Classical Myth Midterm 1

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Early/Middle Bronze Age

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1) 3000-1600 BC

Non-Greek language, indo-european

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Minoans

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2200-1450 BC

Crete, non-indo-european, linear A, natural art scenes (the sea)

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Mycenean Age (Late Bronze Age)

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2) 1600-1150 BC

Linear B deciphered by Michael Ventris, cyclopean architecture (large stones). Mycenean centers: Thebes, Athens, Pylos, Orchomenus, Mycenea. Art was full of militant scenes

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Dark Age

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3) 1150-800 BC

This period was dark because it was a time of impoverishment and depopulation. Only one center of civilization: Euboea. No information really came out of this time.

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Archaic Period

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4) 800-480 BC

Invention of Greek alphabet, Homeric epics written down, development of Polis, coinage, tyrants, hoplite warfare.

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Classical Period

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5) 480-323 BC

Athenian democracy. Herodotus & Theucydides - historians. Aeschylus, Sophocles & Euripides - tragedians. Aristophanes - comedy. Peloponnesian War = Athena v Sparta.

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Hellenistic Period

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6) 323-30 BC

Alexander the Great's death marks beginning of period. Spread elements of Greek culture to the ancient East. Cleopatra was last Hellenistic monarch.

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sacrifice

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Was done at an altar. Was the livestock they raised, usually saved for sacrifice, not normally eaten. Was thigh bones wrapped in animal fat, w/ tail of animal thrown in.

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Muses

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Connected w/ Mount Helicon in Boeotia. Inspiration for bards/poets/songwriters, etc.

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The Furies

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Born of the castration of Uranus - violent act. They emerge whenever familial blood is spilled.

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Omphalos stone

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"navel of the earth". The stone that Rhea gave to Cronus instead of giving him Zeus.

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Atlas

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a titan, son of Iapetus and Clymene, who holds up the sky

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Cassandra

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daughter of Priam, king of Troy, asked Apollo to be appointed prophetess in exchange for sexual favors. She did not deliver and so Apollo made it so no one believes her although she speaks the truth

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the Sibyl of Cumae

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Asked to have as many years of life as grains of sand she could hold. She grew older and older until she shriveled up like a cicada shrieking in a cave.

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Apollo

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Son of Leto and Zeus. Born on Delos. God of music, poetic skills, prophecy, plague.

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Folktale types

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like "cinderella type" folktale. Made up of folktale motifs

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Folktale Motifs

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elements of a folktale. Ex: Cinderella - abused younger sister, spiritual savior, evil stepmother, etc. Tropes.

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Boeotia

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region north of Attica where Thebes was situated. Also Mount Helicon.

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Attica

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region in central Greece where Athena is located

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Peloponnesus

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"island of Pelops" the southern portion of mainland Greece linked to the north by the narrow Isthmus of Corinth

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Laconia

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territory in southern Peloponnesus

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Euboea

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long island east of Attica, site of vigorous Iron Age community where the alphabet may have been invented

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Aegean Sea

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between Greece and Asia Minor

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Cyclades

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"circle" islands around Delos in the Aegean Sea

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Indo-European

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language group from which the Greeks stem, original home in central Asia. East of the caspian sea?

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Acheans

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what the Mycenean Greeks called themselves

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Linear B

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cuniform "wedge" writing used by the Myceneans. Deciphered by Michael Ventris

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Linear A

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cuniform writing used by the Minoans, undecipherable

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Ionia

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central islands of the Aegean sea and the central sector of the western coast of Asia Minor. Inhabited by the Peloponnesian reguees (Ionians) during the dark age.

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polis

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politically independent city-state, emerged in Archaic period

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Peloponnesian War

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Athens vs Sparta. Huge conflict between the cities to see who was more powerful, Sparta wins.

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hoplite warfare

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when the soldiers would stand super close together and not break ranks even when approached by the enemy. Heavily armed men with spears. Used in the Hellenistic period.

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parthenos

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when a girl was in the period between her first menstruation and her marriage. Considered to be very wild and dangerous. Artemis

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Potnia Theron

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Catal Huyuk, "lady of the beasts". The Greeks thought it to be Artemis

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Mesopotamia

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"land between the rivers" the Tigress and the Euphrates. Most myths seem to stem from Mesopotamian culture.

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Sumerians

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people from south Mesopotamia. Their culture is slightly different yet still borrowed from Mesopotamian life.

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An

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Sumerian myth. "Sky". Uranus. Infinite expanse of the dome above us

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Innan

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Sumerian myth. "Queen of heaven". Athena and Aphrodite. Goddess of sexual attraction and war.

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Enlil

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Sumerian myth. "Lord of the storm". Force, power, violence of the thunderstorm. Zeus.

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Enki

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Sumerian myth. "Lord of the earth". Clever, crafty, trickster of the Sumerian mythos. Hermes, Hephaestus, Prometheus, and Poseidon.

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Semites

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lives at fringes of the Arabian desert and pushed constantly against the river cultures of Mesopotamia

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Akkadians

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semitic peoples of Mesopotamia, important in the second millennium.

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Hittites

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Indo-European Bronze Age warrior people in central Anatolia, their capital was Hattusas near modern Ankara.

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Homeric Hymns

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7-5th centuries BC, hymns to gods

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humanism

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belief in human-based morality

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Hesiod

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8th century BC Greek poet, Theogony, Works and Days

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Apollonius of Rhodes

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myth of Jason in the style of Homer, 3rd century BC