-
Tried to honor their gods by imitating them.
-
Each city state worshiped its own gods.
-
Greek (GR) priests and priestesses served as oracles that communicated
with the Gods and could predict the future with prophecies.
Gods
and Goddesses of
-
12 major gods had different duties.
-
GR believed in the importance of the individual person unlike earlier
peoples.
-
They built temples with statues and altars and believed that the gods
lived in the temple.
-
Different kinds of festivals were held to honor gods.
-
See chart for different roles of gods on pg. 181.
The
Olympic Games
-
Occurred once every 4 years & held to honor Zeus at
-
Most important sporting event in
-
Athletes came from all over different parts of GR world.
-
Only men were allowed to take part and women couldn’t watch.
-
Different events included: chariot racing, boxing, pancratium (no rules
combination of boxing and wrestling), and the 5 event pentathlon.
-
Herodotus was GR who was considered the “Father of History”.
The
Theater
-
Theater started from festival to honor the god Dionysus.
-
Started using mostly a chorus (group of singers which told a story) and
sometimes had a soliloquy (one person speaking to the audience).
-
The chorus became less important and the soliloquies became more
important in time.
-
Aeschylus (a GR poet) started adding more characters and the created
the play.
-
One type of play was a tragedy, which was a story about suffering and
dealt with people and the gods and events that happened in the past.
-
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes were all famous writers of
tragedies.
-
Comedies were developed later and were about the present.
-
The greatest writer of comedies was Aristophanes.
-
Plays were performed at festivals and only men could act in them
-
The actors wore large masks
-
Plays were free and the state supported putting them on by helping
funding them.
-
GR emphasized the ability to reason and learn.
-
The study of nature and wisdom was called philosophia that is the root
for philosophy.
Socrates
-
Socrates was a great thinkers who was put on trial when he was 70 years
old in
-
He tried to teach people how to think step by step.
-
This methods of questioning was called the Socratic method.
-
Some liked Socrates’ teachings, but others thought they were a threat
to society.
-
The people who didn’t like him put him on trial for trying to overthrow
the government, not believing in the gods, and corrupting the young.
-
He was found guilty and was forced to drink hemlock ( a poison) and
died.
Plato
-
Plato recorded all that we know about Socrates including some of his
speeches.
-
Plato set up a special school that was to train leaders called the
Academy.
-
Plato thought that only the wise and good should rule.
-
He wrote about his ideal state in “The Republic”.
-
This was the first book on political science (the theory of politics
and study of government.
Aristotle
-
He was one of Plato’s students and he became a teacher.
-
Aristotle believed that by paying close attention, the world could be
classified into different categories.
-
Aristotle used the scientific method, which meant that a person
collected information came up with a hypothesis (possible explanation) and then
tried to test it.
-
Aristotle also developed syllogisms, which where a type of logical
statement.
Discoveries
and Inventions
-
Greeks made important discoveries without modern day tools.
-
They were able to determine some natural laws that govern the world.
-
See chart on Pg. 189.
-
Greeks were first to develop the science of medicine.
-
Hippocrates is still known as the “Father of Scientific Medicine” since
he started looking for natural causes instead of spirits as causing illness.
-
Hippocrates had a list of rules for doctors to follow which is still
followed today it included: taking care of the sick, honoring teachers, to
never give poisons, and to keep patients secrets.