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 kindly/cruelly? Unjustly/justly? Near/Far? 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, Telemachus, Odysseus, Penelope, Antinous, Eurylochus, Eurycleia, and Eumaeus?
• The Heroic/Homeric 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 Polyphemus? The suitors?

• Causes of disease: What are some types of divine causes? Of natural causes? Medical theories about causes?
  
• Treatments of disease: Types? How based on causes?
  
• Treators of disease: 5 main types? Where could one buy medicines?
• Physicians: how trained? whom did they not treat? Gk. doctors would be the equivalent to what medical professionals today? What group of people did they belong to and consequences of this? Physicians mentioned in the Iliad?
  
• Deities associated with healing?

1. Heroic Code: Examine how both Achilles and Odysseus act within and without the confines of the Heroic Code. Make sure you start with a brief, but complete definition of the Heroic Code. (FYI better essays have examples from several books from each poem; in this case you may either treat Achilles and Odysseus together or separately)

2.  Religion: As part of an oral tradition, the Homeric poems are reflective both of the Dark Age and of the times before the Dark Age.  Show how the Homeric deities (or Homeric religious practices) in many ways reflect a continuous tradition that goes back as far as the Mycenaean culture (and perhaps as far back as the Minoan culture), but also in many ways do not. (FYI: better essays have examples from both poems and several books from each poem; better essays are also synthesis papers)