Poseidon
Civic Patriotism/Athena in Athens/Cosmos & Chaos
Afterlife (Hades)
Mystery Cults/Dionysus-Serapis-Mithra (rebirth)
Philosophy
Confidence: “Man is the measure of all things.”
Natural Law/Empiricism/Hippocrates/”Scientific Medicine”
Socrates
The “Socratic Method”/Questioning-“Know Thyself”
Ethics, Morality and Truth
Plato
Republic/Workers, Warriors, and Philosophers
Laws/Mixed Government
Aristotle
Natural Philosophy
Politics/Mixed Government/Farming Middle Class/Defense of Slavery
History Writing/Herodotus & Thucydides
Greek Drama
Religion and Civic Festival
Sophocles/Antigone/Hubris & Fate
Greek Architecture
The Acropolis:
Balance/ Harmony/Arête
The Parthenon (Pheidias)
Athena Nike
The Propylaea
Alexander and Hellenistic Culture
Alexander the Great
Successor kingdoms
Diffusion of (Hellenistic) Greek Culture
Urbanism
Trade & slavery
Subjects vs. Citizens
Hellenistic Religious Culture & Philosophy:
Mystery Cults (e.g., Mithra, Serapis)
Stoicism/Zeno/ “Brotherhood of Man”
Noble Acts/Idealism/Virtue as Its Own Reward
Roman Ruling Class & America’s “Founding Fathers”
