Mr. Brown

Greek history and culture

(Source: Dr. James Dixon, Grove City College)

I. Bards: wandering poets and minstrels who orally presented heroic poetry to people at a pre-literate level of civilization.A. The "mini-series" approachB. Possibly memorized word for word (Homer's poetry = over 25,000 lines)

II. Homer:A. Epic: a long narrative poem telling the deeds of a legendary or historical hero

Iliad: Achilles in the Trojan War

Odyssey: the tale of Odysseus

II. Homer: (continued)

B. Work was not written down until around 535 B.C. in Athens

C. Blind(?) genius: human nature, language, geography

II. Homer: (continued)D. Greeks had two things in common: their language and HomerE. Bible for Greek civilization: education, entertainment, legal, literature, language, morality, history, behaviorF. Homer introduced the Greek deities

III. Greek gods and goddesses1. Representations of nature and man

a. Zeus: Ruler of the godsb. Apollo: Music, poetry, reason,

archery, disease+healingc. Ares: Ward. Hermes: Messenger of the gods

III. Greek gods and goddesses (con’t)

e. Poseidon: Ocean and earthquakes

f. Athena: Wisdom and war

g. Hades: Underworld

III. Greek gods and goddesses (con’t)

h. Aphrodite: Love

i. Dionysus: Wine and wild behavior

j. Hera: Zeus’s wife

III. Greek gods and goddesses (con’t)

2. Family quarrels

3. Gods take sides in the affairs of humans

III. Greek gods and goddesses (con’t)

4. Gods are beyond good and evil

a. good = strength, skill,intelligence

b. evil = weakness, stupidity, sloppy craftsmanship, etc.

G. Homer had a HUGE impact on

Western Civilization

H. Introduced concept of Arete

1. The essential idea for Greek civilization: the drive for excellence

2. Traditionally translated as "virtue,“ "goodness," "excellence" but not limited to morality

H. Introduced concept of Arete (con’t)

3. Everything can have arete: art, literature, trees, cows...

4. Most important: Be an excellent

human being

H. Arete (continued)

5. Honor, intelligence, passion,individualism, heroism, effectiveness, and balance

6. Human actions are of paramount importance = be "godlike"

I. Civilization vs. barbarism: the polis

Polis:

1. No unified Greek government

2. Independent city-states: "polis"

("politics")

I. The polis (con’t)

3. Polis = center of Greek life –encompassed gov't, work, entertainment, education, etc.

4. Each polis was originally a monarchy but evolved toward democracy.

I. The polis (con’t)

5. Arete: all should have a say in gov’t

a. everyone should have a say in public business

b. everyone should have a private life

c. people should rise on the basis of personal merits

I. The polis (con’t)

6. Greeks vs. barbarians: barbarians had no polis