Hello to all of you! I have come to tell you a story about my fabulous peoples, the ancient Greeks! It is a story of many civilizations who, in time, became one. They were all very different, but they all had in common one thing, the love, respect and NEED for water.
I will begin my story 4000 years ago in a place called 3 Knossus was the center of a great Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. It was the first civilization to be established in what is now known as Europe. If you look at the map on page 257 of your history book, you can see that Crete is DEFINITELY an island.
The Minoans had a very sophisticated culture, to be sure. Because they were surrounded by water, guess what they built? That’s right, boats!! With those boats, they cruised around the Mediterranean Sea, loaded with goodies like wood, olive oil and beautiful pottery. They brought wood to the ancient Egyptians (who were TOTALLY without trees) and, in turn, learned writing from the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians! These Minoan people liked festivals and bull fights. I understand that some peoples in your world today also like bull fights, but your teacher is not one of them! However, the Minoan civilization disappeared around 1400 B.C. Your scientists and archaeologists do not know why, but they think it was from a huge volcano erupting. Now that could end a civilization quickly!
After the Minoans were gone, a new group of people called the Mycenaeans developed. The Minoans didn’t speak Greek, but the Mycenaeans did. The Mycenaeans, however, were very VIOLENT people. Some think that they even attacked a city called Troy, and started the Trojan Wars. After fighting the Trojan Wars, one name became a legend in Greek mythology! His name was Ulysses, and I think you’re going to read a fantastic myth about this larger-than-life hero! When you read it, I think you will agree that this is a myth, and not a true story!
After the Mycenaeans civilization crumbled (I mean, if all they’re going to do is use violence, then eventually they’re going to be gone!), the remaining Greeks thought, “Wow, we better do something to make ourselves safe!” Wouldn’t you? So, they started to cluster together in settlements called city-states. Each city-state had a fortress on a tall hill. A tall hill is Greek is called an “acropolis”. The towns around the each acropolis were walled in, and everyone felt a lot safer! Some people chose to live outside of the walls, but they figured that, if attacked, they could all make a run and get inside the walls and be safe!!
These city-states were the start of Greek civilization. They each had a ruler, their own money, and their own rules! But ALL of the Greek city-states shared three important things for a civilization: a common language, the belief in the same gods and goddesses, and the same stories and myths. I understand you are now learning about these myths, because “A MYTH A DAY KEEPS IGNORANCE AWAY”. Now what brilliant person came up with that saying? Did you know that a fellow named Aesop was one of the most famous Greek storytellers? Your teacher has found a TRULY WONDERFUL SITE on this thing called the Internet, and it is now that my story will stop for a day or two while you review your history book and explore some of Aesop’s wonderful fables in both traditional and modern style!!! Remember, a fable is a story with a moral, or a lesson in life, so you’ll probably learn a lot of lessons before I return! I’ll want to know some of them!
STOP HERE AND REVIEW PAGES 254-261 AND PAGES 268-275
NEXT GO TO THE WEBSITE AND READ BOTH TRADITIONAL AND MODERN STYLE FABLES!
http://www.umass.edu/aesop/index.php
Hello again! Before I continue my story, I would like for all of you to write one of the lessons about life that you learned on that funny white board that you have in front of you. Don’t worry about writing it in Greek! I’m a very special guest speaker and have a hidden translator in my brain, so I can read your English (if your spelling is correct!)
Now, we go on with my story! The ancient Greeks learned to write, make pottery and construct statues from the Minoans, and, like the Minoans, the Greeks were absolutely awesome sailors! They built ships from the trees that grew on the mountains of Greece, and they sailed to other lands and islands to establish colonies, or to simply conquer the people there and add riches to the government!
The ancient Greeks had many great leaders. In Athens, a man named Cleisthenes was called the Father of Democracy. He would gather citizens on a hillside and talk about politics. He would then ask them to vote, either secretly or with ballots made of black and white rocks! Just as today, when your people are called for Jury Duty, many citizens wanted to work instead of vote. So, the story is told that slaves walked through the market place with a rope soaking in red paint. Anyone whose clothing was touched by the red paint had to hightail it up to the hillside in time to vote! Cleisthenes also put in courts and juries. The juries always had an odd number of members to avoid ties. I think in your world, juries are made up of 12 people, so jury ties are quite common! Now I am going to stop my story so that you can compare, by reading in your history book, your form of democracy and Athens form of democracy. You’ll be able to decide which you like the best, and why!
STOP AND READ PAGES 262-267. THEN DO THE HISTORY ALIVE ACTIVITY ON OLIGARCHY, TYRANNY AND DEMOCRACY. WHICH FORM OF GOVERNMENT DO YOU LIKE THE BEST? I HOPE YOU DON’T CHOOSE TYRANNY!
Now, the Greeks themselves were not truly safe from the armies of other countries who existed at the same time. The Persians (now known as Iran), were never satisfied with the land they held. They wanted more, more and MORE!
The Persians had two great leaders. One was called Cyrus the Great, because the people he conquered really thought he was great! Why,you ask? O.K. I’ll answer! It is because he allowed them to keep their own customs. So, even though he conquered huge areas of Southwest Asia and even Mesopotamia, he was still very popular. He developed a cavalry, and charged in on horses! I think your country used this technique long ago, also!
The second great leader was named Darius. He took over control right after Persia conquered Egypt (yes, they did!). He was big on taxes, and starting a new religion, but he got VERY angry with the Greeks because they refused to be Persian. So, he decided to take them on, thinking that the Greeks were neither skilled enough nor SMART enough to fight the Persians off. SURPRISE! In one of the most famous battles, called the battle of Marathon, the Greeks, although outnumbered TWO to ONE, defeated the Persians. They did this by running a lot! You see, a warrior had to run 26.4 miles to warn of the Persians attack. He ran from Athens to a city called Marathon, and THAT is where the term we use today for a long run, called a marathon, comes from! This battle started the war called the Persian Wars. SIGH! You can see that people have been solving problems with war for a long time. Maybe all of you here in this classroom will be able to think of a different way to solve problems in the world!
The Persians were REALLY TICKED OFF about this defeat, so the Persian king names Xerxes sent another huge army to Athens and proceeded to absolutely destroy that beautiful city. Now, to totally burn down a gorgeous city, such as San Francisco, is a terrible deed, so I will refer to this leader as Xerxes the Jerk!! The Greeks were forced to leave Athens and seek safety on the island of Salamis. King Xerxes (the Jerk) then sent his army to the island of Salamis to finish the job, but the Greeks used their heads and their boats to once again defeat the Persians. By doing this, the Greeks saved Greece from becoming part of the Persian Empire. HOORAY!
When the Greeks returned to their beautiful city-state named Athens following the battle of Salamis, they found the place in absolute ruins. It took them many years to rebuild their city-state, but eventually Athens became the most beautiful and important city-state in Greece. Here, let me show you some pictures of beautiful Athens. Well, let me rephrase that. These pictures will show you how beautiful Athens WAS! Remember, what you’ll be looking at is very, very ancient. Walls have crumbled due to age and even due to air pollution. So, when you look at these pictures, use your imagination and try to see them in all their past glory!
http://www.greecepicturetour.com/athens.html
For the ancient Greeks, this time was called the Golden Age of Greece, and about 200 city-states turned to Athens for leadership and protection. Athens became the center of the most advanced civilization the ancient world had ever known!! During this Golden Age, the Greek people enjoyed art, music, theater, and, of course, books. They honored people who could read and express themselves, just as your people do today! The Athenians also started games called the Olympic Games. I think you’ve heard of them! The first Olympic Games were only for men, and women could not even attend most of the events, as the participants in the games did not wear clothing! And, of course, as you already learned, the most important thing that had happened to the Athenians is that the government became a democracy.
Now, let me tell you what a day in the life of an ancient Greek person from Athens might be like.
First of all, the men ran the government and spent a great deal of time away from home. When they weren’t involved in politics, these men spent time in the fields, sailing, hunting or trading. For fun, the men enjoyed wrestling, horseback riding and, of course, the famous Olympic Games.
Greek women, however, did not have as much freedom as their fun-loving husbands. They could go outside of the home to attend weddings, funerals, some religious festivals, and they could even visit other female neighbors for a short time. This may not sound very fair to you, but you must remember that, INSIDE the house, the woman was the QUEEN!!! Her job was to run the household and to bear children, but most Greek women did not do the housework themselves. Oh no, most Greek women had slaves to do that. These female slaves cooked, cleaned and worked the fields. There were even male slaves to guard the house.
As I mentioned before, women could not watch most of the Olympic Games, but they could almost participate in one game, chariot racing. You see, if they owned the horse that was being raced by a man, and that horse won, the woman would receive the prize!!
Children were considered to be “youths” until they reached the age of 30!!! Greek Athenian girls stayed at home until they were married. Greek boys, however, go to work in the fields, go sailing and even go fishing. Greek boys started school at the age of 6. Greek children had many toys that you might recognize. Babies had rattles and little clay animals, and toddlers had toys with wheels that could be pulled around. Older children played with yo-yo’s and dolls. Some families even allowed their children to have pets. Some of their pets were birds, dogs, goats, tortoises and even mice. However, NO CHILD was allowed to have a cat as a pet!
All Greek homes were built around the courtyard. There were two or three rooms built of stone, wood or clay bricks. Some larger homes even had a kitchen, a room for bathing, and separate rooms in which men and women could entertain friends. However, it was the courtyard that was the most important to Greek families. Often, they ate there, retold myths and stories, and women sewed there.
The ancient Greeks had many types of food. Their pizza (although they didn’t call it pizza) was just bread, vegetables and crust. They created the crust so that they could take this “pizza” with them when they went to war! For breakfast, the ancient Greeks ate barley cake, the famous barley porridge, grapes, figs and sun-dried grapes. I think you now call them raisins. For lunch, they ate goat cheese, boiled eggs and salted fish. The very rich added wheat bread to this lunch. And, for dinner, in the late evening when the weather had cooled off, they ate chicken, sausage and pidgeon. The poorer people ate lentils, garbanza beans and onions. Sometimes a stew was made of hedgehogs and rabbits. For dessert, they loved pears and pomegranates!
When the men weren’t hanging around talking about politics in the “agora”, or marketplace, they planned and also built beautiful marble buildings featuring columns and capitals on a high hill in Athens called the Acropolis. The Parthenon, a temple built to honor Athena, the goddess for whom the city of Athens was named, was the largest building on the Acropolis. They were such good builders that the Parthenon still stands today for all to see! In addition to all this, Greek men also did other things. For instance, the first real hat was invented by the ancient Greeks. It was called a petasos, and was worn while traveling. Barber shops became popular in ancient Greece, and, like today, was an important place for men to gossip and get news of others.
The life of a child in Athens was very different from the life of a child, especially a boy, in Sparta. The Athenians valued education and the arts, and believed, as you do, that educated people make the best citizens. The Spartans believed that “might makes right”. Boys were taken from their homes at the ripe old age of 7, and trained in the military. It is often said that the terrible food in the Spartan military is what made them such fierce warriers. And, of course, the word in your language, Spartan, meaning simple, plain and basic, is exactly the way these Spartans lived!
STOP HERE . CREATE A 9 SQUARE COMIC DEPICTION OF A DAY IN YOUR LIFE. NOW CREATE A 9 SQUARE COMIC DEPICTION OF A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ANCIENT GREEK CHILD!
Sparta eventually became very jealous of the life that the citizens of Athens were enjoying. I think this happens in your world, too! This jealousy caused war to break out, and for 27 years Sparta and Athens fought until, finally, Sparta defeated Athens. The two city-states were so weakened from this 27 year war that they could no longer defend themselves from outside attackers. You see, even in ancient time, wars had both positive and negative consequences. Other countries figured this out, and soon, King Philip of Macedonia, a country north of Greece, moved in and took over Greek land. Take a look at the map on this thing you call a TV. It will show you exactly where Macedonia was located: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/REGMAP.HTM
Although Athens, with the help of some other city-states joined together to try and stop Philip, nothing worked. King Philip and his son, Alexander, squashed the weakened Athens. Then, just to let the Greeks know that he was truly in power, King Philip organized the city-states into one strong country. He let each city-state rule itself, but he kept the army under his control. After all, a king was nothing unless he had the army backing him up. King Philip planned to use his army to attack Persia, the old enemy of Greece. Remember the battles at sea when the Greeks beat the Persians? Turn to page 301 in your history book and take a look at the map. It will show you exactly where Persia was, at least until Alexander the Great got going!
When the big daddy, King Philip, was killed before attacking Persia, his son, Alexander the Great, became the new king and that’s when he really “got going!” Alexander was only 20 at this time, but his father had taught him well. Alexander and his army of 30,000 soldiers and 5000 horsemen conquered Persia as well as Egypt! Alexander created a great city in Egypt which he named for himself: Alexandria.
http://worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/wonders.htm
Although the lighthouse Alexander built is no longer there, the site still remains one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. Let’s stop now and see a movie about these seven wonders, because your teacher believes that you are now ready to understand them!
STOP HERE AND SEE THE MOVIE! TAKE 4 SQUARE NOTES ON THE MOVIE.
So, back to Alexander, a man who believed that it was his destiny to rule the world. Alexander REALLY admired the Greek culture and wanted to spread this culture over the entire known world. Pretty strange for the son of the man who conquered the Greeks, don’t you think? However, Alexander was known as ALEXANDER THE GREAT because he did great things and believed in great ideas. Big on his list of accomplishments was the desire to create a world in which all people would live in peace, and he thought the Greek way of thinking would do that. Alexander also thought that people from different nations should marry each other as a way to unify people. He also welcomed people of all religions into his army and his lands. He wanted people to be well-educated. Alexander the Great would have LOVED America, don’t you think? So, to sum it all up, Alexander really was GREAT for two main reasons: (1) He conquered so many people that he QUADRUPLED the size of the Greek world and (2) he honored the cultures of all the conquered societies. Even today, in your world, the Greeks speak REVERENTLY of Alexander the Great. When Alexander the Great died at the ripe, old age of 32, his empire was as large as the United States!
STOP HERE AND READ HISTORY BOOK, PAGES 298-302
Remember when I told you that the ancient Greeks invented the first hat? Well, I know that inventing the first hat was not really a huge contribution to the world. But let me tell you about some of the TRUE gifts the ancient Greeks gave to the world. I think you will recognize many of these gifts, and I’m sure you will understand how truly important they are! First, the ancient Greeks gave you TRIAL BY JURY. They also left the world a treasure trove of GREEK MYTHS. A truly incredible gift for the world was the OLMPICS. And, for those of you who love a good play, the Greeks gifted the world with THEATRE and the ever-famous TRAGEDY and COMEDY. Most importantly, the Greeks gave us DEMOCRACY, and you know how important that is after the activity your wise teacher just had you do! You now live in a democracy, and I hope that, after hearing how hard it was to develop it, and the awful alternatives, that you can now truly appreciate what my people, the ancient Greeks, gave to you!
STOP HERE AND READ HISTORY BOOK, PAGES 303-308. WHO WOULD YOU INVITE TO YOUR HOUSE FOR DINNER: SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE , EUCLID OR HIPPOCRATES? WHY?
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