Early Aegean Civilization
October 3, 2007
Minoans
Ca. 2000-1200 B.C.
 Based on Crete
 Palace at Knossos
 Discovered by Arthur
Evans

Minoans (2)

Seafaring Culture
Commercial economy
 Trade with Egypt
 Relatively peaceful


King and bureaucracy
Minoans (3)

Minoans in Greek myth
King Minos and Labyrinth
 Theseus myth


Sudden collapse
Thera?
 Mycenaeans?

Mycenaeans
Ca. 1600-1100 B.C.
 Inhabited the Greek
mainland
 Numerous monarchies
based in hill fortresses,
palace complexes

Heinrich Schliemann
 Amateur
archeologist
 Was convinced Greek epics were grounded in fact
 Excavations
 Mycenae
 Troy
Mycenaean Culture
Violent—frequent warfare
 Art (pottery, weapons)
 Trojan War (12th c.?)
 Peak – 1400-1200
 Collapse around 1100

Homer: The Poet
 The
importance of the poet in the city
 Was Homer a real person?
 Head of the literary tradition for Western
civilization
 Iliad and Odyssey: the Greeks’ “Bible”
Iliad: Plot
 Background
 Judgment
of Paris
 Seduction of Helen
 Achaean invasion of Troy
 Achilles
and Agamemnon quarrel
 Achilles leaves the fighting
Iliad: Plot (2)
 Desperation
of Achaeans
 Patroclus rallies Achaeans but is killed
 Achilles reenters fight, kills Hector, desecrates
body
 Priam begs for Hector’s body, Achilles gives in
 Aftermath: Trojan Horse, Death of Achilles
Characters of the Iliad

Achilles

Hector

Agamemnon
Themes in The Iliad
Warfare
 Honor and Glory
 “Immortality”
 Fate
 The gods
 Achilles Shield
