project prep 3/26

Today in class we did more prep for our projects that will be presented on Friday. My group finished out PowerPoint and we are still working on the paper. We will have another class project prep tomorrow so hopefully we will get it finished. I feel like I have learned a lot from doing the research on the gods. I have known a lot about these gods and goddesses, but I have also learned some new facts that I didn’t know which is good. It has been fun but I am excited to present it and get it over with. 

3/25

Today in western civilization we took a test about Greece. I feel like I did pretty well on it. Last night I looked over the PowerPoints and the notes that I took from it and then I also looked on the blog. I feel like I knew most of the questions. The part that I struggled with the most was the map and having to identify where everything was. I thought I knew it, but I doubted myself on some of the answers I put down. Hopefully I will get a good grade on that test to finish out the third quarter. We have been working on our group projects this past week and I am almost finished the part I have to do. We present them starting on Wednesday so I hope my group comes prepared with their information and that we do a good job together. 

class notes 3/21

Today in class we mainly talked about the Persian wars. We looked at a map and how small Greece was compared to the Persian empire. The Persians have a huge army and almost unlimited resources. This war should not take long. The Greek army have iron weapons that were meant ordinary citizens could afford to arm themselves. Foot soldiers also known as hoplites were trained to fight starting at an early age. They were armed with spears, swords and shields. They often fought in phalanx formation. They were considered to have the “home field” advantage. They were very motivated to preserve the democracy. They want to keep it. On the other hand, the Persian army had first archers which did damage from the distance. Then they had cavalry who would disrupt the communication between the generals and the soldiers. They had huge numbers and were far from home. This could kind of be counted as a disadvantage. They had a professional army which included soldiers/ their soldiers were lightly armed with infantry with bows, swords etc.  

class notes 3/20

-      Hippias was a tyrant (someone who simply seizes power) who ruled from 527- 510 BCE

-      His brother was murdered, and his rule became very harsh- he eventually was expelled from Athens. This was called being ostracized.

-      In revenge, he began working with the Persian king parous the first, helping them to invade marathon. This act was called an exaggeration.

-      With Hippias gone, is agoras and Cleisthenes both were aristocrats, engaged in rule

-      Isagorias comes out on top- he becomes archon eponymous. He expels Hippias

-      Everybody revolted against this because they thought that the wrong ruler had been chosen, so they decided to all complain so that they could re vote for the right one.

-      They trap isagoris on the acropolis for two days, on the third he fled and banished

-      Everybody saw some value of tapping into the talents ns energies and intelligence of the non- aristocrat people, sort of like all the middle-class people now a days

-      Too bad they didn’t realize the value of women

-      Citizens would participate, but only one fifth of the people living in Athens were actually citizens, the free adult males that were property owners and born in Athens 

-      *direct democracy*- this is when the people can vote for their rules and laws given

project prep 3/19

today in class we started off with mr. Schick talking about our class schedule for the next week or so as the third quarter closes out. he informed us that today we were going to work in our groups on our projects, tomorrow we will watch more powerpoint on Greece, and we will do the same on Thursday. we will have a test on Greece on Monday. the end of the third quarter is this next Tuesday. (one week from today.) the project will not be due until the beginning of the fourth quarter. he said that we would start presenting them sometime after next Tuesday. today in class i worked on the powerpoint for our project. i am working with Gabe, Kylie, and Stefan. tonight when i get home i am going to finish ending pictures for the powerpoint and maybe take some more notes form. websites to add to out paper or even maybe the powerpoint. then at the end of class he showed us the rubric for the grading of the project. when we present to out classmates, they will have a chance to give us a grade. however, this is not our final grade. mr stick will use those classmate grades to help him grade the project as a group!! this project will count as a grade in the fourth quarter.

video questions

1.    homer composed the Iliad and the Odyssey in the eighth century BCE and this was centuries after the events actually happened.

2.    they were the only ones to survive the burning of the library of Alexandria

3.    metis: skill, cunning

4.    Odysseus announces his real name while sailing away from the Cyclops island and the Cyclops calls down curses on him which gets all of his men killed

5.    Greek meaning of heroism: extraordinary attribute or ability

6.    Odysseus executes all the housemaids for sleeping with the suitors and he's not even married to them

7.    "and so, she too rejoiced, her gaze upon her husband, her white arms around him pressed as though forever

8.    the Iliad is a poem of war, the Odyssey is a poem of peacetime

9.    Kleros: glory, renown achieved on the battlefield that guarantees immortality because of your deeds are so amazing

10.  They weren't for diving intervention the humans in the Odyssey would have continued that cycle of violence

3/13

èPolis- fundamental political unit made up of a city and surrounding countryside

èMonarchy- ruled by a single person (a king; in Greece) 

èAristocracy- rule by a small group of noble, rich, landowning families

èDuring the seventh and sixth centuries BCE aristocrats ran the show in most of Greece- back then, rich people wielded too much move influence in society, and held much more government power. Than the middle class of the poor. This is interesting. 

èAristocrats- members of the class that is ruling over 

èThese people attended these things called symposiums which were meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine and poetry, performing dances and arts with dancers and acrobats. Women were there to entertain the men and to keep them happy.

Politics- an exclusive club

-      No women (except for entertainment)

-      Nobody in the middle class

-      Certainty; no slaves 

èTyrant- someone who rules outside of the framework of the polls 

èModern meaning of tyrant; an abusive or oppressive ruler

èThe Greek meaning of tyrant; someone who simply seized power with some help

3/11

today i was not in class. i left school early for an appointment.

class powerpoint 3/8

Myceneans:

-      Their influence began around 2000 BC

-      Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge on Peloponnesus that was protected by a 20 ft. wall

-      The Mycenean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1100 BC

-      In 1400 BC the Myceneans invaded Crete and absorbed the Minoan culture

Greeks:

-      The Greeks have fought in many wars over a period of time

-      Trojan war- fought in 1200 BC

-      Part of Greek Mythology until the 19^thcentury, most historians thought all of this stuff was fictional because gods and goddesses got invaded by these people

-      The goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera were given the apple of discord

-      Paris judged Aphrodite as “The Fairest” and the others were hurt about this

-      For a while, people questioned if any of these things and events were even real because they all involved gods and goddesses which mythological creatures were. (not real) 

Key rulers for civilization

Key spots and the body of water around them:

-Mesopotamia/ Tigris River 

-Egypt/ Nile River

-India/ Indus River

-China/ Huang He River

Greece’s geography:

-      Note that the significance of Greece’s location 

-      Describe Greece’s topography

-      Look at Greece’s surroundings

Think about how these things would affect the culture?

Questions to think about:

1.    What bodies of water surround all of Greece?

2.    What large island is to the south/ southwest?

-you need to make sure that you can identify the names and places on the maps of certain Rivers, Oceans and Seas (any body of water) that surround Greece or are nearby. 

-Greece is a mountainous peninsula. Mountains cover over three quarters of the area.

-this combination shaped Greece’s culture- they had many skilled sailors and shipbuilders. Also had farmers, metalworkers, weavers and potters. 

-they had poor/ limited natural resources, so they needed to do trading with other cultures

classical greece

 

-      2000 BC- 300 BC

-      A new form of government developed in the Greek city-state of Athens. This form of government allowed the citizens to exercise some power

-      Alexander the great spread Greek culture throughout much of Asia

-      Athens assumed control of a defense league and eventually built it into an empire. Later, alexander conquered the Persian empire and went on to create a new empire

-      Ancient Greece consisted of mainly a mountainous peninsula, jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea. It included about 2,000 islands in the Deegan and Ionian seas.

-      The sea shaped Greek civilization just as rivers shaped ancient civilizations of Egypt, the fertile crescent, and other areas such as India and China.

-      Rugged mountains covered about three-fourths of ancient Greece. The mountain chains ran from mainly the northwest to southeast but sometimes it changed.

Mountains divided the lands into a number of different regions. This significantly influenced the Greek political life. In the ancient times, the uneven terrain also made land transportation difficult. There were only a few roads and they were made of dirt. 

The Nile River

The Nile and the two lands:

Upper Egypt was a 500-mile-long strip of fertile land along the Nile river. Lower Egypt was the wide land of the Nile delta that emptied into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile was the major provider of life for the Egyptians and was much revered in writings. Around 3100 BC the two lands were united all under a single king also known as the Pharaoh. Pharaoh was all powerful, worshiped as a god, and intimately connected to the other major Egyptian gods and goddesses. Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe, which they called “Maat”, personified by the goddess Maat; ideological opposite of the goddess Islet. Pharaohs had multiple wives. All routes to financial of social success were through the palace. Women could inherit money and land and then divorce their husbands after that. 

            God were often portrayed with animal head or bodies. Egyptians believed in an afterlife known as the ka. They mummified the bodies to preserve them for the post- death journey. All souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and they were wither sent to the afterlife paradise (what we would call heaven) or would be sent to be with monsters.

            Early Egyptian writings formed c 3100 BC and were small pictures known as hieroglyphics. Egyptian script was usually written in ink on papyrus, which was made from mashed Nile reeds. Egyptian astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of the seasonal cycles. Due to their excellent knowledge of human astronomy, Egyptian doctors wrote extensively on health issues and created patients and cures for common ailments. Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transportation ability for traveling on and along the Nile River, being mindful of the Cateracts.