Ancient GreeceRise of the Greeks

Geography• Greece is a peninsula,

a body of land with water on three sides

• Covered mostly by mountains, the Ancient Greeks lived mostly along the coasts and were fisherman and traders

• Some Greeks settled in deep valleys between the mountains.

The First Civilizations in Greece

Minoans

• Lived on the Island of Crete

• Peaceful People more concerned with art and creativity

• Greek Myth about the Minotaur and the Labyrinth

Mycenaeans

• Lived on the mainland of Greece

• Warlike People. Constantly battling other small cities

• Greek Epic “The Iliad” was about their victory during the Trojan War

The Minoans

• Worshipped Bulls and used them in many of their ceremonies.

• The Minotaur was half man and half Bull.

• Minoans believed that Earthquakes were caused by the Minotaur trying to escape the Labyrinth.

• Minoans were destroyed by earthquakes and eventually conquered by the Myceneaens.

The Minotaur

• Half-man and Half-Bull who lived in a maze underneath the ground on the island of Crete

• King Minos ordered that 14 Athenians be thrown to the Minotaur for the death of his son

• Theseus, an Athenian volunteered to kill the beast.

The Myceneaens

• Discovered by the German historian Heinrich Schliemann.

• Built heavily fortified cities

• Would cover the faces of their dead kings with golden masks

• Suffered destruction from Earthquakes and conquered by the Dorians

The Dark Ages of Greece

• Once the Dorians had conquered Greece, all written records stopped.

• For 300 years little is known about what happened in Greece, because the Dorians had no written language.

• The Dorians were travelling warriors who destroyed cities rather than build them.

• This is known as the Dark Age of Greece