Section+5-1+Cultures+of+the+Mountain+and+the+Sea

Key Words:

 * __Trojan War__: A ten year war between Mycenaeans and Troy.
 * __Epic__: Narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds.
 * //__Arete__//: A Greek Heroic idea, means virtue and excellence.
 * __Myth__:

Key People:

 * __Mycenaean__: The civilization in Ancient Greek, named after their capital Mycenae.
 * __Heinrich Schliemann__: German archeologist that discovered that Trojan War was true in the 1870s.
 * __Dorian__: 2nd civilization in Greece, and since they spoke a similar Greek language, believed to be cousins of Bronze Age Greeks.
 * __Homer__: A blind story teller, created many epics.

**Geography Shapes Greek Life:**

 * Ancient Greece: mainly mountains, peninsula, Mediterranean Sea, 2,000+ islands in Aegean and Ionian Seas, all of which effected Greece's culture.
 * The Sea:**
 * Sea formed life style: used Black, Aegean, and Ionian Seas as transportation and trading, especially for natural resources, skilled sailors.
 * The Land:**
 * 3/4ths of Greece was mountains, going down the Balkan Peninsula, forcing Greece to create small independent communities.
 * Uneven terrain made transportation difficult, only dirt paths.
 * Land: stony, little fertile, farmable land, with little fresh water and because of that, never able to have more then a few million people living in Greece at one time.
 * The Climate:**
 * In the winter-about 48 degrees F, in the summer-about 80 degrees F, allowed outdoor public, and private, events more popular.

**Mycenaean Civilization Develops:**

 * As Indo-Europeans migrated, a group landed in Greece around 2,000 B.C. named Mycenaean.
 * Their capital Mycenae was located in southern Greece, and had a wall 20 feet thick, warrior-kings, ruled surrounding farms, villages, and cities, ruled from 1600 to 1100 B.C.
 * Contact with Minoans:**
 * Mycenaeans started seaborne trade after meeting the Minoans civilization (from trade or war) in 1500 B.C. and started in Mediterranean Sea, coast and islands.
 * Minoans also helped with developing writing, decorating vases (Minoans designs), religions, art, politics, and literature.
 * The Trojan War:**
 * Troy, a trading city near Anatolia, fought a ten year war against Mycenaean because Troy kidnapped Helen, a beautiful Greek Queen.
 * Believed to be a myth until 1870 a German archeologist discovered remains that may have from this war, in 1900s this was confirmed, still uncertain of details.

**Greek Cultures Declines Under Dorians:**

 * Mycenaean collapsed after Trojan War: 1200 B.C. Dorians moved in after sea raiders tore up Mycenaean cities.
 * Little known from this period since no document written between 1150 and 75 B.C., Dorians far less advanced and the economy collapsed and trading stopped.
 * Epics of Homer:**
 * Without written language, history spoken through spoken words, one of the most famous story tellers was Homer who created his epics between 750 and 700 B.C.
 * A Trojan War epic: //Ilaid//, with warriors Achilles and Hector of Troy, drama was Hector's wife begging him not to go.
 * Greeks Creates Myths**:
 * Greeks made myths, came from Homer's epics and the epic //Theogony// by Hesoid, these myths helped understand natures' and humans' powers and passions.
 * Gave Greeks emotions for their gods, worshiped them, many stories about their lives on Mount. Olympus, Athena was the guardian of cities, Athens named after her.