Greek Culture：
Two Major Elements of European Culture
☐The Greco-Roman Element
Parthenon：the chief temple of the goddess Athena( the goddess of wisdom, arts and warfare) built on the acropolis at Athens
She-wolf: Romulus & Remus
the Colosseum: gladiator
☐The Judeo-Christian Element
menorah
Greek Culture
☐Historical Context
☐Social and Political Structure
☐Literature
☐Philosophy
☐Lasting Effect
Historical Context:
Trojan War (1,200 B.C.)
The Trojan War broke out at the end of the Mycenaean Civilization. All the city-states in Mycenae sent troops to help form a coalition army for the battles. Not long after the war, the Dorians from the northwest of Greece invaded and destroyed Mycenae in about the 12th–11th centuries BC.
The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord,
marked ―for the fairest‖. Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as ―the fairest‖, should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae and the brother of Helen’s husband Menelaus, waged a war against Troy.
☐Direct Fuse: the stolen wife
☐Root Cause: ambition to conquer the world
Leaders on Both Sides
The Trojan: Priam, Hector, Paris
The Greek: Menelaus, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Achilles, Patroclus, Ajax
Consequences of the War
☐Burning of Troy
Establishment of Rome: Virgil: Aeneid
Greek mythology:
Mount Olympus:the ―home of the gods‖. The deities who dwelled on this mountain were ruled by Zeus, included his wife, his brothers, his sisters and his children.
The Olympian Gods
Zeus(宙斯): the heavenly king of the gods and ruler of mankind
Poseidon(波塞冬): the moody god of the seas
Hades(哈得斯): the gloomy god of the underworld
Hestia (赫斯提): the calm goddess of the hearth
Hera（赫拉）: the mature goddess of the family; sister & wife of Zeus
Ares(阿瑞斯): the fierce god of the war
Athena(雅典娜): the sophisticated goddess of wisdom and arts
Apollo(阿波罗): the youthful god of the sun and the music
Aphrodite(阿芙罗狄蒂): the sensual goddess of love and beauty
Hermes(赫尔墨斯): the cunning god of the trade
Artemis (阿耳特弥斯): the wild goddess of the hunt
Hephaestus (赫菲斯托斯): the ill-favored god of metallurgy
Prosperity of Greek Culture (5th century B.C.)
☐Repulse of the Persian Invasion: the pass of Thermopylae (480 B.C.)
☐The establishment of democracy
☐The flourisng of science, philosophy, literature, art and historical writing in Athens
The Persian Invasion
Spartans: Leonidas, the King
Persian: Xerxes
☐Stranger; take word to Sparta:
here we lie, obeying her orders.
-------- Herodotus, Father of History
Alexander, King of Macedon(4th century B. C.)
☐Unification of all Greece
☐Conquest of Europe, Asia and Africa
