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Ancient Aegean CulturesCycladicMinoan
Mycenean
Phases of Hellenic (Greek) Civilization
Neolithic Culture (3000-1000 BCE) Cycladic
Bronze Age (2000 -1200 BCE) Minoan and Mycenaean
Heroic Age (1200 – 750 BCE) Age of Homer
Archaic Age (750 – 480 BCE) Classical Age (480 – 323 BCE)
Golden Age (480 – 430 BCE)
The Aegean Sea: Homer’s Wine Dark Sea
The Mediterranean: Rome’s Mare Nostrum
Cyclades
SyrosNaxos
Paros: marble quarries
Cycladic Cultures3000-1000 bce
Stepping stones across the Aegean, the Cycladic islands were early settlement sites for migrants who developed a significant culture centuries before the emergence of the civilizations of Crete and Mycenae.
Cycladites developed shipping and traded with mainland Greece, the coast of Asia Minor and the western Mediterranean, from the Neolithic period.
Olive production helped in self-sufficiency.
CycladicTombs
They buried their dead in box -shaped tombs of a trapezoidal shape, in circular tombs, and in chambers carved on the rock.
Top: Cist grave of the Gotta-Pelos culture.Middle: Two-storeyed grave of the Keros-Syros culture.Bottom: Corbelled grave of the Keros-Syros culture
Cycladic Painting
Flying Fish fresco
Cycladic Pottery:
“frying pans”
Cycladic Pottery:zoomorphic pots
Types of Cycladic Figurines
Early Cycladic Figurines: violin shaped
Later Cycladic Figurines
Pregnant figurine
Rare male figurines
Hunter and Female
Companion
Cycladic Musicians
Abstraction Cycladic Influence on Modern Art
Constantin Brancusi
Amedeo Modigliani
Minoan Myth and Culture
Minoan Civilization 2000-1400 BCE
Palace at Knossos - Crete
Neolithic Art6000-2600 bce
PREPALATIAL PERIOD (2600-1900 B.C.)
Development of a glorious civilization fostered by: Geographic location Fertile ground Long periods of peace
The pre-Palatial period is characterized by: Extensive use of copper Growth in fishing, farming and shipping activities Tin trade Improvement of construction techniques Use of precious stones, elephant bone and gold:
the various seals from that period are beautiful works of art.
Bull-Jumping
Gold ring with a depiction of a bull-jumping scene from Phourni. Before 2000 BC.
Gold ring with a depiction of the goddess with a griffin from Phourni. Before 2000 BC
PALOPALATIAL PERIOD (1900-1700 B.C.)
1900 BCE: the first palaces were built in Crete: Knossos, Malia and Kato Zakros.
The settlements around the palaces had organized watering, sewage and street systems.
Economy was based on agriculture and thrived on trade: finds from Crete have been located in Egypt and Cyprus.
1700 BCE: a strong earthquake destroyed most of the palaces.
KnossosReconstruction of palace at Knossos by archeologist, Sir Arthur Evans
Palace at Knossos
Aerial view of Knossos
Queen’s megaron and
throne
Townhouses
Mosaic
NEOPALATIAL PERIOD (1700- 1450 B.C.E.)
The palaces were restored and the Neo-Palatial Period, the thriving years of the Minoan civilization, was inaugurated.
The palace was the center of the economic, social and religious life
The class of merchants, manufacturers and priests commanded respect, second only to the King
King was worshipped as a High Priest, along with the Goddess of Fertility.
Women played a prominent role in the Minoan civilization.
Snake Goddesse
s or
Priestesses
Labrys: double-headed axes
Bulls
Ca. 1200 bce
Ca. 1500-1450 bce
Ca. 16th c. bceCa. 1500 bce
Bull Leaping
Pottery
Hieroglyphics:The Phaistos Disk
ca. 1600 bce
Jewelry
Knossos
In about 1450 BC, the cities and palaces of the Minoan civilization were swept away by a tidal wave, caused by a volcanic eruption in the island of Thera, while extensive fires demolished everything.
POSTPALATIAL PERIOD (1450-1100 B.C.E.)
The Myceneans (Achaeans) occupied Knossos and established a strong dynasty.
The economy still based on trade with Egypt and Asia Minor, but change is evident in art and daily life.
Ceramics, bronze objects, jewels etc., testify to the coexistence and influence of the two populations on one another, for a long time.
1300 BC: another earthquake destroyed the last remains of the Minoan civilization, including the palace of Knossos.
According to historians, in 1200 BCE, Crete had a powerful fleet that raided the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.
In the early 11th cent. BCE, European tribes invaded Crete from the North.
Later goddesses
Goddess with a Cone and Horns of
Consecration. 1400-
1200 BC.
Bird Goddess. 1400-1200 BC.
Goddess with Poppy-headed Pins. 1350 BC.
Linear B
Minoan Myth
Zeus and
Europa
Karl Plattner The Rape of Europa
The Bull from the Sea
Pasiphae’s Passion
Daedalus, Pasiphae and wooden cow: Pompeian wall painting (House of the Vettii),
The Minotaur
andThe
Labyrinth of
Daedalus
Athenian Tribute
King Minos and Ariadne
King Aegeus and Theseus
The killing of the
Minotaur
Ariadne on Naxos
Dionysus and Ariadne
Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne
The Return to Athens
Lynne Frehm, Black Sails
Theseus: Hero and King of Athens
Roman wall painting
Daedalus and Icarus
Daedalus and IcarusFrederic Leighton (1830-1896)
Odilon Redon, The Fall of Icarus
Mycenaean Civilization
1600-1200 BCE
Mycenaean Civilization 1600-1200 BCE
Mycenaean Citadel
Lion Gate
Entrance to Citadel at Mycenae
1500-1300 BCE
Mycenean Myth:The Trojan War
A War among 3 Cultures
The Achaeans: The Greeks
The Trojans
The Olympian Gods
Olympians
Meddle in the affairs of humanity Function as conceptual forces of nature and the
psyche Aphrodite – lust Ares – war rage Athena – cunning strategy
Pantheon
The Trojans
Bronze Age, pre-Greek city state, conceive of themselves as members of the family of Troy
Although they disapprove of Paris, they unite in familial responsibility and assume his guilt in an act of collective family responsibility -- "our lot is best, to fight for our country” -- doomed
David, Helen and Paris, 1788
The Trojan Family
King Priam and Queen Hecuba
Hector and Andromache
Paris and Helen
Cassandra
Priam and Hecuba plead with Achilles for the body of Hector
The Achaeans
The Achaeans – Mycenaeans
Greeks Historically piratical Barbaric chieftains whose prized values of
nobility, pride, power, glamour, and strength thrive only among violence
Each hero is out for himself -- failure provokes shame rather than assumption of responsibility -- leads to disorder and tragedy
Allied together against Trojans only because of pact made with the wooing of Helen
The Spartans
Tyndareus Leda ZEUS King of Sparta
Castor Pollux
Clytemnestra ---- Agamemnon Menelaus ---- Helen ---- Paris King of King of Prince of Mycenae Sparta Troy
Helen and Menelaus
The Judgeme
nt of Paris
Giordano Luca, Abduction of Helen
AGAMEMNON
Achilles Slaying Hector
Odysseus
King of Ithaca
Major Strategist
Conceived the Trojan Horse
Husband to Penelope
The Trojan Horse
Heroic Age (1200 – 750 BCE) 1200 – Doric Invasion
Stories of Ancient Greece kept alive orally for generations
All Greeks shared a common cultural heritage
Myths, gods, and goddesses begin to take form
Greek myths were never canonized There is no one scripture
Religion wasn’t meant to control behavior
Function of Greek myths and Gods
Explain Natural events Demeter and Persephone Zeus
Explain Human World Gods resemble/behave like humans Gods reveal psychological aspects of
human behavior/actions Apollo vs. Dionysus
NOT an ethical system
Homer and the Iliad Blind poet who lived
around 850 BCE Composer of 2 epic
poems: The Iliad The Odyssey
Oral stories first, then written down
Iliad and Trojan War: Covers 51 days near
the end of a 10 year war
Homer’s epics provided material for Greek literature and drama Bust of Homer, British Museum, London
The Iliad Reveals how making
heroic valor a culture’s prime value is fundamentally destructive to social order and humane community
The first word in the poem is menin: rage The rage of Achilles Rage as the hero and
subject of the poem Rage that transforms
Achilles into a killing machine and Hector into a corpse
The Iliad
“Rage: Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage, black and murderous, that cost the Greeks incalculable pain, pitched countless souls of heroes to dark Hades, and leaving their bodies to be rot as feasts for dogs and birds…Begin with the clash between Agamemnon-the Greek warlord-and godlike Achilles.” (lines 1-9)
Aeschylus525-456 bce
THE ORESTAEIAAgamemnon
The Libation BearersThe Eumenides
Clytemnestra’s Revenge
Orestes and Electra at Delphi
TheVengean
ce of Orestes
The Erinye
s
Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William Bouguereau (c.1862)
The Judgement
of Athena:
the substitution of trial by jury for
vengeance in Athenian
law
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