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?

1. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, we have seen how there is a difference between what "commoners" are expected to do in assembly meetings and what "nobles or chiefs" are expected to do (or can do). Is this true for "commoner" women and "upper-class" women in the Iliad and the Odyssey as well?

2. Pomeroy notes that xenia played an important role in Greek foreign relations (p 49)--in fact, others have noted that the allies in a pan-Greek war towards the end of the "Dark Age" were based on guest friendships. In your essay, compare and contrast the examples of xenia in the selections of the Odyssey which we have read, along with the meetings of Odysseus and the priest Chryses in book 1 of the Iliad and Achilles and Priam in book 24 of the Iliad. In your essay also hypothesize how these examples of xenia would impact the particular foreign relations of those involved.

3. George F. Will noted that an underlying assumption within the US is a belief that "a particular kind of civic order -- democracy, representation, the rule of law, a large sphere of privacy and individual autonomy -- is right for the fulfillment of human nature" ("Grand Delusions," Washington Post, Sept 30, 2004--registration required). Argue which, if any, of these mesh with what the evidence from the Iliad and the Odyssey suggests as the underlying assumptions of the "Dark Age" Greeks.