Introduction

Land of Greece: general size, climate, & features

Food & Livestock: basic foods and animals

When, roughly, was Crete settled?

Four main periods of the Minoan Bronze Age? Their chief characteristics? How did they end?

"Palaces:" function, who lived in them, amenities, purposes of the central courtyard?

Religion: whom did they worship, where did they worship, importance of animals?

What type of writing system did they have? Deciphered?

What is their art like? Themes?

What are the main periods of the mainland Bronze Age and their chief characteristics? How did they end?

Who are the Indo-Europeans and their relationship with Greece?

Palaces & Cities: different from Minoan, who lived in them, & amenities, the purposes of the megaron?

Religion: whom did they worship, where did they worship, types of sacrifices or offerings?

Writing system? Significance?

What do we know from the written remains about:their political system, their social system, their military system?

What is their art like? Themes? Like Minoan? Different from Minoan

How did the Mycenaean age end? What are some of the various theories and their supporting facts?

• What are the salient points for this time period?
• What is the architecture like? Significance? What is their art like? Themes?
• What are the political structure and the social structure like?
• What do these terms refer to: basileus, genos, oikos, kleos, arete, time, aidos?

• The Iliad and the Odyssey
• Immortals: Like humans? Different from humans? How do they communicate with humans? Act justly? Differences between poems? Who are Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Poseidon, Athena, &Thetis, and how are they important to the action in the Iliad and/or the Odyssey?
• Mortals: Who are Achilles, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Helen, Patroclus, Chryseis, Briseis, Priam, Hector, Andromache, Paris, Thersites (Kebric), Telemachus, Odysseus, Penelope, Antinous, Eurylochus, Eurycleia, and Eumaeus?
• The Heroic Code: Describe the Heroic Code: aim, key terms, ways to achieve, position of material possessions, & appearance. How does Achilles’ actions reflect the Heroic Code? How does Odysseus’ actions reflect the Heroic Code?
• Xenia: Describe xenia. What deity is in charge of xenia? Examine the meeting of Priam and Achilles in regard to xenia. How/why is xenia important for the maturation of Telemachus? For what happens to the suitors?

• Orientalizing Period
• What are the various aspects of Greek civilization that this contact with the East changed and how did these aspects change?
• Ways/areas literacy changed Greek civilization?
• Warfare
• What were the changes in military equipment?
• What were the changes in military tactics?
• How did these changes affect other topics listed here?
• The Polis
• What are the key elements in the definition of the polis?
• What is synoikism and why is it important to the formation of the polis?
• What common qualities did the Greek polis have with the Pheonician cities?
• How was the polis afftected by the other topics listed here?
• Colonization
• What areas were colonized? Why did it cease?
• Steps involved in colonization: What are the factors which influenced the choice of a site? Describe the leader-who was he and what was his role? 1st Colonists—who were they and what did they gain? How did some relate to the ‘natives?’ Women? Later colonists?
• How did colonization affect life on the mainland?
• Tyranny
• Defn. of tyranny, how long did a tyranny last in an individual polis, who typically became tyrants, how did they rule, and why did tyranny arise?
• How did tyranny affect the polis and Greek religion?
• Archaic Age Literature
• What do the poems of Archilochus and the poem of Tyrtaeus tell us about how the "Heroic/Homeric" Code has been transformed, adapted, abandoned in the Archaic Age and why?
• What does the poetry of Archilochus, Alcaeus, Mimnermus, Ibycus, Anacreon, and Sappho tell us about women in the Archaic Age?
• What can we learn from the examples of greek humor provided in Kebric, Ch. 1?
• Who are Hesiod, Thales, Xenophanes, and what did they do?
• Pan-hellenic institutions
• Sanctuary sites (e.g. Delphi) what were they and why were they important?
• The "big four:"  Names, how often held, prizes at games, prizes when victor's got home? What did the sponsors of chariot and horse races gain? What happened to cheaters? Deities associated with the "major" major games?
• The Olympic games: Program for the 5 days? How religious? What is an agon & how does it relate to the heroic code? what was the origin of many of the contests? Competitors: who originally,  amateur? professional? Spectators--who, conditions, who not?
• Minor Games: an example, prizes, eventual number?
• The Gymnasium-defn, funding, importance
• Sexuality
• Male/male relationship: what were the restrictions placed on citizen to citizen relationships? citizen to slave relations? what function did it serve for the polis? how was it affirmed in Greek myth?
• Female/female? Male/female--marriage ages?, "love"?

1) Politics. Trace the development of the governmental structure from the Mycenaean Age, through the Dark Age, and to the end of the Archaic Age, focusing specifically on the role of the non-aristocrats. You should also present some of the reasons why the governmental structure changed.

2) East/West. Some scholars have postulated that the genius of Greek civilization lay in how it adapted what it got from its eastern neighbors. Discuss with respect to the Mycenaean Age and the Archaic Age.

3) Society. Compare and contrast the relationship between "significant others" in both the late Dark Age, as evidenced in Homer's works, and the Archaic Age, as evidenced in the archaic poets we have studied.