Myth & Archaeology Exam 1 Part 2

Front 1

writing in Homer

Back 1

marking lots to choose a hero
deadly letter of Bellerophon

Front 2

marking lots to choose a hero (book VII)

Back 2

-challenge best to single combat w/Hector
-winner to take spoils of war but return body for burial
-9 heroes put their mark on stone
-only Ajax can identify mark on chosen pebble, delighted
-seals used in Bronze Age to identify people etc.

Front 3

Kafkania pebble

Back 3

-found stuck in wall in Mycenaean building
-faintly scratched symbols that look like Linear B
-found on April Fool's day, spelled out Jason (couple's son's name)
-hoax

Front 4

Mycenaean sealstones

Back 4

-press into soft substance, leave seal ranging from simple to elaborate
-people in Dark Ages often found things from earlier times (& copied them)

Front 5

deadly letter of Bellerophon (book VI)

Back 5

-aristeia of Diomedes (killing everyone)
-Glaucus - not sure if man or god, asks who he is, talks about family -> descended from Bellerophon
-Diomedes' grandfather met Bellerophon & had guest friendship
-can't fight -> gift exchange (Glaucus gave gold, Diomedes bronze)
-Homer doesn't seem to understand that it makes Diomedes owe Glaucus (says Glaucus was stupid)
-Bellerophon was very handsome Greek, moved to Anatolia (Glaucus is Trojan)
-wife of king of Argos (Proetus) fell in love with Bellerophon, not interested, accused him of having come at her
-sent away
-given folded tablet with murderous signs ("fatal message") to give to king so he'd know to kill him (scratched in folded tablet)
-king of Lycia keeps trying to kill Bellerophon, eventually gives up

Front 6

murderous signs

Back 6

-memory of Linear B?
-contemporary "foreign" writing system?
-new Phoenician alphabet? (unitarians believe)
-narrator of Iliad doesn't know how to read

Front 7

folded tablet

Back 7

-Uluburun shipwreck
-folded wooden tablet recovered, 3 ivory hinges in center, slightly hollowed out (would be filled with wax)
-wax -> scratch in it, then melt for re-use
-probably sealed (Bellerophon didn't open his)

Front 8

Uluburun shipwreck

Back 8

-late 14th century BC
-Cypriot (Cyprus) or Levantine origin?
-LHIIIA2 pottery
-cargo from entire Aegean world - Mycenaean, Cypriot, Canaanite, Kassite (Iran/Iraq), Assyrian (Mesopotamia), Egyptian
-sail around and trade as you go

Front 9

writing systems

Back 9

-hieroglyphs
-cuneiform
-linear A
-linear B
-Ogham

Front 10

hieroglyphs places

Back 10

Egypt, Anatolia, Crete (before Linear A), Luwian
(Mayan, native Americans)

Front 11

cuneiform

Back 11

wedge-shaped script
Sumerian, Akkadian, Old Persian, Babylonian, Elamite, Luwian

Front 12

linear A

Back 12

-syllabograms? - symbols that give whole syllable (vowel+consonant)
-unknown language, Minoan, Eteocretan, before Greek
-Luwian? Phoenician?

Front 13

linear B

Back 13

Mycenaeans
-syllabograms derived from Linear A
-no literature, only accounts (inventory etc)
-200 signs total (syllabograms & logograms)

Front 14

Ogham

Back 14

Gaelic/Irish

Front 15

hieroglyphic etymology

Back 15

hieros - sacred
glyphein - to carve

Front 16

Egyptian hieroglyphics

Back 16

-3300 BCE (before BA in Greece)
-letters between Hittites & Egyptians
-logograms - represent whole words
-ideograms - represent idea
-alphabetic letters

Front 17

Rosetta stone

Back 17

-Napoleon invaded Egypt 1798-1801
-Ptolemy V decree on tax repeals & erecting statues in Greek, hieroglyphic Egyptian, & demotic Egyptian

Front 18

Jean-Francois Champollion

Back 18

1822-4
translated hieroglyphics on Rosetta stone

Front 19

Luwian language

Back 19

-Anatolia, Hittites (overlap)
-hieroglyphics & cuneiform
-1996 - Luwian seal found in Troy from about same time (hieroglyphics, belongs to important scribe & wife on other side)

Front 20

cuneiform technique

Back 20

wooden stick w/sharp edges, soft clay (have drawings of people making it)

Front 21

cuneiform examples survived how?

Back 21

originally soft clay, palaces burned, fired into hard pottery

Front 22

Behistun inscription

Back 22

-cuneiform
-in extremely inaccessible high cliff
-in Old Persian, Elamite, & Babylonian
-from Darius I (521-486 BCE)

Front 23

Henry Rawlinson

Back 23

English
got credit for deciphering Behistun inscription, never said how he did it

Front 24

Edward Hincks

Back 24

Irish
did all the same things right before Rawlinson

Front 25

Hattusa archive

Back 25

-Alaksandu of Wilusa (Alexandros/Paris of Troy?)
-King Muwattalli II (1290-1272 BCE), Hittite, alliance with Alaksandu
-King Tudhalija (1420-1400 BCE) - reference to dealing with people from Tarwiza, Wilusa
-evidence of Hittite contact with Troy

Front 26

J.A. Knudtzon

Back 26

1902
deciphered Hittite

Front 27

Phaistos disk

Back 27

Cretan hieroglyphics
-related scripts, partly syllabic, partly logographic
-Egyptian hieroglyphs, Anatolian hieroglyphs, linear A (don't know which, can't decipher)

Front 28

Arthur Evans

Back 28

excavated Knossos, tried to decipher linear A
-linear B not Greek -> can't say sounds needed for Greek

Front 29

John Younger

Back 29

also tried to decipher linear A

Front 30

Michael Ventris

Back 30

1922-56
-heard speech by Arthur Evans
-deciphered linear B with help of John Chadwick
-some words show up a lot - city names
-some endings change - conjugations/declensions
-some symbols with logograms underneath
-Greek

Front 31

linear B & Mycenaean social order

Back 31

WA-NA-KA - wanax (king, in Iliad, Zeus & Agamemnon)
RA-WA-KE-TA (lawagetas) - leader of the people/host=prince/general
-social hierarchy, slavery

Front 32

Phoenician alphabet

Back 32

-origin of our alphabet
-semitic letter names
-aleph=ox=alpha
-bet=house=beta

Front 33

alphabet in "history"

Back 33

Herodotus (father of history, Greek historian 5th century BCE)
-talks about Cadmus introducing writing to the Greeks (didn't know about Linear B)
-Cadmus preceded Trojan War by generations (14th century BCE -> Herodotus wrong)
-conventional date of Trojan war is 12th century BCE

Front 34

Cadmus

Back 34

mythical brother of Europa
founder of Thebes

Front 35

Homeric warfare reality?

Back 35

Bronze Age (Mycenaean)?
Iron Age?
both?
literary fiction?

Front 36

elements of warfare

Back 36

-helmets
-shields
-body armor
-weapons
-chariots
-tactics/formations

Front 37

weapons for Achilles

Back 37

"Pyrrha" among women of Scyros -> goes for sword instead of jewels

Front 38

divine armor

Back 38

Achilles brought armor by Thetis made by Hephaestus to replace the armor Patroclus borrowed (lost when killed)

Front 39

battles over fallen heroes

Back 39

-armor and weapons - want to protect from being taken by victor, very valuable (not much left in tombs, removed later even if dead could afford to be buried with them - usually passed on or removed from tomb during later burial)
-trophy - taken from famous person, increased status as hero
-wealth
-want body to be recovered, not decapitated/mutilated (stay that way in the underworld)

Front 40

Homeric helmets

Back 40

-multiple materials - skin caps, bronze, boar's tusk
-up to 4 horns/plates (sometimes break sword used to try to strike helmet)
-cheek guards
-horsehair ridge crest/tail
-leather chin strap
-Hector says goodbye to Astyanax (baby son), but cries so father has to remove helmet

Front 41

helmets - EBA - Cyclades

Back 41

-some people wore helmets
-layers of material

Front 42

MH, LHI, LHII helmet styles

Back 42

wide variety
depicted on pottery & signet rings

Front 43

boar's tusk helmet

Back 43

-plates stitched onto leather cap
-Theran fresco (Santorini)
-MH helmet from Kolonna, Aegina
-shiny, hard tusk would make glancing blow slide off

Front 44

Tiryns helmet

Back 44

-thin bronze, late Mycenaean (submycenaean period)
-cheek guards
-holes on sides to let air in (fought during summer, very hot)

Front 45

Homeric shields

Back 45

-round
-body-shield (figure-8 no specific references in Homer, tower)
-bronze
-oxhide in layers
-baldric
-boss

Front 46

baldric

Back 46

strap (leather, sometimes w/jewels or gold) that connected shield to soldier (keeping weight on shoulder - shield is heaviest piece of armor)

Front 47

boss

Back 47

raised spots in center or around edge
-can be used as offensive weapon

Front 48

round shield

Back 48

most common
-shield of Achilles, made by Hephaestus - elaborate craftsmanship
-shield of Agamemnon - head of Gorgon on central boss, minor gods Panic & Fear on either side, 10 concentric circles
-Pylos fresco - LHIIIB
-Tiryns kraters LHIIIC (mixing bowl for water & wine)

Front 49

figure-eight shields

Back 49

-Tiryns palace & Mycenae cult center
--goat hide
--central boss
--piebald coloring
-lion hunt dagger, shaft grave IV, Mycenae - shield is almost as tall as soldiers
-Hector's shield hits neck & ankles when he puts it on his back to flee

Front 50

tower shield

Back 50

-ground up
-people group around Ajax's shield (brother shoots arrows from behind)
-very heavy
-mini fortress
-Akrotiri, Thera
-diminished in popularity as bronze became more common?

Front 51

other shield types (not in Homer)

Back 51

-LHIIIC pictorial style krater
-warrior vase, house at Mycenae
-note smaller shields - eastern influence/import? sea peoples? (less likely)

Front 52

proto-dipylon shield

Back 52

-stone sculpture
-Mycenae, probably LHIIIC
-geometric (Iron age) dipylon cemetery - pots depicting dipylon shields
-large indent on sides - stylistic, spaces for spears

Front 53

Homeric armor

Back 53

-heroic nudity - go into battle w/no armor
-Schwartz - emphasis on shield/baldric = lack of body armor
-but references to bronze corslet

Front 54

bronze corslet

Back 54

tunic
-neck to waist, sometimes just front, sometimes front & back
-decorated cuirass - Agamemnon
-golden armor - Glaucus

Front 55

well-greaved Achaeans

Back 55

leg guards
-LHII (earliest) - Dendra tomb, Mycenaean cemetery in Argolid
-linen in LHIIIA-B - Mycenaean fresco
-LHIIIC - Kallithea, Achaea

Front 56

LHI armor

Back 56

-didn't wear armor all over
-shoulder guard, Dendra
-signet ring, Thisbe, Boeotia
-perishable cuirass

Front 57

LHII armor

Back 57

-bronze armor from Dendra chamber tomb (panoply) - down to waist, up to neck, boar's tusk helmet
-couldn't actually fight in it? but made of bands that allowed it to move -> quite possibly foot soldier, not necessarily charioteer

Front 58

LHIIIA-B armor

Back 58

-variation, innovation, or continuity?
-Mycenae
-don't have money to buy new armor for each generation
-similar to Linear B logograms (Knossos LHIIIA, Pylos LHIIIB2)
-kings kept armor to give people for war

Front 59

Iron Age armor

Back 59

-more solid corslets/cuirasses
-shields with deep notches

Front 60

weapons

Back 60

-daggers - some ceremonial or only for rich to wear in death
-cut & thrust swords - bronze with gold studs (sharp point & 2 cutting edges, everyone cut by sword dies, free-for-all system -2 options)
-archery, spears & javelins

Front 61

archery

Back 61

-bronze & chert (flint/stone - cheaper) arrowheads from Mycenaean sites
-archery in Iliad & Odyssey (in Odyssey no negative connotations -> written by 2 different people?)
-archery used in hunting
-often behind hand-to-hand fighting

Front 62

people known for archery

Back 62

-Teucer
-Paris
-Apollo (god of archery) & Artemis - fire arrows at people -> plague -- archery is immortal pastime/skill
-disdain for people at back (safer)

Front 63

the bow

Back 63

-Philoctetes & bow of Heracles (bit in foot by snake, screamed, left on island by comrades, had to get him because needed bow to capture Troy)
-Paris & death of Achilles (shot in heel with arrow)

Front 64

spears

Back 64

-size matters
-Hector - 11 cubits
-Achilles - bigger (biggest on Greek side - no one else can lift it)
-Ajax - ship-pike 22 cubits - holds everyone off singlehandedly while defending burning ships

Front 65

battle formations

Back 65

-individual combat
-serried ranks? (Myrmidons - troops of Achilles) - fought close together
-phalanx? - shoulder to shoulder
-Chigi vase - 650-640 BCE - organized phalanxish fighting, marching in formation, piper keeping them in step, forest of spears

Front 66

acme of phalanx

Back 66

-C4th Macedonians, Philip II and Alexander
-front 5-6 ranks (16 men square) have spears down
-front person sticks someone, slides back & next guy comes forward in his place

Front 67

Homeric phalanx?

Back 67

chapter 11 - bracing shields, wedge of Argive comrades

Front 68

Promachoi

Back 68

front battlers (heroes)

Front 69

Promachoi and the multitude

Back 69

-maybe group of people with individuals occasionally coming forward
-maybe separate groups of people

Front 70

chariot warfare

Back 70

-transport or fighting platform?
-heroes usually jump off & on, charioteers keep out of the way
-come around to where ordinary soldiers were struggling
-poet didn't know how chariots worked?

Front 71

sources on Spartan life & customs

Back 71

-Herodotus
-Xenophon
-Plutarch
-Theucydides
-Plato
-Aristotle

Front 72

Herodotus

Back 72

-484-425 BCE
-father of history but son of myth (exaggerations)
-Greek living in Anatolia
-access to veterans of Persian wars (interviews)
-accused of being too friendly to barbarians

Front 73

Xenophon

Back 73

-430-354 BCE
-from Athens, lived in Sparta
-mercenary in Persian "civil war"
-Anabasis - about Greek attempt to retreat (treachery, climate, hostile tribes)
-essay on Spartan institutions

Front 74

Plutarch

Back 74

-46-127 CE
-life of Lycurgus the lawgiver (probably lots of myth)
-Spartan institutions & life

Front 75

Lycurgus

Back 75

set up education system in Sparta

Front 76

Persian empire

Back 76

Bulgaria, Anatolia, Levant, Iraq, Egypt, & more (huge)

Front 77

origin of Persian wars

Back 77

-Ionia - southern Anatolia, Greek colonies, Greek cities rebelled against Persians trying to take over
-500 BCE Ionian revolt
-Persian taxes & military service, local tyrants trying to bring external enemy
-498 BCE Athens sends help to Ionian cities, burns Sardis, most get killed on the way back

Front 78

Sardis

Back 78

main Persian power center in Ionia

Front 79

Persian response to Ionian revolt

Back 79

-Darius (521-486 BCE) plots revenge
-495 BCE Darius regains Ionia
-492 BCE Persian campaigns in Thrace
-comes after Athens and Eretria
-490 BCE Persian fleet lays siege to & burns Eretria

Front 80

battle of Marathon

Back 80

-490 BCE
-Athenians led by former mercenary Militiades
-karneia (festival that made Spartans unable to help Athens)
-Athens supposed to wait for Spartans to arrive, but decided to attack
-Greek losses 192, Persian 6,400 (Herodotus)
-weak Athenian center line, Persians broke through, sides came around (attacks on 3 sides)
-ran off to Athens to report victory (26 miles), died as soon as made report (probably myth)

Front 81

2nd Persian invasion

Back 81

-Xerxes, son of Darius
-481 BCE, Greek league
-Sparta - best land forces
-Athens - best naval power
-Thermopylae

Front 82

Greek league

Back 82

organization of Greek city-states to fight Persians (a few gave in to Persians instead of joining)

Front 83

battle of Thermopylae

Back 83

-480 BCE
-Karneia - Spartans sent only 300
-Persians had suffered heavy losses in storm (1/3-1/2 fleet)
-Thespians (Thespiae) slaughtered with Spartans (politically important to make Spartans heroes to rally around)
-some Thebans also stayed when everyone else fled (Thebes sided with Persia, but not all citizens did)

Front 84

battle of Salamis

Back 84

-480/479 BCE
-Themistocles
-Greeks lose ~40 ships
-Persians lose ~200 ships
-Persians couldn't swim (lost men on board when ships sank
-immortals slaughtered on Psyttaleia - got on land, then killed

Front 85

Themistocles

Back 85

Athenian general, peace through superior firepower, built up fleet
-persuaded other Greeks to keep ships close together (Salamis)
-lure Persians into narrow area

Front 86

Artemisia

Back 86

female admiral from Halicarnassus (Herodotus from there also)

Front 87

triremes

Back 87

3 banks of oars, could use sails too, big beaks at front to put hole in ships (boards held together by pressure, disintegrate when lose any structure)

Front 88

battle of Plataea

Back 88

-479 BCE
-death of Mardonius (Persian commander), end of Persian invasion
-Herodotus: 43,000 of 250,000 Persians survived, 159 Greek died
-one of most important battles in human history

Front 89

battle of Mycale

Back 89

-same day as Plataea?
-Persian fleet followed by Greeks
-beached, fought land battle
-ships burned after battle (Persians lost)
-Persian general & admiral die
-made it impossible for Persians to attack Greece

Front 90

why did Greek win against Persia?

Back 90

-numerical disadvantage
-Greek hoplites heavily armored in bronze vs Persian soldiers in linen corslets with wicker shields and light javelins that shattered on contact
-long vs short spear (repeated stabbing)

Front 91

myth: heroic nudity

Back 91

godlike Spartans didn't even need armor

Front 92

history: hoplite panoply (vs. nudity)

Back 92

-helmet, shield, breastplate/cuirass, greaves, sword, spear (total weight=50-70lbs)
-full panoply: above plus armguard, forearm guard, belt, thigh piece, ankle guard, foot guard

Front 93

hoplite shield

Back 93

-convex wooden disc
-bronze overlay
-picked their own decorations (except Spartans) - Gorgon popular

Front 94

hoplite cuirass

Back 94

-front & back pieces
-solid bronze
-linothorax underneath

Front 95

hoplite helmet

Back 95

-Corinthian helmet late 6th-early 5th century BCE
-beards to protect chafing?

Front 96

Spartan superiority

Back 96

-regular training together & bonding in syssitia
-uniformity of panoply
-distinctive Spartan shield with lambda
-scarlet cloak (enemy couldn't tell when bleeding?)
-all looked the same

Front 97

Ephialtes

Back 97

-from Trachis (central Greece)
-eugenics (throwing deformed babies off cliff)
-Greek collusion (conspiracy)
-not deformed
-Spartan bounty on his head (led Persians around back)

Front 98

hoplite tactics

Back 98

phalanx or monomachia (single combat)

Front 99

Spartan male society

Back 99

-agoge
-krypteia
-syssitia
-homoioi reserves

Front 100

agoge

Back 100

7-17
treated brutally, forced to steal food to survive

Front 101

krypteia

Back 101

18-20
secret police force
encouraged to kill slaves that looked like they might rebel

Front 102

syssitia

Back 102

21-30
mess hall
slept & ate together, continued to eat there until age 60

Front 103

homoioi reserves

Back 103

31-60
ones with same values

Front 104

2 ways to die serving state (Sparta)

Back 104

men - battle
women - in childbirth

Front 105

Spartan female society

Back 105

-property rights
-sexual rights
-education
-sports (thought immodest by other Greeks)

Front 106

Spartan sexuality

Back 106

-Athenian boy-lovers?
-no home life until 30
-mess hall cold at night
-slept in communal beds
-encouraged young-old man love
-thought if you fought beside gay lover, you'd fight harder to protect him
-if man infertile, had to find another to produce children

Front 107

Xerxes

Back 107

-reliefs at Persepolis
-heavily bearded
-enlightened ruler (female admiral, liberal society)

Front 108

immortals

Back 108

always 10,000 - replaced when one died

Front 109

Spartan government

Back 109

-5 ephors elected from Spartiate class for 1 year
-2 hereditary kings w/equal authority
-Gerousia (council of 29 elders over 65, elected for life, usually from "royal households" + the 2 kings)
-Damos – citizen assembly

Front 110

Spartans as defenders of freedom?

Back 110

-"Dorian invasion"
-took over Laconia & Messenia
-Spartiates - pure born settlers
-perioeci - merchants
-helots (agricultural serfs) - brutally suppressed (Sparta had to be very military to protect from uprisings)
-krypteia
-kings