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2. Early Greek History, Religion, and Poetry

Setting the stage for Homers epics

Review Points from Course Introduction

A classic is a creative work (e.g. literature, art, music, thought) that transcends its cultural and period boundaries
Somehow addresses universal human experiences and feelings such as love, loss, joy, pain, beauty, etc.

The study of Greek and Roman culture is the field of Classics because these cultures are the foundation of much of Western Civilization ClCv 201 concentrates on the literature and ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans
will provide the student with a solid introductory grounding in the Greek and Roman Classics by surveying the important literary genres of epic, tragedy, philosophy, and historiography (the writing and interpreting of history) and setting them in their historical and cultural context

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2. Early Greek History, Religion, and Poetry

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Periods Covered This Semester

Begin to familiarize yourself with all of them, mastering them as each is studied
Bronze Age
Minoan (c. 20001400 B.C) Mycenaean (c. 14001150 B.C.)

The Monarchy of Rome (753510 B.C.) The Republic

Early Republic (509264 B.C.) Middle Republic (264133 B.C.) Late Republic (13327 B.C.)

Greek Dark Age (1100 750 B.C) Archaic Greece (700500 B.C.) Classical Greece (500404 B.C.) Fourth Century Greece (404336 B.C.) Hellenistic Age (336164 B.C)
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Augustan Age (27 B.C. A.D. 14) Empire (A.D. 14235)

2. Early Greek History, Religion, and Poetry

Minoan Krete
Knossos

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Minoan Civilization
c. 20001400 B.C. Palace culture
Redistributive economy Surplus used in trade

Presumably a literate society

Linear A, still undeciphered

Setting for many early myths

King Minos and the Minotaur, etc.

Clues to society and religion . . .

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Historical/Mythological Traditions
Minos Theseus Minotaur Labyrinth Bull motif

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Palace Site at Knossos on Krete

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Layout of Palace at Knossos

Central Court

Storage magazines

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2. Early Greek History, Religion, and Poetry Unimpeded, direct access

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Artists Conception of Knossos Palace

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Bull-Jumper Fresco
Fresco fragments restored to recreate a Minoan painting of a youth leaping on the back of a bull. The bull was an important Minoan fertility symbol that survived in many myths about Krete.

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Minoan Painting

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Snake Goddess statues

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Mycenaean Civilization
c. 1400-1150 B.C. States based on palace centers, heavily influenced by the Minoan civilization Palaces heavily fortified, grave goods include many weapons Linear B script which has been deciphered Greek-speaking people, precursors of the Ionian peoples
Mycenaeans were late Helladic, esp. LHII

Setting for the so-called Heroic Age, including the Trojan

War

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Site of Bronze Age Palace at Mycenae

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Heavy fortifications

Plan of palace at Mycenae

Heavily fortified with no direct access to central court Centered on megaron (columned hall with an open hearth in the middle) Seat of a centralized government led by a wanax or king

megaron

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Artists conception of the megaron at Pylos

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Fortifications at Mycenae
Note Cyclopean masonry
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Lions Gate
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Death Mask of Agamemnon

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Linear B

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The Greek Dark Age and the Oral Tradition

The collapse of Bronze Age Greece ushered in a confusing period of myth and legend

1100-750 B.C. Invasions brought new peoples such as the Dorians into Greece who used iron Literacy and palace culture were lost with collapse of Mycenaean Civilization Oral poetry preserved myths and stories for later ages Few material remains outside of pottery
Modern scholars are largely in the dark about what happened in this period!

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Age of Heroes
Not an actual historical period, it was an imaginative era which combined Bronze Age memories with the prevailing warlord society of the Dark Ages
Homer drew upon a rich oral tradition that chronicled the warlike society and values of the Dark Ages This same oral tradition also preserved memories of the great Bronze Age civilizations in embellished songs that recalled great wars and kings from earlier times

To the Greeks who listened to these tales, however, the kings and battles were very real
Throughout Greece there were many a ruined Mycenaean palaces that suggested that there was some truthfulness to the tales and many circle graves or tumuli that were confidently identified as the tombs of prominent heroes These heroes were larger than life figures capable of great deeds who, more importantly, came to serve as models of good and bad behavior
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Greek Religion
Greek religion was systematized in the Dark ages
the gods and goddesses became major characters of the oral tradition, as later exemplified by Homers Iliad and Odyssey

Hesiods Theogony, or Birth of the Gods

Didactic poem organized the growing pantheon through a succession myth Son replaced father, often violently, in a generational scheme
Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Sky) Gave birth to Titans The Titan Kronos castrated and overthrew his father Kronos swallowed his children as his wife Rhea gave birth to each Zeus escaped through a trick, saved siblings Zeus and allies overthrew Titans Zeus emerged as the paramount and permanent leader

Olympian (sky) deities, Chthonic (underworld) deities

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See Synopsis of the Greek Pantheon

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