Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

• Ancient Greece is called 'the birthplace of Western civilisation'.• Greeks created a way of life that

other people admired and copied. The Romans copied Greek art and Greek gods, for example. The Ancient Greeks tried out democracy, started the Olympic Games and left new ideas in science, art and philosophy.• The Ancient Greeks lived in mainland

Greece and the Greek islands.

What was Ancient Greece like?

• Ancient Greece had a warm, dry climate, as Greece does today.• People lived by farming, fishing,

and trade. Some were soldiers.• Others were scholars, scientists

or artists.• Many Greeks were poor. Life was

hard because farmland, water and timber for building were all scarce.

The Trojan War

• The Trojans lived in the city of Troy, in what is now Turkey.

• a long poem dating from the 700s BC, and said to be by a storyteller named Homer. The Odyssey, also by Homer, is the tale of the adventures of a Greek soldier named Odysseus, after the war.

• The Trojan War began when Paris, Prince of Troy, ran away with Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta.

• The Greeks sent a fleet of ships, with an army, to get her back. The war lasted for 10 years. In single combat, the greatest Greek warrior, Achilles, killed the Trojan leader Hector.

• In the end the Greeks won, by a clever trick using a wooden horse.

Life in Ancient Greece

• Many Greek parents wanted boy children. A son would look after his parents in old age. A daughter went away when she married, and had to take a wedding gift or dowry. This could be expensive, if a family had lots of daughters.• A father could decide whether or not

the family kept a new baby. Unwanted or weak babies were sometimes left to die outdoors. Anyone finding an abandoned baby could adopt it and take it home.

Schools

• At 3, children were given small jugs - a sign that babyhood was over.• Boys went to school at age 7. Girls

were taught at home by their mothers. A few girls learned to read and write, but many did not.• Most Greeks schools had fewer

than 20 boys, and classes were often held outdoors.

What did Greek Children learn?

• Girls learned housework, cooking and skills such as weaving at home.

• Boys at school learned reading, writing, arithmetic, music and poetry. They wrote on wooden tablets covered with soft wax, using a pointed stick called a stylus. They used an abacus, with beads strung on wires or wooden rods, to help with maths.

• Part of their lessons included learning stories and poems by heart.

• Boys did athletics, to keep fit and prepare them for war as soldiers. They ran, jumped, wrestled and practised throwing a spear and a discus. They trained on a sports ground called a gymnasium.

Fun Fact

• Children played Blind Man's Buff, and adults played this game too.

The Olympic Games

• The Olympic Games began over 2,700 years ago in Olympia, in southwest Greece. The Games were part of a religious festival.• The Greek Olympics, thought to have

begun in 776 BC.• The Games were held in honour of

Zeus, king of the gods, and were staged every four years at Olympia, a valley near a city called Elis.• People from all over the world came

to take part.

Zeus

• Visitors to Olympia stared in wonder as they entered the great Temple of Zeus. Inside was a huge statue of the king of the gods, sitting on a throne. People called it one of the Seven Wonders of the World.• It was built about 435 BC, and

no one who made the trip to Olympia missed seeing it.

Events at the Games

• At the first one-day Olympic Games, the only event was a short sprint from one end of the stadium to the other.

• Gradually more events were added to make four days of competitions. They included wrestling, boxing, long jump, throwing the javelin and discus, and chariot racing.

• In the pentathlon, there were five events: running, wrestling, javelin, discus and long jump.

• Winners were given a wreath of leaves, and a hero's welcome back home. Winners might marry rich women, enjoy free meals, invitations to parties, and the best seats in the theatre.

• The running track was much wider than a modern one. Twenty people could run at once.

Women and The Olympic Games

• Only men, boys and unmarried girls were allowed to attend.

• Married women were not allowed into the Olympic Games. Any women caught sneaking in were punished! Women could own horses in the chariot race though.

• Unmarried women had their own festival at Olympia every four years. This was the Heraia, held in honour of Hera, wife of Zeus.

• Winners were awarded crowns of sacred olive branches, the same as men. As a rule Greek women did not go in for sport, unless they were Spartans.

Fun Fact

• Horse races involved lots of falling-off, because Greek riders had no stirrups. It was easier to drive a chariot.

Greek Wars

• The Greek states often fought each other. Sparta and Athens fought a long war, called the Peloponnesian War, from 431 to 404 BC. Sparta won.

• Only the threat of invasion by a foreign enemy made the Greeks forget their quarrels and fight on the same side. Their main enemy was Persia.

• The wars against Persia lasted on and off from 490 to 449 BC. The Persian kings tried to conquer Greece and make it part of the Persian Empire. In the end, it was Greece which defeated Persia, when Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Empire in the 330s BC.

The battle of the Marathon

• The Battle of Marathon was a famous Greek victory against the Persians. About 10,000 Greeks, mostly from Athens, fought an army of 20,000 Persians led by King Darius.

• The Greeks surprised their enemies by charging downhill straight at the Persians.

• Marathon is remembered for the heroism of a Greek named Pheidippides. Before the battle, he'd run for 2 days and nights - over 150 miles (240 km) - from Athens toSparta to fetch help.

• After the battle, he ran 26 miles (42 km) non-stop to Athens, but died as he gasped out the news of victory

• he modern Marathon race is over the same distance as his epic run from Marathon to Athens.

Fun Fact

• Greek ships usually carried 20 or more hoplites (soldiers) for deck-fighting.

Gods

• The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses watched over them. The gods were like humans, but immortal (they lived for ever) and much more powerful.

• A family of gods and goddesses lived in a cloud-palace above Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece The gods looked down to watch what people were doing, and from time to time, interfered with what went on.

• The gods did not always behave very well. Their king, Zeus, was always being unfaithful to his wife Hera. He appeared on Earth as a human or an animal to trick women he had fallen in love with.

Zeus and his Family

• Zeus was king of the gods. He threw thunderbolts to punish anyone who disobeyed him. His brother Poseidon was god of the sea. Another brother, Pluto (also called Hades), ruled the underworld.

• Zeus had many children, among them Apollo, Artemis, Athena and Ares.

• Apollo was the sun god, and the god of the arts, medicine, music and poetry.

• His twin sister Artemis was goddess of the moon, and goddess of childbirth, and of all natural things. She is often shown as a hunter with a bow and arrow.

• Athena was goddess of wisdom, and of crafts such as spinning, weaving and pottery.

• Ares was the bad-tempered god of war - not even his own father liked him!

Fun Fact

• The three-headed dog Cerberus guarded the gates to the Underworld. Funeral mourners left honey cakes for him.

Greek Theatres

• Most Greek cities had a theatre. It was in the open air, and was usually a bowl-shaped arena on a hillside. Some theatres were very big, with room for more than 15,000 people in the audience.

• All the actors were men or boys. Dancers and singers, called the chorus, performed on a flat area called the orchestra.

• Over time, solo actors also took part, and a raised stage became part of the theatre.

• The actors changed costumes in a hut called the "skene". Painting the walls of the hut made the first scenery.

Fun Fact

• There were lots of deaths in Greek plays. But murders and other killings almost always happened off-stage, out of sight of the audience.

Pottery

• The Greeks made pots from clay.• They made small pottery bowls and cups for

drinking, middle-sized pots for carrying and cooking, elegant vases for decoration, and large jars for storing wine and foods.

• Potters in the City states of Corinth and Athens made beautiful pottery. They used a watery clay mixture to make figures or decoration on the clay before it was hard.

• When the pot was baked in a Kiln, the areas painted with the clay mixture turned black. Unpainted areas turned red-brown.

• Black animal figures are typical of Corinthian pottery. Greek potters also made pottery decorated with red figures on a black background.