Ccis 396

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The complex plan of the palace at Cnossus suggests the historical basis for the legend of the labyrinth and the slaying of the Minotaur by Theseus.

The Minoans: Earliest civilization to rise in Greece.

Peaked from 1600-1400 BCE

Thalassocracy

Nature and Great Goddess

A great island culture that vanished into the sea; conflict between Atlantis and Attica for control of the sea had broken out when earthquake and flood caused the astonishing disappearance of Atlantis.

Mycenaean encroachment

8. Identify the geography and timeframe of the Mycenaean civilization and recognize its basic political and social structure and its influence upon the development of myth.

Mycenaeans: Flourished from about 1600-1100 BCE on mainland Greece

Argos, Knossos, Pylos were seats of power

Warlike

Controlled land and sea

Male dominated pantheon

Linear B

Role: These are the last race of heroes in Ancient Greek Myth

Agamemnon and Troy

Lasting impact on future Greek Literature.

9. Identify Heinreich Schliemann and recognize the basic historical facts behind the Trojan War that his initial excavations and subsequent modern digs have uncovered.

Heinrich Schliemann: Inspired by Homer’s lliad and Ancient Greek culture

Happy Hour!

Believed a historical basis for the war at Troy

Discovered Mycenae, Tyrins, and Troy

The excavation of Hisarlik by Schliemann led to other excavations by Dorpfeld and Korfmann in the 20th century

9 settlements were discovered, aptly named Troy I-IX

These settlements range in date from as early as 2920 BCE to 500 CE

Troy II

Schliemann helped excavate the location now called Troy II and insisted that he had found the home of Priam and the Trojan War.

Good candidate? Gold, Citadel, walled city

Date: 2600-2450

Troy VI and VII

The work of Dorpfeld suggests that Troy VI (1700-1200 BCE) is the location of the Trojan War

Blegen’s work, however, suggests that Troy VII (1250-1040 BCE)

Both show destruction and an attempt to rebuild

Troy: center of commerce and influence, was part a devastating war, fits literary descriptions of the city and surrounding habitations.

Timeline:

1050-750: Dark Age

750-479: Archaic Period

-Homer, Iliad, Odyssey

-Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days

-Some Homeric Hymns

479-323: Classical Period

-Three tragedians from Athens

Aeschylus

Sophocles

Euripides

323-31: Hellenistic Period

-Alexandria, in Egypt

31 BC-5th Century AD: Roman Period

Vergil

Ovid

Chapter 3:

10. Identify Hesiod as a mythographer, recognize the important facts about his life and identify the two works for which he is best known.

Hesiod

Lived sometime around 750-650 BCE

First major figure in Greek literature along with Homer, who “wrote” in the century before

An actual bona fide person

Author of Works and Days and Theogony

Hesiod, Theogony (~700 BC) Theos + Gonos = birth of gods

11. Recognize the role of Chaos in creation as told in Hesiod, Ovid and Aristophanes.

Hesiod: yawning void, possibly the first principle; came from nothing OR always existed before creation

Ovid: all elements compressed into an amalgam, a mass that contains all possible forms warring in strife with one another

Aristophanes’ creation narrative:

Instead of having Gaia as a primordial deity, Eros is the cause of all procreation after Chaos, Night, Erebus, and Tartarus come into being

Chaos simply exists at the beginning of time and Eros drives the rest of creation

12. Recognize the significance of the union of Uranos and Ge and identify their offspring.

Uranus/Ouranos: The starry sky, Atmosphere of “Earth”, sacred Union of heaven and earth, Rain?

Ge m. Uranus

12 Titans, Cyclopes, Hecatonchires

13. Recognize the basic outline and important events of the Phaethon myth.

Phaethon, Son of Helius. A well-known story concerns Phaethon, the son of Helius by one of his mistresses, Clymene. Phaethon was chanllenged by the accusation that the Sun was not his real father at all. His mother, Clymene, however, swore to him that he was truly the child of Helius and told him that he should, if he