More on Greece

Geography
Mountainous Peninsula
      3/4 of Greece
Approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas
-Location shaped its culture
-Skilled sailors
-Poor natural resources
-Difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain; developed small; independent communities
-Approximately 20% suitable for farming
-Fertile valleys cover 1/4 of peninsula
-Because of geography the Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, and olives
-Lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
-Temperatures range from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer

Mycenaean's
Began around 2000B.C.
-Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20 ft. thick wall
-Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600 to 1200 B.C.
            controlled trade in the region
-1400 B.C. Mycenaean's invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture and language
"Mediterania"-the middle of the earth

Culture in Decline
-Around 1200 B.C. sea people began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace
-The Dorian's moved into the war-torn region
  -far less advanced                                                              <<<<<Dark Ages
  -economy collapsed
  -writing disappeared for 400 years

Homer and Myths
-Stories were passed on by word of mouth
-Homer lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages"
-Recorded stories of the Trojan War in the Iliad and The Odyssey
    -Trojan war was probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaean's
    -Odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter
-The Iliad was an epic poem and was written in verse and it was huge