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Summary European Cultural History
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Summary of European Cultural History, incl. Dutch notes.
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European Cultural HistoryWeek 1:
The Greek World (800-300 BC)
Main periods of Greek history
1. Minoans and Mycenaeans 3100-1100 BC
2. Dark Ages 1100-750 BC
3. Archaic Greece 750-500 BC
4. Classical Greece 500-300 BC
5. Hellenistic period 300-20 BC
Minoans and Mycenaeans 3100-1100 BC
Minoans = mostly island of Crete named after mythical king Minos
Known to be a palace culture (Knossos)
- Palaces where administrative centres but also religious and storage centres because of the
agriculture.
Art/things that were found in Palace of Knossos (Crete)
- Bull leaping …
- ‘Snake goddess’
- Saffron gatherers
Mycenaeans = Peloponnese (Greece) named after city of Mycenae
Mycenaean art and culture
Also, a palace culture
- Art: Mycenaean lady wall painting, 13th century BC
- Writing: linear B, syllabic script
Why do the Mycenaeans matter? They form the history of the Greeks themselves think about Troy
war. The Mycenaeans also had the gods like Zeus, Aphrodite etc.
Archaeological find of the Mycenaeans Golden mask known as “mask of Agamemnon” 16 th
century BC
,The Greek Dark Ages 1100-750 BC
Fall of the Mycenaeans as part of widespread collapse of Bronze Age civilization in the Eastern
Mediterranean possibly because of invasions?
Dark age art
- Geometric Krater
- Pottery in the Greek dark ages: Geometric Amphora
The dark ages end with 2 events, the first Olympic games (776 BC or soon after) and…
- Olympiad (4years)
- Religious festival
- Athletic competition
- Arts
- Panhellenic festival
- Temple of Zeus Statue = one of the 7 world marvels
… Eleusinian mysteries
- Demeter and Persephone
- Initiation
- Vow of silence
The Homeric Poems (circa 8th century BC)
1. Iliad
a. Epic poem about the war of Troy (Trojans vs. Archaeans i.e., Mycenaeans)
b. Named after Ilion, other name for Troy
c. Helen, wife of king Menelaus, abducted by Trojan prince Paris
d. Expression: Archilles’ heel, Trojan Horse
2. Odyssey
a. Epic poem about the return of the hero Ulysses to Ithaca after the war of Troy
b. Named after Odysseus, Greek for Ulysses
c. His journey back home takes 10 years, also because of the hostility of the god
Poseidon
Archaic Period 800-500 BC
Political organization= polis (city) from which “politics”
Aristotle 5th century BC: man is a political animal
Idea of democracy vs tyranny
Parrhesia = free speech
BUT slavery and misogyny
- Age of tyrants
- Draconian measures
- Hippias deposed 510; reforms Cleisthenes
- Democracy
,Classical period 500-300
Golden age of Athens 460-430
Persian Wars (499-449) (Athens, Sparta etc. vs Persian Empire)
- Darius, Xerxer (whipping the Hellespont)
- Marathon 490
- Thermopylae 480 (‘300 Spartans’)
- Salamis 480 (sea battle
Athens vs. Sparta (Peloponnesian wars from 432)
Athens defeated 404
Building projects under Pericles
- Parthenon (447)
- Gates of Acropolis (Propylaea 437)
- Erechteion (421)
Fathers of history
- Herodotus 484-428
- Thucydides
- Xenophon
Philosophy
Pre-Socrates
- E.g. Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno
Socrates (470-399 BC)
- Dialogues
- No writings
- Cup of poison for defaming the gods and spoiling the youth
Plato (427-347 BC)
- Academy
- Ideas
- Cave parable
- Great influence on Christianity and Islam via
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
- Lyceum
- Logic, metaphysics, empirical approach
- ‘The philosopher’
The Hellenistic period 400-20 BC
Background: the rise of the Kingdom of Macedon under Philip II (father of Alexander the Great 356-
323 BC) (first half of the 4th century)
Kingdoms of the Diadochi (=successors) after the death of Alexander
, 3 Hellenistic philosophies
Stoicism: Zeno, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius
Accept and appreciate what you cannot change
Epicurism
‘Hedonism’: absence of pain and fair
Scepticism
Do not worry about what cannot be changed
The end of the Hellenistic period
31 BC = death of queen Cleopatra, last Hellenistic monarch, conquest of Egypt by Rome
Periodization of roman history
1. The Roman kingdom 800-500 BC
2. The Roman republic 500-27 BC
3. The civil wars 100-0 BC
4. The Roman empire 0-300 AD
5. Late Antiquity 300-500 AD
Kingdom: the mythical origins of Rome
- Aeneas, Trojan prince and son of Venus, flees to Latium (Italy) after the War of Troy and
founds Alba Longa
Kingdom: foundation of Rome
King Numitor deposed by Amulius
Numitor’s daughter, Rhea Silvia gets 2 sons with Mars.
Romulus and Remus, they get abandoned and got fed by a she wolf (The Capitoline Wolf statue),
later they avenge their grandfather
Conflict over the new city: fratricide (Romulus kills his brother Remus)
Romulus, descendant of Aeneas and son of Mars, founds Rome in 754 BC
Kingdom: The seven kings of Rome
- Seven kings reign over Rome until 509 BC
- Tarquinius Superbus, Lucretia
- Creation Roman republic
- The term King ‘Rex’ in Latin has a very negative association, Caesar never declared himself
king because of it
- In ca. 500 BC Rome is still a marginal Italian polity
Republic 509-27 BC
- Influence from Etruscans: hydraulics, alphabet, gladiator games, gods etc.
- Punic wars (against Carthage): 264-146 BC
o Hannibal (with his elephants)
- Conquests throughout the Mediterranean
- Ends Civil wars (100-0 BC)
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